[Engraving Memories] The Broken Willow Tree

Willow had only fragments of memories. Only snippets of a broken story in their head.

The strange figure who had demanded that they wake and answer had vanished before Willow could learn anything else of their past. They only knew their name and the face of someone who seemed to tug at their heart strings. Someone who had stars and constellations surrounding them and eyes the color of deep red and gold. Someone who looked like the forest wrapped in the night shrouded clouds. A name was there but it was just out of reach and Willow had spent days trying to figure out the answer to that particular question without success. Willow nearly went dizzy trying to recover lost memories and only successfully gave themself a headache for all the effort involved. So Willow had resorted to trying to figure out what to do next instead of trying to remember their past. Willow spent several weeks in that clearing where they had returned to life wandering the edges as if too scared to step beyond the boundary. When Willow finally did step past that boundary, fingers clenched around their bow and quiver while the other hand clenched tightly to the Demonic Wing Cloak that wrapped around their shoulders. Willow took several steps into the forest beyond the clearing before returning and picking up the Everlit Candle. Willow swung the quiver over his shoulders and settled them into place on his back before sheathing the bow into his holster and doing the same motion. With that, Willow held up the Everlit Candle and stepped into the forest once again. It was an odd feeling, like being wrapped in darkness, but not a bad feeling more like being wrapped in a warm blanket than anything else. For some reason it felt like being home. So Willow walked, they walked for days, wandering the deepest parts of the forest. Stopping only when they were too tired to walk any further. Willow made their bed up inside the boughs of a Willow tree that swept its long limbs along the river bank. A few of the leaves even drifted in the water below. Willow did not notice the broken portion of the tree until they were up in the upper boughs. Willow paused at this and remained very still before reaching out and touching the broken portion of the tree branch as if sharing in its pain.

“I was hurt too,” Willow murmured softly, “I just do not remember how. But I am sure you have not forgotten what storm or danger tore down this branch.” The only answer was wind through the willow leaves. To which Willow flushed slightly and laughed before shaking his head and wrapping the Demonic Wing Cloak around himself as he settled into a comfortable position to try and sleep. His Everlit Candle was resting over on a space wedged between two small branches that kept it far enough away not to catch anything on fire but also close enough not to be out of reach if needed. Willow woke late the next night and sighed before stretching and sitting upright while balancing and trying not to fall out of the tree. They were not sure what to do next and debated between moving on, further into the forest, or staying close by and trying to recover some memories. There was little chance of simply remembering something though and it would be better if Willow kept moving. It would be better if Willow tried to find purpose in their new life. But Willow was struggling, it was one thing to wake up an entirely new person but it was another to wake up with fuzzy glimmers of memory of who they had once been. Willow was stuck there, in that small space between those two people, and they did not know what they needed to do next.

They knew, logically, that they needed to find something to do with themself in the future. They knew that they needed to find a purpose and answers to who had raised them once again. But Willow was also unsure if they wanted answers. Unsure if they even wanted to remember their past life that was so full of fuzzy and painful memories. They were not sure if they wanted to know who had raised them and brought them back to life (because who knew what kind of strings were attached to that action). So Willow simply sat, legs dangling down from the tree branch they were sitting on while they traced their fingers through the Willow leaves. For a brief moment Willow considered changing their own name to something else but shook that thought away quickly. The name Willow felt right, it settled somewhere close to their heart and took root there, but that did not mean that they had to be the same Willow as they had been before the rebirth. So Willow stayed in that small area beside the river, they wandered the nearby forest, collecting anything that caught their eye and could be useful. They made new arrows and fletching. They discovered that they knew how to carve wood as well as had a wood aspect to shape it however they wished; this meant that Willow made several items ranging from bowls to plates and even basic utensils like chopsticks and a spoon or two. Willow even took to trying to use their Frost Aspect. This one was easier to access but not as easy to use and had resulted in not one but two instances of freezing part of the river solid (with a few fish inside it) before Willow had managed to undo the magic enough for the river to flow normally. It was during one of these periods of practice that a small white and blue Aprico came floating down the river. Willow quickly waded out and scooped up the little unconscious companion creature before taking it up to their little bed in the tree canopy.

