ll Grandfather Tree ll
You are in Blackbriar Bog. Through the murky swamp water you spot something unusual sitting in the silt. The water is dangerous and you don’t know how deep it goes, but you’ve never seen this thing before.
What do you do?
Cinder found herself in Blackbriar Bog. Though she had never been here before, she knew where she was. The air was thick with gas and the stench of the poisoned bog, the water bubbled ominously below. The young doe felt ill at ease almost immediately. It was almost like the entire area was threatening her safety, daring her to flee and save herself.
Cinder refused to give it that satisfaction. If she turned tail and ran right now, she would never be able to redeem herself. The doe drew in a breath.
"If you can't even stay and face this bog, what hope do you have to become an Ascended?" She said aloud, in part to chastise herself for even thinking of leaving, and in part to fill the silence with some sound and take her mind off of her surroundings. She hated it here, but she knew she
had to stay if she were ever to have a chance at achieving those lofty dreams she'd harbored since childhood.
"This is hardly the most difficult thing you'll do in your life, Cinder," she continued. The doe began to walk, stepping gingerly across the bog, wondering why she was here. She couldn't remember what had led her here, didn't know the circumstances of her arrival. She only knew that there was a purpose to her visit, so she had to find it.
The doe steeled herself and kept moving. Some company would have been nice right about now. Cinder imagined how much less terrifying this place would be if she could share the burden of its gloom with another soul or three. How much could the sound of several nouls' laughter push back against the heaviness of the atmosphere here? Quite a bit. The image of her family and friends walking this path with her came to mind, and Cinder let her imagination flow, seeing in her mind's eye the way they joked and laughed and the way she had to keep ushering them back onto the center of the path, lest they wander too close to the water.
Not that way! Stay straight!Her thoughts were interrupted by a sudden, almost imperceptible gleam in the water. It was enough to pull her to a stop, gaze shiting to peer through the murky water, trying her best to outline the shape she thought she saw in there. With how dark and clouded it was, she could only make an uncertain guess, but Cinder thought it looked rectangular, almost like... a box with metal trimmings. She could almost make out a handle, but it was hard to be sure.
Her immediate thought was that she had to get it. The danger of touching that water flitted across her mind, almost immediately to be banished in favor of retrieving the box. It could be important. She
had to see what it was.
Her mind set to work, churning through ideas, working with single-minded ferocity, as it tended to do when she fixated on a goal. Everything seemed to move faster when this happened. Before she even really realized it, she had retrieved a thick stick from the edge of the path that curved conveniently into a sturdy hook on one end. Holding it in her mouth, she maneuvered it out into the water and felt around for the handle she hoped was on the box. The stick caught. Cinder felt the sudden heft of the box and lifted up. The box came with it, and she hauled it to safety on the path.
It opened easily. There wasn't a locking mechanism on it. The top swung open. The box was empty inside, save for a single feather lying in the center. Cinder felt a p***k of disappointment, then drew closer, studying that single feather. It looked... like the feather of an Ascended. The doe lifted it out of the box and tucked it into her thick mane. It was a good omen, she decided. A sign or perhaps a blessing at the start of her quest for greatness.
wc 305 + 695 = 1000
