Nature Reborn

“Come my darlings, the time has come.”

The old woman calmly spoke to the seemingly empty room around her as she gathered 6 small glowing crystals of varying colors, placing them delicately in a small hand basket lined with pure black silk. Next, she picked up a small black leather book, appearing to be some type of journal, and added it to the basket as well. The woman's movements were slow and made with great effort. She donned a long cloak seemingly made of several fabrics of many colors and shades expertly woven, appearing seamless. She grabbed her basket of supplies and as she opened her door to depart her home she paused, took a slow sad look around as if saying goodbye, pursed her lips and blew a firm quick stream of breath, at which every source of light within the small cottage extinguished, save for the small glow of the crystals in the basket. This show of magic was immediately followed by a fit of coughs and wheezing. She passed through the door and slowly, weakly, but with great purpose and determination walked straight ahead down a stone path leading into the surrounding woods, not sparing a single glance back before passing the tree line.

Making her way through the dark slowly, but with familiarity and confidence, the woman only traveled about 20 feet into the dense wooded area before setting her basket on a large stone. “This will be as fine a spot as any. Shall we begin?” At the sound of her voice the crystals all began to glow a bit brighter. She then waved her hand over the basket and spoke simply: “Awaken.” One by one the crystals flashed bright and shot out of the basket hovering at eye level with the woman. Each one took on a small winged humanoid shape and announced themselves with a single word.

The blue one's form seeming to ripple slightly and with a light gargle of a voice, “Water”.

Red next, with sharp chiseled features, a smooth, feminine voice almost moaning “Fire”.

“Earth” an unexpectedly deep, gravelly voice from the shortest, most rotund of the group glowing a vibrant green.

A purple wisp of a figure whipping around the others excitedly, their voice a light whisper, “Air”

“Light” a metallic resonating voice came from a blindingly bright golden figure.

Lastly, a black as night figure with a strange, uncomfortable dark glow speaks its name, voice a deep echo, as it rises from the basket. “Shadow”

“My beautiful children, I haven't much time and we've already said our goodbyes. You know what must be done.” The woman spoke these words gently and with a hidden pain in her voice. She then reached into the basket and picked up the small book, opening it as she held it out in front of her. Each of the small creatures bowed to grace their mother before approaching the book, placing their tiny hands upon it. Almost instantaneously the small figures were drained of their light and color. Six cloudy white crystals then hit the ground lifeless. The book shone a multi color brilliance for a few seconds before going dark once more.

“This creation of mine will keep you safe from the ravages of time and will allow you to be returned to me when my soul comes back to this plane.” Closing and placing a small kiss on the book the woman then wrapped it in the black silk from the basket, tied it with a string, then placed it within the pocket of her cloak.

“Now, to finish this.” The woman gathered the crystals, pulled a small acorn from her pocket, and one by one popped them into her mouth and with clear pain, swallowed, the acorn going last. With a gentle wave of her hand, the ground in front of her opened up, forming a shallow hole just big enough for the woman to lower herself into and lay down. She took the wrapped book from her pocket and laid it gently on her chest. With one last wave of her hand, the shifted soil began filling back in around her body. Just before she became fully covered, she commanded into the darkness, her voice full of strength and power. “Grow!”

It's been centuries since Freya put us in this book and released her energy into the earth, surrounding our shared grave. We finally feel the soil around us beginning to loosen, the sensation of being lifted from the now empty resting place of our dear mother, her body having been lost to decay and time.

“Well, what in the world could this be?” We hear the soft and somewhat sad voice of our rescuer as she begins to unfasten our aged and tattered coverings. We feel the full force of the elements begin to be absorbed into our pages as our magic is finally reawakened by our newfound freedom.

“A journal? If I didn't know any better I'd say you were brand new ...but this cloth looks ancient and as far as I know, no one but me has been here in a very long time.” She examines us for a few more seconds before gently placing us down next to the freshly dug hole.

“Well I always have time for some reading that's for sure, but first we must put you to rest little one.” We see that this woman has something small wrapped in what appears to be leaves and she has created this hole not to find an old book, but to give a small creature a proper burial.

We also get a first look at our surroundings. We appear to have been beneath a large oak tree located on the property assumed to belong to this woman. We also sense our connection to our Mother's magic all around the nature of the area, especially within the tree. It must have been one final spell to keep her magic tethered to this location.

