The Harvest Moon Consortium

[Winterhawk99]

Ellidy

Ellidy Greynir

Meroo, priestess of Bast, found the tiny elf girl wrapped in a blanket lying on the steps of the temple early one morning. There was a pouch beside the child containing a bit of paper with "Ellidy Greynir" written on it and 500 gold coins.

The Temple of Bast is in the Verian Town Docks district. Meroo thought the child likely was abandoned by some sailor who no longer wanted to be troubled with her. She took Ellidy in and raised her as her own daughter.

Ellidy grew up happily in the temple, caring for the cats and kittens and growing in devotion to Bast, deity of joy and art, but her vocation lay elsewhere.

Ever since her first awed visit, Ellidy wanted to join the ranks of the librarians at the Verian Library, the largest and most extensive collection of books on all of the world of Unorwi.

Some people said the library stacks were literally endless, connected in some special library dimension to all the other libraries in all the worlds. Ellidy wasn't sure she believed that, but fully invested librarians were known to travel in many worlds and planes, searching for books and interesting magics.

Librarians are required to have many varied skills, as well as potential magical abilities. Ellidy learned to deal with basic locks and traps. She studied all the books of lore the Temple of Bast contained. She spent her earnings from running errands for the Verian Dock's folk on her first harp.

She diligently practiced her music and storytelling.

After many tests, she was accepted at last as an assisstant librarian.

Ellidy wore her apprentice librarian's uniform with pride, taking great care of her gear and of the magical items even apprentice librarians were required to carry.

Anything could happen in the Verian Library. It was important to be prepared.

But she was not ready when something unexpected happened at last.

Ellidy had been to visit Meroo and the cats at the Temple of Bast. Full of delicious fish and happy, she slipped quietly along the Verian Road.

Ellidy reached the tunnel to the library grounds. Softly she entered and found herself somewhere else entirely.

"Dear Bast, where am I?" Ellidy thought."And what happened to my uniform? I'm going to get in so much trouble."


Fortunately for her, she met Grey, who was very kind to a bewildered apprentice librarian in a strange new world.


Song for the Tangwystal River

I hear voices in the water.
Is it the river singing?
Sweet and soft the current flows
Swift and bright the water falls.
Dear singer, in your beauty, how my heart rejoices.
Sing on, sing on ceaselessly
River soul beloved.


Moon song

Across the waves
The moon's path shines
Over the wild seas
And to what land beyond?

Inconstant guide,
Where do you lead me?
On I follow,
Hopelessly,
Beyond longing,
Only to be in your light.



----Ellidy Greynir


Ellidy paced the cottage living room. Curled up together on the cushions by the fire, Mia and Mara watched her with concern. Every now and then she went to the piano or her floor harp and played frantically for a moment.
For herself, she was deeply happy. She had died and gone to the land of the dead and Bast came to her there and sent her, conditionally, back to Sierra Na. All dread of the task she had been set was swept aside in the joy of that.

But Morag's fate preyed on Ellidy. Had the same folk who captured Ellidy, Arryck, Krystine, and Droor been the ones who did such terrible things to Morag? Who were they? How dare they? Ellidy was frightened. She did not want to be the subject of such experiments herself, or see that happen to anyone else. But more than that, she was so angry she could hardly contain it.
A harp string snapped, just missing her shoulder.
Ellidy shook herself and joined the cats by the fire. Their purring concern soothed her fury. She curled up with them and thought about nothing but a moonlit sky and Bast's kind cat face.



Elidy preened her right wing thoughtfully. The cats were still teasing her about them, though Mia confessed to wanting a pair of her own very badly.
She thought over the tumultuous events of the recent past. They had saved Haakon's Fort from masses of undead and rescued many folk from the Keeper's Zoo. Metra was free and Morag resurrected.
Now there were all these ice creatures invading the south and she had gotten careless and killed in battle again.
But Marie had saved them all. She flew through a horrible storm to find a cleric to raise folks and then fought her way to Swan and dragged her body back to the cleric. Then Marie and Swan went back for Gaelaer and she, Swan, and Gaelaer defeated the rest of the ice creatures.
It was more than worth a song. Ellidy scribbled a few more lines and then threw the pen across the room. It just wasn't coming together.

She was ashamed. Marie had been so brave. Ellidy still hadn't gone in search of the sword Bast had asked her to find for the folk at the fort. She had made up for it a little by helping save the fort from the undead, but that didn't fulfill her promise.

She was afraid, that was the truth of it. She couldn't put it off any longer. She had to go in search of the sword. She needed to be brave too.



Mia nibbled at the tiny catnip plants in the flat on the cellar floor.
"if you kill them, I can't set them out once it warms up more," Ellidy warned her.
"But they're so tasty when they're young and tender," the tiny cat answered. "And you have plenty."
"The plants don't live very long, Mi. They need to flower and seed so we can grow more."
Mia batted at only seen by tipsy cats critters and raced off, skittering up the stairs to the first floor.
Ellidy laughed and looked at all the flats of plants. It had been difficult encouraging the seedlings to grow at first, till she'd thought to cast continual flame on different gems and placed them carefully among the flats.
She and Sweetpea had worked so hard, collecting seeds wherever they found them. Elpis had given them apples and the little trees were growing fast.
Now that the Abomination was gone, the spring would be a real spring and they could plant half of their stock in the freshly dug beds in the village. The rest would go with Sweetpea to her new home in the Pocket Canyon.
It was time to face up to that, to help Pea build her own little house. Ellidy sighed. She was going to miss Pea terribly.



Story by Maddyanne