The Path to Destiny: Tia's Folly (2 page)

           
“When do I leave?” She asked giving him a tight smile as
she grasped his hand and held on as though her life depended on it.

           
“Tomorrow at dawn,” Uren’s voice shook with trepidation
as he looked at his beautiful young apprentice. “I know you are not ready for
the title of Gatherer, you haven’t had the time to gain all of the knowledge or
the training yet. The simple truth is this; the war needs to end now. The Gods
are counting on you to accomplish this, and for the sake of all beings; you
must.”

***

           
The next morning, Tia and Roland left their village at
dawn. Though she cared about Roland, she really did wish it was Uren coming
with her instead. This was her first time away from her village and where they
were traveling to
was
a ring on the edge of Druid
lands.

With
a cloudless sky and Uren’s warning that the ring was a full day’s walk from
their town, she had packed lightly. Carrying only a rucksack of food and a
container of water, Tia walked quickly behind Roland.

 
Hours passed as the sun relentlessly beat
down on them. Covered from head to toe in a black cloak with the hood pulled up
over her head, she was miserable. Tia looked up at the midday sun and groaned
at the thought that the day would continue to get warmer for hours to come.
Taking a deep breath of the humid air, she wished the delicate skin of the
Druids didn’t force them to wear the cloying cloaks.

           
“Why can’t we just walk through the misted rings and
be
there already?” She asked in
frustration. All morning she’d wondered how Roland could bear the misery in
silence.

           
“That is a blatant waste of our magic; to take such a
short cut when it is not necessary is a show of disrespect to the Gods.” Roland
reminded her. “We should arrive sometime around sunset.”

           
“But I am so hot!” she complained testily as she grabbed
her flask, grimacing as she took a swig of the warm fluid. “Can we not stop for
just a
little
while? Or take these
blasted cloaks off while we are walking!”

           
Roland laughed nervously but didn’t slow his pace.

           
“So on top of
roasting
to death
we cannot talk?” Tia demanded with a groan as she came to a halt
under a tree and threw back the hood of her cloak. She sighed in relief as a
slight wind blew across her sweaty neck. “We have been walking since dawn. It
is now midday and you have
barely
spoken to me!”

           
“Tia, I have not spoken to you because I thought it for
the best,” he admitted shyly as he turned around and came to a slow halt in
front of her. Smiling gently, he reached out and resettled the hood on her
head.

           
“
Why
?” She
demanded as she threw her hood off again. Her innocence stopped her from
understanding the look on his face.

           
“We are not bonded yet.” Roland took her hand in his even
as he carefully maintained a respectful distance between the two of them. “It
is going to be a challenge for me to keep my distance and not touch you. In a
little less than one moon cycle, we will be bonded, and I will be free to touch
you as much as I would like. Yet, here we are, all alone, with no one but the
trees and the Gods as witnesses and I still am not allowed to touch you. When
you suggest things like taking off our cloaks - when I know we are wearing
little underneath - I am forced to pray for the strength to resist your
innocence.”

Releasing
her hand, Roland pushed back his own hood and stared into her eyes with an
intensity she couldn’t understand. “And, while I would
love
to accommodate that wish, the sun would burn our skin in a
matter of minutes. I do have to admit though, the lovely image of you
frolicking in the sun is sure to stay in my mind the rest of the day. It will
make the journey just a little more entertaining for me,” he teased with a
mischievous grin.

           
“Oh! I didn’t…I mean…” Tia was confused and embarrassed.
She grabbed her hood and pulled it up to cover her flaming cheeks before
admitting. “I look forward to our bonding too.”

           
“We should talk about something else - anything else!”
Roland quietly muttered as he quickly resettled his hood and walked away.

           
“Well,” Tia paused to think for a moment before running
the short distance to catch up with him. Now that she had him talking there was
no way she was going back to the tedium of walking in silence. “Can you tell me
why we must travel to this particular ring instead of using one closer to
home?”

           
“This ring is special.” Roland began explaining, relieved
to be talking about anything other than their bonding. “In times of war, the
ring we travel to
is
used to prevent enemies from
lying to one another. Once there, they will sign a pact with you that
binds
them to the Peace Council until you have dismissed
them. If they attempt to leave before that, they will become ill. The further
away from the ring they get, the sicker they will get. If they have the stamina
to get too far; they
die
. It will be
your job to make that last part abundantly clear.

           
“The ring will protect us from being harmed while we are
within,” he continued, walking slightly in front of her. “But be careful of
what you say and how you word it in the ring. What is spoken in the ring can
only be truth; a lie cannot pass any being’s lips for the ring will silence
their tongue before it can be said. If a Druid tries to lie within the ring,
the ring will silence them forever.”

           
“Oh!” Tia exclaimed, surprised by the extreme nature of a
Druids’ punishment. Without giving her words any thought, she blurted out, “I hate
our Gods sometimes! Why must our lives be so much
harder
than every other being’s?”

           
“Tia!” Roland tripped over his feet, genuinely shocked by
her statement. He quickly righted himself – ignoring the embarrassment of
tripping over nothing- and admonished her. “The Gods hear every word spoken by
their chosen people. You should not speak ill of them. What is wrong with you
today?”

