Chapter Three: Where the Trail Ends
If you are following the creek...
The path along the creek is easy and warm. You don't actually need to travel very far to reach the end - there are a lot of places where you need to duck and twist among reeds or rocks, but as an Esk, you could just float on through, if you really wanted.
You certainly hear it before you see it. The creek has lapped against the rocks gently for the entire path, but a harsher, more triumphant splashing alerts you to something of interest around this last bend. It doesn't sound like there's trouble, though - and indeed there isn't. You find yourself at last in a sharply lit clearing, where light spills, blue and pale gold, onto a clearing surrounded by stones. While there's foliage here, the tallest trees seem to be keeping their distance. It's a good thing there's wind, and cool water, to chase away the fog that has settled in the clearing. Most significantly, the creek here spills into the pool in a joyful cascade. You can descend alongside it by climbing down the large stones, or perhaps by using your telekinesis, or by jumping, if you like a thrill. At the bottom you take in the sights - a happy hideaway in a lively forest, made larger than life by the sun's power. The cascade spills down the rocks like a white veil, gilded at the edges by the sun's light. This is yours to enjoy, for now.
The path along the creek is easy and warm. You don't actually need to travel very far to reach the end - there are a lot of places where you need to duck and twist among reeds or rocks, but as an Esk, you could just float on through, if you really wanted.
You certainly hear it before you see it. The creek has lapped against the rocks gently for the entire path, but a harsher, more triumphant splashing alerts you to something of interest around this last bend. It doesn't sound like there's trouble, though - and indeed there isn't. You find yourself at last in a sharply lit clearing, where light spills, blue and pale gold, onto a clearing surrounded by stones. While there's foliage here, the tallest trees seem to be keeping their distance. It's a good thing there's wind, and cool water, to chase away the fog that has settled in the clearing. Most significantly, the creek here spills into the pool in a joyful cascade. You can descend alongside it by climbing down the large stones, or perhaps by using your telekinesis, or by jumping, if you like a thrill. At the bottom you take in the sights - a happy hideaway in a lively forest, made larger than life by the sun's power. The cascade spills down the rocks like a white veil, gilded at the edges by the sun's light. This is yours to enjoy, for now.
To continue on this Quest, you must draw or write about your Esk participating in something inspired by the scene above. You may interpret the chapter in any way you wish, as long as your entry is still recognizably this prompt.
For some reason, you cannot manifest your specialized powers - accessories, familiars, enchantments, and elementals will not be present here. If your Esk is not from the Forest Biome, they will not manifest their nature features. Abnormal Esk will manifest their nature features regardless of biome.
For some reason, you cannot manifest your specialized powers - accessories, familiars, enchantments, and elementals will not be present here. If your Esk is not from the Forest Biome, they will not manifest their nature features. Abnormal Esk will manifest their nature features regardless of biome.
If you are following the stone wall...
The path along the wall is longer, and cooler. The trek takes a while, although as an Esk you aren't especially fatigued by the act of walking. You mark the passage of time by watching the light instead: it's harder to see along this path, with the canopy as thick as it is, but you're certain you've been walking a while when you reach what seems to be the path's conclusion.
It's been growing even cooler as you've walked, and to your surprise, it's foggy here - though if you've been walking along a slope, it's been a subtle one. The path opens onto a private, and probably long-abandoned graveyard, with vines crawling on the tombstones and new flowers dappling the ground — hopeful bursts of yellow and white sprinkle the iced earth. The frost crunches as you walk among them. Trees rise around the graveyard like solemn guardians, though you can tell they used to be tamer, maintained carefully to provide those at rest with a pretty home. This may have not been the forest’s secret, but it was someone’s, and for now, it is yours too. Tread carefully, and watch your step.
The path along the wall is longer, and cooler. The trek takes a while, although as an Esk you aren't especially fatigued by the act of walking. You mark the passage of time by watching the light instead: it's harder to see along this path, with the canopy as thick as it is, but you're certain you've been walking a while when you reach what seems to be the path's conclusion.
It's been growing even cooler as you've walked, and to your surprise, it's foggy here - though if you've been walking along a slope, it's been a subtle one. The path opens onto a private, and probably long-abandoned graveyard, with vines crawling on the tombstones and new flowers dappling the ground — hopeful bursts of yellow and white sprinkle the iced earth. The frost crunches as you walk among them. Trees rise around the graveyard like solemn guardians, though you can tell they used to be tamer, maintained carefully to provide those at rest with a pretty home. This may have not been the forest’s secret, but it was someone’s, and for now, it is yours too. Tread carefully, and watch your step.
To continue on this Quest, you must draw or write about your Esk participating in something inspired by the scene above. You may interpret the chapter in any way you wish, as long as your entry is still recognizably this prompt.
For some reason, you cannot manifest your specialized powers - accessories, familiars, enchantments, and elementals will not be present here. If your Esk is not from the Forest Biome, they will not manifest their nature features. Abnormal Esk will manifest their nature features regardless of biome.
For some reason, you cannot manifest your specialized powers - accessories, familiars, enchantments, and elementals will not be present here. If your Esk is not from the Forest Biome, they will not manifest their nature features. Abnormal Esk will manifest their nature features regardless of biome.