Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was probably normal to head to the Grandfather Tree with excitement and happy nervous butterflies. Sweetpea didn't have the luxury. She made her trek with urgency and a tiny, prevailing bit of panic harassing her in the back of her mind.

Her experiences in helping save the Ascendeds had been life altering, to say the least.

For the most part, she'd gone through her young life easily. She knew that her grand purpose was to help save and regrow Vykeli, and that her secondary personal purpose was to help raise and protect young nouls as they grew. Both of those goals had seemed relatively safe before now. Sometimes she helped a foal with a scraped knee or watched a sick baby while their mom needed to tend to the fields. These were things she was delighted to do, because foals were fun and usually fairly easy. Tantrum here, hyperactivity there - easy.

The monsters she experienced on the rescue mission were not easy. She had never experienced anything that terrified her more, or left her feeling more helpless. Sure, they had been able to stop the attacks with a half dozen or more nouls, but if she got caught by one on her own? She shuddered to think what would happen. Memories of Brightheart's torn and mangled wings swirled in her mind. She could lose her life to one of those predators, easy.

What was more concerning were all the foals she cared for. They were at for more risk than she was, being so small and new. If she couldn't step up to protect them, she was terrified there would be disaster. And now? Now that she had four tiny babies tucked away back in her home? Her urgency to learn how to protect those around her only grew.

Admittedly, the monsters had agreed to stay out of Homewood, and so a part of Sweetpea felt a little hysterical and crazy worrying about it. But what if they changed their mind? What if they couldn't sate their hunger on what existed out in the ruins or the barrens? She couldn't bear to wait and find out.

Her journey ended at the root of the Grandfather Tree, and she stared up into its branches searchingly. "I'm scared of what is happening, Grandfather Tree. I need my gift."

Sweetpea looks on to the elder doe with a soft expression. She's met her a few times, never for long, but her tales and personality precede her through gossip and stories. Sweetpea knows her as adventurous and fearless, but now she looks weary and weak. There's still a bright spark in those old eyes, though, that Sweetpea respects immensely. This is a doe to be revered long after she passes.

"Noulja, how can I help you?"

"Oh, I don't need help, child. Just a little entertainment to pass the time while my old bones rest. Why don't you tell me a story? In fact, tell me of your greatest accomplishment, and I will reward you with one of my wayfinding stones."

Sweetpea looked a little startled. A wayfinding stone was a fantastic gift no matter what your role. "My greatest accomplishment?" She hummed.

"I suppose my greatest accomplishment is helping save Brightheart." Or was that just the latest accomplishment on her mind? Afterall, it wasn't just her. Many nouls had been there to help. But maybe the old doe would like to hear it anyways.

"The council had resurrected something and then disappeared. We arrived to where they'd done the ceremony to investigate, only to find a terrible sea of blood. There were several of us there, but we ended up splitting into groups."

The doe clicked her tongue disapprovingly. "Splitting up is dangerous. You should never do that."

Sweetpea's ears laid back. "Tell me about it. I learned my lesson, noulja. But I did stick with one buck who was very helpful. I never got his name, but he was real brave. He and I followed a trail of tracks. But the tracks were so strange - hooved but with so many toes. And they were huge. There were nouls among them too. Along the way I found a side trail with broken branches and followed it. There I finally saw what they had resurrected."

She shuddered slightly at the memory. "It was a terrible beast. It had a long, terrible snoul filled with teeth and its whole body seemed like muscle. It was attacking a doe, and I felt I had no choice but to rescue her. But it was so terrifying. Some other nouls showed up to help, but I got hurt a lot." Sweetpea stretched out her leg, lightly scarred against her pink fur. "We saved the noul and some others subdued the beast, but it was awful."

Despite her scars, she was very glad that they'd saved that doe's life. She was so thankful she'd noticed that path. "The buck and I continued to the river to keep looking for Brightheart and the others, and we were intercepted by a faery from one of the other nouls. They'd found a door and needed help. We rushed to get to them, because I wanted to save them so bad, but we ended up fighting with even more beasts. I'm not even sure how many the council resurrected, but we fought at least three, and there were more behind the door. I got more scars, but eventually we were able to talk them down. I helped reason with them so they wouldn't hurt us or the others anymore."

The elder smiled at her. "That was very smart. Sometimes you need to use your brain and not your hooves."

Sweetpea nodded. "I'm really glad we did. I don't know if we would have survived otherwise. After we talked them down we finally saved Brightheart, though most of her feathers were gone, as well as the feathers of the other council members."

"Feathers regrow," the doe said kindly. "You did good, young one."

"Thanks," Sweetpea said. But she pressed her lips together. She couldn't help but think that if she had been stronger, if she had gotten her gift sooner, she would have been a better help. Maybe she wouldn't have gotten so hurt, and they could have gotten to the council members before they'd gotten so roughed up.

Sweetpea was determined to do better in the future. If this was the way Vykeli was going to be now - full of dangerous decisions and fights to survive - she was going to meet it fully prepared.

"You look so serious," the doe laughed quietly. "I only asked for a story, please don't stress on my behalf. Thank you for entertaining me, you've earned my stone."

Sweetpea took it with a slightly heavy heart, but pressed her nose to the doe gratefully.