Druids and the Wooden Heart

Bite, Switch and Darren just watched how Spirit and Leaf couldn't believe what they saw. After a while stepped Darren forward and coughed to get the attention. "So you two know each other? Was that the surprise you had Switch?"

Switch nodded. "Yes it was but I didn't expected this reaction from them. I mean they have not seen each other for several years!"

Spirit and Leaf still didn't said a single word. Bite walked to Spirit and poked him in the side. Spirit looked surprised at Bite and back to Leaf. He bowed exactly how the zebra etiquette says to greet an old friend. "It is nice to see you again. I must say you haven't changed a bit." Spirit looked up again and aw to his surprise that Leaf hadn't move. He looked to Bite. "Did she forgot that she should bow back?" Bite shrugged shortly and Spirit turned back to Leaf.

"I don't know if you mean that as a compliment or not but it is still nice to see you again Spirit. And you too Bite." She pulled her hood back and revealed her face.

She had, like you would expect from a Zebra, a black white striped coat but she a long straight green mane and a horn on her head. She looked like Spirit remembered her but he immediately spotted something different. Her right eye was, instead of the normal white eye with green iris, completely green and had a strange symbol in the middle instead of a iris.

Bite looked at Spirit and raised an eyebrow. "I guess she has changed more than you though." Spirit nodded and turned back to Leaf. "I must admit I didn't expect you here Leaf. Were you send here too?"

She shook her head. "No I wasn't. I choose this by myself and left the tribe."

Switch stepped forward and interrupted them. "To be exact I gave her the choice. "

Spirit raised an eyebrow. "And when and how did that happened?"

Now he turned to Spirit. "Do you remember when we first met back at your tribe?" Switch nodded and Switch began the story.

Well, I was there to recruit Leaf, the druid heard from her special talent which makes her able to analyze magic within one second if she saw it with her right eye. So anyway, your teacher gave me the necklace for the permission to pass through. I searched for quite some time until I finally found other houses. By the way I must add that your teacher lives very far away from the rest but anyway.

I disguised myself and asked around to find Leafs family, what was a bit difficult since only the half of the zebras speaks equestrian and I don't speak your language. But after an hour or so I finally found their house. I knocked on the door and as it opened a female Zebra, Leafs mom, stood there.

"How may I help you traveler? Oh I see that you have a symbol from Volg. With that you may enter."

I walked inside and wanted to do this as quick as I could. "I actual have not much time but I have to talk to your whole family, if that is possible."

She looked at me with big eyes but nodded. "Of course I will get Leaf." She walked away and I closed all windows and sat down. After a while they came back. "You can sit down but this probably won't take long so first of."

I dropped my disguise and as I looked at them the both looked at me with big eyes. "I am a Changeling and I am here for your daughter." I began to cough heavily and quickly drank asmy medicine.

Darren interrupted. "What is the point by telling us that you had coughed?"

Switch shrugged. "Nothing but when I think back now, this scene sounds kind of wrong. But anyway..."

As I finished drinking my medicine I continued. "I am a druid and the talent of your daughter could be useful for us, so we want to recruit her."

Leafs mother looked at me like I said something wrong. "Why should we believe you? You could just want to kidnap her!"

"Why should I? What would I earn by kidnap a random zebra? But maybe this will change your mind." I gave them a letter I got from the archdruid I don't know what was on it because it was completely written in the zebra language.

But her mother still wasn't convinced. "This doesn't prove anything and even if it would Leaf is needed here! I would appreciate if you leave now, you can ask the elder if you want anything else."

"I know I can't convince you." Then I turned directly to Leaf and gave her a rune the archdruid had given me. "You can come with me to the druids or stay here. Tehis is all your choice. I will wait for the next three days at my camp, just walk to the north you can't miss it. So until then!"

I just left after that. From the inside I heard them talking but not in equestrian so I don't know what they said and Leaf don't want to tell me so.

...I waited for two days on the third came Leaf to me and said she would come with me. I asked he how she convinced her mother but she never answered me that.

Spirit didn't said anything and looked at Bite. "I guess that Switch was right. It was similar how he got us to believe him."

Leaf stepped now a bit forward and continued. "I left the tribe years ago. I am no longer a part of your tribe."

Spirit was a bit surprised by these drastic ways and went silent for a few seconds, while Switch whispered to Darren. "I planned this to be a bit more happier than this. I guess a zebra thing?"

Darren slightly nodded and whispered back. "Probably but we have to respect that and I warn you if interferer again! This is there thing, not ours!"

Switch sat down. "Don't worry I won't do anything. Calm down."

