#element:earth

[elementxls-archived]

Transformations - Mi

The song of the forest went on through the ages - the buzz of insects, the calls of birds, the rustle of the trees, and, of course, the contributions of the Singers. It’s a song that tells of ongoing growth and vitality, causing all those who hear it to feel restored and rejuvenated - even if they don’t realize the depth of the symphony they’re listening to.

Perhaps that was why the young man found himself alone in the woods that night.

He would be the first to say that his life wasn’t that bad. The son of the head of a small company, his family wasn’t rich by any means, but they were comfortable. He had a fiancee, a marriage arranged by his parents to a woman he liked well enough. After that, the next step was to take over the company. There were certainly worse fates possible.

If only he wanted to do any of it. His passion lie in music, in singing, but his family didn’t understand. “It’s a nice hobby, but not something you can make a career out of,” they said, and he listened, because what else could he do? So he escaped to the woods now and then, to get away from it all, to have some time alone, to let the sounds of nature calm his nerves, to sing quietly to himself.

But this time, he heard a response. Through the trees… no, reverberating as though it was part of the trees. A song that told of an offer, an opportunity, a contract. Curious, he asked it to go on, hardly realizing he was singing himself, his audition begun.

Through the back and forth of a song that seemed to take only minutes yet lasted hours - or did it feel like hours but last only minutes? - the young man learned of the role of Singer, what he would expected to do, the fact that he would be leaving everyone he knew behind, the fact that there was no going back once his decision was made. When it came time to choose, he hesitated only because he felt guilty that it was such an easy choice.

By the time the words of agreement were out of his mouth, he was already changed. No longer human, he was now a part of the forest, connected to it just as it was connected to him. The life he had before already seemed far away, like a dream fading when morning comes. He didn’t mind. He was where he belonged. He was home. And, with a freedom he’d never known as a human, he began to sing life into the forest.

[elementxls-archived]

Origins - The Singers

When the world was new, there existed only the spirits of the elements in their pure forms: Earth, Water, Air, and Fire. But these spirits quickly decided that to simply go on in this way would make for a very boring eternity. They came together, mixing in an infinite variety of ways, creating the lands and the waters, the deserts and the skies, and all manner of living things, before stepping back to see how things would unfold.

As all creatures settled into the spaces meant for them, the spirit of the earth and the woods, in particular, was happy with their lot, because the sounds of life seemed to them like a melody, a song of vitality and rejuvenation that kept everything healthy and steadily growing. It became a constant background noise to their work, comforting and familiar but not something to which they paid particular attention.

Until the forests began to stagnate.

The spirit of the earth didn’t understand why, at first, until they listened carefully to the song for the first time in many ages, and realized that something was off. A key part was missing. Little by little, humans had left the shelter of the trees and moved on villages and towns made by their own hands - and their part in the song had diminished so gradually that it had gone by unnoticed.

The spirit of the lands was at a loss, not sure how to restore the song to what it had once been, until a human happened through the woods, humming to themselves. The change they caused was too subtle for them to see, of course, but the guardian sensed immediately that even this small bit helped set things back to the way they were before.

”Would you stay and sing for me forever?” the spirit asked, a sound reverberating through the trees like the rustling of leaves. But they didn’t seem to hear, and soon they were gone.

But now the guardian spirit knew what to look for, and it listened carefully to every human who entered its domain; whenever it heard a song that began to heal the forest, it made the same request. Many didn’t hear, and several of those that did declined, for they had built their own lives in the world outside and wanted to return to them.

But there were enough who heard the forest’s plea that were willing to leave everything behind. With their permission, the spirit took the memories of the life they once lived, and transformed them into something new, something human and yet of the woods, something now forever linked to the forest itself.