Druids and the Wooden Heart

The archdruid pulled his hood back and revealed his face. He had a grey mane and a dark green coat. He had a small beard and brown eyes. The archdruid looked at Bite and Switch for a few seconds. "Are you sure that you want to join the druids? Do you know what that means? If you are called, you have to drop everything and do your duty. You have to choose the desire of the nature above your own! Do you two understand that?"

Spirit and Bite looked at each other then back to the archdruid and nodded. The archdruid nodded back and turned to Switch. "Farewell then it is up to you, Switch. You are going to decide if he is worthy to join or not. So what do you say?"

They looked at Switch who had leaned back and quickly sat up correctly and turned to Spirit with a gloating smile. "Ah right I have prepared something for that." Switch grabbed his back with his magic and laid it on the table. He began to rummaging in his bag until he found something. "Ah here it is. So have fun!"

Switch laid a bunch of papers in front of Spirit and Bite, who just looked at the paper really confused. "What is that?" Spirit looked at Switch already fearing the answer.

Switch chuckled. "Well, a test for you. I wrote this test while is followed you the year." Bite chuckled a bit and Switch turned to him and coughed. "I wouldn't laugh if I were you. This test is for you both! And it will show if you two are going to be druid or not!"

Spirit and Bite looked at the first page and saw a random bunch of question from historical question to biological questions and even math questions. They read the first side and already got confused.

"Oh I almost forgot, you will need this," He threw a pen in front of them both, "and you don't need to hurry. You have the whole day left, what should be at least ten hours or so. Ok I go and grab a tea for myself, do you also want one archdruid?"

The archdruid smiled and nodded. "That would be nice. Thank you."

Switch left the room and the archdruid walked behind Spirit and Bite who were already answering the first questions, and put a hoof on Spirit shoulder. "Don't worry too much. We won't ban you for a wrong answer."

Spirit didn't knew how does that could help so he and Bite just tried to answer the question as good as they could. As they finished the first page of the test came Switch back with two cups of hot tea. Switch gave the archdruid one cup and sipped at his own then whispered to him. "Did you said him what I said?" The arcdruid nodded. Switch smiled. "He didn't got it, right?" The archdruid nodded again and Switch chuckled. "Then this is going to be fun."

The archdruid looked at Switch and grabbed his tea with his magic. "I must say your way to test the candidates are very unique."

Switch looked at Bite and Spirit. "But they work and why shouldn't I have a bit fun while doing so?"

The archdruid nodded. "Yes and I do respect that you kept that attitude through all these years."

Switch nodded and they both sipped at their teas. They watched how Bite and Spirit tried to answer all questions and smiled.

They were through all question and started to overlook the answers who they though could be wrong. "Ok Bite There is a flower. One day it got stomped. A griffon, a unicorn, an earthpony and a pegasus argued who it was. The pegasus said that it wasn't him. The unicorn said that it was the earthpony. The griffon said that it was the unicorn. The earthpony says that the unicorn lies. Only one of them says the truth. Who was it? Who told the truth?"

Bite read the paragraph again and tried to make sense of it. Spirit started by mark the races and looked again at the paper. "Ok let's start with who the truth says. What if the unicron say the truth?"

Bite looked at the sentences then shook his head. "Then the pegaus would lie and two would have done it and I don't think that is the answer."

Spirit nodded. "Yes I think you are right but the pegasus can't say the truth because then the statements of the unicorn and the earthpony would contradict each other... so that means that the pegasus was it..." Bite finished the rest. "and that the earthpony tells the truth."

Spirit nodded and wrote it down. "Ok, I think we did now all questions. Let's give it to Switch." They stood up and walked over to Switch who was talking with the archdruid. "We finished the test."

Switch nodded and sipped a last time at his tea before he levitated it to the table and grabbed the papers. Switch overlooked the papers quickly not really looking at the answers until he came to the page with the riddle. "I am surprised. I didn't expect from you two to solve this riddle." Switch just ignored the next pages and burned the paper with green fire.

Spirit and Bite waited for a few seconds then looked at each other confused. Spirit turned to Switch. "And how many points do we get?"