           
“I am hot and I am miserable!” Tia snapped, frustrated by
his response. Surely she wasn’t the only person who saw how unfairly the Druids
were treated when compared to other beings. “The Gods know I have less than a
month until
we
bond and they sent me
away and called this my destiny! They couldn’t even be gracious enough to make
today a nice cool day since we are smothered in these damn cloaks!” Tears
streamed down Tia’s face as she vented her frustration. “
I don’t want to do this
! I don’t want
this
destiny! I just want to bond with you and raise our babies. I
am the first Druid woman to be chosen for a destiny - other than bonding and
raising babies - for hundreds of years.
Why me
?!”

           
“I don’t know,” he murmured, softly trying to sooth her.
Roland was a little puzzled by her outbursts and frequently struggled to know
how to handle them. He knew she was uncertain of what her future would hold so
– just this one time - he decided to share his own thoughts. “I ask myself the
same thing. All I wanted was to have a bonded chosen for me and to have
children. I wonder why my bonded has to be the first woman chosen for this kind
of destiny in centuries. But it isn’t up to us to decide. The Gods have spoken
and it is our duty to fulfill their wishes.”

           
“You’re right -” All of her anger melted away and she
felt the chill of premonition creeping down her spine. “I just cannot banish
the doubts and the fear. I don’t suppose I could ask Aldeed to come to the
peace council?”

           
“Your dragon!?
To a peace council?”
Roland laughed at the thought.

           
“He is my spirit guide,” Tia reasoned a little testily.
“Why not?”

           
 
“We are Druids.”
Roland reminded her with a wiry smile. “We bond with who we are told, we do as
we are told, and we obey our Gods in everything. They
specifically
said they were sending
me
to guide you.”

           
“You’re right again,” she nodded her head and smothered a
sigh. Carefully keeping her eyes fixed on Roland’s
feet,
she faked her acquiescence and smoothly changed the subject. “Can you tell me
what I need to know about the other
beings.
”

           
Pausing to study her, Roland shook his head. He knew she
was feigning her submission. He couldn’t help but wonder where she got all of
her un-Druid-like feistiness. Shaking off the thought, he decided it would be
best just to forget her strange behavior of the last few minutes and prepare
her for the Peace Council.

           
“Physically, you will be taller than most.” He pursed his
lips in careful thought before continuing. “While you stand about six feet
tall, that is tall for most men. It is likely that you will be taller than
everyone but the Falkeries and the Drow.”

           
“I thought Elves were tall too.”

           
“Elven men usually grow to be around your height. That
will also be true for the Trolls.”

           
“
Trolls
!”

           
“Yes, Trolls. The Phoenix allies will be at the Peace
Council too.” Roland was startled by her surprise.
Surely Uren had warned her!

           
“This is so wrong!” Tia was immediately put on guard by
the unexpected news and she started asking questions as fast as she could think
of them. “I don’t know anything about
Trolls
!
What if I offend them? Does that mean
Vampires
will be there too?-”

           
“
Tia, stop
!” he
commanded her. “We have all day to discuss this. I’m sure we can talk about
this in a more reasonable manner without the hysterics.”

           
Taking a deep breath, Tia wasn’t sure if she should calm
down or smack him. Luckily, her training quickly set in and she decided she
should probably relax. Roland was her bonded after all…she was going to have to
get used to following his orders. Knowing it was best to mollify
him,
she tempered her emotions and tried to harness the
natural calm of a Druid.
Tried being the
operative word
, she thought irritably.

           
“Which beings should I be wary of?” She was proud of how
serene her voice sounded even though she was bubbling with emotion inside.

           
“All of them, Tia. They are all flawed in ways the Gods
could not control. That is why we were sent to protect them from each other.”
Roland was startled by her question. Wariness was built into the very fabric of
a Druid!
Even the smallest of toddlers
are wary of everything
.

           
“So…trust no one?”

           
“Exactly.”

***

           
Having stopped to eat - at Tia’s insistence - they didn’t
arrive at the ring until after sundown. Emerging from the woods into a large
clearing, she finally got her first look at the massive ring.

Moon
light bathed the large stone structure in an eerie glow. She was stunned to see
that it could easily fit five or six huts inside of it. The circle of giant
stone slabs protruding from the ground pulsed with a power that resonated in
Tia’s chest and urged her forward.

Placing
her palm flat on one of the stones, she watched in fascination as her hand began
to glitter. Slowly, a light purple sheen spread over her body before it began
spreading to the ring.

As
the structure lit up, a single beam of moon light focused on Tia. She could
feel the tingling and the heat of something, but she couldn’t name what was
happening. It felt like happiness, power, and destiny.

Suddenly,
all the light seemed to spill back at her and with a whoosh, she was swept off
of her feet. Landing flat on her back about ten feet from where she had been
,
Tia was surprised to discover she wasn’t injured.

“Are
you okay?” Roland cried as he rushed to her side.

“Yes.”
Tia blinked the spots out of her eyes before accepting his help in standing.

“Are
you sure?”

“I
think so,” she lightly shook her
head,
sure she
couldn’t have seen what she thought she had. “What just happened?”

“It’s
complicated,” Roland admitted after a short pause.