Edge of Winter, 1360
It was Midwinter when Runa left, barely a word to those that knew her and a night of prayer in the Pools as she set out south from the Reaching Woods. She traveled alone, and eventually found herself out of the woods and into the Jewel of the Vale, the city of Berdusk. Not long she spent in the city, a night or two she stayed with the Deneirrath faithful in exchange of stories from the coastline, and she soon set out along the Chiontar, to the east where her objective lay.
Winter would soon pass as she reached Iriaebor, by the end of her tenday stay at the Silent Hall it was already the start of Ches, and she once more headed out, a caravan taking her along the Trader's Road, passing by a myriad of towns, big and small, where she spoke with differing faiths and shared stories. And it was aboard a small vessel she embarked in Westgate that she spent the Spring Equinox.
High of Spring, 1360
The druid was dropped off in Starmantle, a smaller harbor town, where she spent the night at the local Istishia temple and came to hear tales of the Sea of Fallen Stars. Along the edges of the town, her objective was visible: the Gulthmere Forest, overgrown woods of evergreen trees, and the city that she knew was within it.
A few more tendays she spent alone inside the edges of the forest, getting to know it and giving it a chance of getting to know her. She bathed in its creeks and ponds, she fed from its fruits and planted the seeds in exchange, she took note of the local flora and spoke with the forest's residents, both beast, man and fey, and then she took stride to Cedarsproke.
You see, the objective of the druid was all along The Grove, the biggest Eldathyn temple in the Realms, nested within Gulthmere Forest in a tranquil city known as the Garden of Eldath by the faith, and Cedarsproke by most others. It was there Runa spent the months of Spring, where she feasted and danced among Her faithful on Greening, where she studied, prayed, meditated, and deepened her faith.
As summer started to rear its head, she began her departure. Renewing her vows in the presence of Shemratha, the most Exalted priestess of the faith, Runa left The Grove with gifts, both given to her and left by her to her peers. The druid made her way once more into the Gulthmere Forest, and there she'd spend the Summer Solstice.
Rise of Summer, 1360
The way back was hardly as eventful, her faith not necessarily stronger - for how could it be even more still? -, but certainly renewed. Heading west, she left the Gulthmere and found herself in Nathlekh, where she did not stay long though still found time to part bread with a pair of Nobanion clergy, with whom she shared the tales you now read, though Runa took her time in her retelling.
She followed southwest into the southern tip of the Giant's Run Mountains, soared through the Giant's Plain and took refuge for a few nights in empty caverns of the Troll Mountains. She continued contouring south into the Snakewood, stopping by Eshpurta where she stayed a few days lodged in the Towers of Willful Suffering, the Ilmateri giving her a sense of nostalgia for her old wintery home, and visited the many shrines in Eshpurta to all her favored gods, as well as her Patron proper. Still, she soon continued along the Snakewood - visiting the Eldathyn shrine within it -, coming out into the Greenfields and eventually making her way into the region once more through Greenest. Just in time for Midsummer.
In Western Lands beneath the Sun
by J. R. R. Tolkien
In western lands beneath the Sun
the flowers may rise in Spring,
the trees may bud, the waters run,
the merry finches sing.
Or there maybe 'tis cloudless night
and swaying beeches bear
the Elven-stars as jewels white
amid their branching hair.
Though here at journey's end I lie
in darkness buried deep,
beyond all towers strong and high,
beyond all mountains steep,
above all shadows rides the Sun
and Stars for ever dwell:
I will not say the Day is done,
nor bid the Stars farewell.
