Wildfire Riders

<Sometime Two Months ago, during the coldest part of Winter>

He gulped. In his left hand he held the envelope containing his summons to the Cenarion Enclave. It had been hand delivered to him, signifying its importance. His right hand was clenched, palm hot with a fine layer of sweat. Thoughts had raced through his head about what it could be. The last mission for him was to investigate the Dragonflights, specifically inquire the Blue Flight's intentions and the position of the other Dragonflights on the matter. He'd found his answer, and shortly after was dispatched to aid the Red Dragonflight in their containment of the insane Malygos. Such things always worried him, but even moreso now. He had a son and a mate to return to now. And how could Seylon take it if he were taken by the Blue Dragonflight as well?

The Cenarion Circle had already dispatched many druids to aid the Argent Crusade or direct assaults on the Lich King himself. Some casualties that were inevitable were sorely felt by the druids. So was he to be another one thrown into the fray? He could resign, but that would mean giving up druidism forever.

He made his way up the tree that had been fashioned into a building. Upon reaching the top he was surprised to not find Staghelm answering in his office, but Arch Druid Vinara Crescentwing. She was one of the few in a new line of druids that had discovered an extremely close affinity to nature, which allowed the druid to become nature itself and thus control it on a whole new level, was attainable by more than one of their kind. Malfurion was the first to discover this level of affinity. The standard teachings of druidism allowed the druid to draw powers from nature, but it was never quite understood how one reached such a state that nature accepted the druid as its own. To be able to move the largest trees against their foes, call the most violent storms, transform not into mere avatars of their spirit beasts, but to become the avatars and gain their speed, agility, strength and endurance.

Vinara greeted him with a smile, her hands folded in front of her. "Greetings, Brother Crescentwing." She gave him a solid bow, and spoke with an inflection of an older tongue of Darnassian. The druid did have the signs of aging of any older Kal'dorei. She was among the few women who would not accept the life of a sentinel or priestess of the moon in ages past, when such things were considered inappropriate by the temple. "Does Nature's Favor see you well this day?"

He smiled, relieved that it was not Staghelm. "It does, and does the moon shine brightly upon you, Sister Crescentwing?"

She laughed, breaking the formality lingering in the air, lunging forward to embrace him. She hugged him tightly and he, although a bit surprised, embraced her back. She lifted herself onto her toes to kiss him on the cheek. She muttered into his ear, "It must see you very well, last you told me you'd found a mate. So typical, all of you bedding sentinels." She jabbed at him. "Word is you have a son. It's unfortunate that he is blind, but it is said he can see the..."

Aleros nodded.

"Such a peculiar thing, but Elune works in mysterious ways. Have they not asked you to hand him over to a special tutor?"

"They asked, and insisted, I was very firm of my answer to decline them."

Vinara loosed her arms from him, turning about to sit down on Staghelm's wooden chair. "The stoic as always are also very stubborn."

He relaxed himself, still standing before her. "I will be seeing to his early training. He will be my son and no one else's. As he grows he'll receive multiple teachers and tutors."

Her smile curved even more, showing the smile-lines in her face even more than before. "You are a good father then."

"What of you and yours?"

"My son is in the North as many are... but under Arch Druid Lilliandra, so I am confident he is in good hands. My mate, happily retired, awaits my return in Winterspring." She seemed content with her answer, as quiet lingered in the air for a moment.

He extended the envelope to her. "This. It's not a summons to the north then?"

Vinara shook her head.

"Then..."

"You are to undergo rigorous training, taking in all aspects of nature and the wilds that you possibly can, learning anything you can and rigorously training your own body."

He tilted his head, mild surprise sweeping over his face. "You realize that if I am to undergo this training, then I cannot be in the employ of--"

"You will remain in our employ, we will however provide no support for you until this training is completed, successful or not. You are to find other means of support. Do not hold yourself aloof of others and learn from the other races around you."

"The greatest knowledge lies not in your own kind but in the world around you." He seemed to be reciting it.

"We wish you warm weather in these cold times." She stood to embrace him again, and spoke quietly. "As do I, and the other Brother Crescentwing."


<A couple of days ago>

This would be the second time Seylon and Aleros had moved in the last few years. All of their belongings were held in Teldrassil as they prepared their new home in Grizzly Hills. Today, it was brought there by mage portal, direct from location to location, a fairly expensive service but necessary for such large volumes of belongings.

"The books go into the study downstairs." He patted Seylon on the rear as she carried two boxes towards the downstairs.

She looked back at him and smirked. "S'a good thing ya got a strong woman, sugar."

As she disappeared down the stairs, he turned to go get another box, then realized there was a book at his feet. He picked it up, seeing what it was. An old, out of date text book. The cover and bindings were simple, the wording on it of simple Midnight Ink. "Healing: The Druidic Art" it read in Darnassian, and just below that was his own name, along with a few others. His days of teaching were not long lived, but he smiled in remembrance of them. Carefully he opened it to the first section, sitting down to read.

