The Yule Log RPG

[Nerindel]

Mara’s Relief was apparent as she stepped out from between the firs and looked up to see a young Reindeer trotting boldly towards her, it was not in the nature of these fast fleeted creatures to do so, so at once she knew that she had found the young skin-changer she had been so ardently tracking.

“Wenda” she greeted, as a mixture of fear and anxiety that had tormented her on discovering the horrifically mutilated corpse of a full grown buck someway back now melted away, replaced by the almost overwhelming joy that the young changer was alive and well, if still not entirely safe in her mind.

“I thought ….” she paused looking back into the darkness of the forest behind her, recalling the torment mirrored in the unfortunate creatures dead eyes, “Well it doesn’t matter what I thought you are here and well, but you should have never…..” she was about to admonish Wenda for running off like she did when she suddenly had the feeling of being watched, she looked up to see a pair of deep green eyes peering out at her from beneath thick evergreen brows.

She stared her eyes wide with astonishment and wonder as half remembered songs sung by the elves of her forest home danced in her mind, they told of a time when the elves and the trees of the forests would commune, sharing both knowledge and lore, so that not much happened within the forest realms without tree or elf knowing it. But that was long ago, ages past and it was said that many grew root and became bitter and twisted, to which many of her foster kin attributed to an old enemy they named Morgorth, who despised and sought to corrupt the beauty of Yavanna’s gardens and that now only the Tree herders could control and subdue the bitterness sown within the hearts of those trees. She had thought these songs no more that fairytales sung purely to intrigue and entreat the revealers at feast, but here before her stood in all it’s greenery was proof that the shepherds of the forests truly existed.

“, A Friend, Wenda Skin changer?” The Ents deep woody voice rumbled, suddenly breaking Mara’s awed silence. That as Wenda nodded, she again found her voice.

“A friend I am, my name is Maranwe of the Greenwood.” she introduced herself.

“Hoom Hom A name of the old tongue yet you are no elf! room hoomty room toom!”

“ Indeed no, orphaned as a small child the elves took pity, naming and raising me in the manner of their own, but if I may master Ent by what name should we address you?”

“Hoom, the Names of Ents are long and take a long time to say, but you are a hasty folk, Mm-hm Greenbeard I was once named, haroom, yes I think that will do now.”

“Then well met master Greenbeard, but I do not think we should linger over long here, a Darkness hunts in this forest, it’s prey I fear already marked.” her hand reached sympathetically to stroke Wenda’s deep fur in an attempt to allay what fears her words would bring the young skin changer.

A dull throbbing had began to press at her temples, as Greenbread urged her not to be hasty, but she was already thinking ahead, if she had managed to track Wenda then so to could this thing she had thought anxiously and she told Greenbeard and Wenda so. But perhaps Greenbeard was right, perhaps if she had been less hasty she may have thought to cover their tracks better, but there was no changing that now so she thought it best not to dwell on it.

She then asked Greenbeard if he knew of somewhere they could at least rest for awhile and think about what they would do now, her plan had been to convince Wenda to return, but now she was unsure weather they could do so safely. The throbbing increased and she winced, rubbing at her temple as she waited for Greenbeard to reply.

[Envinyatar]

‘If you shout a little louder,’ hissed Mori, prying the cat from his scalp, ‘perhaps you can tip the creature to the fact we know he’s following us.’ Stamo took the protesting Tevildo from his companion’s hands and placed it on the ground.

Crouching down, the two men spoke quietly with Tevildo and with Owl. ‘We know he is hungry for us,’ Mori began. ‘He has turned his attention on us for some time now. We can feel his need; the rapacious desire for our fëar. And it is better that he follow and find us than those two unarmed women.’

‘It would be most helpful to us,’ Stamo continued, ‘if somehow news of what is happening could be gotten to Mistress Mara and to Mistress Wenda. Though at the moment, I am at a loss as to how to accomplish that.’ He looked to Mori. ‘It would be best I think if we two did not separate, but met the creature in tandem.’

