Legends of Belariath

Dove Windsong

Dove felt a pang of regret as her forest green eyes stared skyward. In her minds eye, she saw them, her clan. In flight heading back from their winter migration. Cream colored wings flexed as she felt the gut wrenching pain once more. More a hollowness in the pit of her stomach as she remembered how she had desprately wanted to take flight that day and rejoin them. See her parents.

She'd stood on this very spot, not far from the small hut her mentor had lived, and had watched them fly on by however. The old human that had plucked her from the river, broken and near drowned was failing now. He had been for some time, though the young torien had failed to see it at first.

Her resolve returned and she pushed away the regret of not rejoining her clan when they had passed by here. The girl turned her head to the rushing river, fed by the snowmelt as it had been that day her accident happened. Even she couldn't deny she wasn't the same thrill seeking daredevil she'd been before the fall through the trees and into the rapid moving river.Fingertips brushed palms, she was a druid now.

Turning away from the small overlook, Dove made her way back to the small hut with it's nearly always leaking roof. So much she had learned from her Blind aged mentor in this quite stretch of forest. The identity of different plants, animals, habits, nature of the beast's and how they all comingled within the cycles that Gaea had brought forth. How to speak to the animals and guage their reactions as answers. Was the bager aggressive or protective over a hidden brood of young? When a deer was skittish and wary...or when they were hunting for a mate.

A wealth of knowledge he had attempted to pass on while teaching her during her recovery and later about the ways of the druid. How to look inside herself for her racial prowers she could use to protect herself from the wilds of the land. Barely able to pass on a few druidic defensive spells before age robbed him of his strength.

Had....past tense. For as she entered the small hut, Dove's gaze fell to the empty bed, looked about the crowded empty hut that she had wintered in alone. Eyes moistened as they looked outside the small single window of the abode to the mound of earth and rocks.

Her Mentor's resting place.

It had come so suddenly it seemed. But in hindsight, the signs of his passing had always been there. His advanced age, his calmness as she struggled to do what the old druid seemed to take for granted. His words of wisdom and encouragement.... The torien sat upon the bed, looking at the empty hammock the old man had used. How she had came in after chopping wood for the fire pit to keep the winter chill from him and chidding him about sleeping the day away with a smile on his face.

How he had not even moved, not snored, not fluttered an eyelid. Just passed into his Goddess' embrace in the time it had taken her to do such a simple chore. She'd buried him under his favorite tree, where the rising sun could knock the chill from his old bones and the shade of it's canopy could keep him cool after mid day....Just as he had during the past year while passing on his knowedge to his young student. it had seemed fitting to Dove.

The conversation of what she planned to do entered her mind yet again. It had been shortly after she spoke to him of seeing her clan pass by. He'd urged her to find her home, but with him growing weaker, who would patch the roof when it leaked? Who would chop wood or cook their meals or do any of the chores she took upon herself if she rejoined her clan?

He'd pointed out that his little hut was not her home, kindly and gentle as he always seemed to be. That she needed to find a place where she belonged, as he had. Now, with her mentor gone this past winter, Dove looked about the small dwelling. No, it did not seem the same as it had been with him here. It was empty, though many of his old tools and pieces of furniture were still placed. No, it was empty because he was not here. It was not home....not anymore.

Her resolve set, Dove rose from the bed and picked up the small pack she had packed after saying goodbye one last time. It was unlikely she would return here.

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