Welcome to Gaia! ::

We enter a new age, Brother. An age of mystery and much light. We feel at home with her, Brother. The Trees have long memories and will speak of you and this day into ages yet to come. They thank you, Brother. They thank you.

Elphie heard the trees' voices in her mind, and thought of what Sol-Lun had said. At first the shewolf felt a sudden wave of nervousness, and she flattened her ears against the back of her head in hesitance. Finally, trusting the other's advice she arced her brow slightly and called out in a halting voice. "Hello?"

Hello, little Sister. The trees chuckled back warmly. Elphie's eyes widened and slowly, her ears swiveled forward in one fluid motion, a look of childlike wonder on her face, her muzzle turning from side to side as she gawked at the plantlife around her as if trying to find the source of any one voice in that clear, basso chorus in her mind. We all speak as one for you to hear, for we are weaker alone. The trees said then, as if understanding her movements. Leaves seemed to rustle all around, and Elphie wondered if it might not be entirely because of the wind.

"All of you!" Elphie echoed, almost in a laugh, her heart beating a quiet drum of excitement which thrummed with the music of the wind around the pair of shamans. All the trees in the forest. All of them talking to her!

The Brother of the Wind has much to tell you, little Sister. The trees went on ponderously. Look to him always for things we can not tell you.

And what sort of things could you not tell me? Elphie tried her mental voice this time to practice what the wise shaman had instructed her was prudent.

Our watch falls over all things. But there are places where we cannot go, soil in which we cannot grow. There are places inside of you where we can not yet flourish. The Brother of the Wind has bridged the gap between us. Now, you must blossom and bloom. This one has planted the seed, and will know how to tend to it.

In Elphie's mind, the wind and Sol-Lun had truly become one, and he spiraled around her just as much as the small tempest which rushed through her fur, grooming her with the care of a mother's teeth. Looking up at the blurred forest of green as the strong, clear voices rang in her ears, she felt Sol-Lun's infectuous joy. This wolf, this one, whose spirit she had touched with her own beneath the fire of her own eyes, would continue to show her the way.

Elphie had never felt so fulfilled in her entire life. The humdrum world she had previously created for herself in her mind slowly crumbled and fell, consumed by a rising passion for being alive, a growing sense of purpose, of belonging. Her spirit branched up in its own little network of roots, entwining with the other shaman's. She belonged.

We shall see in time, Brother of the Wind. For now, favor us by looking to our Little Sister when we can not. Sister, this one has set you on your path, but you will need to forward yourself for a time.

Elphie could sense that the encounter was coming to a close. As the swift wind that galloped in circles about the clearing like magic started to slacken to a sweeping breeze, and the trees bended and swayed overhead ever so slightly in a motion that Elphie could have sworn she could feel with some vestige of her body, the brown shewolf nudged into the other, inhaling his an ancient, comforting smell, a smell as old as the forest itself. She would remember this scent and would find it if she ever encountered trouble.

Her heart was racing with elation, and Sol-Lun would be able to see and feel the liquid golden bursts of happiness pulsing through her body as long as he held onto her. Elphaba's spirit reached out to embrace the other's one last time in a way in which she could not thank any other wolf.

"Thank you!" She cried. "Thank you for opening this to me!"

The voices of the Trees were fading now as the two spirits began to sort themselves back into their respective bodies, but their leaves rustled faint words down upon the pair, echoing the chocolate shewolf's words.

Thank you. Thank you.