Mori nodded his head at this. His gaze slid to where Owl sat on a downed tree trunk. ‘We are unfamiliar with this place and this forest, is there something you can think of that might be of help to alert the women?’

Tevildo sat on the fir needled floor of the little clearing where they had stopped, his ears twitched and his keen nose took in the scents carried by the breezes. ‘And you, Tevildo,’ Stamo asked, ‘what do you wish to do. Stay with us or follow along after Owl?’ He looked in the direction from which they’d come. ‘We mean to keep ourselves between him and his other prey.’

[littlemanpoet]

Pada, Muna, and Wenda watched and listened to Mara and Greenbeard talk. Wenda felt safe. Safe like she had not felt since that fateful day far to the north when she had chased the wolves away from the tusker. She was not sure that Greenbeard could stand against such a foe as the wraith that followed them, but somehow it did not matter so much.

"Hoom now," Greenbeard said, "the safest place I know of, hoom hom." His eyes seemed to twinkle as if with light reflecting upon two pools of water. "Why, the safest place is Fir Hill, my home. It is not far from here. Would you like to go there?"

"Master Greenbeard," Mara said, holding her head, "your legs are long and mine are short. How far is not far?"

"Hoom now! That is a good question! It is one thousand Ent strides, not for at all. But for you, room toom, it might be a long way."

Mara sagged and winced. She was quite tired, and the pain in her head did not lessen. "I think it would take me all night."

"Hoom hom roomba hom! That will not do. Wenda and her friends can keep up well enough. Maybe it would be best if I carry you. What do you think of that?"

[Tevildo]

The cat glared at Mori and quickly responded, "I think I shall stay with you. With all respect good sirs, you have far greater power than I have. I think I would feel safer here. Even more importantly, I would rather not spend long, tedious hours in the company of that stuffed shirt Owl. " Tevildo made sure to lower his voice so Owl would not hear either of these comments.

With the difficult part out of the way, Tevildo stretched and walked over to a nearby puddle, spending some time admring his reflection by the light of the moon. Then he began to purr in satisfaction. "You know, I do have one modest advantage over you two. Having some understanding of the darker ways may be an asset here. I know how a creature like this thinks, and I may be of some service to you in this regard."

With that, Tevildo gave a quick bow and leapt up on the two-leggeds's shoulder disappearing into the depths of his satchel. He curled up contentedly and, within a moment or two, quickly fell asleep.

[littlemanpoet]

The shadow dropped the corpse and moved swiftly through the dim blacknesses of the variegated, intricate designs rendered into matter. Why did that One waste such effort on such uselessness? He never had understood that, had never cared to think on it. There was too much hunger, too much to please the pallate. And not far ahead now were the two of his own kind. He was hungry. He passed through the silent, dark, shadowy firs with their overly intricate designs (what use?), starving for such strong taste as these two offered.

There they were! He bloated and grew large to instill fear, for fear rendered the best delicacy to a nicety. The had perceived him. All the better. Fear me!

[Child of the 7th Age]

Stamo had written out a simple note on a small strip of pine bark, using a stone stained with soot to inscribe the letters and a picture. Then he had tied the message onto Owl's leg using a thin leather thong. Stamo was not sure whether Wenda or Mara would be able to read his simple words, but the sinister image of a dark shadow hanging over the trail just behind the two robed men would hopefully convey the basic idea to the women. If they were lucky, Wenda might even be able to understand Owl's speech.

With deliberate, powerful strokes, Owl made his way towards the north. Keeping close to the ground, he flew from perch to perch, carefully scanning the area for any sign of a small pack of reindeer followed by a human woman. The far North was home to Owl, and he was familiar with the territory and all the twists and turns of the forest and hills. He had been flying steadily for more than an hour when he glimpsed a small band of travellers, now off the trail and cutting over the fields.

