Location: On the road to Monthaven
Timeline: Sixth Age, Year 52, Early Spring
While the Goddess of Love was consorting with the goat-god on Arcady Isle, the intended victim of her First Sight ritual, Emcorae, awoke in his camp near Monthaven. The grand warrior’s slumber, which was to be his luxurious reward, was violently ruined.
“What in Kra was that damn noise?” Emcorae grumbled.
The fool had slept against a log all night and work with a knot in his back and a crick in his neck. He shielded his eyes from the rising sun as the unusual noise persisted—a chorus of splashing and giggling from a nearby stream. Thinking back to his childhood, he remembered that Rock Run was nearby – with its sparkling array of miniature waterfalls that fell into a crystal clear pool about fifty feet in diameter, it was an almost idyllic spot that was formed by a small creek-like tributary of the Suskil River. Emcorae chafed at the audacity of dim-witted country folk disrupting a morning just made for sleeping in. “Arg, Joanne, even Baal himself couldn’t make so much racket!”
His elvish horse Joanne wisely ignored the tantrum. Her focus, infinitely more substantial than her master’s, was on her own, more pragmatic pursuit: the location and consumption of thistles. Sniff. Sniff. Thistles…mmmm.
The Fatal Gaze
Forced to wake up, the noise quickly served to pique the Emcorae’s insatiable curiosity—his single, most dangerous trait. He soon felt a strangely burning desire to see the source of the racket and soon moved towards it with the silence of a practiced tracker.
His mind, engaged in the pedantic lessons of his mysstro El-Janus, self-narrated his movements: Behind the oak. Peer out slowly. Move to the bush. He reached a fever pitch of smugness: “Ha, these bumpkins can’t even hear me coming. I could practically sit in their laps!” He paused only to curse himself, remembering the warnings of his teacher. Over-confidence is the second worst enemy of a tracker. And then ruefully reminded himself of the first: Curiosity! Yet, the compulsion to see was stronger than the code. I’m not gonna turn back now.
At last, he knelt behind a clump of leafy bushes, settling into a vantage point of Rock Run. Proud of his stealth, this fleeting moment of smugness made the subsequent detonation of his entire existence all the more glorious. For Emcorae was completely unprepared for the sight that met his eyes. He would have been less surprised had he seen Baal and Sindra having a picnic with Yahway and Maree than what he spied instead – for there on the shores of Rock Run were a group of teenage girls sunning themselves and giggling together. Not a one had any clothes on and each of them was a beauty in her own right, yet Emcorae saw none of them – for Alyssa’s Ritual required a singular focus – and as the Azora had parted the leaves, his initial gaze was instantly, fatefully claimed when there emerged from the crystal pool the most attractive woman he had ever seen!
Six years among the Amorosi elves—the supposed pinnacle of beauty on Terra—had failed to stir his manly blood. But this mortal human girl, rising from the water, her tan body glistening, instantly sparked his every compulsion. It was as if, the world stopped for him and looking upon the object of his desire, Emcorae Azop was immediately and irrevocably love struck.
Now whether this happening was solely the result of the magical spell Alyssa had cast upon his heart during the night, or whether Emcorae was instead just destined to fall in love with this woman on his own, who can say? Perhaps it was a little of both – for the emotions he felt upon this morn were most genuine indeed – or so they did seem to him.
As the girl held her arms above her head while her companions dried her, Emcorae drank in the sight – the girl’s strawberry blonde hair framed a face that was, to him, the new center of the cosmos. The fool’s mind then instantly retreated into a world of fantasy – he imagined himself caressing her silk-like skin, kissing her forehead, and finally seeking her lips. But then…
“Tiffania dear, let’s say we try one more time – let me see the book again?” The sweet voice of his new obsession brought him crashing back to reality.
When the girls noticed the book in question was nowhere in sight, a frantic search among their possessions followed – until Tiffania gasped, pointing to the water: “Oh no, Lynsy, there it is! The Song of Pan is floating down the river!”
Emcorae followed to where the girls were looking and barely saw a small book slipping away into the current of the Suskil River before it was lost to sight.
Yet Emcorae’s would be lover Lynsy remained composed, asking “Maybe it’s for the best. For consider: where is Pan?”
A redhead, Kelli, piped up: “Old Pan never answered our call – he’s no fun!”
All the girls shared an anxious laugh — for although none of them would admit it, they’d all been a little scared when they’d joined together to summon the God of the Primal Forests earlier that morn – just before the rising of the sun – while Lynsy had read aloud from the old tome, calling to Pan across the distances of time and space.
