[The Paedia] I desire to know, in order to serve

[Hay'aan Benedict]

Timestamp: Melora 11th, Winter, Era XV

Hay'aan had a job. It wasn't the job that she had in the Fire Island Jewelry Shoppe ~ no, in a very real sense it was much more important than that. She was the Seer. She was the Seer in the Aestiva Reverie and it was her job to know. So, following the meeting with Sykodi that she had had in her dreams the night before, Hay'aan went to the Paedia and looked around at all the books.

There was information here, and there was lots of it. She first of all found what information she could on Kaimelea. There was not an awful lot there, but what she found, Hay'aan poured over.

The information that she found could lead her on to some interesting leads, she considered, as she made some notes for herself.

When she had made those notes, she looked at them again, put the book away that she was looking at and went to the nearest librarian.

"Serale.. hello, I wonder.. I wonder if you could help me" she said, quietly. "I.. I would like to join the Paedia... would that be possible?" she asked, looking at the librarian quite, quite earnestly.

Kaimelea: The Planetar of Dreams, Not widely worshipped outside of the Greater Elfish Basin and neighboring regions, Power is said to extend to all inhabitants of the world, Portrayed as the Giver of Dreams, Also known as "She Who Opens the Eye". Her elusive and subtle magic was given to her by Phedos. She developed it into Mysticism. A neutral deity; ~ just as likely to give terrifying nightmares as sweet dreams. Her followers include illusionists, mystics, and those who interpret dreams. Although she is constantly drifting through the dreams of all people She rarely finds the mortals she seeks - the waking dreamers At this time, there are less than one hundred waking dreamers in the entire world. The most powerful WD'er can walk with Kaimelea through the dreams of others. She manifests as many things to many people, almost always in the dreams of deep sleep, and usually looks misty or gradually changes appearances. The Plane of Dreams, her personal dominion, is said to be an airy wonderland filled with both serene tranquility as well as sudden fright, with opportunities and treasures beyond all imagination. OWN NOTES: Read up on the Greater Elvish Basin + Phedos + Mysticism Waking Dreamers? Any more information on them?

[Whisper]

The librarian, a tigron katta by the name of Ar'kah, was one of the few katta on the island. Due to a long-ago event that had been forgotten by most, jagara were not welcome on the island, and katta didn't have a habit of living in a town surrounded by water anyway. But Ar'kah loved the unpredictable weather and the Paedia, and she spent most of her time browsing the books in the library where she works.

"Serale," she said kindly to Hay'aan, her voice a low alto purr. "Yes, it's certainly possible. To join the Paedia, you must complete the traditional quest: making a spidersilk handkerchief or scarf." She indicated the scarf that she wore with her Journeyman Paedian blue sash. The scarf was finely and tightly woven, and smooth but unbreakable. Not even a knife could pierce it. It was quite the accessory.

"As part of the quest, you must venture to the Weaver's Woods and collect the silk yourself. Then you must weave it into a scarf or handkerchief and present it to a Journeyman or Master Paedian. We'll provide any resources that you might need.

"What do you say? Are you up for the challenge?" Ar'kah smiled, baring her sharp white teeth.

[Hay'aan Benedict]

"A spidersilk handkerchief or scarf?" she said with some amazement. She looked at Ar'kah with surprise as the tigron spoke to her of the quest itself. This surprise was not at there being a tigron here, for Hay'aan had no idea of the ancient story of the jagara, but rather because of the strange nature of the quest itself.

"I.. I will happily and without compunction go into the woods and... and yes, I will weave it into a scarf myself. I do not know what resources I will need right now, but I think that basically, I will go into the woods and then worry about the weaving afterwards, if that is acceptable..... alright."

She looked at the tigron and smiled, her sudden bright and almost glorious smile there without a doubt, taking up her expression and filling her face with a beam that was almost like sunlight "I'm up for the challenge, yes. When can I begin and what is the time limit on it?" she asked. She was not overly concerned with entering the Weaver's Wood, rightly or wrongly, but the weaving itself was something that she knew little about so she may need some time to get right before trying it with the silk.

That being the case, she reasoned, a time frame would be as well.

Then, another thought entered her head and so she asked a question "And... well, where is the weavers woods?" she asked, not wanting to appear stupid, but knowing that she needed to know where it was.

