Chapter 19: Chapter Nineteen – The Great Gathering

In the early morning hours, Propitious awoke to the sound of a lovely bugling. The noise was much like that of a bull elk but more beautiful and musical.

Upon hearing the enchanting sound, she wondered who or what made it. Rising from her resting place, she crept over to the brink of the Sacred Glade and peered cautiously around one of the huge trees that encircled the clearing.

To her surprise, she saw Solicitous standing beside the great charred tree, and before she could doubt that he had made the musical sound, the young Unicorn issued the same melodic call for a second time.

She had never heard her dear friend make such a wonderful noise, and it caused a smile to spread across her lovely youthful face.

As he sounded with a third bugling, people began to step out from the forest into the wide meadow. They were all Ancients, but they came in many ages, sizes, and colors. The oldest among them were the tallest, and though their faces were lined with the marks of many years and their hair white with long days, they were still very beautiful. Their graceful movements reminded Propitious of how trees sway when a gentle breeze blows through their uplifted boughs.

“Come, my daughter,” her father said with a reverent. “The Great Gathering has begun.”

Propitious took her father’s hand, and the two slowly walked toward the great charred tree. When they had come near to the others, she suddenly felt very small, and even her father, who before seemed so large in her eyes, was now dwarfed by the oldest among the elder-folk.

“Father!” A familiar voice called.

Turning, they found Venturous approaching with his eldest daughter following behind him.

“Alacritous!” Propitious called with a happy smile and golden eyes. “I did not know you would be here too!”

Immediately, the two young women embraced. They had been friends since their childhood, for anytime Venturous came to visit, the two girls played together, and even though Alacritous was her niece, she was less than a year younger than Propitious.

When they released each other, Propitious noticed that Arduous looked sad with indigo eyes.

“What troubles you, Father?” Propitious asked with a worried expression.

He gazed down at her, and as he answered, his eyes darkened further. “So few have come!”

Propitious glanced around at the crowd that reverently gathered about the tree. There had to be more than a hundred giants, and each was accompanied by a single child that had come of age.

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Moments later, a towering lady of noble bearing ambled slowly into the Sacred Glade with the aid of two other Ancients of great size. In stature, each of these three stood some fifteen feet tall with the lady being the tallest and thinnest of the three. As they approached, the crowd parted before them with respectful bows.

“It is our great-mother!” Alacritous whispered with hushed awe. “She is over a thousand years old.”

Though Vitalitous bore clear signs of having lived many, many years, she was still very lovely. This was a testament to how beautiful she had been in her youth. Her once auburn hair now hung in long snow-white locks, and though her eyes were surrounded by many age lines, they were still bright with intelligence. Her sharp and piercing gaze glowed with the color of indigo.

When the elder of the Ancients came to stand with her back to the enormous charred tree, she spoke. Her voice was old and frail, but it resonated across the valley with more strength than she appeared to possess.

“I have grave news,” she explained in a sad tone. “My dear husband, and your great-father, has been slain by the Grayling, and we have laid him to rest in a secret cave within the western mountains. There he shall lie until the King of Heaven calls upon him.”

 A hushed murmur went through the crowd, and more than a few silent tears were shed.

When they quieted, Vitalitous spoke on. “Furthermore, this same enemy has continued to destroy our lands and kill our people.”

“From where does this enemy come, and why do they wish to kill us?” someone in the crowd asked with an anxious strain in their voice.

“We only know this: They are a strange people who come from the North. They have no color in their flesh, for everything about them is as gray as ash, and because of this we have named them the ‘Grayling.’ As far as their purpose is concerned, their language is strange to us and beyond our understanding; therefore, we have been unable to determine why they so eagerly seek our destruction. However, there is one other thing we do know: The Dragons are helping them by burning our lands.”

Again, the gathered Ancients murmured, but this time with whispers of apprehension.

“I must give you yet more cheerless tidings,” Vitalitous interrupted. “The King of Heaven has shown me that my own death is very near, and He has commanded that a lottery be arranged through which He will appoint a Seer to serve Him and to guide the people who shall come after us. Now this is the manner in which the Seer shall be chosen: Lots will be drawn by the young, and whosoever the King of Heaven causes to draw out the blue stone shall hold the office of the Seer.”

 Yet once more, a murmur drifted quietly through the gathering.

 “Come now!” Vitalitous commanded with urgency in her old voice. “We have little time, for evil shall soon be upon us.”

At her word, the young people formed a line before their great-mother and waited for their turn to draw a single stone from a cloth bag which she held out to them.

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