Healing Ritual

[Morneanna]

A cloaked figure moves along the stands. The fabric not able to hide the soft curves of a woman’s body, and as she moves the cloak accentuates her feminine forms. Her face is hidden under the deep hood, and as she passes Shady Steve’s booth she pulls the hood lower over her face under his glare.

 

From under the hood Morneanna glances over the pennites. She sees smiles everywhere, but the atmosphere underneath feels tense, and she might have arrived only just in time. Aware that she will draw attention to herself if she just keeps standing there, she concentrates on guiding the light away and around her so only the most observant spectator can possibly see her, and only if they would be looking for her.

 

Under the hood her features grow sterner, she has come here with a task, and will try her best to fulfill the expectations she has placed upon herself. In the distance the sounds of the pillow fight can be heard, and as she hurries past the item auction she watches the dwarf present his item with a smile; he seems to understand what it’s all about in life, and she can feel the positive glow that radiates from him.

 

Somehow the Pen Grounds feel different than when she was here first, but she also senses the desperate attempts to keep things going. The struggle for survival feels tense underneath the open pleasure. Some of the newer people clearly enjoy themselves, but it feels as if they hold back, in need of that little bit of extra faith and motivation.

 

Hidden under the cloak she makes for where she knows will be the best place to set up what she has in mind. The clearing she reaches is shaded and green, and her mother, the sun, is filtered out by the roof of leaves. Still her joyful power makes Morneanna smile, and she feels that this will work; it has to.

 

She glances around and when she’s sure nobody’s near she lowers the hood, and raises her face against a beam of sunlight.

 

“Make them hear my prayers,” she whispers to the light.

 

The leaves rustle in the warm summer breeze in reply, and Morneanna knows she has always been part of these grounds. She has been born from the creativity and warmth of the pennites, and knows that she would wither away without its tender caring, and without the powerful emotions these people have always been willing to give. It is time she gives back to them, and she closes her eyes, repeating the words over and over again.

 

Around the Pen the sun breaks free, and flecks off light dart over the pennites. Touching their faces, and attempting to enter their hearts. Sun spots dance over their hands, and materialize as people held out their hands to catch them. Each sun speck a part of Morneanna, and she spreads herself out over the Pen Grounds, covering the carnival celebrators with her warm message.

 

Wyvern, the almost dragonic elder, feels the warmth land on his shoulders, whispering tender words to him, a sun fleck plays over Patrick’s face, rustling its words in the guildleader’s ears, Ayshela feels how the sun spot presses against her cheek and sighs its message to her, and throughout the Pen Grounds Morneanna’s messages are delivered.

 

With all those warm messages unfolding it is as if the entire pen bathes in light for one short moment, and Morneanna’s words are whispering through the air.

 

“This solstice, in the clearing at the edge of your Pen Grounds, I invite you to join in a Healing Ritual. We will celebrate that we are together, and speak out our wishes for the coming year. We will bind ourselves once more with these holy grounds, and bless each other with our presence.

 

Yours truly,

 

Morneanna.”

 

Her face calm as she is sending out the invitations, Morneanna stands in the sunbeam. She feels how energy from her mother courses through her veins, and gives her the strength to reach all those people around the Pen.

 

When she’s sure all pen children have received her invite. Morneanna steps out of the sunlight, and pulls the hood back over her face. She hopes that most will attend the Healing Ritual, and that her message has been clear enough.

 

She sits down on the forest ground, the moss soft under her bare legs, and takes out the ritual pipe she would smoke with those who would come to share their wishes for the next year. She carefully places it on the ground next to her, and starts weaving light into small strands. Those pennites wishing to recommit to the Pen would each receive their warmth and motivation. Morneanna works and waits patiently, hoping that it is not too late.

[Sweetcherrie]

With a frown on her face, Sweetcherrie stands at Katz’s booth. It would be almost impossible to equal Wyvern’s try on her challenge, but she would definitely like to try. With a pencil she grabs from her inside pocket, she jots down the words on a piece of paper. It’s only a scribble, but she would need some time to think about this one. She sticks the paper in the back pocket of her jeans, and the pencil back in her inside pocket.

 

Then the most amazing thing happens. Little spots of light whirl down slowly, and the world seems to warm up a few degrees. She holds out her hand and a sun fleck lights on her open palm.

 

Morneanna’s words whisper the invitation to her, and a smile appears on Sweetcherrie’s face. Recommitting to the Pen…it seemed only yesterday that she arrived here. For a moment she closes her eyes, and lets the memory of the warm welcome embrace her. With a giggle about how Wyvern’s reaction had thrown her off back then she opens her eyes again.

 

The Pen had given her a lot; friends, a place to be creative, warm words when needed, and harder words when asked for. She had learned from the Pen, and this “Healing Ritual” seemed the perfect opportunity to thank the pennites for all this.

 

Feeling a little lighter in her heart she sets the fleck of light free, and looks around her. Every pennite seems to have gotten the same message, and looking at those faces she feels all warm and fuzzy inside.

 

Sweetcherrie smiles and sets of for the clearing, she would definitely be there to share her memories, stories, and she was more than willing to recommit to the Pen, it was her home away from home after all.

 

She ducks for a meteoric pillow flying past, and suddenly has an idea for Katz’s common words challenge. She grabs the paper back out of her pocket, and while walking she starts scribbling. With her head concentrating on the story she barely notices that she almost walks into some weird sort of tree, and is only saved because the clouds around her feet seem to guide her around it.

 

With a soft cheer she finishes the story, looks up, and notices that she has reached the clearing without knowing that she was already this close. She sticks the paper with the story back in her pocket, and the woman sitting on the ground gestures for her to sit down. As Sweetcherrie does so she tries to get a glance of the face under the hood, but the fabric is pulled down thoroughly, and with a sigh Sweetcherrie sits back and waits for others to show up.