An Eyewitness Account of the Great Mythical Convocation of Banderbears.
Day 1:
As he spiralled further and further into the air, the freeglades becoming smaller and smaller beneath him. He had planned this journey for months, he had always theorised that the Great Convocation happened to the north of here. So as he directed his skycraft towards the horizon, he lowered again, coming down to the tree line. He knew that the journey would be long and hard, and it would be long before he even saw the signs of a Banderbear, let along meet one for himself.
Rook tilted his head down to the tree line, keeping his hands and feet on the flight levers, tilting slightly to the left so he could lean over to the right. The Deepwoods had always amazed him, and he imagined that they would continue to do so over the coming months. He saw hundreds of different trees beneath him, with the occasional ironwood pine poking out of the treeline. With trees of different sizes and colours, leaves of different sizes, ranging from tiny needles to ones as large as blankets, the trees covered the earth like a blanket, blocking him from seeing any deeper, for he knew what lurked beneath there, in the darkness, was beautiful, yet sinister.
He realised that a Banderbear would never come anywhere near civilisation willingly, so he had to get far away for him to ever have a chance of seeing one in the wild. So for the first few hours of his journey, he simply kept his skycraft positioned in the same direction, regularly adjusting the sails and flight levers based on a change in wind speed or a pine in his way. But after a what seemed like minutes the sun began to set, and he realised he would have to find a place to rest, he would never risk flying at night, unless he had to.
So he set about finding an entrance down beneath the trees, in a world where every tree tried to get any light it could, this proved to be more difficult than he thought. But after a short while he managed to find a gap in the trees and slowly approached it. Making his way through the hole and landing on a large branch nearby, he swiftly tied the Stormhornet to the tree and set about making camp.
The trees in the Deepwoods worked strangely, with most of the leaves and branches being at the very top of the tree, at the treeline. This was countless strides off the ground, but it varied depending on what trees there were in that area. Then beneath that was an empty area of the trees, where it seemed it was in darkness, leaving an empty area with nearly no branches, and merely the trunks of the trees. Then below that, around 10 or so strides off the ground, there was a thin covering of leaves again, no one truly knew why the trees did this, but it was assumed that this was where the trees stored the majority of their fruit and seeds, as it was better to have them close to the ground.
Although it seemed as if the area beneath the treeline was in eternal darkness, there appeared to be lots of light getting through, either from gaps in the trees, yet it almost seemed as if the ground was bathed in a kind or artificial light. As everything seemed to be in the light, he finally traced the source of the light towards two things. One was a sort of firefly, that flew in countless thousands, and created a sort of glowing pulsating orb that flew around the forest floor. Rook had never seen these before, and made a note of them in his treatise log.
He also saw a plant that hung luminous lights out of it, almost as if it was presenting fruit almost like a tree. But there was something different, the tree started at a base that was short and fat, then it opened up into a sort of flower, with many of these oval shaped glowing objects being thrust out into the night. The plant was also larger than most of the other forest floor plants, towering at over 10 metres. He decided to investigate further, so as he easily climbed down the ironwood, almost like climbing a staircase and made his way down to the forest floor. He waited, poised on a branch for a short while, checking for any danger before slowly making his way down to the forest floor.
The ground was covered in knee length grass, and as it scraped against him, he pulled out his knife and made his way towards the tree. There were hundreds of other trees in the nearby area, yet none had grown near this tree. The tree was in the centre of a clearing in the ground, yet the trees had still grown overhead, yet not within 10 metres of the tree. There was also no fruit being hung above the tree, and only the trees 50 metres above it presented it with any obstacle into the sky. As he kept his eyes fixated on the tree, assuming a defensive stance, knife drawn, his mind screamed for him to run, that there was something wrong here, something sinister.
He made his way further and further into the clearing, occasionally pausing to look around him for any danger, and as he waded through the grass towards the pulsating orbs he began to feel his mind alter. He heard whispers, "come closer" or "reach for the fruit". His mind willingly obeyed, and as his eyes went a milky white, his legs kept plodding forward towards the tree.
His mind became more and more warped, with everything around him beginning to shift in colour and size, as if they were pulsating in the night. But one thing remained constant, the tree, and as he felt his mind completely give up, there was nothing he could do but keep up the melodious movement forwards, towards the fruit.