Introduction

Our ways of healing have been around for many ages starting with Malfurion, the first to venture into the practice of using natural means of healing wounds. The very first healers used herbs and their natural properties to heal wounds and lift ailments from victims. Our ancestors tended and cared to large gardens devoted entirely to medicinal herbs, and while herbology and alchemy is still in widespread use, it is not used as much for healing any more. We give thanks to our healers of old for the progress they made in the field of healing. In this book we will be focusing on the use of natural energy to quickly mend wounds and draw poisons and curses. From the beginning you will learn how to harness these healing energies at first, your most basic step, until the final chapters where you will learn ways of keeping a focused concentration under dark influences. Destructive magics seek to consume life magics, and can disrupt a healing spell as much as it can consume the very person you're trying to heal.

Druidic healing calls upon nature's energy to heal many times faster than normal. The light, while using an inherently different energy source for its healing, works on these same principles. The light's energy calls on a balanced flow between the sun and the two moons.

He grinned, this book would be surely rewritten for a new edition, now that they knew of Paladins and especially the Naaru. He kept reading.

This book complements another, written by the Temple of the Moon, and it is suggested that a student of either discipline read both books for a full understanding so that energies may be used to work in tandem with each other.

Druidic healing calls upon a different source of energy. Contained within every life form is life energy. Unless infected by shadow, this life energy is extremely pure and can be put to use in many ways, including healing. The more experienced the hand, the more a small amount of life energy can be used. On the other hand, any taint of fel energy can drastically decrease any useful life energy you may be able to gather from a source. Even a minor amount of taint can render a piece of life useless for healing purposes. This is why you will also be taught how to shield yourself and your reagents from such energies.

As energy is harnessed from a source, it is drawn out of the source and transferred to the subject of healing. For most healing spells, either leaves or acorns are used. Leaves and acorns carry a great deal of life energy, and nature offers them to us in abundance. As we protect her, so she too provides for us. Acorns from world trees can draw shadow to themselves and out of other subjects and neutralize the fel. While not rare, they are hard to grow and maintain for widespread use, so their distribution and use is limited and under strict ordinances.

Seylon called to him, "Sugar, ya gonna get more boxes?"

He closed the book and put it in a nearby chair. "I'll have another few in in a moment!"

(( I'll be posting relevant Ale history as it pops up ))

It was well after The Sundering of the world and the Great Well's collapse on itself. The sentinels and priestesses had been tasked with the protection of sacred temples and forests of the new Kal'dorei home around Mount Hyjal. The druids, who had studied under Cenarius agreed to study druidism further and safeguard the land through the Emerald Dream. Nature would grant them additional powers in their studies. And so Ysera took many into her realm.

The druids studied in small groups, some groups consisting of equally skilled druids learning through exploration and experiment, others training under more experienced druids. As many had lost their families in the great war, a common practice was to adopt the name of the instructor, and druid learning groups would become like family to each other. While not all did this, it was widely accepted by many and eventually became a common but still optional practice. Aleros Earthbreeze, as he was originally known, trained under Mekulan Crescentwing, along with Vinara Starblade and Turenkou Mistbranch. Many original Kal'dorei names were lost because of this practice, but this created a crucial bond for many Kal'dorei right after the ravages of the war. Mekulan had been granted this name by Cenarius for his training under the bird spirits of the dream. He never spoke of his original name. Aleros came from a small village on the southern end the Southern side of the Well of Eternity, from a farmer family that raised medicinal herbs and some vegetables. Vinara came from a long line of sentinels. Turenkou was a crop farmer's son on the Northwestern end of the Well.

As the years went on within the Emerald Dream, druid groups would inevitably split apart, but they kept their names and their bonds.

Xionn, Aleros's blood brother, adopted the last name Grimskull for an entirely different reason. Having no druidic powers, and actually being one of the many "lost" by the world's sundering, he ended up on the South Sea islands. The goblins, originally known to be under employ of Neltharion, were in great abundance down there. (Various lore suggests that the volcano on the Southseas islands is the same one used by Neltharion as his workshop 10,000 years ago). Eventually forming the undermine, Xionn joined them and in his unusual behavior of collecting skulls and using them as adornments, came to be known as Grimskull, which he adopted over Earthbreeze.

Aleros's "organization" or who he works for is a nameless branch of the Cenarion Circle. It's a special organization that recognizes the importance of balance in the world. Life and death, good and evil, peace and war, even a degree of chaos and order. They seek to stop any force that may artificially tilt any balance too far to one side. They're not a divine presence or mysterious all seeing council, more like a group of crazy crusading druids, kind of like DEHTA but with a much different mission statement.