Dance With The Trees [Custom Ability One-Shot]

[fae iona cloudbreaker]

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October 1st, 2026

Finding herself in tune with nature was not inherently a strange occurrence for Fae, especially since she’d become High Druid, but there was never an exact moment where it clicked like it did now. A year out from the disappearance of Hy-Brasil’s barrier and her introduction to Merlin’s staff, a conduit that she felt inadequate to hold despite her position amongst the druids, and she wasn’t anywhere closer to where she had been at the start. Life had moved on and adapted, as it often did on Hy-Brasil. More pressing matters were cropping up in the world that she felt required her attention, whereas the druids could manage things just as they always had. Centuries of troubles had been defeated by their ancestors, no doubt with the assistance of the island and the spirits they had indebted themselves to.

Her own understanding of nature, and the island as a whole, had always been one of deep respect. It housed her and her people, they took care of it back, and that was how life had been and always would be. There were some in the community that were in positions where they understood the Old Faith, what the gods wanted or perceived as correct, and how that all came together with the spirits of the natural world. She assumed that was something that came with life experience and age, as there were parts that made sense and others that didn’t, especially considering the modernization that the mainland had taken on. Trying to claim a full understanding of what they had been granted as a people would be a folly, in her opinion, as the world was always changing and testing its inhabitants. Knowing it on a basic level had always been fine for her, though there were parts that she still struggled with.

Fae had been rather flippant in her appreciation of what their faith provided them, grounding herself in the reality of the politics that threatened them from the mainland and refusing to admit that she needed help from that which came from beyond. She had never found her relaxed approach to seasonal festivals to be wrong, and quite often viewed it as giving free reign to those that wanted to celebrate each to its fullest. The past year had truly tested her in that regard though, and for the current seasonal cycle she had done something she had never done before: actually looked for an answer. Being selfish in the questions she asked during meditations that preceded most rituals had never truly happened before for her, as she was always looking for what would help the island more than herself. Reaching past that and trying to tap further into what her position meant wasn’t easy. Clearly there was a reason for why she was chosen to be High Druid during this point in time, and that was where she began her line of questioning. She hoped that this would bring knowledge from past leaders and druids that had dealt with Merlin or the island of Yrisle. Instead, she got something else entirely.

Deep contemplation within the cave where she had found Merlin’s staff a year earlier had yielded results that were completely unexpected. She assumed that the sudden chatter of intelligible sound that she could now ‘hear’ were a left over remnant of the staff’s position within the cavern – a latent surge of magic that captured voices and memories of long forgotten people and creatures that happened to wander inside. But then it followed her home that night. Wisps of unknown words that carried on the autumn breeze effortlessly, and Fae became curious about what she had managed to uncover. Instead of continuing along the path towards her shack, she took a detour, cutting through the Wildwood effortlessly. When she had become High Druid, she had chosen an area that was relatively untrodden, in the druid sense of the word, and peaceful. Prior to festivals and rituals, she oftentimes made her way to the clearing and conducted whatever private ceremonies were necessary or meditated. Despite having done so for a length of time already in Merlin’s cave, there was something tickling at her brain, telling her that she was on the verge of some unknown discovery.

The clearing itself was less of that and more a flat-topped rock that was unobstructed by the canopy of the Wildwood. The lack of overhanging branches here allowed her to see the sun and the stars when she so pleased, and tonight’s clear, yet cold, October sky let a moonbeam shine radiantly down onto the stone perch. Perfect conditions preceded by phantom noises had her particularly curious now, and it was a sign that she wasn’t accustomed to being shown all that often. A fluttering moth at an odd time of the day or a cold summer wind was more along the lines of what she took notice of, but never something like this, which was practically screaming at her from the peak of the Dragon’s Tooth.

Sitting herself down with Merlin’s staff horizontally in front of her as she had done earlier, Fae closed her eyes and listened. If the sounds wanted to speak to her, she had to remove as many of her senses as possible to allow what wanted to be heard, in. Fortunately it didn’t take long, as she came to the conclusion that whatever this was had been waiting alongside her this whole time. Whatever this was, it surrounded her completely and quickly became overpowering and intrusive in her head. Her eyes snapped open as the noise became a buzz louder than the underground train she had been taken on over on the mainland. Except it was clearly all internal, because she could tell that this sound wasn’t from a physical occurrence. Or was it?

Sliding down from the rock, Fae walked to the closest tree and pressed her ear against it, once again closing her eyes to try and listen for the wordless speaking. The trees of Hy-Brasil were ancient and wise, and occasionally she had had the fortunate experience of listening to one speak – in the sense that she simply understood what it wanted to tell her. She had never second-guessed those interactions before, assuming that it was simply the affinity the druidic peoples had with the natural world assisting her in the moment. But she had never spoken back to a tree before. At least not until now. Asking it if it understood her elicited a tonal change in the hum around her, accompanied by a shake of its branches that was too strong for the wind that was currently carrying itself over the island. She would swear to Merlin if she didn’t immediately think this had to do with him and the staff, but further inquiries to other trees in the clearing only proved that this was something of her own doing apparently. This sort of communication with everything around her had never been possible before, and while concerning that it only now showed up after she had been asking for a whole year for some sort of assistance, she wasn’t going to suddenly turn away from it. The world was smart, and much more intelligent than she or any other human was or could ever be. Maybe it was because she hadn’t actually stopped to listen, instead opting to constantly ask. Whatever the reason was, Fae felt like testing this new development.

She closed her eyes again and asked the Wildwood to lead her back to her home. Without further prompting, she listened to what the trees had to offer her, and what she could gleam from the blades of grass that curled below her feet. An effortless walk was before her, as she was led to her front door within a matter of minutes and far faster than she had ever done so before from the clearing. Of course nature would know the fastest route! Once at her door, she decided to try something else. Not demanding the morning glories that sat in her window box to open, but rather asking them to for just a second, she watched as they did just that with very little prompting.

A curious discovery, Fae gleefully spent the entire night wandering around the island asking various flora to do things for her. All requests were within reason though, and she only wanted to see the extent to which the plants would go. The noise that they had been making earlier in the night had become quieter as well, and she realized as the sun began to rise that this had been their way of trying to tell her that she was ready to communicate. More time meditating and looking into what this new introspection of the natural world meant was absolutely necessary, a fact that she knew despite her newfound excitement over what this all meant. After a year of relentlessly beating herself up over problems that were out of her control, this was the first time in ages that she finally felt like she had the help she had desperately needed. It had been here the whole time waiting for her to listen.

fae iona cloudbreaker ● 1,530 ● Fear No Darkness by Adrian Von Ziegler

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0