The Ceromony The Druid Series: Part 3

She looked beautiful. Georgeous. Natalie. She was. She was. Perfect. Look at myself.

Drake looked down at himself. he had all of the ceromonial things for a male. The tall black leaf boots. Gra trousers. Orange overjacket to demonstrate his social ranking, for the moment. It was widely known that one's rank often changes during the ceromony. He had a tie at his waist. Big bell sleeves, quite fashionable for the time. Long tails in the back like a muggle's suit.

The jacket had been embroidered by Natalie, an adventure they had both once had. They were at the rocks. The waterfall was so loud they basically had to scream to hear each other, so they spoke magically. They had done it many times. Natalie ran and jumped into the pool thirty feet below first. She was always brave. No matter what had happened. Drake jumped in after her only to find that she was fine. She was so surprised that Drake had jumped in after her. Natalie was very self-independant, and never really relied on anyone to help her, so the entire community kinda got used to it and never really helped her. Hence why she was so surprised that he had jumped in after her. She kissed him on the cheek. Drake always blushed when he thought of the memory. He'd always be there for her. Always.

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He looked at me differently than he had before. Not in a bad way. It made me all, tingley. Like at the rocks. That time sealed the deal in my opinion. I think he might be the one.

Yes we think of "the one" at this age. We're druids. I'm not really twelve. I think I'm in wizard age, twenty-two? Yes. Twenty-Two. How? When a druid is ten, they "freeze" in time so that they can get their education in. The last two years I've actually matured at a normal rate physically. Old druid magic. One of my favorite topics actually. But we don't have time to talk about that right now. Where was I? Oh, yes. Drake.

My hair had been changed to be my favorite style, blond and short. Cut with a lot of layers so it's very piecey. If piecey is a word. Is it? Hm. I don't know. My eyes were green, another favorite trait. My ears were released from their spell to look like human's ears again, not pointy. I loved those pointy ears. It's sad I can't keep them.My skin had been cleared of all blemishes. I was wearing black leaf boots that went up to my knees. Black trousers as well, which contrasted starkly with my white blouse. I had kept my rank a secret from Drake. It would've hurt him so much if he had found out before this. White is a rank higher than orange, and well, the highest rank one can earn. I loved my blouse. It was extremely light and airy, almost if it had been fashioned out of the wind. I had tight sleeves coming down to a point on the back of my hand. It had a white sash that made the bottom of the shirt fly out. The top had lace embroidered on the sweetheart line which went all the way around my neck. I looked like a tribeswoman.

We didn't need to say anything to understand each other, Drake and I. We were both happy as clams. I never really understood that saying, it was one of Sciss'. Needless to say, Drake offered his arm, and I took it. Arm and arm, we went into the ceromony.

The ceromony is quite simple. You go under the moonlight to the fountain where Talia will be standing. She takes a scoopfull of the dust, mumurs the incantation, and the rest is up to the foutain. It changes your look to your true form (a girl with red hair her entire learning life might actually have blond hair. This shows up during the ceromony.) and shows your rank and it tells you what your occupation will be. It won't say, "Hey, you'll be a farmer the rest of your life, here's a plow." It gives you a glimspe and clues what it is. Usually though the head tribeswoman interprets what it means because it's so vauge, but you get the idea. I thought I should just fill you in. I have to explain this real time for you to understand. So here it is.
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Drake and I stepped through the wrought iron gate into the area where the fountain was. You only see this place three times in your entire life if you're lucky. (except for the head tribesman and woman of course) Needless to say, i was still taking it all in just in case.

Many have described the fountain in many different ways. It's been called the fountain of youth, the key to all answers, but to us, it's the determiner of our futures. It is beautiful. It rests underneath the tree, but it's practically part ot the tree. The dust pours from the three off of mushrooms into the pool below. It's completely golden. An archway of roots lead to it. Talia was standing in front of the fountain with a pool of dust in her hands. Drake and I seemed to just hover towards it.

"Doma kelia tisale koma goutsu!"

I had learned the incantation many times. I could've heard it in my sleep.