[Catalyst]

OOCHi Hay'aan! I'll be taking over this thread

"Good, good, that's the spirit," Ar'kah said. "You may begin whenever you wish and there is no time limit save what you yourself impose, as you must complete your quest before you can be considered for membership. If you labor at this task for eras I am sure that will be counted against you, but there is no formal limit. You will find the Weavers Woods simply by walking out of town through the Universitas. The woods lie immediately beyond."

"I will not give you advice, that would defeat the purpose of the quest. Still, I will give you this much of a warning- the spiders are not notably viscious but they will defend themselves with poison if provoked. Go with caution."

"As I said, we will provide you with resources if you require them. Feel free to ask me for supplies you plan on using."

[Hay'aan Benedict]

oocwell thank you very much for doing so. I look forward to RPing with you!!

She listened to what Ar'kah said and nodded "I understand" she said, and considered carefully. "Well" she said, a slight frown creasing her forehead as she spoke "Since you have told me of the spiders defending with poison if they feel provoked, a most useful piece of information, thank you" she added, always and ever polite "I wonder if some antidote to spider venom might be something that could be a supply?"

She looked at Ar'kah and continued to think "And.. information, really.... are you able to tell me how much silk will it take to weave a scarf? I am not asking for specifics, but an approximation? So maybe if you could supply me with a bag just big enough to hold enough silk to weave into a scarf the size of yours?" she asked, looking rather hopeful. She did not want to ask for too much, but she did want to ask for things that were clever and useful. For really, this was a test from this moment on and since she had been told that if she spent too long undertaking the task it would "go against her", completing it must not be the only criteria, and upon completion there must be some kind of decision making. So she wanted that to go as well as possible and end up, obviously, in her favour.

"Other than that, there is nothing, thank you" she said, with a brief, dazzling and then quickly hidden smile.

[Catalyst]

The Librarian shook her head. "I know of no antidote to the spider's poison. I doubt if anyone has bothered to try to brew any. The poison itself is a paralytic, if the spiders fail to drain you of your bodily fluids it will wear off on its own. Besides, we wouldn't want to make it too easy."

Ar'kah removed her scarf and laid it on the counter, and folded it into a small bundle. "The spider silk does not lose volume in processing, so you should have no real trouble determining how much you need. Simply bring back an amount the size of a wadded up scaf," she gestured to the folded cloth on the counter..."About this much, although perhaps you will want to bring extra just in case. These are big spiders with big webs, if you find the spiders there will be enough webbing for your needs. Hold a second."

Ar'kah left Hay'aan alone for a few minutes, disappearing into a back room. When she returned she was holding a small sack of faded gunny. "Ordinarily we would send the gear to your residence, as we don't store wilderness supplies here. But since you only asked for a sack, here you go, this should serve. If you fill this half full you will have plent of silk."

[Hay'aan Benedict]

If the spiders fail to drain you.... nice, Hay'aan thought to herself. Very nice indeed. Just what she needed. But still, she wanted to do her best here and so she nodded and smiled "Thank you for the help, I appreciate it. I will leave you now. THank you again for the supplies" she said and then, clutching the sack.

Then, once she was out in the fresh air once again, Hay'aan considered. The woods didn't sound very far away and so she didn't think that she needed to take any wilderness supplies with her. She wondered why Ar'kah had mentioned that, and then decided that maybe that was all part of the test itself.

That being the case, she considered, she had options. She could ask for help... there was Klue, Viskyia, M'cai or Adelyn who she was sure she could call on. They all seemed more.... savvy than her. Jasmyn, too, she had no doubt would help her, although Hay'aan wasn't sure that the half-Esh was any more likely to be expert in this than she was herself.

But that would be cheating, she considered, that would be unfair to herself and defeat the point of the challenge. So she put the sack into her satchel, which she put across her shoulders, and then she set out towards the Weavers Woods. She did not know what she would find there, but she did not know anything about wilderness suvival of this kind. Had someone said to her that she was stepping into the desert, she would have been far more cautious, but she considered, as she walked along, that a woods was just a collection of trees....

.... and how dangerous could that be?

[Catalyst]

The Weaver's Woods was not immediately imposing. The trees were thin and widely separated on the edge nearest town, the many stumps dotting the landscape suggesting that the work of woodcutters had created this effect. But as Hay'aan walked, the woods began to grow denser, and she could see that in the spring when the trees leafed out the woods would be quite well shaded. Weaver's Woods was largely silent in the winter, save for the crunching of dried leaves under Hay'aan's feet.

