Rojuun

Chapter 15

They turned to look at Sir Danth.  He shrugged.  “It wasn’t here the last time I was here.  I have never heard of a Mother Tree in Brondaggiin, or anywhere to be honest.”

“Mother Tree did not live in Brondaggiin until centuries after the Great Disappearing, Sir Danth.  It moved here when the Rojuun appeared,” Adele explained.

A deep, rich and sonorous voice sounded within their minds.  It wasn’t painful or even intrusive, more like the touch of the breeze upon a leaf.  “Greetings, Travelers.  Welcome to Willden.  May the breeze bring peace and warmth to your hearts.”

Sir Danth bowed while Vevin did a dance of greeting.  Liselle followed Sir Danth’s example with a curtsy.  Tathan tried to decide between giving a simple hello or a bow before saying, “Hello, Mommy Tree.  How are your children behaving today?”  He immediately thought to himself that there were probably good reasons so many people in his life wanted to kill him.

Laughter drifted through their minds.  The enormous tree rustled as though moved by wind.  “My children are well this day, Tathan of the Shadows.  I enjoy your irreverent humor.”

Tathan bowed respectfully.  “Thank you Mother Tree.  It tends to get me in trouble most of the time.”

A deep, motherly chuckle touched their minds.  “Yes.  I see that trouble follows you even now.  Do not worry.  That trouble will not reach you in this forest.”

Tathan wondered what Mother Tree knew.  Could someone have followed him even this far, and what did she mean by ‘that trouble’ would not reach him?

“Sir Danth, it is good to see a Knight of Morhain in the Willden once more.  I am afraid all of your people are gone,” she said with sorrow in her voice.  Tathan imagined drooping leaves in his mind.

Vevin was the next to be addressed.  “My dear dragon, I see the pain you suffer and I suffer with you.”  Vevin looked very sad and his lower lip quivered.  A branch filled with leaves and flowers reached down from the canopy and gently brushed his face.  The wound closed, leaving a long white scar.  Relief washed over Vevin’s face.  Tathan wondered yet again, what in the world could do such a thing to a dragon.

“And you, Liselle, Child of Flowers.”  Everyone’s attention turned to Liselle, who took a worried step back.  “Did you know that you were born of flowers, my dear?”

Liselle frowned, slowly shaking her head no.

“It is true.  Your mother was not able to bear children,” the voice spoke gently through their minds.  “She would go to a field of flowers where she would cry for hours.  She would lean down and caress the flowers with her cheeks to brush the tears away.”  Tathan looked at his cousin who didn’t seem to know how to react.  She moved closer to him and smiled thankfully when he put his arm around her shoulder in comfort.

The Mother Tree continued, “One evening, after telling the flowers of her sorrow, she fell asleep in the field.  The flowers held her through the night and the next four days.”  Realization was beginning to dawn on Liselle’s face causing her eyes to widen.  “At the end of the four days and nights, your mother stood up, smiling in the knowledge that she was with child.”

Tathan caught his cousin as she fainted.  He let her down to the grass.  “It appears as though her mother never told her the story,” Mother Tree mentioned offhandedly in their minds.

“It would seem so,” Sir Danth said with a chuckle.  “Now we know why she is ‘Liselle, Child of Flowers’ but I would know why her cousin is called ‘Tathan of the Shadows’.  Was his mother impregnated by shadows?” he asked with another chuckle.