Yet he kept moving forward, as if something was commanding his body to do so. He slowly turned his head to the right, he had become one with the plant now, and the plant sensed something. Suddenly, a Hammelhorn burst out into the clearing, and took a few slow steps into the long grass before becoming transfixed on the plant like he.
Rooks focus returned to the plant and the whispers continued, it was if he was no longer himself, he had been thrown out of his own body and all he could do was watch as he plodded towards the plant. He turned once more to see the Hammelhorn lumbering towards the plant as well, yet it moved faster than Rook, and made it there first.
It took a moment as it licked its lips, and then reached out for the fruit lowest to the ground, the whispers became louder and louder "Yes, take the fruit, sustain yourself." But whilst the plants attention was focused on the Hammelhorn, its focus on him decreased, and as he gained control for a single second, it was enough to turn and run. The Hammelhorn however was not so lucky.
Vines slowly came out of the main body of the plant, and like charmed snakes made their way towards the Hammelhorn, completely enticed now by the plant, it made no objection. The Hammelhorn was slowly lowered into the air, its eyes still milky white and fixated on the plant. It finally realised what was happening after it was too late.
The crunching of the horrible plant was drowned out by the screams of the Hammelhorn, birds flew away into the night, and as Rook ran to the edge of the clearing and prepared to climb back up the tree, he remembered who he was, he was a scholar.
He got out his treatise log and drew the creature, being careful not to look to long at the lights that had caused him to be initially drawn in. He drew diagrams and annotated them, and immediately writing down any memory of his encounter with the plant. Eventually he had gotten all he needed to write a whole other treatise on them.
As he sketched he racked his brain for any memory of having read or heard about this plant before, and couldn't remember anything, he had discovered it, and therefore got to name it. After giving a vivid description of his encounter with the plant, he began to think of a name, night-drawer, light-catcher, before finally settling on one, darkness-breaker.
He knew straight away that it must be a relative of the Bloodoak, thinking of how many animals or even people that had been killed by this disgusting thing. It was a stark reminder that at first something might be beautiful on the outside, never trust your instincts in the Deepwoods, always use your head. There were many things that could interfere with your mind here, any "Gut Instinct" you have, unless absolutely needed, cannot be trusted. This was the sad truth of the Deepwoods, and a truth that anyone who lived there had to accept. The Deepwoods, although beautiful, always revealed more the deeper you looked.
As he marked his new discoveries in his log, he realised just how late it was, and he made his way back up to his camp, ate a few of his provisions, and settled down in his hammock. As he slowly drifted off to sleep he thought of Magda and Stob, they would be many weeks into their voyage, and would be far away from him now. He thought of how they would probably be settling down to sleep as well, and wondered if they were thinking of him.
Day 2:
The next morning, he woke quickly and decided that he would fly until noon, and then drop below the tree line and look for any signs of a Banderbear. He had made good progress so far and decided that he had travelled far enough to be able to spot one.
As he boiled the kettle and sat there, awaiting the time when the Stormhornet was dry enough to fly, all while munching on a fruit he had collected that morning. As he prepared the Storm hornet to fly, he remembered all he had done to get to where he was, he had trekked through the Deepwoods evading evil at every turn. He had learnt to fly, and how to make the varnish in those days with Tweezel. But most importantly the friends he made along the way, Magda, who had always been like a sister to him, Stob, a brother. Then came Xanth, who he had forged a strong bond with over the past months, yet had always seemed distant, now he knew why.
As he soared above the tree tops he thought of nothing, not Xanth, his treatise, not even Banderbears. His mind was completely empty, and as he shot through the sky like a dart, occasionally changing direction, this was a good thing. Time seemed to pass quicker out here, and before he knew it, the sun was directly above him in the sky, and he decided it was time to descend.
It seemed to be night as he descended below the tree tops, as everything was plunged into a deep low light. As he waited the right amount of time for his eyes to adjust to this new light, he began to make his way down the tree. He would always make sure to follow Varis' advice "Land on or near an ironwood, for they are the easiest tree to climb, you can always spot them, for like a spear, they burst out of the treeline."