Talia blew the dust towards Drake and I. But instead of just settling on our bodies, it became a cloud. It completely enveloped us. I couldn't see. I was breathing it in. My throat turned dry. I could barely breath. Or think. It seemed the dust had taken over my brain. It swooped through all of my memories, my knowlege, and my feelings. My heart seemed as if instead of blood it was pumping the dust. I fell to my knees. Dust, dust, dust! It would not take over me. I started to control it. It mixed with my blood and kept cinfusing me, but I kept pushing through. I seemed as if I were to explode. The feeling of complete helplessness would not help me now, so I manipulated it. I let more oxygen flow into my body than dust, breathing it out as much as I could. The cloud started to disperse. The dust didn't overtake me. I controlled the dust. I murmured the incantation again. And again. And practically screamed it once more. All of it went away at once. I knew that wasn't right. So I called the incantation one more time, softly, not to scare the dust away. And it came back.
It was soft this time. It did not try to attack me or choke me. It settled lightly on me, like it was supposed to. I hadn't even ben aware of what had been happening to me before. The color of my blouse, no, it wasn't a blouse anymore, it was a, a, tunic. A cranberry tunic with red swrils embroidered into it. It laid on my body on an angle. Tapering down to a point at teh end, but not a straight line, it twisted and turned like the waterfall at the rocks did. I still had black trousers on, but what was this? Cranberry boots as well. Leaf boots. The golden powder had mixed with the leaf so the boot felt like a leather. An extremely soft leather, too. I focused now. This time I did not fight the dust, I let it go through me. It felt like a warm friend. And slowly this time, it left.
But I realized, it hadn't left, I could see it around me. I understood though. It happens to a few. You must make your broom before you learn your position.
For now, I'll leave this part out, it's important, but not very interesting at this point in time. Maybe I'll tell you the story later.

But, when the broom was done, I was in the same position as before. The dust still around me, the broom in my hand, Drake right next to me....
Wait, he wasn't next to me. I was all alone?

No time to think about that now. Here is the important part, where you really have to pay attention to everything. I said the incantation in my head one more time to urge the magic forward a little, not to rush it, to more say, "go on." It swept through me one more time. I felt a tingling on my shoulders which spread to my neck and finished on the temples of my head. I felt the warmth go into my broom. A little part of the broom was taken away and laid down on the ground. Proabably a defect. Even the most careful people have one in their brooms. The dust finished the bond between my broom and myself. It ruffled my hair a bit in sign of farewell and dispersed into the air.

It took me a few moments to realize it was over. That was it. No sign. The magic just, departed. It made me a druid though, it gave me tattoos. And it did everything except tell me...my rank and my occupation. Which are the two most important things in becoming a druid! Cranberry is not a rank! What am I?

"What does it mean, Natalie?"

Who was that? What was her name? Talia. The head tribeswoman.

"What does it mean? I'm rankless. I have no place in druid society. I'm an outcast. Put out in shame."
I started to cry. I knew that was right.

"No, no, no. Not entirely."

What?

"It means you have a rank no one else has had before. If you were rankless you would be all black. You are not put out in shame."

"But I still don't have a place in druid society."

"I believe you do have a place, you just don't have a place in the forest."

"I'm a traveler? But I made a unicorn broom! That's not right!"

Talia chuckled. "No, you are not a traveler, although you may travel a lot. When I say you don't have a  place in the forest, I mean, your home is not in the forest. It's out there. With Sciss' people."

"I'm a spy?"

"No, I don't think so."

"Then, I'm officially an independant thinker."

"I believe you became that as soon as Sciss' started first teaching you."

"Then, what am I?"

"I don't know. Let's figure it out together."
Talia sat down cross legged in front of me.

I traced my broom. It had runes talking about a great adventurer who went where she wanted to because she simply hadn't tried it before. A smooth spot was left where the piece came off.

"Natalie, what are you holding in your hand?"

"My broom."

"The other one."

I looked down at my hand. I couldn't figure it out. I was holding the piece of my broom that was taken out of it. It was perfectly smooth, like the thing Sciss' was...

I saw a flashback of what Sciss tried to do to his government. He had to chanel the magic through something...a wand he called it. It was like a smaller broom, in the sense that it was magical.

"It's a wand."

"Really?"

"You know what it is?"

"You weren't the only one that was taught by Sciss, now were you? Are you sure?"

"I'm positive. But, what does that mean?"

"It's qute simple actually. It means that you are a druid---"

"Yes, I know that!"

Talia held up her finger to hush me.

"It means, you a are druid and a wizard."