After half a candlemark or so, she began to see spider webbing in the tops of the trees. What was there was only the ragged end of ancient webs, not much substance to it, and probably not enough for Hay'aan's purposes, even were she able to climb to the thinnest branches at the top of the trees where it was attached.

As she pondered the remnants, suddenly there was an explosion of dead leaves at her feet! A enormous skeletal figure erupted out of the forest mold and lunged towards her, arms spread wide to encircle her with it's cruel-taloned hands. A horrible moaning noise filled her ears, from where it was coming she could not tell.

[Hay'aan Benedict]

It was, all things considered, a nice brightening for a walk, and Hay'aan was feeling very positive about the whole experience by the time that she got to the Weavers Woods. After all, she decided, she was doing this for the good of the Reverie and it was the right thing to do. So she walked and she whispered a silent prayer to Kaimelea as she did so.

As she walked, she looked up and saw that at least she was going in the right direction and she smiled to herself. She had high hopes that collecting the silken web would be fairly easy, and she would then be able to focus on the weaving of it.

Deciding that the silk in the tops of the trees was not accessible or appropriate for her needs, but more like a signpost, showing her where she should go to, Hay'aan continued to walk, a small smile on her face. The trees were denser here, but that was not an unpleasant thing, and now that she had found out some more about Kaimelea she would be able to....

.... the thought was cut short as the leaves exploded at her feet and Hay'aan jumped backwards out of pure instinct with a terrified "Eeeeiiieeee!" noise as she did. She saw only this.... this thing coming towards her and she backed off as quickly as she could, jumping backwards in an attempt to get out of the way of the skeletal creature in front of her. In truth, she didn't really hear the moaning noise, as her ears were filled with her own screech of fear.

[Catalyst]

The creature clattered against her, then seemed to have second thoughts, and retreated with an unnaturally smooth movement. As Hay'aan's panic subsided, she was able to focus and see that the "creature" was composed of a number of cleverly carved sticks of wood that had been bleached a silvery white in the sun. It now swung gently to and fro, the sunlight occasionally glimmering off a nearly invisible set of filaments that supported it.

The moaning sound was replaced with staccato and high pitched peals of laughter. From behind a tree, a tiny man staggered forth, holding his stomach against the vigor of his guffaws. In one hand he held an odd trumpet-like horn, which he released into the dried leaves as his laughter left him weak.

The man was about 2 feet tall, but otherwise his features were elfin, including long pointed ears. His clothing was a ragged patchwork of assorted odds and ends sewn together without skill, and his hair a rich deep green.

"You....should.....have seen...." he managed to get out, before laughter consumed him again, and he sank to his knees beneath the tree.

[Hay'aan Benedict]

She felt her heart racing and gasped for breath and then... then she realised that this creature wasn't a creature at all, but was, in fact, a puppet of some kind. Some kind of ... wooden thing which had been bleached. She looked around and saw the... well, the remarkably short elf. She saw that he was laughing and she frowned.

"I.... it was... it.. I.." she said, and then her face started to take on a perplexed but amused expression. "I suppose I rather.. rather made an idiot of myself there... but that.. that scared me" she said, and frowned in consternation as the short elf sunk to the ground. She wondered briefly if she was some kind of mad, but then continued... "I.. I am Hay'aan.. I am here to try and collect some spider silk... I... I am glad that you are happy.. I suppose I looked rather stupid. But it is a mean trick to play on someone who might have become ill at such a fright, you know" she said, mustering up what stern-ness she could.

Which wasn't much. She looked around, wondering if there were any spiders around.

[Catalyst]

The small person stopped laughing immediately, and lept to his feet. "Spider silk?!" he cried indignantly. "Cha! If you are hunting spider silk, where is your spoozlestick? Why are you here, rather than Grapebelly gorge, where the spiders are docile and the webbing piles thickly layer upon layer? Do you take me for a fool? I am General Billious Thunderbussel, commander of the forest legions, and I think I should know a spider silk hunter if I saw one! Admit it, you are an arsonist here to burn the place down, and your scaring was well deserved. There's no use denying it, sargent Clatterbones was a witness to your conduct." He gestured to the hanging wooden contraption.

"Here, I shall prove your malfesence." He dug in his capacious pockets, removing and discarding a tiny bird's nest and a small carving of a three legged dog, then finally producing a pair of gloves. One was made of a similar material to the scarf Ar'kah had shown her earlier, the other was made of rough cotton. "Which of these is spider silk?" Billious demanded. "A true spider silk hunter would know at a glance."