As he made his way down to the very bottom he once more waited a while to check for danger before emerging from the shadows of the Ironwoods trunk. He immediately noticed something strange. A small rock that seemed to be scuttling along the floor had stopped at his feet, and as he bent down to get a closer look at it, small eyes emerged from underneath it. like a snail, and as they blinked for a short while, and then fixated on him, wriggling their way around, trying to see every detail of his face, they suddenly shrunk back into the rock, and rolled off until it came to settle around 5 strides away.
He made his mark on the tree and tied a length of rope around his waist, this would give him 50 strides to explore, any further was deemed too far, and he should only go further if he deemed it necessary. He slowly made his way away from the tree, knife drawn, looking for any danger that could emerge from the darkness. But every time he seemed to move, he heard a rocky noise, yet when he turned around, it stopped.
One time he was fast enough to see that it was once again the rocky creature, and it had been following him the entire time. He walked back to where it was and sat down on the mossy floor. The creature was almost entirely covered in moss but with a few flowers and ferns poking out of the top. He lifted it up to find it much lighter than he had thought, and saw countless little feet underneath, scuttling in an attempt to get away. But as he placed it down again on the floor, the scuttling stopped and it came to a rest between his feet, and plopped itself down.
He once again realised that he had never seen nor heard of these creatures before, and he decided to make his way back to where he had found it, to try and find its home or family. But he found nothing, and as the little creature scuttled alongside him, he couldn't help but smile at the strangeness of it all. It wasn't a very large rock, big enough to sit on, yet small enough to pick up. He once again sat down next to it and muttered to himself "What am I going to do with you?" He decided that he would continue to his work, it would eventually get bored and return home.
His guess was wrong, he had stayed on the ground for hours, looking for signs of a den or a nest, and writing down things in his notebook as he went. All the while this little rock was scuttling along at his side. He finally decided that he was curious enough to sketch the creature, and documented his experience of finding it. He made sure to get down any minute detail, and being careful to keep one eye on the rock at all times he slowly documented the strange little creature.
He once again decided to give it a name, and finally settled on Moss Crawler. He gave up on the attempt of finding a Banderbear here, and returned to the tree and began to climb. But the rock creature followed him right up to the trunk, before sitting defeated as he climbed up, the snail like eyes once more came out of its head and he couldn't help feeling sorry for the creature.
So he decided to keep it, it followed him everywhere and seemed perfectly happy when he put it under his arm and made his way up the tree. But he couldn't hold it like this forever, he would have to adapt the Stormhornet in a way so it could sit comfortably. So he got out his equipment and set to his work. Building a little seat behind him in the saddle.
It was perfectly easy, he just had to tie one of his boxes to the back, he had one of almost perfect size that had been used to store his crossbow, but he simply put it on the back of his bag and was fine. He got out some of his rope and tied it around the side of the box and secured it to the mast. He then lined the insides with some moss that he had gathered earlier and stepped back to admire his work, it was strong enough to remain on, and wouldn't add any extra weight. He then plopped the moss crawler inside and secured the lid of the box, as something that spent its life in eternal darkness couldn't be too happy with being in constant sunlight.
He then took the lid off, content that it fitted inside and as the sun began to sink lower in the sky, began to make camp. He made a little pen for the moss crawler out of rope and sticks and hung his hammock between two branches. He then set about figuring out what the moss crawler liked to eat, and as he placed several different fruits in front of it, each time met with angry clicking noises, he gave up.
But then slowly and surely, a feeler emerged from underneath the rock and plucked a piece of moss from its head, and then returned it to its mouth, greeted with content clicking noises. Rook then too looked over at some of the moss gathering on a nearby branch and placed a small clump in front of the creature, and it seemed overjoyed as it speedily consumed the whole moss ball, and then retracted all the feelers and dropped to the ground.
But it was merely sleeping, as the ferns and flowers on the rock seemed to flutter in the wind, yet there was no wind. So as he held his hand over the small creature, he felt a rhythmic blowing of air onto his hand. Then as he slowly pushed apart the ferns, he saw small holes over the centre of its back, which pushed out air. This meant it could breathe through here and its mouth. A perfect mechanism meaning it could be flat on the floor and still breathe.
As he watched the small creature sleep, he too began to feel sleepy, and returned to his hammock and looked up at the stars, and slowly drifted off. Although he had not found a Banderbear, he had found a companion for the long journey ahead.
