The Avatar: Part I

Old as the world itself, roots entwined solidly in the bedrock of time, the trees murmured softly all around him as he slept within the giant King Oak and dreamt.

In some, he was back in Thornhaven, facing off in drills against young Ian, the lord's half-elven son, the practice blades echoing off the practice-yard walls. In others, he once more crossed swords with his friend, but now Ian was a man grown, his face older, his chest and arms bearing the scars of old wounds, his bearing that of a veteran warrior. He wore a mask made from the head and antlers of a deer as they fought in a darkened glade, as did the dreamer. Or was it a mask? At times it seemed more, and his head seemed heavier with the weight of something growing from his skull. And all about as he and Ian fought, he could feel others, watching and waiting.

Ian was not the only man he fought. There were others, many others. But Ian's face was the only one he knew, the only one whose face made the dreamer feel any emotions, a mixture of anger and regret.

In other dreams he ran through the Forest on trails shining in bright moonlight, and here too there were times when he was a man and in others a mixture, man and breast, and in still others a white stag. There were some dreams where he went through all three forms, ending as the stag, lapping water from a pool as he stared at his reflection in the water. Then SHE would come, and lead him away, and another sort of dream began.

She whispered his name to him.
He never could remember it.

And so he slept and dreamt away the days and nights within the towering Oak, sustained by tendrils that had fastened to him and linked by them to the Forest as it moved through the cycles: blood racing in the Spring, flowing strongly in the summer, slowing in the fall, and sluggish in the winter, all the while dreaming until SHE summoned him to the glade, and it all began again.

Dreams of swords and love.
Dreams of another life.
Dreams of his name, whispered in a million leaves...
And always out of reach.