Owl could see the reindeer and the human. More puzzling, however, was the tall treeish character who strode purposefully along the path, carrying the woman on his shoulder. Owl pulled up onto a branch overhead, wondering what to do. Could this gigantic figure be trusted, or was he an emissary of one of the dark shadows, the evil creatures that Tevildo described with such hard and bitter words? For one moment, Owl hesitated until he noticed that the animals and woman seemed content, even thankful, to be in the presence of the large tree thing.

Gliding down from the branch, Owl landed on the ground in front of the group and began to cry out in a loud voice: hooo-uh, hooo-uh, hooo-uh, wuh-wuh-wuh. He held out his leg with the message attached and hoped that someone would understand his words: how a dark and fearsome presence had crept up the path in back of the two-leggeds and now threatened to overtake them.

[Nerindel]

Mara had graciously accepted the Ent’s offer to carry her but almost at once she regretted her decision, as each giant step shook through her causing the pain in her temple to grow worse still. The sounds of the forest seemed to magnify, from the sound of hooves on soft snow, to the creaking of branches swaying on the wind, even the wind itself seemed to scream at her that something was ill. Then all of a sudden the forest went still and darkness rose up to met them, but still Greenbread walked on. Mara did not like this silence it reminded her ominously of her last vision and she did not like it one bit.

‘hooo-uh, hooo-uh, hooo-uh, wuh-wuh-wuh.’

Mara started at the sudden call in the darkness, then smiled as the Owl soared into view and came to landed before them, that one voice in the chill cold of the night gave her comfort.

“Ho Hum What is this I think wise master owl has something he wants to share Hoom rom” Greenbread rumbled as he lowered Mara carefully to the ground.

“I think you may be right” she replied noting the bird holding out its leg and hopping up and down excitedly hooting words that she could not understand.

“Something about a dark and fearsome presence and um some two -leggeds” Wenda said softly coming up beside her.

Mara turned surprised to see that the young skin changer had shrugged off her Reindeer form and stood now shivering in the cold, quickly she unclasped her winter cloak and wrapped it about Wenda’s shoulders.

“You look pale” the young woman noted.

“And you look like you will catch your death” she replied warmly

“I will be fine” she assured Wenda when the young woman merely frowned. “Now lets see what our wise friend is so eager for us to see.

Bending down she carefully relieved the bird of the bark attached to its leg and stood next to Wenda so that she could read it too. Black marks were carefully scratched across its surface, making runes similar to those she had learned from the elves, she recognised enough to know or at least guess at was written, but even if she hadn’t the picture sketched into the bottom made it very clear.

“It’s Mori and Stamo, they say they are in the forest and that the dark shadow is with them, they plan to draw it off, we are to find somewhere safe if we can and they say not to come back this way it is dangerous, they will find us when they can.” the two women looked at each other, their concern for the two men mirrored.

“They are more than they seem, I‘m sure they will be ok” Mara said finally though her words held little conviction. She felt Guilt, perhaps if she had told someone where she was going things would be different… or perhaps it would have been worse… well there really was no point dwelling on what was done or what could have been, what was done was done and nothing could change it, all she could do now was keep Wenda safe as she had planned and carry out the wishes of the two men.

As much as she wanted to go back and help, she knew this thing was beyond her and that keeping it from the young changer was all she could do right now. At least her gift would allow them to stay one step ahead of it or at least she hoped it would.

No sooner had the thought left her mind than a searing pain burned through her temples and she crumpled to her knees, her eyes rolled and her breathing became soft and shallow and she appeared in a trace of some kind.

The forest drew in around her, filled with a cold bitter darkness…..Fear Me! The words echoed in her mind filling her with such terror that she had never felt before. But in the still of the darkness was a light and as she listened a faint whisper of music carried on the air for a moment then was lost. A roar like thunder filled with anger and malice reeled up upon the light threatening to smother it, she cried out but no sound came. But wait something else moved behind the darkness shadowing it, a glint of metal and then it was gone . Another roar of frustrated anger………..