Chapter 49:Druids

"Welcome young man," said an old man with a long white beard

August observed the man in the silence, looking at his attire that looked kind of strange. Long clothes that looked like it was just a single piece of cloth but was wrapped all around his body, covering almost everything.

Tattoos were covering his hands. All of them were illustrating different plants and trees. The overall man looked odd.

"Welcome, who are you?" inquired August.

The man gives away a small chuckle, replying, "Ohohoh, I'm a druid, of course. Don't you mind accompanying us for the dinner?"

August responded with a nod and accompanied the man to the somewhat dining place. In reality, it was just some rocks that were used as tables and the ground served as a chair.

While they were eating everything that came from nature, there was no meat in their foot ratio, only different plants.

An old man took a seat next to August. Slowly eating his food and looking like he enjoyed every single bit of it, the old man inquired, "What is your name, young man?"

"August" shortly replied August

"Good name, I'm Dali." Dali made a slight pause before inquiring, "So what brought you here today?"

Shrugging his shoulders, August replied vaguely, "Just scouting for a job"

The man chuckled faintly, saying, "All of your kind, August, are travelling in search of the jobs. I'm asking what is the purpose of your travels, why are you on the path you walk on right now?"

August looked at the night sky, wondering what he really wants to accomplish in all the travels he had done and the travels that are to come. There are a lot of objectives that he wants to reach, but they are not something that is something like a purpose in life.

Getting rid of Vilgeforts? Yes, this is one of his objectives, but his life won't end on that. Seeking the new sun? Yes, but it is not something like an end, but just a start of the story that will be rough and full of dangers. What is his purpose?

Why did he appear in this world at all? To get rid of monsters that lurk in the dark shadows of the forest or the distant swamps. To demonstrate to humans a lesson that there is always something that will punish them for their foolish acts or mages that brag about their accomplishments that resulted in thousands of innocents dying?

No, this is not a purpose. Those are just objectives that he will try to achieve. But the purpose of life?

Going over various ideas in his head, August replied, "I think there is nothing remarkable in my purpose. But I can only guess, I will need to guide small sparkle, I will have to shield it from the big void that hunts after her I will have to help this sparkle become one of the blazing suns, who will do remarkable feats that are not suited for me."

The man listened carefully. He never heard of such a purpose from anyone in his life. But he decided to share some of his memories. "I once had a son that I love."

August stopped Dali, asking, "I thought druids don't have kids"

"hahaha, you are right. We have no biological sons, but we take those that were unlucky enough to be abandoned by their mothers, thrown away like a piece of garbage. All of us here are like that. We are unwanted children of our parents."

"There is no such a term as an unwanted child. There are only terrible parents or those that were miserable to be killed by someone else to accomplish their selfish ambitions," muttered August, almost hissing with a slight sadness.

Dali smiled at the comment that August made. It was somewhat right, that it is not children's problem for being abandoned, no. It is their parent's fault for being those that they are.

"You might be a right young man, you might be right. But let me tell you, there is always something that passes down the blood," said Dali.

"Why do you think that way?" inquired August

"I know that because I had a son, not by blood, but he was like a son to me," explained Dali

Getting August's attention, he inquired, "What happened to him?"

With a sorrowful face and eyes looking in the distance, Dali replied with a hoarse voice, "He is dead"

Seeing the man in such a mood, August changed the topic by asking another question. "I'm sorry to hear that. Tell me about him before he went away"

"With pleasure," replied Dali with a smile on his face.

"I found him, being alone, crying and abandoned like a piece of garbage in the sewers of the city Lan Exeter. He was so small and innocent that I just took him into our community. We raised him like our own, training and teaching him our ways of nature. We lived like a family. We loved each other, and we loved nature together. But once everything changed. We were able to discover his extreme talent for magic. He was very talented and had a lot of potential. At the same time, because of this, he was able to figure out that his parents were also sorcerers, and they abandoned him. He started to hate magic, with all of his heart with all of his being.

Once Sorcerer visited us and found out that he was talented and offered him training, but the kid was stubborn, being a brilliant and bright child, he knew of his value. But he didn't know that the arrogance of the mages was much more. Therefore, he declined his offer, to which the mage just shrugged and made a small comment, 'Not much of a deal. That made our boy enraged.

He decided to leave our community and died there. His anger never allowed him to judge right. He trusted his talents too much, believing there was nobody better than him. But in my heart, he will forever stay this bright child that wanted to spend all of his life protecting forest and learning about ways of nature."

Dali looked toward August, asking, "What about you? Do you want to share a story with the old man?"

August shared his story. Druids were secluded, and it is not like they will go around distributing stories, he told him.

"Yes, there is one story" August made a pause before telling the story with a heavy sigh.

"I found the one guilty of the death of my parents, but I find myself in the cage being defenceless to oppose him. The same man tries to use me for his own selfish goals. I don't know how to defeat him. I never was able to see his weak spots. I know I can affect him with words to some degree, but it is never enough to take him off guard and to take advantage.

I see no path to deal with him; he is strong and clever and has been setting arrangements for decades, while I just learned the things that allowed me to fill the void in my memory, but at the same time, I know no right way to oppose this man. It looks like destiny set a lot of goals for me to achieve, but rewarded me with little strength to achieve those."

Druid showed a small smirk, saying, "I think you are a wrong young man. Strength is not something that will help you achieve your goals in the future. Destiny is, therefore, destiny. There is no correct way to get to that point. Strength is just one of them. One man, no matter how strong, will never change the world, and will never be able to stand his ground and achieve his goals.

Your destiny could be achieved in different ways. The one thing that is up to you, young man, is to find this path that you will take to tackle down your destiny. Strength or brain, planning or companionship, oppression or peace. Myriads of paths that could be taken. You will just have to be responsible for choosing the right one, walking the path that won't lead you into the darkness."

...

After the dinner, August went to sleep and in the morning, he was ready to set on of the path once again. But before he did just that, he met with a Dali and had a few words with him.

"I'm leaving," said August approaching Dali

With a smile on his face, the old man replied, "Be safe on your travels young man"

With a nod, August saddled on the horse and walked away when he heard Dali shouting,

"Wait, August"

August turned around and stopped the horse, waiting for Dali. Dali walked closer to August and whispered in his ear.

"N'te vaer'trouv hen wedd aen loa'then.N'te aecaemm aen straede aen ensh'eass. Het esse adhart te aen va'en aend'yaebl.Te aecaemm cerbim feainnewedd va'en geehaet aefder meath gloir, vaer'trouv and minne"

August inquire "What does it mean?"

Dali just smiled, saying, "This will help you in the future"

Asking no more questions, August walked away into the deep forest.

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