The weight of a long life

*Haveing complained about feeling torn and tired the old woodelf ranger know to some as Kivan retreats into the deep woods like so many times before.

His friends haveing tried to aid him and mend his soul, that was torn at the hands of a mighty mage, would have noticed a destinct change in the old elf lately.

Now the greyrobed accient elf strides though the undergrowth leaning heavyly on his quarterstarff as he goes...At some point he lets go of the staff, letteing it fall to the ground.

He removes his eyepatch, revealing a gem sitting in the place where once his emrald green eye was.

His stride lightens slightly and he places a bundle at the root of an accient old oak...an unstringed bow and a sheathed blade with a cloak wraped around them. He nods to himself and procedes into the dephts of the Commator woods.....*


//// Old grumb deleted since he's feelt odd to me since he got blasted to bits by a certain mage :-) ////

On one of her walks in the woods close to Myth Drannor, though she never goes far in fear of getting lost alone, her foot gets caught on something. Muttering about wrongly placed roots she looks down and notices it's not a root after all but something that looks like an eyepatch wrapped around her boot. She leans down and picks it up, turning it in her hands as she examines it. The shape and the color brings a familiar image to her mind and she frown, holding the eyespatch against her chest.

Even though she is no scout the footprints leading away from the spot where the eyepatch was aren't that hard to follow. It hasn't been snowing yet. She follows the clear track in hopes of finding the owner of the eyepatch and returning it.

The tracks lead to an ancient oak where she finds all too familiar items. Her fingers brush each one of them at a time, her mind filling with sadness. There is only one reason she can think of why these were left here for the owner would not abandon them otherwise. She takes down her cloak and carefully wraps the items into it and takes them with as she tries to follow the tracks onwards. However, the tracks become more and more lighter the further she goes untill they vanish entirely. She drops down to her knees on the snowy ground, tears running down her pale cheeks as she hugs the cloak wrapped bundle. She sends a prayer to her goddess to guide the brave soul to the green fields and one in honor of the one passed.

Through the shroud of snow I saw
Paradise
Peace
No more suffering

Crestfallen soul
Rest for this night
Love is here
Right here under my wings

I dream of wolves with them you run
For you she lengthened the night
You are home
You are at peace

We will see again

Later she makes her way back to the city following her own tracks, hugging tightly the bundle she carries.

((The prayer is part of song from Nightwish called White Night Fantasy with a few modifications to fit.))

((I'll miss old grumpy.))

After receiving the letter from Morna'nique the Coronal put the letter down and closes her eyes offering a quiet prayer as tears roll down her cheeks.

She calls her guards...."I want all to know that we have lost one of our kin, he has gone on to Avandor. Kivan was the best Defender we had. He will be greatly missed not only by his queen but his friend."

The Coronal leaves her desk to put on a dark cloak and hood and walks out to the forests near Myth Drannor, sits next to a large tree offers more prayers as one of her guards stands near.