They both looked back to the scene in front of them. Spirit shook his head. "You left our tribe? Why..." Spirit interrupted himself and bowed. "I am sorry. I shouldn't question your behavior. Surely you have your reasons and it was your choice. As a member of the tribe I respect that."

Leaf smiled. "I know you do that and also I hope that you are still my friend."

Spirit was still bowing as he suddenly felt that Leaf hugged him. Spirit hugged back and pulled Bite with.

Darren stood up and walked over to them. "I think that was enough seeing again for today. If I am allowed to, I would really like to start now!"

Leaf quickly stepped back and nodded. "Of course!"

Switch walked to the rest. "So do we start now? Or should I check on Leafs wound first?"

Darren looked at Leaf and hook his head. "You can do that later. For now it seems she can survive it."

Leaf nodded and they sat down in a circle and Darren pulled out a few documents. "As you know we have a new member, Spirit." Bite looked at Darren and raised an eyebrow but Darren ignored him. "He will join our group and we will teach him everything he has to know to be a druid! So tomorrow we will go to a mission together. Normally this mission would be for one or two druids but we will use it to show Spirit how he has to operate."

Spirit felt a bit guilty. "Oh I am sorry. I don't want to take your time because of me!"

Leaf and Switch chuckled a bit and Switch shook his head. "You really act like I would expect from a zebra. We have to train new druids or we would die out some day."

Darren nodded. "I have to agree with Switch, it is our duty to teach you everything. As a higher druid it is a honor."

Switch rolled with his eyes. "Anyway, we have to go to a small forest in the east. We found out that the forest is rapidly dying and there seems to be no cause."

Spirit raised an eyebrow. "So what are going to do there?"

Switch gave him a paper with data about the forest. "We will look at the problem by our self and help as much as we can."

Darren stood up. "We will do our duty but for now we should rest. Also Spirit could you give me your notes to druids you collected of over the year?"

Spirit was a bit surprised but nodded to Bite. "But I should tell you that the most of them are just old myths and legends, so don't expect too much." While he spoke grabbed Bite the notes and gave them to Darren.

Darren grabbed the papers and began to read. "Don't worry I don't expect much new information from these notes and for the myths and legends, almost every story has a bit truth in them." Darren walked away sat down and began to read. While Spirit turned to Bite and Bite just shrugged.

Switch stood up and turned to Leaf. "Ok then Leaf you said you had a few wounds I should look at?"

Leaf nodded and pointed at her back. "I got a few scratches on my back." Leaf pulled her cloak off and revealed her back which had many scratches on it. Spirit was also able to see Leafs cutie mark for the first time. It was a purple blossom with the same rune in the middle that Leaf had on her eye.

Switch turned to the wounds and looked at them closely while Spirit wanted to talk with Leaf. "So how did you got your cutie mark?"

"Back at the tribe. I had to make a bunch of tests to look at what I am good. One of the task was to draw a advanced rune but no came in my mind. Ouch!"

Switch raised the eyebrow. "Whose fault is it that you got injured? Yours. So hold still that I can do my job." Switchs hooves began to glow and he held them on Leafs wounds.

Leaf turned back to Spirit. "So where was I? Right the test. As I said I had to make a rune but as I got none in mind I just try to make one up. As I finished the teacher looked over the rune and asked me from where I knew this rune. I said him that I just make it up as suddenly the room started to look strange. I suddenly saw everything completely different. Everything glowed in different colors. As I looked back to the rune I could see the lines on it glowing a bit brighter than the rest and I somehow understood the rune."

Bite looked now up and listened carefully while Spirit raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean you understood the rune?"

She pointed at her right eye. "The rune I have on my eye is the same rune I made this day. This rune can absorb magic energy and showed the type of magic by glowing in a color. "

"And how did you got this eye?"

She shrugged. "After a few days my teacher said that my eye started to changing color. Our doctors looked at it and said that this is probably a side effect from seeing magic."

Spirit and Bite looked at each other then back to Leaf. "So let me get this straight, you can see magic with one eye and it changed slowly because of that?"

She nodded. "Yes pretty much. Ouch! Switch you were suppose to heal me not hurting me more!"

Switch stepped back. "I am finished. Don't thank me too much. You should really train more or at least learn to run faster."

Leaf stood up and rolled with her eyes. "Ha-ha really funny Switch. You know that I am not a bad fighter! I defeated Spirit once!"

Switch chuckled. "Congratulations you won against a pony with little to no fight experience whatsoever a bunch of years ago. I am sorry but I forgot your medal."

Bite chuckled quietly and Spirit turned to Switch. "Hey I am not that bad! I fought against a hydra once!"

