One shadow at a time. Circling warily, edging closer to the well.
The basket, a few meters beyond it, sitting at the feet of a stone statue. One of the Virtues or maybe, a Hero. Inside the basket, hope, luck and glory.
The muffled tread of a guard in the distance.
Pause. Deep breath. Final meters.
Three offerings. Choices. No time. The smallest, placed with care? Decision, quick fingers, deep pockets.
Return to the darkness. Exhale. One shadow at a time.
Out of town, across the border, home in Sparkling Triumph!
Most mornings, the Cloud Market in the canopy of the ironwood city of Brume Harrow is completely enclosed in thick white mist covering the hills and valleys of Blackthorn Vale. As the fog begins to clear, the first light hits the gems on the Stone Tree, cascading a torrent of color across the top of the brume.
The Stone Tree stands alone on the top of Harrow Hill. The lone petrified ironwood watching sentinel over the valley and water below would be an impressive sight to behold without any further adornment. Not surprisingly, even long ago, Kypiq from all over the Forest would travel to visit the strange Stone Tree. On the river at the base of the Hill, a trade settlement grew to support the travelers.
Precisely when the tradition of adding your gem to the Stone Tree started, is lost in the mist of time, but how it happened seems pretty clear. It is considered to good luck to provide an offering to the Forest Spirit, and what place is more auspicious than the wondrous Stone Tree. So young Kypiq would climb the tree, usually on a moonlit night, and add a colorful, sparkling gemstone in a location sure to catch the suns rays. The higher, the better. The brighter, the better.
Soon it became a rite of passage. Each Kypiq contributed their stone to the Tree. Afterwards, they would tell tales of where and how they acquired their offering, of its’ beauty, and how you can see it shining ‘just there’ in the morning light.
Nowadays, young Kypiq will set off on long adventures in order to find the perfect stone. Most Hrothi and Brudvir villages in southern Vornair prudently have a tradition of leaving baskets of shiny offerings ‘to the fairies’, and over the years, many have been accepted by Kypish hands.
An ironwood tree is gigantic, but a hundred generations of Kypiq can encrust one almost entirely in gemstones. The effect is glorious. One of the wonders of Mytharbor.
Today, there is a beautiful park surrounding Harrow Hill, and the Mistwatch, the Northern Rangers of the Blackguard, are exceptionally careful to keep visitors clear of the Stone Tree except on moonlit nights.
