(I cried like a baby writing this damnit!)<br/>-=-=-=-=-[START]-=-=-=-=-<br/><br/>"Owah...our small world, among the cosmic bodies at least, blessed with a healthy, radiant young star of wondrous blue hue, and two gleaming nightward moons, known commonly as the Sisters of Harvest. Here in this Jungle realm amidst Owah's back, oh our children of the fey have never seen the wonders beyond Yggdrasil's shadow", *spoke the soft growl of an elderly Hanaryuu, a long necked creature with arms and legs and a long tail, her long mane had turned to silver and grey, and the flowers upon the twin trees sprouting from her eye ridge had faded, what were once radiant red roses, now barely even a pale Mauve...and yet, still wonderfully fragrant, perhaps even more so than the pretty flowers and herbs of the little grasslings surrounding her, who sported full heads of wheat, barley, sage, even mushrooms, and daffodils, mums, lilies and many other small floral arrangements, ever charmingly gathered before their elder.*<br/><br/>"...I did not get to see those wonders, but the merchants have told me many tales, I hope one day, you are blessed with those amazing visions I yearn to see. I will dream of your adventures little ones, now...I am tired, it's time for bed little buds".<br/><br/>*One by one, the little grasslings fell asleep in the coils and delightful perfume of the old tree dragon, and for the last time, she would wish them 'sweet dreams for my bouquet'. She knew it was the end as she closed her eyes, she felt it was her time. And in the bliss of peace, in a warm home beside the promise of new life, 'Maria' passed on into eternal slumber, her worn petals scattering from the window, adrift on the wind, beyond the docks and across the sea, to the worlds she dreamed these children would see one day.*<br/>-=-=-=-=-<br/><br/>*Life moved on, in the morning, the elders passing was known, and Yggdrasil, the goddess of the Hanaryuu, sent her avatar to collect old Maria's heart, and carry her soul back to the sacred garden, to wait forever perhaps for her kin to meet her there as well, in the radiance of their divine mother. The children howled, and wept upon losing their elder, but they would be passed to another elder, and sweet dreams would again return, but memory is immortal, as pure as the soul, they would remember Kind Maria forever, not even death would part such purity.*<br/>-<br/><br/>*The young scamper across the docks of April, one of the twelve great cities of Yggdrasil, each named for a different month of the year. The smell of spices, and fish, and the tropical breeze of Yggdrasils grand jungle, a thousand fruits and ten million flowers, whirls along the docks, just a single block into the city and one reaches the Bazaar, full of windproof stands and billowing colorful hanging canopy's to shade one from the sun and wind. Feasts of fruit and Veggies served twenty four seven, only meat carried value among food though, all other foods were free of charge, so verdant stews were brewed all day long. All manner of folk came around for the famous hospitality of the Hanaryuu, as well as treasures dug up from the jungles while they mined for Jade.*<br/>-<br/><br/>*Among the crowd was a plumply stuffed fish-folk lass that went by the name Wiska. The Catfish lass was a Shaman whom bore a light-blue belly and red back scales, cloaked in a dark green hooded cape, and similarely colored water proof clothes complete with five coattails draped from her belt, all procured here at the Bazaar. She also sported a staff with a loop of roots twisted as the headpiece and several charms tied through the loop of her staff. Wiska was a heavy eater and loved the stews the Hana procured, she had with her fresh crocodile meat that she wanted cooked for her supper, she would feast, sell what she could not finish, procure supplies and be on her way. *<br/><br/>*However, today something out of the ordinary happened, one of the smaller Hana lept up onto the statue of Yggdrasil, calling the goddess heavy bottomed was a gross understatement, but what was amazing was the speech that was next given. A promise of reward for any adventurer that would heed Yggdrasils summons to the Sacred Garden. Normally No one was allowed to enter the garden, Everyone knew this, but now the Goddess opened the gates to total strangers. Unheard of, so of course the fishy lass(no pun intended), threw her hat in the basket so-to-speak.*