Day 3:
Rook awoke to the noises of the forest, birds chirping, leaves rustling, and of course, the moss crawler clicking. He had to get moving once more, and would have to repeat the process he had used the previous day. He wouldn't fly and explore every day, some days he would just explore, and some he would just fly. Today he realised that he had to keep flying, and would once again explore in the afternoon. He was feeling confident.
As he set about making his breakfast, some of the charlock tea and some of a sallowdrop fruit he had found the previous day. He began to squeeze into his flight suit, they said it would soon fit him like another skin, but for the moment it was merely stiff and restricting.
He made his way over to the moss crawler, and decided he had to give it a name, not one a scholar would call it, but one he could call his little companion. He wanted something that suited the creature, harsh at first but then beautiful the more you look at it. He eventually decided to call it Quill, it was spiny at first, but when you stroked it the right way, it was as soft as a Banderbears coat.
"Come on then Quill, let's get you into your box." It gladly accepted his touch and let out some fast clicking noises before lying still and letting him plop it into its box. The walls were lined with all kinds of moss, ranging from red to green to blue. The creature sat contentedly and he felt it lie down and once again go to sleep, Rook came to a sudden realisation that its natural clock was being messed with, as he guessed it would rise when the darkness reached a certain point, yet it never reached that point above the trees, so Rook guessed it would wake up when he returned it to the forest floor when he went exploring.
As he let the sails dry in the sun, he packed up his kettle, made sure he hadn't left anything behind, and still chewing on the sallowdrop fruit, set off. As soon as he left the tree he realised a storm was brewing, and he couldn't be below the clouds when it hit, the clouds were luckily quite low, so it wouldn't be too cold above them.
He set about his routine taught to him by Varis, and climbed in a spiral shape, gaining height every time, yet going slow enough to not lose control. He still felt himself get colder and colder as he saw the trees disappear beneath him. As he finally burst out of the clouds, feeling very wet from his trip through them, and wiped off his googles to reveal the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
The clouds were tinted red and pink by the low sun, and with only a few lone Ironwoods poking out of the clouds, it felt as if he was sailing on a sea of pillows. There was however, two risks with being above the cloud, there was no way for him to tell where he was going, and the wind was stronger. So he simply directed his ship to where the wind was telling him to and felt himself pick up speed. This was the fastest Room had ever been, and travelling on a Prowlgrin now felt slow.
He looked back to check on quill, and saw the box secured and safe, but this high speed was worrying him, for all he knew he could be heading back directly to the free glades, but the wind did usually travel away from the edge cliff, so he guessed he was heading in the right direction.
As the sun climbed higher and higher in the sky, he saw the occasional ironwood speed past him, before disappearing completely behind him. He kept his eyes focused on the horizon and kept fiddling with the flight levers to keep him in the air, and then suddenly, as it he had fallen over a cliff, the cloud completely disappeared beneath him.
It once again revealed the now familiar sight of the tree tops, and as the sun reached its highest point, he began to look for a place to land, but not before measuring the wind speed, he was told to always plot your speed and length of travel, so he could figure out how far he had travelled. He calculated once, and then again, he couldn't believe it. Because of the wind speeds so high up in the sky, he had travelled 5 times as far as he had the previous day. He was certainly far away enough to find a Banderbear, he could begin his search.
As he tied the Stormhornet to the tree and began to descend, bringing Quill with him, but making sure to give him a small bit of food before they set off. He emerged onto the forest floor to find a completely different landscape than before, it was no longer a thick undergrowth, where you had to push your way through the bushes and leaves, apart from the trees, it was almost completely barren.
The only thing on the floor was the same waist length grass as two days ago, but with no clearing in sight he was relieved he was nowhere near a Darkness-Breaker. But what was wrong, the Deepwoods almost never were barren of life and plants, there was something strange at work here.
But he couldn't find anything wrong, and as far as he ventured and looked it was always the same grass, nothing else, no birds or other plants. He decided to venture further.
His mind was soon put at ease, he had simply stumbled upon a wild Prowlgrin camp, and because they ate absolutely everything, all the animals had gone. He made his way towards them, and applying the salve to his hands to calm the prowlgrins, he approached one in particular.
