#earthrunes

The new troll gapes at the sheer number of books on mythology alone, and starts to take four or five books at a time and lay them out on the table, willy nilly, books on Norse mythology first, some celtic.....

soon a half dozen books are open at various states. Greek myths too.

He's not so much reading as searching for a single word. " Come on, how am I supposed to find one for real if I can't find the myth?"

A swoop of gold from the corner of his eye...

And Bronte lands on the librarian's shoulder. She... was she there the whole time?

A warrior's instinct, hand to hilt though.."Oh, hello, miss zara right?" Cadman? It's Cadman

"Hello, Mister Cadman. Aye, I am Zara. You seem to be searching for aught? Perhaps I could be of assistance."

"Would that you could, Miss Zara," He says with a nod "But the challenge laid before me was I was not to consult the internet, nor just ask people what book it was in, but I would find the tale I sought within a book of early myth that I put my hands on myself. If you told me, I'd fail the challenge," He says "And it's just part one of it. I'm a Storm, a warrior, I've studied some, and I know a lot of tales about heroes of the past...but this one has me flummoxed. "

He keeps scanning line by line...shooting through whole epics obviously looking for a singular reference.

She raises an eyebrow. "I see. Though now, of course, I am curious - for my sake, what are you seeking tales of? I shall not do thy work, but I could, perhaps, spare you a foll's quarry."

"I'm not afraid of a challenge, " A bit of a grin at that, "Though I do think that Luminous Lass of a chieftain has put me in a bit of a quarry yes, because here I am digging. Maybe I can tell you what I'm looking for without naming it. She told me the tale to help a bit. It is, apparently, an ancient story discovered by a learned man and scholar ...it begins at a grim ending, when damage has been done, and a young boy seeks out a hermit living amid a blighted valley. The boy pays the daneguld to this stranger, and the stranger tells his tale. Of how the valley was once rich with plants and wild life, and the most marvelous trees! Trees with a silk like foliage. The hermit has been seeking trees such as these, and chops one down..."

She listens, her head tilted.

The brawny wilder says "It is this tree, which I cannot name without violating my code, that I'm looking for reference upon. The Hermit continued his tale of his youthful days to the boy who had paid the daneguld, and spoke that with the first fall of the first tree in that valley, an odd spirit of the wood appeared. Short, and hairy with a grand mustache ..it was orange and gold. Never heard of anythinhg quite like that myself. It announced that it was the spokesman for the trees, for the trees had no tongue. The Hermit had taken the foilage from the tree and woven a marvelous thing. Which I also can not name. He thought it the key to a new trade. It turns out, he as right, but at what price? Ah, that's the story" He's actually got a good cadence for tale craft

The door bursts open and August dashes in, laughing, and closes it with stealth..... he covers his entertainment and waits, holding the door......

Cadman looks over at the intruding sidhe. More curious than offended, "He one of yours?" To Miss Zara

Her grey lips quirk in a lopsided smile at Cadman's telling. "Aye..."

A sigh. "And aye. Good morn, August."

He is focused on whatever he's avoiding on the other side of the door.... then he straightens and looks around... "Zara.... and... sir?"

Zara quietly closes the mythology books on the table, stacking them in a neat pile.

"Name's Cadman," The big troll says , he doesn't rise to bow or anything. He does notice the books being put away "Miss Zara, how am I supposed to find the right myth if you do that?"

"I am afraid I have need of these. You must needs check other books. You are welcome to continue... unless?"

"We'll, they are not my books," He closes one or two himself "And I suppose you're allowed to tell me what it isn't in. Sly thinking can serve a quester well."

August approaches the table that has served as workspace. "Can I be of assistance?"

"Mayhaps. August, would you mind collecting the children's books for sorting? I think the pooka have been color-coding them again."

Cadman was about to tell the sidhe to fetch him a drink, but this raises a brow at Zara's comment and leaves her order stand

"Oh, of course not." He grins. " I know it's.....alternative but it's a system."

"Mayhaps, but tisn't my system."

He nods. "Then I'll sort them."

"All right," Cadman says continuing "The first item is sold. Turns out the customer thought he was right, it was a thing that everyone needs! Well, if a man make a little by his craft for one such tree, then it reasons, the then young hermit figured, that he'd make more by taking down more trees. But he is short sighted, the woods spirit warns him...."

"Lay them out. Perhaps Mister Cadman could aid?" She reshelves the mythology books, letting August carry the brightly colored picture books to the table.

"And so of these precious treees go down, but as they do, the fruits they produce are less and less, leaving the local cute bears, which do not seem that battle worthy to me or this story would take care of itself as they ate the logger, must with draw, the wood spirit leading them out of the valley. But the product sells.... and as it sells, the hermit wants to chop more and he does, increasing his means of doing so by device and cunning without wisdom. He builds a great workshop, but it belches smoke and releases 'glop'"

August listens, then looks at Zara incredulously......

The look is "Really? Seriously?"

An elegant gesture of her hand, towards the children's shelves.

And she really is mostly hiding her amusement! But August knows that glimmer in her eye and the little twitch at the corner of her mouth.

The big man starts to help the puny elf "Don't let my rendition of this tale hurt your focus on our task, August" he says

The tone not unlike the supportive tone sidhe use on commoners at times

"Now, Cadman, August - if the two of you would be so kind as to sort these by author?"

"Now, naturally, the bears are not the only wild life there. This idyllic valley's skies fill with filth, and the gunk poisons the rivers... and neither element can be breathed by the birds and fish there. Those animals too, which would have died, and whisked away by the spirit of nature, who again protests that he speeks for these animals as well, can the tradesman not see how this is destroying the valley? "

"Certainly, miss Zara" The big man says and looks at the spines to see the names

"As...." He pauses, nods. "As you wish, Zara."

"Cadman here has been set on a quest."

"To woo a lady. I think you can appreciate the import."

"But greed and foolishness has gripped the heart of the tradesman, and he cannot think beyond the next bit of coin and how to get more of it. But trees that are not there, cannot drop their fruits and seeds, and trees that do not seed do not return. And just like that, the last of these wondrous trees collapses, the last product is made...and the machines grind silent as the grave. All that is left is want and waste where once there was beauty. The tradesman finds the purchasers have fled to find other products of novelty, perhaps what they thought they 'needed' wasn't so much a need after all? He becomes a hermit amid the filth and ruin he helped wreck. And the land does not heal. It is a sad tale, but there is a litteral seed of hope in it"

"Yes, m'm." He listens to the story and with another glance at Zara, he nods.

"For this spirit had left a sacred Stone. And upon it was written a word 'Unless'" The Hermit did not understand at first, but by the time he was old and telling the boy, yes he knew." He ponders then glances at August "Are you chasing some pointy eared lass? Good on you. Hope she fancies you back. Oh yes where was I? Unless"

Zara sighs and quietly rubs a set of chocolatey fingerprints from a glossy cover. "One needn't eat cookies while reading, no matter how many the mouse gets..."

Soft "I will speak to them."

"Speak gently. I...." she pauses, considering. "The harm is small, nu?"

"Vershtay."