Greengrass, 1348
The cold and frost of Icewind Dale are a tough mentor, winter had just passed and yet I saw no signs of the snow surrendering to spring. The critters of the woods yet hibernated in their caves and burrows, the pine trees frosted over as the landscape was nothing but the purest white, as it had been the past season. Few to none would survive these lands, and yet I've not quite been an addition to the bodies that lay beneath the snow just yet.
That winter my home had been a burrow just big enough for me, "
Good", I thought, "
It'll be just enough for me to keep my warmth", and thankfully it was, though I'm now thinner than I've ever been, and even if I hate to admit, I miss the fireplace of my old home, the warmth of the embrace of my little brother, the plentiful meals that only a successful house of merchants could afford amidst the harsh weather.
Many times I thought to return, many times I made my way through the snowy hills to see the walls of my city once more. But I was ever too embarrassed to go back... Or maybe too stupid, or too prideful, or a likely mix of all these feelings.
I didn't even know the date, even if I knew it was supposed to be spring, and as I gathered twigs and foraged for anything that could sustain me for that night, I encountered the sight that still pleases my dreams and fills my mind every time I close my eyes. The breaking of the ice cover that lay atop a waterfall. A sight I'd seen before, but now in a moment of need so great I didn't even realize. My days were rituals of boredom, and I'd surely have embraced the cold were it not for this. Such a significant moment for me, but simple, unceremonious, I saw the water running, the river thawed and fish sprung to life, a moment I sometimes wonder if it was even real, or a gifted vision of hope.
I saw the sun illuminate the face of a crying woman only to realize it was my own, she heard in the running water whispers of peace everlasting, she felt in its current life and joy, tasted the warming gift of laughter and bathed in crystals that cleansed her body. Like a stone that can be broken into sand to flow with the wind, that woman's life now suddenly one with the river's flow. She danced beneath the waterfall wearing nothing but newfound joy, and though this was Frozenfar, spring came to her and she felt not a fragment of cold.
That night was slept beneath the running water, and the next morning the woman woke up with the gift of peace.
-//-
Eleasis 8th, 1358
I can't help but feel that there is little to say or think about, even if the world is falling around us. I've lost friends, family even, I've lost a part of my own body, I've lost strength and I've lost a home. Still, I lay in the bed of a fancy room in the Vale Estate, and my mind fails to be filled with anything. My days are the same, they bleed together into one thing. I've little to say, so I don't leave the room.
...
But I yearn for things. For my prayers to be answered, for my friends to return. I yearn for the forest, for the Golden Sapling I planted in what feels like ages past, for the bear cubs I now raised into parts of nature. To feel the wind beneath my wings, gallop across fields and take a nap inside a tree.
The world is cold even amidst the summer. I see things frosted over even though the sun shines strong. When will I heal, when will the world heal. I'm left to wonder, though even that thought soon escapes my ever empty mind.
Peace Under the Waterfall
Dear stream, dear bank, where often I
Have sated thirst and saw the sky
Beautiful element, pure and clear
My sacred love and cleanser here
Peaceful friend th'away my woes
Fountains of life wher'all wind blows
What noble truths and quiet themes
Live in thy mystical deep streams?
Such as dull man can never find
Unless that Faith may lead his mind
Upon thy face I see thy love,
No need I look too far above
At the roaring brook’s incessant fall
Plant and critter dwell in awe
A symphony of nature, I hear
Basking in waters ever clear
My mind a window to your prayer
Words of Peace, forever say Her
That harmony comes to us all
Beneath the tranquil Waterfall
((Credit for some lines of the poem and overall inspiration to Henry Vaughan's "The Water-Fall"))