A story inspired by the song that I finally decided to give a listen to after being afraid of it for so long. I don't know what it is, but some things to scare me a lot, and it becomes very difficult to do something until after it's over and done with.
If I had any talent whatsoever, I would animate this into a music video for Arenanet to notice and maybe say they like, if I'm a good good boy. But as it stands I do not have any talent, and so I will just do this instead.
I'm sorry, but I hope you enjoy none the less. I don't know why I'm bothering to write, but I am.
watch?v=qOMQxVtbkik&list=RDqOMQxVtbkik&start_radio=1
Just in case you haven't listened to it before.
The air hummed with the voices of countless young minds, soaking in the knowledge they were presented with on all sides, in all forms. Papers and parchments of the Priory scattered across tables, training sessions and classes with Vigil engineers, one on one tutors watching their students walk amongst the shadows, quieter than a whisper. Teachers were varied and unique, their words loud and clear for their students, who sapped the knowledge dry before moving to the next ideal they fancied like butterflies in a meadow of blooming flowers.
The Dream almost seemed alive. The voice of the land was the voices of the sylvari yet to be awakened, discussing amongst their peers before their time all they had learned, gleaming new viewpoints from their companions. Their footsteps, near silent across the grass, were a driving beat at which the Dream found its heartbeat.
And yet, despite the peacefulness of the Caledon landscape, the Pale Tree could do nothing to ignore the devastation being wrought by one of her own. She kept one eye cast towards Lion's Arch, seeing the battle through the eyes of her brave children fighting the horrid mechanical monstrosities that now besieged the great city with the other races of Tyria, united against a common threat.
Though it hurt to watch, she did not dare take her focus off the combat, knowing that everyone who fell would be immortalized here in the Dream. A new lesson for her children, grim but necessary.
Watching from all around within her own land, omnipresent, the Pale Tree was positively beaming with pride at her children and their progress. And when they were ready, of their own choice, she was there in a formless breeze or a familiar sound, ushering them peacefully into the real world, their ethereal forms fading into nothing.
She watched them play their games, dueling to train for the world or simply enjoy a good Keg Brawl, and continued to beam through the pain she felt just across the world. The pride she felt for each of them was immeasurable, and she would love them eternally.
Even those who fell short, quite literally, to the ground. Those who had potential, those she knew would grow just as wise and powerful if only they planted their roots deep and did not move. It was those she admired the most.
The Pale Tree knew that when they chose to enter the world, to leave behind the Dream, they would blaze a brilliant trail for their siblings to follow.
A rupture underneath Lion's Arch. A cascade of light across the earth that rippled across the ground like an oil trail, splintering the ground. Magic lines rose from the earth, lifting stones and plants high into the air, animals and people alike scattering as it raced across the ground.
Her heart sank as she saw where it was heading, and she willed her power into action. Her avatar formed on the ground already running, forgoing her normal imitation of human dress to give legs more freedom. Her voice rose up, calling out to her children to run for the Grove. To take shelter in its boughs, shelter themselves now.
Those who knew her well were quick to respond, stopping those who were busy dueling with weapons of light or reading books punctuated in stars, and within moments of her flight towards the threat a stampede of sylvari were racing across the path towards their salvation.
She could feel the vines spearing through the earth beneath her false feet as she ran, beckoning to the children who played on the beaches of Sandycove. They scattered towards the Grove, and she prayed the children who were farther flung then this place were somewhere safe they could hide.
It was here, on the beach, waves gently lapping at the sand, where she would make her stand. With the power of the Grove at her back, she would make her stand against the Jungle dragon.
The beast's tendrils caressed her roots, and suddenly he was before her. He chose a form more suited to confront her; standing on two legs, in a massive body towering over the pale form she chose for herself.
He assessed her, then smirked down at her, apparently believing he would already be triumphant. But she moved her stance, focusing energy into her hands, forming blades, and made herself ready to fight for those she loved. His pride vanished, and he lunged forward to grasp her.
Dancing to the side, she stabbed deep into the bark of his hand, forcing the monster back. She followed her strike with another, never giving him an inch to recover. Slicing at his legs, his waist, whatever she could reach.
He snarled with anger, lumbering backwards, splashing water up into the air with every monstrous step. His hands swung low, trying to strike her back, but the Pale Tree weaved as expertly as a viper through the grass, striking just as quickly against her oppressor, her cruel master who would never hold her again.
