Hawthorne

From Changeling Venue

Seeming	Elemental Woodblood
Court	Spring Court •
Freehold	Freehold of River and Sun
Player	William Broderick

Contents 1 Timeline 2 Chapter I: The Roots of Hawthorne 3 Chapter II: Through The Hedge 4 Chapter III: The Mind of a Tree 5 Chapter IV: Fertilizer 5.1 Quotations 5.2 Rumor 6 Chapter V: Forest for the Trees 7 Epilogue 7.1 OOC Information

Timeline

• January, 1969 - John Williams, Jr. (Johnny) is born to John and Martha Williams at Arlington Memorial Hospital in Arlington, Texas.
• November, 1971- Johnny's sister, Emily Williams, is born to John and Martha Williams at Arlington Memorial Hospital in Arlington, Texas.
• October, 1972 - Johnny's parents file for divorce and Father moves on to bigger and better things in Dallas, Texas.
• August, 1974 - Johnny begins Little Elementary School in Arlington, Texas.
• August, 1980 - Johnny begins Young Junior High School in Arlington, Texas.
• August, 1984 - Johnny begins Martin High School in Arlington, Texas.
• June, 1986 - Johnny graduates Valedictorian of his High School Class.
• August, 1986 - Johnny is accepted and begins college at the University of Texas at Arlington.
• January, 1987- Johnny meets his soon to be wife, Wendy Calderon, at his surprise birthday party held by his friends in the college dorm.
• January, 1988- Johnny marries Wendy on the steps of the Arlington Municipal Courthouse, Arlington, Texas.
• December, 1989- Johnny's daughter, Bonnie Williams, is born at Arlington Memorial Hospital in Arlington, Texas.
• January, 1990- Johnny's sister, Emily Williams, follows in his footsteps and begins college at the University of Texas at Arlington.
• December, 1990- Johnny graduates Magna Cum Laude from the University of Texas at Arlington as a double major in Bio-Chemistry and Anthropology.
• January, 1991- Johnny applies and is accepted into the Anthropology Masters Program at the University of Texas at Arlington.
• July, 1992- Johnny's Mother, Martha Williams, passes away in her sleep and is interned at Eternal Peace Cemetery in Arlington, Texas.
• December, 1994 - Johnny's sister, Emily Williams, graduates from the University of Texas at Arlington with a Bachelor of Arts in Education.
• May, 1995 - Johnny completes his graduate work at the University of Texas at Arlington with a double major in Botany and Applied Anthropology.
• November, 1995 - Johnny moves his family to a new house in Austin, Texas, in preparation of beginning his doctorate work at the University of Texas at Austin there.
• January, 1996 - Johnny applies and is accepted into the Doctorate Program at the University of Texas at Austin.
• May, 1997 - Johnny begin teaching undergraduate courses in Bio-Chemistry at the University of Texas at Austin while continuing to work on his PhD.
• August, 2000 - Johnny receives word that his father, John Williams, Sr., has passed away penniless in Dallas, Texas, the victim of a drunk driver. He makes arrangements to have him buried at Eternal Peace Cemetery in Arlington, Texas, but in a different part of the cemetery from his Mother. He begins to refer to himself as John Williams, and not Johnny Williams now.
• November, 2001 - John discovers the purpose for indole 3-acetic acid, or Auxin. The plant hormone helps plants grow their shoots upward and roots downward and to flower and bear fruit. The hormone was first identified in plants in 1941 but no one had known how the process works until now. Discovery of the Auxin Process has won John a modest amount of academic fame.
• May, 2002 - John is offered and accepts a professorship at the University of Texas at Austin teaching Anthropology.
• January, 2003 - John's work aids with the development of a germplasm that improves crop yield, increases nutritional value, enhances pest and disease resistance, and improves a plant’s tolerance to drought or extreme temperatures as a new professor at UT Austin. His development of this new germplasm continues to increase his credibility as a serious scientist.
• December, 2004 - John publishes a book titled, "Integrating Extant and Fossil Biodiversity in Evolutionary Studies". The work is well received by his peers and brings an increased recognition to his school and his work as an Ethnobotanist.
• September, 2005 - John participates in the completion of the Rice Genome Project along with 32 other research groups that include scientists from 10 different countries. This achievement is expected to pave the way for making critical improvements in rice, the staple food for more than one-half of the world's population. The project is a major milestone in plant science.
• December, 2005 - John accepts tenure at the University of Texas at Austin after an unprecedented short time of four years at the school. He is also offered a position as the Chair of the Anthropology Department.
• February, 2006 - John's continued success at work has placed enormous amounts of strain on his life at home. Unable to compete with his academics any longer, Wendy presents John with divorce papers through the departmental secretary since John was unavailable to see her directly.
• March, 2006 - John and Wendy begin marriage counseling, but he misses more appointments that he makes due to his commitments and responsibilities to the university.
• August, 2006 - John is abducted from the woods next to the faculty parking lot of the Science Building at the University of Texas at Austin. His Durance last 7 days on Earth but is experienced as 7 years in Arcadia.

