((Hey all! Hard to believe it's been 300 posts on the blog now. I'm very grateful for all of ya'll's support. As before, I'll take a few days' break from the blog and pick it up again on Wednesday, August 8th. Thanks for reading, and hope you enjoy!
-K))
The caverns in Felwood had seemed secure and isolated from the
world. I had selected it because of its distance from populated centers and its
hidden and complex ruins. One of these ruins I took as my residence. It
shielded my beloved and me from the dangers outside, or so I was confident at
first.
Though both of us experienced strange and frightening dreams we
did not speak of them initially. For my part I did not wish to describe the
images seen and emotions felt. I was still trying then to prove myself a worthy
consort. Nightmares for me are not unusual but the frequency and intensity
should have alerted to an unnatural origin.
During this time I heard from the druids in a nearby settlement
that many travelers were disappearing in the forest. Some might have accounted
for from to my defense of the ruins. But not all. When out hunting one morning
I encountered the body of one of the missing travelers. And then I witnessed a
group of druids attacked. By a roving pack of wisps - maddened night elf
spirits.
I returned home and raged violently. My assumptions had been
utterly wrong and I did not know if I could defend our home against them. Yet I
still did not tell my beloved the entire truth. I said that the source of my
anger was due to a fear that I had led unfriendly forces near and had thus
endangered everything. My beloved had not seen me in such a state before and
was frightened. Consequently I have been careful with my temper.
Then, the realism employed by the nightmares nearly devastated us.
It was deep into the night when I woke from another and thought my beloved
missing. No one did I see there with me and so I called for Maag and plunged
out into the forest for rescue and retrieval. But it was a trap. The nightmares
aimed at my insecurity in guarding D.A. and manipulated my sight in order to
provoke a response.
I came directly upon a group of paladins that had been sent to
avenge the murdered druids. Or rather, I ambushed them. I feared that they were
on their way to our home to destroy us; in retrospect I think they were
following the wisps. And then the wisps led me to them.
It was a difficult fight. The paladins were vanquished at heavy
cost. I do not recall the return home but Maag and Chaos managed to transport
me. When I woke my beloved was treating the damage. Only then did I reveal what
prompted me to flee into the night and we realized that we were being attacked.
My beloved sought answers from the tomes. The wisps were the
trapped souls of Night Elves that had slumbered in the Emerald Dream while
their bodies decayed away, neglected. Their nearby moonwell was corrupted. With
no way to wake they behaved as a pack of ravenous wolves and preyed on the
other residents of the forest. I speculate now that my wards had prevented them
from entering the caverns and so they utilized the nightmares to try and bring
us out.
After research and my consultation with Whiteclaw, D.A. negotiated
for a pure piece of bark from an Elder treant of the forest. Whiteclaw gave me
a spirit bag of some sort to carry it so it would not also be corrupted. But
there was a price that the Elder treant demanded: that my beloved and I depart
the forest immediately after pacifying the wisps. And not return.
With reluctance we agreed. To the moonwell we traveled and I
shielded by beloved as the bark was dropped into the corrupted waters. The
wisps were all about us, attempting to kill us. Then the water in the moonwell
rose up and revealed a different sort of spirit. He called all of the wisps to
him and they disappeared. I presume to their eternal rest.
In the days after my beloved and I were able to sleep without
nightmares but we made preparations to leave our home as requested. Within the
week we were gone.
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