As she pushed him back, she felt the vines at her roots letting her go like they were burned off, freeing her one by one from the shackles that bind her. She felt relieved, rejuvenated, and she pushed her assault with vigor. The ocean beyond the dragon's form began to glow white, a gateway out of the Dream. The key to forcing him out.
His feet sunk deeper into the waves, and she stabbed into his shins, cracking the bark with the force of her blows. Leaving her daggers there, she placed her entire body against his left leg and shoved hard, pushing back with all her might, summoning a billowing wind to assist her. But it wasn't enough.
He stumbled once more, then suddenly grasped her smaller body tight in his massive hand, lifting her up. His toes sank like roots into the sand, so deep that he kept himself standing an angle above the bay as he lifted her towards the sky. She writhed in his grasp, beating her fists against his hideous form, legs kicking against the bark with enough force to crack it. But he did not falter even slightly as he reached his arm around to hold her above the bay.
He was going to cast Her from the Dream of Dreams.
His eyes gleamed with grim satisfaction, and his grip loosened around her waist. She went from beating against his arm to holding onto it despertely, her mouth closed tight in determination. She would not give him the satisfaction of hearing her scream.
A vine wrapped around her waist, and for a brief fearful moment she believed he was going to wrip her in half and send her through in pieces. But the pull of the vine came from the beach, and sent her tumbling across the sand. All around her, the Sylvari stood in arms, holding their glowing weapons tightly in their hands. Fires of anger burned in their eyes, tempered by a cold, killing calm.
Mordremoth paused briefly at the sight of them all, then roared his challenge. As one, they answered, charging across the beach in their own wave of hatred against this intruder to their home.
He swung his arms to bat them away, and shield walls met his strike, protecting the kin who swung their blades down upon his ankles and toes, slicing clean through the bark with powerful magical swings. Vines erupted from the earth, and blades moved to cut them all to pieces. Sylvari screamed in pain as thorns cut their outlines, cascades of light erupting from the wounds.
He bellowed with rage as the vines that kept him chained to this plane were severed, and at the angle he stood at he found himself falling backwards. Sylvari moved to push him, but there was no need.
Without another sound, as if the wind had snatched away his roar, he disappeared beyond the waves of light. The Jungle Dragon lost his connection to the Dream.
His touch upon her roots were turned to dust in the earth.
She was free.
The Pale Tree was stunned beyond words. She brought herself to kneel, and her children moved to comfort her, hands resting against her shoulders as tears formed in her eyes, their bodies glimmering more their forms radiating heat like a gentle spring sunrise. She wept, and they wept with her, understanding as she did.
They were free.
And then one screamed a name, crying out above the sniffling and sobs with powerful wails of pain. The Pale Tree and her children turned towards the sound, and the avatar's hand moved to her mouth, to stop her own scream.
Her children lay dead before her eyes, stabbed through with vines still somehow left behind by the jungle dragon. Their glowing forms were dimming as they hung limply from the tendrils.
She stood, legs shaking, and stepped towards the closest one, shutting the child's wild, terrified eyes gently with her fingertips. She then brought her gaze to the vine still connected to the body, and saw the pulse of energy echo from her little one into the horrid construction of nature, and knew what had to be done. With a heavy heart and heavier blade, she cleaved the vine in two, the body shattering into small lights like petals that floated to the ground, clinging to the grass as dew.
Her children, wordlessly, copied her actions, setting her children free. Within the Pale Tree itself, she felt the bodies these newborns would have inhabited die within their pods, never to see the real world in their lives. The weight of it all nearly brought her low once again, but a child caught her, holding her up under her arm. Everyone stood behind her, ready to support her, as they watched their kin fade away across the grass.
Fully free.
I hope you all enjoyed. I wrote this entire thing in a day after listening to Fear not this night and reading the comments informing me that the one song that made me click "play gw2 in the background when minimized" was actually the instrumental of this song.
I'm sorry I never gave it a chance before. I just knew I would like it, and if there's anything anyone needs to know about me, it's that I do not trust anyone, least of all those I like or love. And so I here I am, growing jealous and cruel towards a song that makes me cry within the first seconds of the lyrics being sung.