It had a shiny orange coat and was one of the smallest ones there, he followed standard procedure, by walking slowly towards it and blowing into its nostrils to calm it once more. He then set about giving it a good pet, while constantly keeping a watch on the rest of the herd, which seemed to pay no attention to him. He then got out some more of the salve and began to clean the animal's feet.
A deep purring filled the air as he did so, and he couldn't help but smile, once he was done, he began to move away from the Prowlgrin, and it hopped back to the herd, looking content. But then he realised something, although the prowlgrins would eat all the animals. That didn't explain the lack of trees. His mind was once again put on alert, there was something wrong here after all.
"Nice of you to look after that Prowlgrin there, after all he's a nice strong one" Rook wheeled around the find the source of the voice, but saw no one. He drew his crossbow and began to turn slowly, scanning the forest for anything suspicious. "Now how about you put that down, after all I don't want to hurt you." Rook plucked up the courage to reply "Who are you? Why can't I see you" The voice soon came back in reply, "Oh I don't tend to emerge from the shadows, I get used to it after a while"
"You didn't answer my question" said Rook, "Who are you and what do you want." "Oh I don't mean any harm, I simply saw you there and decided to investigate." Said the voice. "Let me see you, come into the light" A small figure jumped down from above him, and stepped into the light of the sun from above, it was a waif.
With a small figure but ridiculously large ears, he now knew how he couldn't seem to find the source of the voice, it never spoke out loud. But this was no waif he had seen before, it was no frail nightwaif, or a scaly waterwaif. It was not fully waif, there was a bit of goblin in there, and as it lifted its head and put its crossbow over its shoulder, his suspicion was confirmed.
It must have been a mixture of many creatures, predominantly grey waif and Hammerhead, yet not as stocky and strong. It slowly walked towards him, and he began to be able to see exactly what it was entirely. The voice once again appeared in his head "You are completely right; I am a crossbreed. But there's no Hammerhead in me, can you guess what else it is?" It sounded teasing, it was playing with him. "Let me give you a hint." It pulled of its hat to reveal a head of flame like hair. Rook let out a whisper "Slaughterer". "That's the one" it replied.
"Now can you tell me what a boy like you is doing all the way out here looking after my flock for me." Rook thought for a moment before replying "I am a traveller, and I merely stumbled upon your flock" It chuckled before replying, "You think you can outsmart me, I can read thoughts remember, lifting a hand to its temple and tapping it, I see all. Now how about you tell me who you really are before I figure it out myself" He couldn't reveal his cover, anyone could be a spy, so he told the truth, but not the whole truth. "I am a traveller, from Sanctaphrax I come, and I seek the free glades."
He chuckled again, "Well you're far off course for that, about a week's sail to the south of here" It paused before speaking again, "Librarian" Rook took a step back and aimed his crossbow at its head. "Wow there, I don't mean you any harm, I simply want to help. The names Furth, Furth Burstein. I am a simple prowlgrim owner, and I sell them to whoever needs them."
"Who comes all the way out here to buy a prowlgrin?" Said Rook, "People" Furth replied. There was something suspicious about him that made Rooks instincts scream. "I'm not looking for trouble; I best be on my way." Then he turned on his heels and ran. Putting Quill under his arm and sprinting back to the ironwood. Where he found Furth sitting at its base.
Rook took a step back, astounded as to how Furth had gotten here. Reading his mind, he replied "I have my ways, why leave so soon?" "I really must return to my work." Rook stuttered. "Now you keep forgetting that I can literally read your mind, what is the real reason behind your swift departure." Said Furth "Shouldn't you know that, seeing as you are a waif." Snapped Rook.
"Part waif" said Furth, "My abilities are limited to being able to tell when you are lying or telling the truth. Rather useful actually, in my line of work" There was a pause before Rook replied "Selling Prowlgrins to non-existent customers, hardly a booming business." Furth once again chuckled "You librarians, always so cocky, with your Bloodoak pendants and treatises."
Rooks instincts screamed louder, no one knew of the Bloodoak pendants, except librarians themselves and certain spies. "Who are you, friend or foe?" Furth replied "Oh so noble, yet I would regard myself as a friend." "And why is that" Rook said "How do you know of the pendants."
"Like I said before, I have my ways." Rook once more levelled his crossbow over his heart, "What is going on, you tell me now or you die" Furth smirked and replied "Ok then Mr librarian, after you tell me your name, and remember I can tell if you lie." Rook swiftly replied "Rook Barkwater, tell me all you know."