They believed the spell had failed, yet I knew otherwise – the summoning had worked. The timing of Pan’s arrival merely coincided with Alyssa’s own magical flourish. Thus the two gods collided, and Alyssa’s long-planned Ritual was derailed.
With Pan dismissed, the girls’ conversation turned. Lynsy prodded her friend: “Say, Tiffania, tell us, what did you and Darril do last night?” Tiffania blushed, confessing that Darril was “just soooo sweet” and made her feel “soooo good.” Kelli immediately demanded details on how she snuck past the manor guards. And whilst they all sighed at the thought of love, Lynsy applauded Tiffania for choosing a poor farmhand over the fortune of her brother, Dugan, who pined for the maid.
“Maybe love will find a way to overcome obstacles?” Lynsy mused “Oh, to have a love like that – to be willing to risk it all for just the chance to hold someone, even if only for a moment….”
Lost in her words with the rest of the group, Emcorae was oblivious that to the fact that his own heart was now lost what would become a ridiculous quest for “forbidden love” and again he began to daydream, until…
In the distance, a horse whinnied, followed immediately by a deafening thunderclap. Immediately the sky behind Emcorae’s perch went black. The girls looked up, startled at the sound, but the Azora was had already let the leaves conceal him.
And so, that day, once full of promises, instantly turned sour, as large, freezing droplets of rain began to pelt the ground. Taken by surprise, the girls hurried to get dressed and gather up their things, crowding under a tree to escape the rains, as their outing was unexpectedly cut short. Emcorae watched as the young women ran to their horses and quickly rode towards Monthaven.
In a daze, Emcorare returned to his campsite. He was no longer a warrior in training; instead he’d become a sentimental pawn. His life, after this day, would indeed be changed forever.
The Delicious Twist
Emcorae’s mortal escapades would hardly be a tale worthy of my telling, had not someone else had also been watching – Alyssa, the now angry Goddess of Love.
Earlier, Alyssa had given in to the urges of Pan on Arkady Island – for there was no way to resist that wild god’s allure – even though Pan’s timing could not have been worse for her. But then, after those those animal fires had been satisfied, Alyssa quickly remembered her First Sight ritual and her long awaited lover boy’s soon to be hopeless devotion to the first woman he laid eyes on that morn. Thus verily did the goddess hurry back to these small woods outside Monthaven – only to arrive in time to see Emcorae now utterly infatuated with another woman!
Had I been watching this in real time I’d have tossed my popcorn in delight as Alyssa screamed in vain — and the thunder rolled as her voice!
Best of all, I would have loved to have savored this little nugget – for surely the Goddess of “Lost” Love must have realized that it had been her very own plans that had robbed her of the lifelong companionship of yet another member of the Azop family! For it was the magic of her unbreakable spell that had now contributed to Emcorae’s new lifelong love of the girl named Lynsy.
Feeling crushed and defeated, the goddess sank to her knees and cried – once again she had come so close to true love, and yet once again, she was denied. In spite of being a god, Alyssa looked utterly pitiful. For she knew there was nothing she could do to reverse her powerful magic. It was thus Alyssa’s tears that brought the unexpected rains of the day – spoiling the party for everyone else.
Meanwhile, neither Emcorae nor the elvish horse Joanne knew about the covert actions of Alyssa. When she saw her friend approaching with a glassy look in his eyes, Joanne merely snorted. It was raining heavily as the horse stood under a tall pine, watching her companion pack his belongings – along with an assortment of twigs, leaves and branches. What is that boy doing? Joanne hmmfph’d to herself.
Emcorae paid little attention as he loaded his saddlebags for his mind was elsewhere — upon his visions of the girl Lynsy. He didn’t know much about her or her family or even her surname, but he did know this – she was his own goddess of love. Thoroughly soaked, he climbed upon Joanne’s back and set off in the direction of his parent’s house. He never did get to enjoy that long sleep he’d hoped for, but he realized that was just as well. Despite the pouring rain and dark clouds, the foolish mortal surely believed his future was bright. In fact, he shouted aloud to the forest, “Oh, thank you, Alyssa. You always were my favorite goddess!!”
Imagine the glorious horror that the goddess must have felt as, from the nearby trees she cried in heart-wrenching hopelessness while she watched her now lost lover ride away.
The Wild One
Last of all was this – further down in the valley, near one of the many twists in the Suskil River, there did a mysterious woodland creature pick out of the stream a waterlogged book, its pages soaking wet yet still intact. Stepping back from the waters edge, the wild creature smiled as he danced in the rain and held the book over his head.
With a primal roar <YAAAAWWWP!> that shook the forest, the God of Pan then vanished – his victory over Love complete – once again.
The Apocrypha of Azazel 