The wind crept eerily across the valley having traveled a great distance to deliver its message. Its voice was shy and soft and only the few who who knew how to listen could ever comprehend its truth.
Orator pulled back his hood and let his hair flutter in the breeze as the voice overcame him. He quieted his thoughts and listened with his mind. It spoke with no words; but rather, provided guidance to where he was needed and insight to the hidden truths of others.
For the past eleven days he had been traveling through the dying forests on the north shores referred to as the Sandred woods only to arrive in an area of grass shaded like gold surrounded with rolling hills to the south and fog smeared mountain tops northward. Orator did not know where the wind was taking him; but, he trusted that its intentions were well-meant and for a purpose, as they always had been.
Orator looked up and noticed a small outcropping of rocks arranged in a circle barely visible beneath the horizon. There was nothing else to indicate the sign of any person and the mountains were clearly much too difficult to scale in the days approaching winter. He knew this was where the wind had been guiding him and its purpose would soon reveal itself.
He drew his hood around his head and wrapped his woolen cloak more tightly around him. The air surrounding him was frigid having drifted down from the high peaks.
His senses were calm and Orator did not feel threatened as he approached the outcropping. He found six rocks arranged in a circle with one obsidian stone pointed northwards towards the mountains. To the side of the stones lay several branches that were thoroughly dried so that they would kindle well.
His arrival was expected.
Orator arranged the branches within the center of the stones. He then removed a piece of flint and steel from the pouch along his left hip and struck them together producing a spark. Soon his face was aglow with the warmth of a fire that burned very warm and with an abnormally reddish hue. The sun was hardly a finger's width above the horizon now and its reddish glow matched perfectly the campfire and set the sky seemingly afire.
As Orator gazed into the fire's depths, he began to fixate upon the fire's flames leaping in front of him. It was as if the fire was encapsulating all the secret's of the Earth that he did not already know. The radiating glow seemed to increase steadily as the sun disappeared behind the last hill in the distance to the point where all Orator could see was the reddish halo of light penetrating his eyes surrounded by complete darkness.
Suddenly, the abyss encompassing the fire took control of everything and Orator lost every sense and every sensation that proved he was still living. He could not feel the ground, nor the chilled air, nor the warmth of the fire. Everything was gone and all of his thoughts were lost as his consciousness drifted within a seemingly vacant space.
Orator was immersed in what felt like an infinite sea of darkness; however, he began to sense the presence of another being. He could feel the cool breath of the entity against his face as it slowly approached.
It was now not more than a few inches in front of him; yet, it still appeared to creep forward. Orator felt a chill as it began to completely envelop his body. Instantaneously Orator became one with the being and understood all that it had to reveal to him at once.
After what seemed like only moments, Orator awoke from his altered state. He struggled at first to open his eyes, still accustomed to the dark; but, soon they adjusted and revealed the morning light saturating the entire area with rays of yellow-orange. The sunbeams pierced through the fog that had been surrounding the mountain peaks revealing their true magnitude.
Orator had always adored gazing at the mountains while covered in the morning sun; however, today he would have no time to spend for himself. Rather, the day would be spent rushing back to his home village where an evil had set its sights upon.