Switch levitated the cup of tea back to himself. "I don't know."

This confused the both even more. "What do you mean by you don't know?

Switch chuckled. "I mean I don't know. I don't even know the half of the answers for the questions. I just wrote a random bunch of questions, except the riddle. I just wanted to see how you do on it."

This explanation till didn't helped Bite and Spirit. "Then what was the point at doing this test? How you going to test if I am good enough or not?"

Switch nodded. "Well you were expecting a test weren't you? So I give you this. Also I watched you over a year, I think I already know if we can trust you or not. I just wanted to see if you would do this test even it seems unnecessary and it was funny to see your heads breaking at these questions."

Spirit wanted to complain but Bite stopped him and then he realized something. "Does that mean I am going to join the druids?"

Switch nodded and the archdruid stepped forward. "We decide that you are worthy to join but I have to ask you two one last time. Do you want that? Whatever you choose you can't step back from that decision!"

Both nodded at the archdruid. "We are sure. We want to join the druids."

The archdruid walked to the table. "Then I am happy to announce that you are from now on the newest member of the druids. You two will do your best to guard the nature and all that comes with it! You will be put in a group to keep the number of known identities a minimum, I hope you can understand this. Switch will bring you two to your group."

Spirit and Bite bowed before the archdruid and Spirit wanted to thank him. "Bite and I want to..." He topped a he felt a sudden pain on his back head and felt down unconscious. Bite quickly looked around and saw that Switch had hit Spirit on the back head. Bite raised an eyebrow. So did the archdruid.

Switch drank the rest of his tea before he answered. "Hey I only did what the others wrote me. They said I should do that."

The archdruid nodded. "Ok then now that that is settled, I have to leave. Good bye Switch and Bite."

Switch turned to Bite. "Could you carry him? I think you are stronger than I am."

Bite nodded so levitate Switch Spirit on Bites back and they walked out of the tent. Switch pointed to the left and began to walk. "In that direction we will meet the others. Do you have any questions so far Bite?"

Bite just pointed with his head to Spirit still lying unconscious on his back. Switch shrugged. "Don't ask me that. Darren, you will met him later, wrote me that I had to do that before I bring Spirit to us. You can ask him later if you want. Any other questions?"

Bite nodded to the hood from Switch.

Switch coughed a bit. "Oh you mean why I don't have my hood up. That's because my identity isn't in any way important, even if one of us wanted to make our identity public he could just say one of them is a changeling and that wouldn't help anypony to find me."

Bite nodded and they walked the rest silent. As they reached a tent, which was smaller than the tent from the archdruid and walked inside. In the inside there were, like in the other tent small blossoms to light up the room. On the one side there laid two bags and Switch laid his and Spirits next to them.

Switch grabbed one of his medical potion and drank it then tuned to Bite. "You can lay Spirit down. He should wake up soon and the other should be arrived till that."

Bite laid Spirit down, laid down next to him and began to watch the entrance. Switch meanwhile searched in his back and began to read through a few documents.

After they waited for a few minutes someone entered the room. Bite looked up and Switch walked to the newcomer. It was a very big griffon who wore a cloak which hides his face and carried a steel rod on his back. A he entered the room he pulled his hood back. He had dark brown feathers and a big beak. He had small, brown eyes and a very serious look on his face.

The griffon look around in the room and saw Spirit lying and Bite who stood now next to Spirit, following every movement of the griffon with his eyes.

Switch walked up to the griffon. "Hey Darren how... " But Darren interrupted him. "Why is he unconscious?"

Switch looked at Spirit then back to Darren. "What? You wrote to me that I should knock him out before I bring him to us!"

"I meant that you knock them both out before they even get to us, the druids, so that they couldn't find the way back here. In the case we wouldn't accept them."

Switch frowned. "First you could have been more accurate when I should knock them out. Second I already decided that they would join us before we arrived."

Darren looked at Spirit lying on the ground. "And what if they had refused?"

"That would be very surprising for me. I watched over them almost over a year, I think I can predict their decisions very well."