• Earth, Day 1 - His Fetch, John, settles into his new life both at work and at home, learning quickly that his predecessor had entirely too much drive and responsibility. He also recognizes the problems at home immediately and stays up all night thinking about how to resolve these two competing sides of his life.
• Earth, Day 2 - John Fetch resigns as the Chair of the Anthropology Department at the University of Texas at Austin and taking the afternoon off, goes home to spend more time getting to know his new family. The change is well received at home but not by the college.
• Earth, Day 3 - John Fetch calls in sick to work and takes his new wife and daughter outside to picnic and play at Zilker Park in Austin, Texas.
• Earth, Day 4 - John Fetch meets with the Dean of the College and re-negotiates a reduced salary for a reduced class/work load, citing burnout and a re-prioritized focus on his family as the need for change.
• Earth, Day 5 - John Fetch leaves work early to attend the High School Graduation of his "daughter" with his new wife. That night he offers Bonnie the keys to a 2006, candy apple red, Volkswagen Beetle as her graduation gift.
• Earth, Day 6 - John Fetch arranges a special dinner out for he and his wife where he surprises her with the news about his reduced responsibilities at work and promises to make her the new focus of his life. Wendy cries tears of joy and could not be happier with her new and improved husband.
• Earth, Day 7 - John Fetch walks hand in hand into the marriage councilor’s office and with tears of joy explains that this is going to be their last session with him.

• Arcadia, Year 1 - Planted by his Keeper, The Gardener, in The Garden of Stolen Souls and grown into a Woodblood Elemental. He is taught how to use his new body, how to adjust to his new life of servitude and given a new name, Hawthorne.
• Arcadia, Year 2 - Hawthorne is beaten and abused into submission regularly to assist with forgetting his previous life. He is given only the most strenuous and basic of tasks to perform and is watched constantly to force compliance.
• Arcadia, Year 3 - Hawthorne is finally allowed out of the Garden and tasked by his Keeper with beginning to study and catalogue the plant life of the Hedge. A Harvester is constantly guarding him when outside the Garden and escorts him everywhere while he performs his field work.
• Arcadia, Year 4 - Hawthorne becomes docile and happily compliant to perform for his Keeper. Pleased with his performance, The Gardener elevates Hawthorne to join his rank of Harvesters and places other Harvesters in his charge to assist and protect him with his work in the Hedge.
• Arcadia, Year 5 - Hawthorne is asked to stop his studies and lead the Harvesters in acquiring new plants for his garden. Reluctant, but desirous to please his Keeper, Hawthorne looses himself to the bestial hunter his Keeper wishes him to become.
• Arcadia, Year 6 - Hawthorne gains the reputation of being the terrifying and the dark right hand of The Gardener. His continued expeditions to Earth begin to remind Hawthorne of the scholarly life he once had and slowly reveals to himself the monster he has become.
• Arcadia, Year 7 - Hawthorne is able to secret away the Hedge Herbology prior to one last journey out of Arcadia. Instead of kidnapping a new charge for his master, he kills the Harvester that was sent with him and is able to complete his escape into the wilderness outside of Austin, Texas.

