PREFACE
Gunther Mason was the resident carpenter, handyman and stonemason of Oak Tree Town like his father and grandfather before him. His wife, Corona, was ten years his junior, but Corona the girl had been besotted by the quiet, gruff young man and refused to surrender her pursuit of him until she became his blushing, pregnant bride at the age of eighteen. A baby girl soon followed.
Annie Mason grew up ignorant of her somewhat unconventional arrival. She only knew her parents loved each other deeply, and their daughter even more so. Her childhood was spent giggling, playing, and growing with the other town children: solemn Angela, gentle Lillie, and spirited Johnny (once he was old enough to travel down the mountain from his grandmother Eda's farm). By that time, the old chef's daughter moved back to Oak Tree Town with her son, Raeger, who the children quickly welcomed into the fold as Johnny leapt at the chance for a boy to play with – stuffy, proper Klaus was sixteen, eight years older, and rarely had time for games… though he could be swayed to surrender on the occasional Sunday afternoon.
Real change finally came to the small town when the group were between the ages of fifteen and eighteen (Klaus already long gone to attend university in the city). Worried that their talents were being wasted and Johnny's future in jeopardy, Eda's son and wife moved their family to the city. It sparked similar worries in more than a few of the townsfolk, with many families making the shift to larger towns, nearer cities.
Angela began the lengthy process to become trained as a rural nurse while interned under Oak Tree Town's elderly doctor. A talent agent scouted Lillie during her preteen years and she successfully decided to try her luck as a teenager in the television industry, eventually securing sponsorship and moving to another country. In a sudden mystery, Raeger's mother left Oak Tree Town permanently, even refusing to return when his grandfather passed. With no source of income, Raeger was forced to drop out of his final year of schooling to take over his family's restaurant.
In a matter of a few years, Oak Tree Town, already very small, lost near fifty percent of its populace and became a lonely place for those that remained. A month later, Annie left on the pre-dawn train, leaving only a note for her parents.
As years passed, the woods and lands around Oak Tree Town faded without love and laughter to enrich them. The fertile ground yielded fewer crops. The wild animals slowly moved to friendlier lands. Even the fish and insects almost disappeared. High on the mountain, in a secret grove, a young goddess awoke. She mourned the missing life that sustained her and the balance of nature. She yearned for a way to fix the balance.
The goddess was not all-powerful. As she nurtured nature, nature nurtured her; as she guided a tree to the best way to grow, its life nourished her and gave her power. Even though she did possess power over all life, her Order lived by a strict set of rules that forbade human contact or interference, instead focusing on nature itself and all its creatures and vegetation. However, as the woods torturously faded, as desperation reached its end, and despair threatened, she realised she possessed just enough power to nudge one human mind…
R&R. I have most of the story planned out, just looking for expressions of interest!