[Hay'aan Benedict]

"My.. spoozlestick?" she asked, looking at the small creature whose name she did not yet know.. "I... I do not have a spoozlestick. I am here on a.. a quest in order to prove that I am able and appropriate to join the Paedia. They... they offered me supplies, but I do not know what a spoozlestick is, so I am afraid that I did not realise if I would need one. As to why I am not in... grapebelly gorge... umm... I'm afraid I do not know that place. I am.. I am new to Demios, you see. I most certainly do not think you a fool, Sir".

And then he introduced himself and Hay'aan smiled gently, her soft expression obviously completely sincere as she nodded "I am Hay'aan. It is a pleasure to meet you General Thunderbussel. I promise you, I have nothing but respect for natura in all her forms and I would not harm anything here willingly or knowingly"

And then he dug in his pockets, disregarding some strange things and offered her two pieces of cloth, in the shape of gloves. SHe looked at them both and then pointed to the one that resembled the scarf she had seen "That looks very much like spun spider silk to me, although I can not say that the other one does not have spider silk in it, the one on the left is pure, I would say."

She looked at him and hoped that this was the correct answer. He was a strange creature, in truth. She didn't think too much of Sargent Clatterbones, either, now that she thought of it. She wondered if he would be able to help her, and she considered asking, but waited to see what his reaction would be to her answers to his question first.

It seemed only polite

[Catalyst]

A variety of emotions played over General Thunderbussel's face. He was not the sort who liked to be proved wrong, but Hay'aan's respectful attitude had impressed him.

"So...you are not a true spider silk hunter then, but rather an aspiring one. You should be more precise in your langauge. But you show promise, I'll give you that much. You have an instinct for silk, as you have chosen the correct glove. This brightening you are in luck, as I must be considered an authority on the subject. Why, it was not two months ago that I created for myself a wondrous eiderdown of purest spider silk!" He hugged himself, enjoying his fond memories

"So light! So Warm! So Soft! I did not leave my bed for a cycle! Of course, when I did escape I learned the secret of removing the stickiness from webbing, which turns out to be vital in such circumstances."

His voice took on a lecturing quality. "And herein lies the necessity of the spoozlestick. The radial lines of a web are the strongest and have no stickum, but those that go around and around in a circlewise fashion are designed to catch and hold the spider's prey with a nefarious glue. It is the mistake of the beginner to catch and pull at the webbing with their hands. Soon they will find they are wearing trecherous mittens of webbing, and futher that they cannot break free of the web. The veteran worker winds the webbing around and around his, or in some cases her, spoozlestick, using an oiled knife to cut the silk free. When finished, the device resembles a cloud on a stick, and can be used as such in plays which require a stagehand to simulate clouds drifting by as the actors are busy below."

"For those who do not aspire to the theater, the silk is best removed by plunging the spoozlestick into a skald of boiling water and whiskey. The whiskey removes the glue and the silk floats free. Come, I will loan you gear."

Without waiting for a response, General Thunderbussel lept into the air, and as he did so his shape wavered and flowed, and when he landed he had assumed the form of a cabbit, which set off at a leisurely pace through the woods, turning now and again to see if Hay'aan was following.

[Hay'aan Benedict]

Hay'aan briefly wondered if this was a test by Kaimelea and if, in fact, she was dreaming. This whole experience certainly had a dreamlike quality to it, but that notwithstanding, what the.. short elf.... said made sense.

"I am sorry, you are correct, I am an aspiring spider silk hunter. This is.. is my first time" she said, although she didn't remember saying she was a spider silk hunter in the first place. Still, she listened carefully to the idea of the spoozlestick and it did indeed make sense. "I see. I will... thank you" she said, as he said that he would loan her gear. She was getting a loan of a spoozlestick, and that was just bizarre. She supposed it was the word itself, rather than the use to which is was put.

And then, midair, he turned into a... a cabbit. She blinked twice, rapidly, and decided that she must have eaten something bad somewhere along the line. She was, after all, hallucinating. Being a gypsy, she had seen such things in various guises and for various reasons throughout her childhood, so rather than be phased by it, Hay'aan simply upped her pace and followed the cabbit-form of General Thunderbussel through the woods to collect her spoozlestick.

ooccan I just say I am loving this thread. THANK YOU!