Final Farewell

Featuring Berach

Summer, Year 759 of the New Age

Somewhere, Blackwood

She’d been gone too long, far too long.

He’d let her down, just as he’d let his father down.

He was letting her die, on Oathbreaker soil like his father she would die.

The sun would bleach her bones, the wolves and rain would scatter her bones.

No. No.

She had to have survived this long.

He would not let her down.

She would not die.

She was not bones.

Go. They had to go.

Blinded by the LightFeaturing Berach

Including Nuala, Elspeth, with special cameo from Nazam (permission granted by manicmondays) and most of Oakfern

Mid-Autumn, Year 758 of the New Age
Oakfern, The Moonpool
How had it come to this? How had he let it come to this. His sleeping was fitful at best, his dreams murky and unclear. He had not had a vision since the swan in the moonpool. Had he interpreted it incorrectly? Was Gealach angry with him for taking in the Oathbreaker - Nuala - and not sacrificing her as was their tradition?
The moment he woke to see the King’s guards holding Elspeth hostage, his dreams having kept him from noticing their approach, he knew Gealach had forsaken him. No, take me, punish me, not my Little Owl.
He felt numb, helpless, as

Truth And Lies: Part OneMid-Autumn, Year 758 of the New Age
Oakfern, The Moonpool
Taber
“Never forget the Oathbreaker.”
Down she went.  The Oathbreaker that everyone was so riled up about.  Taber peered from the rear, his once-colorful body paint smeared and faded from lack of attention.  He was curious about the doe that had caused so much commotion, although whether he actually cared about her well-being was unclear.  Sure, there had been plenty of lost souls who met their doom in their caverns but Nazam had placed such ceremony on this doe…   As the doe’s nose disappeared beneath the surface, forced down by King Nazam’s guards, Taber’s ears pinned.  Just a few weeks ago, he would have been pushing the creamy doe down himself.  
He did not join in the chanting of the crowd as they watched the foreign doe’s light fading. Instead, the demoted captain turned his stony gaze to the chestnut king.  Taber had known Naza

Truth and Lies: Part TwoFeaturing Taber, Crowe and Berach
Mid-Autumn, Year 758 of the New Age
Oakfern, The Caverns leading toward Blackwood
Berach
The shaman was not convinced, but whether it was that the Captain had come alone or that he was lying, he could not tell. He stood for a moment, stoically observing the exhausted stag. Something the Captain could not fake was the speed of his heart. He could almost see the blood racing beneath his skin. He was frightened.
Berach gave a huff. Crowe was always hasty to jump to a black or white response. Taber’s heart gave a tell-tale hard thud at the mention of killing him. He believed her, and Berach was not surprised. She was a slight little thing, but there was something in her eyes, an absoluteness no longer obscured by milky cataracts that worried even the old shaman at times. &

Forgotten MessagesFeaturing Berach
Early Winter, Year 758 of the New Age
Somewhere Near the Border of Oakfern-Blackwood, The Outer Warren
The dream came to him, slowly at first, like the dawning of the moon, before the scene was lit and clear. He stood at the edge of a pool, looking down into the water. Something dark was lurking there, down in the depths. He shivered to look at it, a shadow, a danger, a warning. It was rage, anger, hatred. He couldn’t bear to stand near it any longer, he felt it try and rise within him, tempt him into the vengeful deeps.
He stepped hastily from the pool, inky black water dripping from his pelt and hair, escaping the dark temptation. He tore his eyes away, to look to the cave around him. It was an old cave, where minerals stained the walls in streaks and he