The woman places the departed creature into the hole and as she begins moving the dirt back into its place filling the grave, she speaks sadly and softly. “I didn't know you personally, but my name is Faye. I hope you had a wonderful life, little squirrel.” Before she places the last of the dirt on the grave she drops a few small seeds in to be covered. “Let new life rise from this death.” A few tears fall onto the small mound as she sits in sad silence for a moment.

Faye? A shared name with our long-lost sisters. She performs a full burial ritual for a simple squirrel, and she shows respect to the cycles of nature. Could she be our Mother reborn? We do sense a familiarity, but if that were so why does she not seem to have Freya's memories?

We are picked up after Faye has had a moment to come out of grief. “Now, time to figure you out.”

This is it; we can communicate with her and figure out why we were awakened by her. She takes us to a nearby bench and finally opens our cover. As her eyes scan over our pages we write a message.

Hello Faye.

We are met with a look of clear confusion and shock “This has to be some kind of prank.”

No. We have been awakened by you and now we are at your service. You Faye, must be our dear Freya reborn, called back to this plane to restore the balance of nature.

“Di- did you just respond to me?” She rubs her eyes, presumably thinking us some kind of hallucination. She quickly rereads the words, a look of recognition was clear on her face. “Freya? Wh- ... I haven't heard that name since I was a little girl. I used to make up stories of a magical fairy woman by that name.”

So you do have some memory of your past after all. Freya was not of Fairy blood, but she did treat Us as family, and We regarded her as a Queen or Mother to Our People. Your memory of her, though incomplete, means it must be so. You are Freya returned to this plane; the natural world must be in dire need of your help!

“This is crazy, I don't know what's happening here but none of this can be real. I- I mean... the Freya in my stories was powerful and confident, a- and beautiful...” Her face falls in this moment and we see that she is holding in quite a bit of emotion. “I'm just some weird orphan girl living in the woods who can't even afford to pay for her house... Who is apparently now losing her mind, because magic isn't real, Freya wasn't real, and neither are little fairies that live in books.” She says all of this as though she truly believes it to be so, but her face betrays a glimmer of hope and we know that we must do something to feed that.

We apologize, this is not how we expected our awakening to go and We may have been hasty and let our excitement run away with Us. Let Us show you that magic is real. You say you are having trouble affording your home? We can help with that.

We tap into our elemental magic, and our pages begin emanating a bright green light as we pull a collection of pebbles from a gravel walkway near what must be Faye's house. Upon seeing this, she lets out a small yell jumping up from the bench, dropping us as she does. Our magic keeps our book from touching the ground.

“Oh m- my, You're glowing! There are rocks floating around!” Excitement quickly taking over the fear in her voice. “Please let this be real.”

As the pebbles begin to circle Us, the green light gives way to a blinding gold flash and suddenly the pebbles become pure gold. Fire bursts from our pages heating the golden pellets until they are molten. They begin to morph into a coin shape. The fire dies as our pages dampen and a sapphire light shines from Us. We pull water from the ground nearby cooling the newly formed coins and dropping them at Faye's feet in a small pile. Our book goes dark once again and slowly falls to the bench below.

A look of childlike wonder and joy has completely taken over Faye's face. “I—I—” She gets to her knees and starts collecting and examining the coins. “This is just like my stories when I was a little girl. I always just thought I had a crazy imagination, but magic has been real the whole time! There must be thousands of dollars worth of gold here, I can't believe it. What do I even do now?” She waits a moment before jolting upright. “Oh! Right. You can't actually talk.” She picks Us back up and opens the book, a small laugh betraying the excitement and hope now clear within her.

Next, you must reclaim the power of Freya and we must reclaim our bodies. The world must be very sick for Freya to be called back to it.

“I mean, I'm still half convinced that I'm the sick one, but with global warming, pollution, deforestation, and just humanity in general... Yeah, the world needs help and honestly, you're late by a few decades. I just don't see how making some gold will help.”

Freya's powers far exceed ours; they are almost without limit. We have sensed them in this land since our awakening. You need only reclaim them and you will know the true level of your power.

Faye rises from her knees with a new sense of purpose and confidence, looking around at the nature all around her. “Okay, say I'm ready. What would I do next?”

Grow...