The story behind Rashtal Deadtree.
Dreams of the past
Wounded and tired Rashtal finds shelter in a hollow tree while the night slowly creeps over Agon. He had been out gathering materials in order to make some armor, ironically enough he did not wear any when gathering these materials as it would be too heavy to carry. He could have sworn he didn’t see who attacked him, or maybe he was just fatigued after mining all the day. So there he is hiding within a hollow tree, wounded to much in order to go back out there and fight and too tired to run for the nearest city.
Falling asleep he returns to a familiar sight, he is home.
“Father?” a much younger Rashtal ask a seemingly young man with old eyes. “yes?” he replied shortly and blunt. “Why do you always smile so much? No one else does.” The young boy asks. “haha, well there is no short answer to that” he replies chuckling as he contemplates what the young boy is asking. The young boy displeased with his answer stops in his tracks and promptly asks with a rather firm question “Is it because of our name? People say that our family is crazy and that’s why you always smile and why you changed our name”. The tall Mirdain looks back towards his son sighing as if he knew this question would come. “hmmmm, your much too young to understand, now come and let’s get home for supper” he said while making gestures for the small boy to come. “No, I want to know now, I’m grown up enough!!” the young boy said with an angry tone. By now the elder Mirdan had gone back and took the young boys hand firmly while leading him towards home. He said nothing and never looked down to his son, just walking towards home.
After a while the elder mirdain stops up and looks out towards a tree, seemingly dead and abandoned from all life and dignity it ones possessed. “Son, what do you see when you look at that tree?” he asked while sitting down in order to get on the boys height”. “I see a dead tree” the boy asked with disappointed frown upon his face, clearly not impressed. “hmm yes that’s what most people see, I did too. But not anymore” he said while looking at the tree and eventually smiling. “What do you mean, I don’t understand, why do you smile. A dead tree is awful! It’s…..it’s DEAD!” the young boy practically shouted towards his father, clearly in anger and frustration over what else he had heard today. The elder looked over to his son before asking another question “and what off marahims, alfars, orcs and humans do you think these as awful as well?” By now the boy is deeply confused and kept thinking to himself what is marahims, alfars, orcs and humans. The elder starts to chuckle before speaking “you see many many years ago I and handful of other people moved from the mainland to this island, so its no wonder why you don’t know what those things are, or even what’s on the mainland. We came here seeking peace and stillness from all the warmongering and hostility, and most would claim we did the right thing. “He said while looking at his son who were still a huge question mark just trying to understand what this all has to do with a dead tree.
“But the longer we stayed here, the more miserable we got. We started to stop appreciating what we had and started complaining about things we didn’t have enough off…. You see the more beauty, love and comfort we surrounded ourselves with; the more we started to hate it” he said stopping up while looking back at this old tree, this old tree which looked awful and dead. The son looked at the elder mirdain and uttered a simple word, a child’s word which was still a very valid question in that situation “why?”
The father looked back at his son, drawing a breath “why indeed, well I might not be the best one to tell, but I think it has something to do with that tree. You see without pain, sorrow, death and despair we forget to value things like love, beauty, laughter and joy. And so we forget what these things are, because we don’t have anything to compare it too. And so we became miserable and not content with what we have.” The elder takes a couple of breaths before continuing “ I was one of those as well, upon one day when I saw this tree and I started to remember. On that day I vowed that I would never forget again. That’s why I changed our name, so that we would never forget”
“oii Rashtal, wake up brother it is not time for you to leave this world yet. We have healed your wounds but you still need rest, don’t worry we are soon back at the city” a familiar voice said. Two hooded mirdains with weary eyes starts to carry Rashtal. “I think I finally understand father” Rashtal utters while falling back to sleep with a smile on his face.
((more to follow)
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! I eagerly await more.
