Scenes from the Mind - An Illustrated Journal

Entry 1



Well, it's been some time since I've done this. I'm currently in Alinor visiting with mother. I return to my friends at Sren'ja tomorrow for a brief time before gathering supplies for mother and returning for another week-long stay. I haven't drawn, nor written my thoughts down, in the longest time. Not since...perhaps I'll start there.

While perusing some of my old things in this old house I used to live in with my mother here in Alinor, I found a rather yellowed, old paper. An old sketch of mine. I remember the very day I drew it, certainly I tried to forget it. It's a sketch of, well, a dream. A dream I've never forgotten. One I'm both entirely intrigued with, and one I've tried to forget.

Deep in sleep, cozy in this old house, I had this dream. A woman appeared within a forest. She was the strangest, most beautiful thing I've ever seen. She had the antlers of a young buck, not very large but still capable of defense. She had the ears said deer and the tail of it too. Stripes were painted in black all along her body, and her hair was long, the color of dirt- earthy, rich, and deep brown. Entangled in her hair, and wrapping around her body, a flowering vine could be seen, twisting the entire way to her feet. She had a jeweled arm guard on one arm, and a gold bangle on the other. But the thing I couldn't help but to look at was a gold thread, wrapped around her fingers and wrist. She held the end of it. And I stared at it, the end frayed and hanging. She beckoned to me, holding up the frayed end. She looked forlorn, even with her eyes closed. It was almost as if she wanted to tell me something but wouldn't outright say it. She could only hold the frayed end of the thread. Then finally, I awoke in a cold sweat. It was still night. This is what I'd drawn, and what I'd seen.

I always thought this woman was the Green, the Valenwood herself. She was telling me that night, warning even. But thinking back, I feel it could have even been Y'ffre. It's very rare that Y'ffre is referred to as "she" or takes a female form, but not unheard of. Could I have really seen The Spinner, The Creator of the Valenwood him-or her-self? I always knew I had the Valenwood in my blood, I could feel it, the forests whispering to me on the wind and the pulse of life at my very center. That woman had to be connected to the forest in one way or another.

So I ran. I felt sick, and weak, but I ran. My mother awoke as well and yelled after me. She thought I had lost it. But I knew something was not right. I wanted to go back home. And not Alinor, home. Back where I was born, where my father still lived and worked. Where the trees whispered to me and life pulsed in my center. Using the nearest wayshrine, I soon found myself in Elden Root. Home. I ran as fast as my feet would carry me, through the forests. It was almost like I flew that night. And finally I came upon a little hut in the forest, outside of Elden Root. Home.

And there my father lay just outside of the hut; the man who loved me more than I could ever know, the one who brought me up and showed me how to climb to the top of the graht-oaks when I was just a little mer. His body lifeless, eyes as well as fingertips, blacked with a dark magic. He had died purifying the portion of forest that was just previously overtaken by a necromancer. Being a Spinner of Y'ffre, a priest, he felt it his duty to protect the forest with all of his life force, and absorbed the magic that tainted it into his body. Giving his own life so that the Valenwood could live as it should.

I just stood there. I blinked. Then, a flash, and I saw a golden thread coming from his chest. The end was frayed and it hung there. Then I blinked again, and it was gone. So it was woven, my father's thread finally cut, his story spun to a valiant end. And mine still being spun, with one less thread than before.

Kneeling at his side, closing my eyes, I didn't know what to do. I felt the trees whisper to me, as a dull life pulsed in my center. And I swear that day, I heard my father's voice join the trees in their whispers.

My thoughts. I'm still not sure why I've written them here. Maybe mother will read them one day and understand. But for now, I will take this book with me and continue my thoughts and drawings. To Sren'ja.

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(( That drawing is gorgeous :O

((Thank you Ali! c: ))

(( ^-^