It took a few days for the little Aprico, which Willow had named Winter after failing to come up with anything else, to recover enough to follow Willow around. Willow found themself laughing at the antics of the little creature and smiling at the way the little companion seemed to never want to leave their side. The Aprico slept tucked up under Willow’s chin and often spent her time swooping around Willow as they worked. Once the Aprico was recovered enough for Willow to wander around and work on other projects. One thing that Willow had taken to doing was practicing with his bow and arrows. Willow had spent days creating targets and placing them randomly on a small field. Each one was woven from grasses he had found around the area (the ones that were dried out and snow covered from the previous year, not the new shoots of course). Willow, yet again, found that their residual memories settled somewhere within their muscles as well. Muscle memory proved that Willow had at some point in their past life been a skilled archer. Muscle memory could only do so much though and Willow found themselves nursing sore fingertips along with aching arms and shoulders as they began to practice daily. Eventually Willow began to itch for a better practice option that was not stationary targets. Willow chose to head out early in the morning, before the sun was fully over the horizon, and wandered the nearby forest with their Demonic Wing Cloak fluttering along behind them in the early morning breeze. Willow had left the Everlit Candle in the area wedged amongst the small branches of the old broken willow tree so that they would be able to find their way back even if it got dark before they returned to the campsite. Willow had also tied a strip of cloth, from one of the shirts they had found a few weeks back, up high in the upper branches so they would see the campsite easily in the daylight. With that done, Willow wandered into the depths of the forest with their Aprico, Winter, trailing along behind just barely in sight.

For a short while Willow practiced their bow skills on falling branches, clumps of snow or mud kicked into the air, or the occasional small bird. Willow had also been pausing to collect roots, tubers, and early spring mushrooms as they walked about so if they managed to shoot down a bird or two to clean for supper that night it would be a bonus. The feathers would also be useful to use in fletching arrows as Willow had been having trouble finding any that they could use for the arrows as of late. One could only get so far with fallen feathers or shaped thin pieces of wood using their Wood Aspect. Willow managed to bring down four birds of an appropriate size that they would be able to use the feathers for fletching; it took several more tries than they had expected it to take but success made Willow grin in the dimming light of the evening. As Willow returned to the camp, spotting the light of the Everlit Candle in the willow tree branches they slowed their pace so that Winter could catch up and wrap around their shoulders.

Two more days passed in the clearing with Willow alternating between cooking and preserving small travel meals as well as working on training more with the bow. Willow had not yet touched the thin blade that had been included with the gear that they had been wrapped up in but they were curious about it. There were also two short swords in sheaths that Willow had glanced at but had not really done anything else with as of yet. As the days stretched into weeks around that river bank the snow melted completely. Flowers began to bloom and fresh grasses began to sprout and stretch upward towards the sky. Fish became more active, more abundant, in the river. Willow caught, cleaned, and dried several for future travel rations. It was not until Willow spotted the first of the spring berries that they realized they needed to move on to continue their travels and they needed to do so soon; otherwise they would be in danger of never leaving at all. So Willow began to prepare to leave in the coming days. Willow found thin branches and long grasses and started drying them out beside a small fire (keeping his distance a bit as he tended to overheat quite a bit due to his ice aspect). After each of these piles were sufficiently dried out Willow began to weave them into a makeshift pack. It was not perfect, but muscle memory was their guide as Willow worked and eventually a small but sturdy pack of woven grasses and thin branches formed. Willow even braided grasses together to create the shoulder straps before tying them tightly to the main portion of the pack. Willow had used the skin with the feathers still on to make a decorative liner for the outside of the pack. With the green, brown, and gray feathers all wrapped around the pack it made it rather lovely to look at.

Willow left the day after they finished the pack, putting all of their supplies, all of the prepared and dried food, and the various tools they had made while they were beside the river inside the pack. Winter, the little Aprico snuggled up on the top of the pack once Willow had it in place, using the rolled up Demonic Wing Cloak as a bed. Willow carried the Everlit Candle in one hand, wrapped their other hand around the walking stick they had made, and then set off in a random direction towards another area of the forest. Willow still did not know what they wanted to do with themself and their future but for now they were content to travel and sort all of that out in due time. Afterall, they had been given a second chance at life and it would be wasteful to rush into a decision blindly. Willow might as well appreciate the chance given to them and explore before deciding on what that future would bring.

So that was just what Willow began to do. Willow traveled for weeks, dropping into caverns that crossed underground, wading through mountain rivers to find agate, quartz, and in some cases amethyst chunks. Willow hunted deer and birds, relearning how to tan and clean hide to use for clothing from fuzzy recovered memories. Eventually, Willow replaced their initial woven pack with a leather one, complete with beads made from the agate, quartz, and amethyst chunks they had collected. Willow even decorated the tassels with some of the feathers from the birds they killed. Bone pieces were turned into needles, beads, and in some cases arrowheads when appropriate. Willow settled into a rhythm, forming happy memories of wandering the deep woods, and enjoying the freedom of not knowing who they had been before their current memories. Willow eventually found themself standing on the gravel and stone pathway of a major road causing them to pause in consideration. Willow stood there, at the edge of the forest with one hoof on the stone road, until the wind tore past them and dragged their hair forward as if in encouragement. So Willow stepped fully onto the road and turned towards the northern bend before walking along the path. Whatever the future brought them, Willow was now ready to face it. In the distance, far above the road, a lone Sol Roc named Storm flew frantically in the direction it knew to be home.