Harrow

Near the border of the Scarred Wasteland, in the territory of the Windsinger, the windswept, grassy expanse of hills and furrows overlooked a forest. Upon this heightened elevation, two dragons, one old and one young, looked upon the trees with their thickly leafed canopies which blocked out any deeper view. As the lush green expanded out and away, their healthy green faded until, far away, one could see bone white trunks with twisted, dry branches reaching up, as hands frozen mid-writhe.

"Gramma Jude?" asked the young dragon to the old, extending a finger toward the woodland, "What's out there?"

The elderly dragon could see in the little one's eyes a fascination that was all too familiar to her. It was as though the forest pulled at her through those very eyes, drawing her in. Gently, the older dragon answered, "That is an enchanted forest, my sunflower. It is a wild, and dangerous place."

"Dangerous?" echoed the little one, turning her curious gaze to her elder.

"Yes," Jude replied. She turned her head to regard the forest, a distant look entering her eyes as she thought back on the knowledge she held about that ominous place. "Long, long ago..."

...there was a dragon who wandered into those woods. It was so long ago, in fact, that no one remembers her name. It was the forest which drew her in, enticing her with its warm, filtered sunlight, and its old, mysterious air. Though the trees grew far enough apart from one another, she brought with her a sickle, in case the brush became thick deeper in.

Deeper and deeper the dragon wandered. Through thick brush, and open clearings, across trickling brooks, and over mossy boulders... The more she explored, the more fascinated she was. It was like she was traveling a strange and mysterious place, filled with magic which kept just beyond the next obstacle.

She was so engrossed in her exploration, in fact, that she forgot to mark her trail. Amid all the twists and turns, and beyond each wonder she discovered, the dragon didn't realize that she was lost until the realization came upon her suddenly.

Afraid and swallowed up by the woodland, she tried to find her way back. But every time she thought she was going the right way, she came upon an unfamiliar place. She was desperately lost.

Despairing, and now nearly out of supplies, the dragon cried out, "If only I had more time!"

And then, suddenly, she noticed a glinting in the dying light of the day.

Curious, she walked up to the object...and found it to be an hourglass. It was an odd thing to find in the middle of the wood. Stranger yet, all the sand was resting at the top of the glass without falling to the bottom.

Even so, she picked it up and carried it with her. She searched and searched for a way out of the forest. Oddly, however, all the while and without the dragon noticing, the sand in the glass began trickling down to the lower compartment.

By chance, as the dragon was just stopping to take a rest, she noticed that the sand had nearly finished spilling from the top of the glass to the bottom. And then, just as the last grain fell...

The child was fully enamored by the story, mouth partially agape and wide, round eyes transfixed on her elder. Jude held the child in a detached, almost somber look. Then, she whispered, "...she froze."

The dragon's body stiffened like cold wax, and her colors faded into a mute sleep. For a long, long time, she remained naught but a statue in the timeless depths of the woods.

One day, the dragon awoke. Once more, she could see and move, but it was obvious that time had passed. The forest had changed. There was new growth all around. Some of the vines had even grown around her previously stilled body. She cut these away and tried to escape the woods...but the very same thing which had happened before happened again.

The dragon entered an irregular cycle of stilling and animating, and she discovered that each time she revived, the hourglass' sand had returned to its top compartment. She tried to get rid of it, but to no avail. It would not leave her. Even if she threw it away, it would be on her again as soon as she turned away.

Again and again, using what time the hourglass granted her, she attempted to escape the woods which had her in its belly. But each time, she would freeze...and each time, the woodland would change.

"She is trapped there still, people say," Gramma Jude concluded, eyes trained almost sleepily onto the woods below.

The little one beside her stared at her elder in a kind of amazement. "Gramma Jude...is that story true?"

The elder turned her eyes down to the little one beside her. Her old eyes held a sort of fatigue, a sadness, and, behind that...yearning.

She was quiet for a moment. Then, she gave a tired smile to the little girl. "Yes, child. So do not go to play in those woods, or the forest will eat you, too."

Jude's mind drifted in and out of a memory, even as she and the girl began to go home for some dinner. A memory of the statue of a dragon Jude had found in the woods a long time ago, covered in flowering vines, and wearing a curious hourglass around her neck, in which the sand drifted from the lower compartment to the upper...

Still

She who stands
in the timeless forest,
wearing sands
captured by glass.
Staying still
in the timeless forest,
her mind, asleep
as centuries pass.

At times, awake
at times, asleep.
despite her attempts,
she, the forest keeps.
The lonely woodland
cannot bear her to leave
and so she is kept still
as not to woodland bereave.

She who stands
in the timeless forest,
wearing sands
captured by glass.
Staying still
in the timeless forest,
her mind, asleep
as centuries pass.

The landscape changes,
the trees grow and grow.
Thus, when awake,
she knows not where to go.
She uses her time
to try to escape
but no matter what
the same is her fate.

She who stands
in the timeless forest,
wearing sands
captured by glass.
Staying still
in the timeless forest,
her mind, asleep
as centuries pass.

She stands there, still
as centuries pass.

Harrows starting look:


Teal / Swamp / Lemon