[h3]A Story of a Tree[/h3][hr]
[center][img]http://i.imgur.com/NSzdL4D.jpg[/img][/center]

Kettle watched, with easing tension and slowing breaths, the exchange of introductions among Lila, Clav, and -- who was that? -- a young lady, valiantly trying not to be so frightened of the two most frightening-looking people Kettle had ever met. Kettle stood in the doorway awhile, her brows knitted while she mentally read through the list of letters she had sent, knowing this young lady had not been among them. But her face! Her face was so familiar.

And then, like the switch of a light, Kettle's eyes brightened in recognition. Len's son! This young woman looked very much like Junior, who had grabbed at Kettle's robes and had listened, gawping, to her stories of adventures across the world. Kettle wracked her brain, but as far as she knew, Junior didn't have a sister. Who was this, then, responding alone to a letter that had been addressed to Len and his wife?

She might have spoken, but the mysterious young woman had slowly begun to trust Clav in the midst of long conversation, and Kettle wouldn't have interrupted their new friendship for the world. There would be time in the future for questions.

Instead, Kettle slipped back into the cafe to find that her chosen companions had become boisterous and quick friends. Tea was poured, food was eaten, stories were told, even a couple admissions of admiration. She watched and listened to all of it with a profound sense of joy.

[h3]6:00 pm[/h3][hr]
The sun behind the fog was setting on the mountains, and the lamps within the room were brightened with a twist of a knob. The noise and laughter was just as strong as it had been an hour ago, and it was clear those gathered could go on all night as long as the food and the tea kept coming.

Kettle touched Harry on the shoulder. [color=#B2AEBC]"Will you tell everyone outside to come in, please?"[/color] she asked kindly, with a twinge of nerves beginning to twist in her stomach. She moved quietly to the front of the room, where she scanned all of them for a moment and ingrained their faces in her memory.

She grinned suddenly, curled her fingers to her lips, and whistled high and piercing for their attention.

[color=#B2AEBC]"Thank you all for coming,"[/color] she announced, quelling the last of the conversational murmurs. [color=#B2AEBC]"I am truly, deeply honored that you all traveled so far with so little information. I am [i]humbled[/i] by your trust, your friendship, your generosity, and your profound and adventurous curiosity."[/color] She wasn't going to cry, she told herself. The fact that so many surrounded her now was the happiest feeling in the world. She took a deep breath.

[color=#B2AEBC]"We're all here because of a discovery."[/color] How should she phrase it? She hadn't quite thought of what she would say when the time came -- and now they were all looking at her, expectant.

[color=#B2AEBC]"There is a myth that I'm sure many of you know."[/color] When in doubt, tell a story. Kettle hopped up and sat on a table, facing them all, her hands curled around the edge. [color=#B2AEBC]"That in the beginning of all things, the world was empty, volcanic, filled with dust and fire and darkness -- until a star fell down from the sky and buried deep under the stones. And then, out of the rock and ash of that tumultuous world, a Tree took shape."[/color] She illustrated with a gesture of her hands, like pulling the form of a tree out of a wasteland. [color=#B2AEBC]"Over millennia the Tree grew and curled its roots around the world, embracing volcanic wastes and seas of acid. Slowly the chaos calmed. The sky cleared for the first time since the planet's birth, and the Tree's branches filled with the first green the world had ever known. Grass grew out of ashes, forests rose out of dead volcanoes, the seas turned blue and the rivers ran fresh. The Tree bore fruit, then: the fish of the seas, the beasts of the ground and the birds of the sky. Then, our ancestors. People. All are children of the Tree; all are brothers and sisters of the same origin."[/color] Kettle included every race and species in the world and represented in that room when she spoke of [i]people[/i].

An expression of worry crossed Kettle's face. Even now, she was unsure whether they would believe her.

[color=#B2AEBC]"I believe that just beyond the mountains to the north -- in the heart of the unnamed woods -- are the ruins of the City of Ro."[/color] She waited a moment for this information to sink in -- for those who knew the legends to realize the gravity of this discovery. [color=#B2AEBC]"According to legend, Ro was built on the site where the Tree first grew. The city's sole purpose was to worship and protect the last remaining Seed."[/color] She scanned each of their faces. Surely, they thought she was mad.

[color=#B2AEBC]"If I'm right -- and I am very sure I am -- just north of where we stand lies a Seed of the Tree of creation."[/color]