The Flower Goddess

The first story that is taught to each priestess as she begins her training is the story of the first priestess.

Some time in the past, an herbalist named Peri was married to a great warrior named Bastel. While defending the kingdom of Amden against the hordes of Wrethu, Bastel was sorely wounded in the stomach. He was brought to his home and was left under the care of his wife for a stomach wound such as he had, a man might last days before he died, but death was sure.

While Bastel was able to stay conscious they said their goodbyes. There is nothing more heartbreaking than the sight of two lovers who know they will be seperated soon.

When Bastel fell into a fevered slumber from which Peri could not awaken him, she set her apprentice to watch over him and she began a search for anything that might save his life.

She spoke with many herbalists like herself. She sent letters to other nearby villagers in the hopes someone might know some way to save Bastel.

For three days she searched and could find nothing. There was no hope for her husband.

As many do in despair, she prayed. She prayed to the stars, to the moon, to the sun, to the rivers. No help came.

By the night of the fourth day she weeped and when her grief could bring no more tears from her eyes, she was numb. Sitting there, holding her Bastel’s hand as he struggled against fever and death. It was then, in relaxed resignment to fate that the image of a yellow flower appeared in her mind’s eye. A three petaled, yellow flower.

She knew, or thought so, every flower and herb within two days walk from her home and yet that image tickled her memory. She could find nothing in her herb books and left her home one more time.

She didn’t even know where to go. She set out walking and let her feet take her where they will. She walked for an entire day and when she could walk no farther, when her hope dwindled to nothing but the tiniest thread, she fell to the ground and cried again.

When she opened her eyes, she thought she had gone mad for there, covered in her tears lay the flower she had been searching for. She saw the flower and belief blossomed in her mind and with it everything she needed to know about how to take and prepare the flower.

She ran as fast as the wild cat and never tired. Bastel was still laying in his bed, dying and she hurried to prepare the flower.

There was only one thing she didn’t know about it and that was it’s effect. She refused to give into that thought, surely it must save him or why else would it have come to her?

When she layed a poultice on her husband’s wound, there were no miracles. He moaned in pain and lay there still.

Despair began to grip her once again and with it her exhaustion overwhelmed her into unconsciousness.

When she awoke she checked Bastel, fearing the worst as he was very silent. His breathing was steady. His color was almost normal. He was still alive but when she checked his wound she knew it could not last for nothing had changed. She feared that when she ran out of the yellow flower, she would find no more and he would die despite everything.

She knelt at Bastel’s bedside and held his hand and thought of all the days they had spent together. The first time she had seen him practice with his weapons. How he’d looked at her with desire and then, without knowing her, love.

She whispered in his ear,”I love you” and lay her head on his shoulder.

Sick with sadness another image pushed into her mind. More than an image, it was a feeling, it was real.

She saw a lovely dark haired woman dressed in the leathers of a hunter. In her right hand she held a spear that she used as a walking stick and in her left she held a basket filled, Peri knew, with every imaginable flower and herb ever used in healing the sick. This woman walked across a field of green grass surrounded by trees. The sky was blue and dotted with whispy white clouds.

The woman stopped and knelt in the grass and there Peri saw a wolf with a large wound in it’s stomach. The woman in leather took her spear and drew a circle around herself and the wolf, when she was done she touched the circle and there was a crackle sound. She leaned over the wolf and placed her hands around it’s wound. She closed her eyes and energy filled the circle. Peri watched as the woman used the energy to heal the wolf. It’s insides knitted together and then it’s skin. Nothing was left except a bit of blood and healthy furless skin.

The wolf leaped to it’s feet and tried to move away only to run into the edge of the circle. The woman stood and rubbed away part of the circle with her foot. The wolf stepped out and ran off. The last image in Peri’s mind was that of the three petaled yellow flower.

Peri snapped out of the daydream and rushed to the fireplace and grabbed a handful of ash. With the ash she drew a circle around herself and her husband and touched it but nothing happened. She thought of the woman creating the circle herself and tried to understand what had happened. There was nothing different. She tried to feel what had happened but still nothing. She went over and over it. Finally, she thought of the energy, of the spark that had been created and she immediately felt a pop from her fingers to the circle on the floor.

Excited, awed, filled with hope she placed her hands on her husband’s wound and again nothing happened. This time she thought she knew what to do though. She felt for the energy that the woman in the vision had used, except there was nothing there. She ran her mind through the image of the woman, watched her again kneel and touch the wolf and she knew what was missing.

With hands placed against Bastel, she focused on her love of him. Going over every beautiful thought she had ever had of him, every moment of heartache. She told him she loved him over and over again. She felt the thoughts build into something almost tangible. It surrounded them as the circle surrounded them. All of it began to focus on her hands and then on Bastel’s wound.

Slowly his insides knit together and then his skin. When there was nothing left but clean hairless skin, Peri fell into unconsciousness again.

Some days later she opened her eyes to find herself in Bastel’s sickbed with him sitting next to her. He told her that he had awakened to find her unconscious and moved her into his bed. Her apprentice had checked her over and said it was only exhaustion and that’s how things had stood for three days.

“How did you save me, Peri? I know that the wound I had was fatal, I remember the first few days.”

She stared weakly at him feeling her love for him as strongly as ever and told him her story.

“Who is she?”

Peri closed her eyes for a moment and then she knew. “She’s our Goddess. From this moment forth. Her name is Ciri. She’s the flower Goddess of healing, love and protection. Her home is the forest and she has promised to help us for as long as we believe in her.”