While we all come to terms with the gaping void the downing of the llamaserver has left in our lives, I thought it might be time to add a little flava to the game thread, which seems to be rather lacking at this stage. This is part one of what could be called 'The Caelum Wars', or my personal preference 'The Battle for Middle Berth', which besides being a catchy play on a phrase drawn from a popular collection of fantasy novels (no prizes for knowing which), does kind of make sense because the battle happened in the middle of the map, and was Caelum's final foothold of any substance in the world of Veritas.
The observant reader will notice that this Part 1 has nothing to do with battles. It's just the setup. Part 2 is on the way shortly!
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A woman walked amongst the trees of the silent forest. Towering oaks and bending willows loomed over her as she walked along the rich loamy soil beneath her feet. She smiled in simple delight at the beauty of the forest around her, and her eyes were as deep and blue as the purest mountain stream. She breathed in deeply. There was a scent of moisture in the air that reached right down into the lungs.
Traversing a rounded moss-riddled boulder, she came upon a stretch of cracked and sunken earth. Patches of reeds still clinging tenaciously to their posts confirmed that a river had flowed this way not so long ago.
A look of concern suggested itself momentarily in her expression, but did little to disturb the air of equanimity she carried about herself like a cloak. A familiar smile crossed her lips again, and as the breeze played about the upper reaches of the forest about her as she reached for the great pitcher that was ever at her side and poured. Water splashed over the hem of her skirts but she did not seem to mind. Instead she laughed with a child’s delight, and the breeze now picked at her flowing raven-black hair.
The water continued to gush forth from the earthenware pitcher, far beyond what any container of such a size could conceivably hold, and with great energy and force. Before long the dried stream bed flowed anew, fresh and clear.
The woman now cast her eyes towards the heavens and regarded the grey clouds that had gathered. She smiled again.
Returning her pitcher to her side, she reached high into the branches of a neighbouring pear tree and selected a ripened morsel for herself (for in truth she stood a good two-thirds the height of most of the trees in the clearing). Pleased with the pear she had chosen, which was like a berry to her in proportion, she continued on her journey.
As she did so a large winged creature steadied itself on the branch from which it had observed the goings on in the clearing and took flight.
A light rain began to fall.