Quoted By:
23/20 - Magnificent Harvest [+7 FAITH]
24/20 - Magnificent Harvest [+7 FAITH]
28/20 - Magnificent Harvest [+9 FAITH]
TRADER/PARCEL [+4 FAITH]
+++
Snowmelt trickles down from the jagged mountains to feed the lush fields below. Hatchling songbirds conduct recitals in the morning and eve, eagerly anticipating the buzzing warmth of summer. Fireflies dance in the star-streaked sky above your shrine.
The trader takes his leave with his two new apprentices, traveling earthward towards more urbane lands. He speaks fondly of the coastal stilt-cities, where moth-silk is spun on the salty sea-breeze, whose learned people have developed a particular taste for his offerings in letters and scrolls. Yet despite the promise of fairer trade, he promises to return - to the warmth of the campfire, to the coldness of your shrine. The frank admission that he will miss these things surprises him as much as his humble hosts, and provokes the hunter to give him a final gift before his departure.
The following harvest is more bountiful than any in recent memory. The dark soil yields baskets of jewel-red berries, to be washed clean in the afternoon rain. The knight and his diligent daughter preside over a magnificent harvest of of spring crops: rust-red tubers and robust sweetleaves, collected in tilted wagons. The hunter tallies ten animals with bow alone - a mass of salted provisions and a treasure trove of polished bone.
The volume of offerings brought before you is almost nostalgic. There is the burning of incense, and the devout prayers. The ringing of your offering bowl, and the careful arrangement of glass and fur and polished bone beneath your plinth.
But it is the unfamiliar things that you find most pleasant. The bright-eyed child laughs as she finally climbs onto your pedestal-proper, wreathing the broken stone with another circlet of freshly picked fog-tulips. Everyone takes turns with the hunter's spare bow, sending untipped arrows whistling into the evening haze. Father and daughter laugh as they spar, forgetting old fears with the careful practice of strike, block, and parry.