Suddenly Darren came to them. "So you are a fighter? I thought you just could communicate with animals but if you say you can fight we should test that. I guess Bite will fight with you?"

Spirit didn't liked were this was going but just nodded.

Darren grabbed the steel rod from his bag. "Then I shall test you together. Timberwolves can rebuild themselves if I am not mistake, right?" Again Spirit just nodded. "Good then I won't have to hold back."

Switch reached in his bag and pulled out a white bandage. "Can you wait till I bandaged Leafs back?"

Darren nodded. "I give you five minutes Spirit and Bite. We will fight outside."

Darren walked to the second exit and Spirit and Bite turned to the others. "What now?"

Switch warp the bandage around Leafs back while he explained. "You just said that you can fight so now Darren will test how good you actually are."

Spirit turned to Bite and gulped. "The first few minutes as a druid and I have to fight! Sorry to pull you into this Bite."

Bite just shrugged and laid down to wait when they would began. Switch finished bandaging Leafs back and went outside to Darren. Followed by Leaf who looked at Bite for a second then turned to Spirit, who was searching for his weapon, and smiled at him. "It seems that Bite got more relaxed the last years. I hope that doesn't affect your fighting for the bad."

As he found his claws he took a deep breath and put them on. "Let just get over with this." Bite nodded and they walked outside. As they were outside they saw that Darren stood there already in fighting position.

Switch and Leaf sat down at the site. Darren stomped the rod on the ground. "Let this battle began."

Before Spirit could say anything charged Darren at them. Bite jumped backwards and was barely able to dodge the attack. Darren hit the ground and left a small mark on the ground. He lifted the rod again and immediately jumped back to went back into start position.

Spirit looked at Bite. "He is much faster than I expected. I get the feeling we don't have much of a chance here." Bite nodded shortly and walked closely to Spirit.

Darren began to spread his wings and as they saw that Darren wanted to fly they tried to jump at him. They tried to attack his wings but Darren just expected that. He pulled his wings back again and spun around to hit Spirit at the side with the steel rod.

Bite used that to attack him. Bite tired to grab the steel rod at the other end. Darren saw that and spread his wing and began to fly. As Bite front was lifted a bit in the air he let go of the rod. As Bite was completely on the ground he looked up and Darren dashed down again. Bite jumped backwards and Spirit tried to attack Darren in the side. Darren saw that and swung the steel rod around and hit Spirit at his side.

Spirit stumbled backwards and sunk to the ground. Bite walked to Spirit and stayed between Darren and Spirit. To Bites surprise moved Darren not even a bit.

Darren waited till Spirit slowly stood up again. He looked to Bite and nodded. They both jumped again at Darren but this time a few feet away from each other. Darren just raised the rod and blocked both of them. Spirit and Bite tried to attack him but Darren blocked every attach with ease. After while Darren began to attack furiously and Bite and Spirit had problems not to get hit.

Spirit and Bite walked a bit backwards and were about to attack again as they heard a noise from the side. They saw that Switch started coughing heavily. Between the coughs he explained. "Oh I am sorry I should take my medicine." Switch walked back in the tent and returned shortly afterwards again.

As Spirit and Bite turned back to Darren they saw that he was gone and as they looked up they saw that Darren was quickly coming towards them and leashing out to hit Spirit. Bite saw this and jumped in the direction of Darren to stop him.

Darren reacted by stopping in midair and hit Bite with the rod. He hit Bite right in the face and smashed the wood by doing so. Bite immediately fell into pieces. Darren landed next to the pieces and looked at them. Spirit tried to use the distraction to attack from behind but as he got near Darren, spun the older druid around and hold the rod at Spirit throat.

Spirit stopped and Darren stepped back again. "I think this here is over. All I can say is that you know what to do but there is a lack of practical experience."

Switch and Leaf walked to them and Switch turned to Spirit with a amused expression while Leaf walked to Bite and watched how he was rebuilding himself. "I must admit that it took Darren much longer than I expect, to beat you."

Spirit chuckled and looked how Leaf was observing how Bite was rebuilding himself. "Thank you I guess. But I think I have enough fighting for the next month."

Meanwhile Bite finished rebuilding and shook his head, he still felt a little woozy after that hit on the head. Leaf looked at his head. "Do this hurt you?" Bite nodded. "Much?" Bite shook his head after a few seconds. Leaf smiled at him. "That is good to know." She pet Bite on the head they walked to Switch and Spirit.

They talked for a bit till Darren came back to them. "Enough for today. we should rest. Tomorrow we will begin our journey." They all nodded and walked in different corners of the tent and started sleeping.