The Ancient Oak's Song from Caligos Isle in GemStoneIV

Ebon Gate 5117 in GemStoneIV
Caligos  Island
Discovery: The Ancient Oak's Song


>sense
You sense the threads of history resonating within an ancient leafless oak.


You sing to an ancient leafless oak:

    "Dearest old dreaming oak tree, Luxie is my name,
     Sing of your secrets, share all your fame!"

Your vision fills with stratus clouds as they swirl past you, the wisps thinning, and you wake from a deep slumber.  You feel the comfort of your skin, your true real home, around you and, just as you decide to return to slumber, you feel a sickening coldness lance into you.  The sense of falling overtakes you, and you hear the cry of a bird somewhere above you.  That must be how you ended up in the sky, some avian adventure, but it is short lived and your vision abruptly returns to normal.

You sing to an ancient leafless oak:

    "Oh I think that's where you grew
     What was the place called when you were new?"

You sing to an ancient leafless oak and you are filled with the strangest sensations.  The sun above is warm, the land damp, and rich with minerals from nearby volcanic flows.  Wind sends you tumbling helplessly across the land and you slip into a crack, but you decide that it is time to wake from your slumber and shed your skin.  Stretching your fingers into the deep, dark ground, you seek out nutrients, and then you begin to grow.  Slowly, your vision unfurls to reveal an island wreathed in mist, but then it fades away.

You sing to an ancient leafless oak:

    "Your life in the past is ringing in you,
     I hear a strong song, through and through."

Indigo and silver mist trickle across your vision, and from somewhere far off you hear children playing.  It seems to have been years since you landed upon this island and you have watched it change from volcanic rock and debris, to a landscape filled with homes and families.  The mists no longer bother you, your leaves reflect their color, and you are at peace here.  Thunder and the sound of rising waves suddenly blot out the sun, and as your vision fades, the laughter of children turns to cries of fear.

    "Dearest oak what is the fear your song?
     What threatens this refugue, this Isle, so wrong?"

Coldness greets you, and your vision is filled with a murky darkness that seems to be your new norm.  Hints of sunlight play through the water, but they are far from you, and you feel yourself slowly starving.  You miss the laughter of the children as they played around you, dancing in your leaves as they fell, and still mourn at the memory of their strangled, gurgling deaths.  Kelp is your friend now, but it does not frolic so much as strangle and choke.  Slowly, your vision fades away.

You sing to an ancient leafless oak:

    "Oh dreaming oak, what did you know?
     Bound here to the Isle with the secrets below."

Plunging in and out of darkness, you feel the world around you transform and water begins to sluff off of you in torrents.  The air feels different, colder than you remembered, and your trunk feels strangled by the kelp that has come to the surface with you.  Fish riddle the ground, their gills flaring as they struggle to breathe and their bodies twisting in odd arcs as they gasp out their last.  Your return to the land and sky seems ill fated, but at least the sun is here, and it warms your fading vision.