[THE Ka]

Kafkalina woke much better than she had begun the day before, and traveled with great ease and stride. This soon brought the ent very far, and to a very surprising sight. The fields had slowly been giving way to small hills, which soon seemed to drop off the horizon into a gorge. It was a dry mouth of the earth, with no river, most likely its founder, in sight. Kafkalina stood back and looked down into the great dry casm. In the rocky and deep gorge there were a few points that rose up out of the ground below, and not much else.

Ho Hmmm! What a way to find oneself. I couldn’t walk around this great hole in the earth, and climbing down and across looks to be too much time, it would take me at least four days whole. Hmmm, if there was a way to possibly go from those high points to other high points, I could cut my travel in half with careful planning. I need something strong and flexible, maybe there is a log around.

The ent looked for a log that might fit this purpose. Others might consider felling a large tree to fit this purpose, but being an ent this was highly obviously out of the thought and idea of Kafkalina, as she definitely was not bent with such malice as might belong to the Huorns of Sauron or other fell creatures. Since there was naught but rocks and dry land, nothing but small shrubs and scraggly plants grew to the side of the earth. Kafkalina could not rely on that of the earth anymore, as to use rock and stone however great to fill a path across the gorge would take far too long. This time it would call for a much more demanding sacrifice on the ent’s half.

Oh great earth scourges! Ents were not meant for this! Wait, I think I do have an idea now. Ents definitely were not meant for this, since not all ents are the same tree, thank great Yavanna for that… I am forgetting myself entirely in this matter, and the work I have done for the past two ages it seems. We ash trees must be defensive, for many a woodsman values our bark and wood since we are strong and most elastic for bows and spears. Oh, I sound horrible now, talking of myself as if I was a commodity! Has it really come to this then?
Well, if only for myself I guess I can make such a pole of wood with which to travel. I will need to make much ent draught after this, possibly when I reach Mirkwood. That is, if I ever do make it that far. Oh bless my bark, I hope this works!

Kafkalina then buried her shame at this fact that she would need to take from herself as if she came hunting mercilessly with an axe, and found the ent wine in her bag. Looking far and wide to make sure that no tree was watching this, the ent began to drink the invigorating draught slowly, but steadily. Soon, one of her top most branches along with a few hundred leaves here and there, began to grow rapidly. Soon it was long enough that the ent had to sit on the ground from becoming too top heavy. After a time, the branch had now become a long enough log that with good luck would help her vault from the sides of the small peaks within the gorge. Carefully taking a sharp rock found nearby, Kafkalina readied to remove the branch as quickly as could be done.

Ho Hmmm! Yavanna help me that this doesn’t turn for the worse!

Quickly, and with as much force, Kafkalina removed the branch. The ent slowly arose and felt the top of its head. The branch was indeed removed, and it indeed was painful for awhile. Drinking more ent wine and allowing sap to cover the top of her head, the sharp pain left and was slowly throbbing away, as she prepared the branch to become a pole.

Well, it could have been worse, I could have missed. Bah Hmmm! I don’t need such thoughts right now, time to try this pole. It better be well worth the sacrifice I put into it!

The ent carefully planned out the position of the pole as it scaled down the side of the gorge, and finding a side jetting out far enough, the ent made for the first high spot. Being as flexible and strong as to her namesake, the ent made it with a some difficultly as it steadied itself on the narrow top. Slowly, and with much precision, Kafkalina carefully made it far enough to reach about a mile from the top of the other side. There she decided to walk and climb carefully the rest of the way, and reached finally the other side.

Today had been a trying day, and as the ent stopped to rest, she knew that what she gave in would certainly be able to be rewarded later, whether she was able to reclaim lost land or no.