Chapter 4: Shouldn’t it be called the Spirit of Plants or something?

 

There are of course many spirits in Elcon, though perhaps not quite as many as some worlds. In Elcon, spirits can be divided into three groups, the elementals, the magic spirits and the ghosties. The Ghosties are the odd ones out, being the boiled down spirits of dead denizens, though not all denizens become ghosties. As spirits go, they are the weakest, often being completely unable to interact with the world.

 

Magic spirits are of course spirits of a magical nature they are usually made or came about ‘naturally’ from magic. They vary greatly in power, the strongest being the three grand magic spirits, the Crystal Swan, the Green Bull and the Chestnut Unicorn.

 

The elementals however are another matter completely, the only one made of magic amoung them is the elemental spirit of magic and its offspring. There is two groups of elementals, the lesser and the greater. Among the greater there is only one being per element. The number and type of elements varies from world to world and sometimes from land to land.

 

In elcon, there is nine prime elements. Fire, Water, Earth, Darkness, Light and then you have Magic, Cold, Wood and… honey. Honey would happen to be one of the more powerful elements. Apart from these nine of which there is only nine elemental spirits, there is many lesser elements, and many elemental spirits.

 

The elconic elements seem quite reasonable to the natives, but to outsiders, they seem a bit odd, a common complaint that is raised is that air isn’t a prime element. This complaint is also shared by air spirits, not that anyone listens, as everyone knows, air spirits are full of nothing but wind.

 

So, before Lupix and her band was the Spirit of Wood, one of the prime elementals. It seemed at first like a great reddish brown tree, a sturdy tower of wood, branching out into the sky, emerald leaves laden with pure snow. Tall, strong, solid it almost seemed to pulsate with life.

 

Yes, the Spirit of Wood glowed with life, but coming closer, it looked less like a tree and more like some person, or beast. The Trunk was its bulky body, rising from it a sleeping face that seemed both old and young, you could almost miss the face seeing it as only a collection of knots and swirls in the wood and even then it was hard to tell if it was the face of a bird or a more man like being. The branches were many great muscled arms, raised over its head, arms that unfolded into odd wings filled with emerald feathers.

 

Was it bird? Was it a person? Was it a tree? It was truly the Spirit of Wood!

 

Lupix and her band were very close now, and then one of them spoke out.

“Eh? Is he asleep?” Mik exclaimed.

 

The Spirit of Wood was indeed asleep. Listening, they could even hear its snoring, which was more like the rumbling of a hollow log falling down a hill than anything else. Lupix had the curious feeling that it was the least objectionable snoring she had ever heard. She looked at Mik. Lupix didn’t understand how such a small thing could snore so loudly.

 

“Well, I guess we should wait for him to wake then” Koul suggested.

So they did.

 

It was around six hours later that they got fed up of waiting.

“Who’s idea was it to wait anyway” Lupix accused.

“Oh, that was Specker” Koul deflected with blatant lying.

“What? I never, it was your dumb idea!” Specker protested.

Lupix ignored them and knelt before the Spirit of Wood.

“Oh great and mighty Spirit of Wood, awaken and listen to our plea!”

 

The Spirit of Wood creaked a bit as the North Wind merrily played through his branches.

 

Lupix tried about three more times with increasing volume before getting Koul to bellow at it. Koul was good at bellowing.

 

The Spirit of Wood creaked a bit more as the South Wind decided that the North Wind was having way too much fun in those branches and chased after it.

 

Lupix and her band decided to start playing the noisiest most obnoxious song they could think of. After playing for several hours, they had to stop, all of them being completely exausted.

 

The Spirit of Wood creaked as the West Wind swooped in, driving North and South out of the branches. If there was any fun to be had, it was going to have it all to itself. North and South however were having none of that, thus three winds battled for dominance over messing about in the Spirit of Wood’s branches.

 

Lupix and the others began hitting the Spirit of Wood, trying to rouse it. They battered and bashed, but for their troubles they just got more exhausted and collapsed.

 

The Spirit of Wood creaked as the three wind wrestled in its branches, but the East Wind came along and smugly chided them all for acting like children, to which the North wind made some rude remarks and then the East Wind got involved in brawling with the rest of the winds. They tumbled away from the Spirit of Wood and later that day caused a tornado in the Northwest of elcon.

 

Lupix and her band lay panting at the foot of the Spirit of Wood, she had just about given up, she supposed she’d just have to take up her royal duties.

 

Just then, a voice that sounded neither old nor young, sounded out.

“Could you all not pant so loudly? I was trying to sleep, really some people have no manners, and denizens wonder why it is so hard to get here. No manners!”

 

The Spirit of Wood was awake, staring at them with glittering amber eyes.

Lupix took a second to catch her breath.

“Oh great and…”

“Yes, Yes” The Spirit of Wood cut her off. “I know, I’m wonderful and great and all that and poor little you has something to asks of grand old me, Well, get on with it, sooner we get this done, the sooner I get back to sleep”

 

Lupix gaped. She hadn’t expected the Spirit of Wood to be so quick, she also hadn’t expected it to be so rude.

“Well, uh, I’m Lupix VII of the Fire Howlers, Princess of Wolves, and if it please you, might you know how I may sing without being harmed by the Firelord”

“Ehhh? That is it? You come to me with this? No, ‘how might I guide my people?’ or ‘How can I rebuild Wolfhiem?’, or even ‘How can I defeat the Firelord?’ not even a ‘Grant me the power of the forest that I might smite my enemies’. No you ask me how you can sing without being destroyed by the Firelord.”

 

The Spirit of Wood stared at Lupix, and she felt as if it was seeing right through her, as if it was looking at something other than her physical self. A rush of doubts assailed her.

 

Lupix wondered what she was doing, she wanted to sing opera, but what kind of ambition was that, It was just a vague fuzzy dream, a memory of her grandmother, of happier times, before the Firelord destroyed everything.

 

She shook her head. To sing fire again would defy the Firelord, perhaps it was not even possible to sing without defeating the Firelord. She was scared then, that she would have to defeat the Firelord.

She locked eyes with the Spirit of Wood. Though the Spirit of Wood seemed neither old nor young. Its eyes were a different matter, they held such age in them, that Lupix felt like a mere speck.

 

She wondered just how many denizens had come to the Spirit of Wood over all the years.

 

The Spirit of Wood let out a long creaking sigh, it was like the forest sighed with him.

“You will not need to defeat the Firelord, or at least not directly, others have taken that burden upon themselves. What you need, is the sand of a powerful spirit of sand as well as a certain magical spellsong. I know of where you can find both, deep underground, you will need a guide, I shall provide you with one.”

 

The Spirit of Wood looked sternly at Lupix and her Band.

“Later you will remember these words that I speak to you now, but you will have more choices than those that seem to be before you. You must consider what you really need to give up for your wish to sing opera as your kind did of old, now begone and be swift”

 

With that, the Spirit of Wood closed his eyes and went straight back to sleep. Lupix and her band left without speaking, they had gone some way when Koul voiced a concern.

“So, who is this guide going to be?” He wondered.

“That would be me” a voice sounded behind them.

They spun around but there was nobody behind them.

“Where ever are you looking?” the voice drawled.

They turn back to the where the voice now came.

“You!” Koul exclaimed.

 

“Yes, ME!” Bread chortled cavorting wildly.

Lupix and her band looked on with horror.