The griffon walked over to Bite and Spirit and looked at Bite for a moment then walked over to his back. "When do you think he will wake up?"

Switch walked over to Spirit and held his hoof at Spirits forehead. He closed his eyes and his horn glowed for a second. "He should be up in the next few seconds."

At that moment Spirit slowly opened his eyes."What ... What happened?" He looked around and tried to stand up and Bite helped him with that. "Thank. So what happened?"

Darren walked to him. "There was an misunderstanding, nothing more. But still I welcome you, as the newest member of the druids and our group. I am Darren. And you are Spirit Wood right?"

Spirit smiled friendly. "Yes I am and this is my friend Bite."

Darren shortly looked at Bite but said nothing so Spirit continued. "So we are a group now?"

Darren nodded. "Yes but one member is still missing."

"Who is it?"

Darren was about to answer but was interrupted by Switch. "It is a secret. You will see soon enough." Darren just raised an eyebrow at Switch who sat down next to his bag but then turned back to Spirit. "We will discuss what we do next when we all are here. You can do whatever you want for now. But don't leave the tent without your hood up!"

Spirit looked around and searched for something. "Where is my bag?"

Switch threw his bag over to him. "Here is it!"

Spirit saw the saddlebags flying and quickly ran to catch it. He was able to catch them few feet from the ground. "Carefully! In there is a plant and a bunch of phials."

Switch rubbed his back head. "Sorry!"

Spirit turned to Switch and Darren and showed them a blossom with seeds for the magical plant. . "I need to plant these for the food for Bite, I have a smaller version but I need a bigger one or it isn't enough for Bite. Do you know if I can plant it somewhere here?"

Darren shook his head. "I am afraid not. We only met here for a few days after that everything has to be gone."

Spirit and Bite looked at each other. "So what do we, I mean I probably can get a few phials in Ponyville but that won't be enough in the long run!"

Switch sat up. "I have an Idea. I could give a few blossoms to our archdruid and after a few weeks you will wonder from where all these shops have this new plant!"

Switch was about to grab a few blossom and go but was hold back by Darren. "No, you can do that when we leave. I won't wait any longer when the last member of our group comes!"

Switch sat down again. "Ok then I will talk to the archdruid later."

Spirit looked at Darren. "Is there a place where we can meditate in peace?"

Darren nodded and pointed at the second exit of the tent. "There you should be have your peace. Only our group is allowed in this area but you should let your hood up, just in case."

Spirit and Bite looked at each other and nodded. Spirit pulled his hood back up and he and Bite walked outside the second exit. Outside they began to meditate.

After a few minutes Switch sigh. "In this time I could have gone to the archdruid and tell him everything ten times! I hope she has a good excuse."

Darren nodded. "I give her five more minutes after that we start without her and you can go to the archdruid. We can tell her everything afterward."

Switch reached in his saddlebags and pulled out a few papers. "I could already compare the data I asked for. Do you have them Darren?"

"They are in my bags. The papers are marked with the numbers four to six."

Switch looked in the biggest bunch of bags and after a few second he pulled out three papers. He looked at the pages. "Just as I expected." Switch sat down again and compared the three papers with a bunch of paper which he pulled out of his own bags.

Only after a few seconds later heard Spirit something coming inside the tent. He heard a female voice. "I am sorry that I am so late but I got attacked by a manticore at my way through the Everfree. I have a few wounds you should look at Switch."

Switch stood up and chuckled. "I'll do that but don't you want to greet our new team member first?"

Spirit and Bite now opened their eyes from the meditation as they heard the new voice and walked back inside. As they were inside they looked at the new mare. She wore a cloak like all the others with her hood on. Spirit could see black and white stripes on her legs and a long green mane hung out of the hood and a horn.

Spirit instantly knew who it was but couldn't believe it. The mare looked at him and recognized him two. The both looked at each other and none of them said a word.

Darren looked a bit confused at them both but stayed silent and Switch jut waited until they would say something.

Spirit still couldn't believe who he had standing in front of him. "Leaf? Is that really you?"

She also seemed confused. "Spirit? Bite? Why are you two..."