"It's nothing sinister, I am simply a knight like you, that lost my way on my voyage and crashed, breaking my craft, The Snowbird. "Prove it," replied Rook. Furth swiftly pulled out a Bloodoak Pendant and gestured to it. "I see you have yours too, but I wouldn't display it like that." Rook tucked his own into his shirt.
"Ok then, I believe you. But I have never heard of a knight called Furth Burstein before." "Oh I came on a separate mission, I was never intended to write one of your treatises, I was entrusted with a more important task." "And what was that" Asked Rook. "Very secret, my mission was, you wouldn't find me in any of your books, no I was intended for something great." Rook tried to speak but was silenced. "I was the greatest knight ever seen by any librarian, and they trusted me, and I failed. I was to find Riverise, the legendary city of night."
"How close did you get?" Said Rook, "Oh I found it." Replied Furth "And it was magnificent, with healing water that meant you could live forever, and waifs all around. They got me for the task as I was the closest thing to a waif they could find, yet I was also strong, and they trusted me, and I failed." You've already said that," questioned Rook, "But you found it, how did you fail?"
"For I was not the same after I returned, and one day, when I was so close, I was struck out of the sky and crashed, and what is a knight without his craft." Rook thought for a moment, "I'm no mind reader but I can tell you're lying, you reached Riverise, and you came so close to returning. There is something more, is there not."
"You are correct" replied Furth, tears in his eyes. "For I was compromised, when I reached Riverise I was injured, badly. I had been healed with their water, but at a cost. They said that I was now in their debt, and they wished for me to become a spy. I had no choice but to comply or they would kill me, and they followed me everywhere, there was no escape for me." There was a silence as Furth wiped away his tears.
Rook asked "So what happened, what did you do" "I did my duty, Furth replied, "and I did it well. They had placed me with a Waif assassin to ensure I did not try to escape on my way to the Free Glades. But I could not return, I could not betray my brothers. So I made a plan, and one night while the assassin slept, I pushed him off the side and as he fell he let out a shout "You cannot escape, we have spies everywhere!" As I sailed closer and closer to my home, I made a decision.
Furth once again began to cry, and composed himself before speaking again. "When I reached 5 days away from the free glades, I landed and destroyed my craft, I would not be a spy. I would do my duty. So I stay out here, and I have made my life here.
There was a long pause before Furth spoke "And I will stay here, I will not betray the librarians, the search for knowledge will not be stopped by me." "But is wasn't your fault" Rook replied "Surely they would have forgotten you by now, the waifs." "Oh no, they do not forget, I cannot return." Said Furth solemnly.
Furth stood up, and began to walk away, "Good luck, Librarian." "I will tell them of you when I return Furth, and they will accept you back. I am sure of it." Said Rook, grabbing Furth by the shoulder. "You may try, but I doubt it, after all, I have been gone many years." Come with me," said Rook, "we will return together." "I am compromised; I will not fail in my duty." "At least let me stay the night with you, I think I may change your mind." Rook had remembered how many years ago, the knights had set about finding any Riverise spies, and had killed them all, he would tell Furth this later.
Furth led him back to a small wood cabin in the woods, a small fire blazing when they entered. They sat dwn in front of the fire and Rook told Furth of the spies.
Once Furth heard this, his mind was changed, "I will set off in the morning, but I will not reveal my identity right away, I will see myself that there are no spies." Rook awoke in the middle of the night, remembering a tiny detail from a treatise ha had read. they had mentioned a knight that had set out for Riverise many years previously, but had not returned, yet they called him by a different name. Furthinus Barthenor. A legendary Knight who was entrusted with a task that no one deemed possible.
Rook walked out of the cabin to see Furth awake, and standing next to The Snowbird. "I never destroyed it, I couldn't bring myself to break the old girl." I remembered something last night, something I read in a treatise," Said Rook, "A tale of a legendary knight who was given an impossible task, Furthinius Barthenor." Furth sighed, "Now that's a name I haven't heard in years. Yes, that was I, many years ago"
"This is even more a reason to return" Said Rook "You were a legend, a tale lost to time, they would welcome you back with open arms. But there is one thing I do not understand." "And what would that be." Said Furth.