The Creation of the Sleeping Father
The Creation of the Sleeping Father
When the world was still young, the Guarding Hunter planted the seeds of the Forest of Giants and laid down to rest afterwards. As he slept, some of his dreams leaked into a seedling. Unaware of what had happened, the Guarding Hunter left in the morning to go shape the land in other parts of the world. From those scraps of dreams, the seedling developed a mind of its own and became aware. As it grew over the years, it became aware of the other trees around it. It reached out to them with its mind and tried to communicate, but the thoughts of the other trees were slow and dull, never venturing from their basic needs for sunlight and water.
The tree grew more, feeling lonely that its fellow trees could not return its attempts at conversation. Eventually, it became aware of the animals that lived in the forest. It reached out with its mind again in an attempt to communicate with the animals. The thoughts of the animals were foreign to it, however, and it recoiled in fear of the strangeness. After some time, it tried again, bracing itself for the strange thoughts. The animals were aware of its presence, but could not tell where it came from and so became spooked. Eventually, most animals avoided the area where the tree grew. The tree became frustrated and sad with all the plants and creatures of the forest, who all seemed dim and slow-witted.
It grew and brooded and pondered for many years. One day, it came to pass that the Lord of the Winds, entered the forest and made camp beneath the tree. The tree was astonished at the Lord of the Winds’ presence. He was the most complicated and brightest being that it had ever seen. The tree tried to communicate with him, but met with thoughts more alien and foreign than that of the animals. The tree simply had no idea how to even begin to talk with Lord of the Winds. The next day, the tree decided it would try to create a being more like Lord of the Winds that could talk for it.
It gathered all of its power and formed a nature spirit. The spirit, however, went unnoticed by the Lord of the Winds as he went about his activities. For the next few days, the tree kept manifesting different aspects of its thoughts into spirits, hoping that one of them would catch his attention. The Lord of the Winds began to notice things at the edge of his vision, but when he looked at them directly, they seemed to slip away. One evening, he packed up all of his equipment except his bedroll, as he prepared to leave the following morning. The tree knew that its chance at communicating with anything was slipping away. The tree became furious with its situation and it seethed with anger throughout the night. The tree’s loneliness, frustration, and anger coalesced into another nature spirit, this one more powerful than the others.
When the Lord of the Winds awoke in the morning he felt an overwhelming presence that seemed to fill the whole glade. The feeling was so strong and so dark that Lord of the Winds felt as though he was being crushed by it. When he looked up and saw the spirit, brooding in the branches of the tree, his heart grew more uneasy. The creature was nothing more than a dark mass, and though he could not see a face, the Lord of the Winds felt that it was gazing at him. The crushing feeling seemed to grow stronger and the Lord of the Winds reached out with his mind to try to communicate with the spirit. When he touched the spirit, its twisted mind was seething mass of dark emotions without purpose, but behind the creature was a presence far more powerful. At his touch the spirit fled away through the tops of the trees. From the brief glimpse at the angry mind of the spirit, the Lord of the Winds was disquieted. The Lord of the Winds reached out his mind to everything around him in an attempt to locate the more powerful presence that he had felt. At first, he thought he could only sense the normal thoughts of plants and trees. He recognized the sensations he’d felt when he encountered the tree’s other spirits, and realized that everything he had sensed before centered on this tree. The tree’s mind was just so vast and alien that he hadn’t been able to grasp it until now. As the Lord of the Winds set his equipment back down on the ground and began to unpack the tree quivered and creaked. Though the Lord of the Winds could not yet understand the thoughts of the tree, one emotion came through loud and clear; elation. After so many long years the tree was no longer alone.