Winter's BG part 1

[Winter]

It was a hot summer's day in the glade. Zalen was spending the afternoon as he had spent so many for the last seventy years of his life as a native of the Churlwood, meditating for hours and then dozing off under the shady branches of the two hundred year old oak. On days like this he could forget the years and his duties.

A terrified scream broke his reverie. With an annoyed flick to his frayed green cowl, he could make out the figure of his nephew and newest apprentice, Winter, fleeing at full tilt from Bristle, the cantankerous old brown bear. Chuckling as the young man ran past him, he interposed himself yet again between the lad and the angry bear and calmed it with a gesture, bringing Bristle to a halt to sniff and lick his outstretched palm.

Once Winter caught his breath, he came to stand next to the pair, warily eying the bear. He bpwed to the old man in respect and said quietly, “My thanks again, Elder, it seems he prefers a taste of me to the salmon eggs I'd gathered down by the stream.” Bristle bared his teeth at him again, but at a further glance from Zalen wandered off toward the nearby bushes.

Zalen looked at the boy more seriously now. “It is true you still have much to learn of the ways of bears, but you are well on your way to becoming a member of the Circle of the Churlwood in your own right. However, I feel as autumn approaches, you have learned all you can here in the wilds with me. The time has come for you to go out into the world and learn what it has to teach you, that you will be more ready when The Green Faith has true need of your skills.”

Winter and Zalen shared a last simple meal in his sanctuary under the oldest trees of the wood. Zalen gave him a fatherly hug. “I have spoken to you before of the village of Sandpoint where your father hailed from before he left your mother.” Giving Winter a small pouch filled with coin, he looked mistily-eyed at him and continued. “I think you should set out there first, for I have seen in a dream that you will meet traveling companions and that the village will have need of you in the future.”

“Be wary of the ways of the 'civilized' people you will find in Sandpoint, yet do not be too wary, for I sense that it is your destiny to befriend the better ones among them to help this land. You should set off there tonight, and return not until you have learned more of the world outside this forest, though I will miss you greatly.”

With that, his uncle sent him on his way. Winter journeyed on foot, living off the land as he had been trained, and it was several weeks later that he reached the outskirts of sandpoint, with little other than the simple accoutrements of the traveling druid and his adventuring destiny ahead of him.