• September, 2006 - Hawthorne stealthily makes his way back home only to be horrified to find he has been replaced. Observing from the shadows he is puzzled to find the family completely content and happier than he has ever seen them. He spends the last night with his family silently weeping and watching from the darkened window outside before sinking back into the wilderness before dawn.
• October, 2006 - Hawthorne spends a month randomly wondering through the wilderness, living off the meager sustenance that can be found in the wild. Sorrow turns to hate and eventually rage however, and Hawthorne soon is little more than the monster he had left behind in Arcadia.
• November, 2006 - Hawthorne's actions soon catch the attention of the Freehold of River and Sun in San Antonio who sends a team to investigate and he is eventually brought back to them for help.
• December, 2006 - Hawthorne spends a difficult month healing both body and mind in the care of the Freehold. The holidays are spent drifting in and out of consciousness as the healers continued to mend his broken heart and mind.
• May, 2007 - With the aid of the Freehold, Hawthorne begins his new career at the Southwest Foundation for Bio-Medical Research in San Antonio. Here, he is able to blend back into the academic community, continue to conduct research developing new pharmaceuticals from plant life to pay the bills and use the facility to aid him in conducting Hedge Experiments.
• September, 2007 - The Freehold gathers to discuss the increased disappearance of Lost in San Antonio. The assembled Lost agree to move toward a seasonal court structure for mutual protection and benefit. The Autumn King, Tallyman, is elected as the first Autumn King of The Freehold of River and Sun.
• October, 2007 - Hawthorne aids the members of his freehold in understanding that while there are certainly dangers that exist in the Hedge, there is so much more. A trip there leads to the discovery of a small Hollow behind the Icehouse, a local bar, which is accessed via a key by saying "Order In" and walking thru the Kitchen door.
• November, 2007 - Hawthorne leads the Freehold on a hunt into the Hedge to locate and recover a sentient plant known as a Bloodsuckle. The hunt is successful and Hawthorne is able to begin to conduct experiments on how to domesticate the plant. During the hunt, the body of a missing Beer Elemental known as Ralph is found and recovered.
• December, 2007 – Hawthorne continues his experiment with the Bloodsuckle plant. With the aid and donation of blood samples from friends within the Freehold of River and Sun, he begins to try different blood types to see if the plant has a favored Seeming it likes to feed from.
• January, 2008 - Hawthorne now believes he needs to become larger and heartier to survive the Hedge long enough to reach his Utopian goal for his kind. He has been researching Etymology sources in an attempt to discover the origins of such words and phrases like, "Strong as a Ogre", and "Tall as an Oak" in an attempt to see if those answers can lead him down a path to discovering the way to apply those words to his new body.

Accomplishments:

Hawthorne is the author of Hedge Herbology. As one of the foremost scholars of Ethnobotany, he continues to struggle for a "normal" life by continuing to conduct research that defined the life he had taken from him. This tome is his attempt to codify the cultural and medicinal plantlife that resides within The Hedge.

Physical description: The mask hides Hawthorne well behind an illusion of a tall, lanky college professor. There are usually a pair of protective goggles and a lab coat nearby, as well as an assortment of gardning tools with which to apply his advanced education. His brown stained jeans get dirtier the closer we get to the floor and end in a pair of earth covered hiking boots. His oversized dress shirt helps to hide his unnaturally tall body. His dirty blonde hair and mustache are usually unkempt and his wireframe glasses probably need to be cleaned and pushed back up his nose ... again.

However, the mein underneath reveals a decidedly different creature. Easily the first characteristic about Hawthorne to be noticed is his height. The Elemental stands an impressive eleven feet tall and every inch covered with moss, bark, vine, and leaf. Small birds and insects, obviously comfortable with this giant mobile tree as their home, nest and move about his branches without care or cause. His weighty stride, almost as impressive as his height, shakes the ground with each step as he walks. The green eyes, peeking out behind large bushy eyebrows, glow warmly with the promise of Spring and his smile partially covered by the leafy mustache is friendly and inviting. He speaks in a loud, low rumble and radiates a sense of tranquility that most find comforting and contagious.

Inspirations: Treebeard and the race of Ents (in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings), Professor Albus Dumbledore (in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone), Goliath (in Walt Disney Television Animation's Gargoyles), The Blood Elves (in Blizzard's World of Warcraft), Magneto (in Marvel Comic's X=Men), Hartigan (in Frank Miller's Sin City) and Prometheus (of Classical Greek Mythology).

Chapter I: The Roots of Hawthorne

"The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity... and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself." - William Blake

Childhood: I was born to parents whose names escape me now. That was two lifetimes ago after all. I do remember the place though, Arlington Memorial Hospital. It was a much tinier place in January of 1969. I have vague recollections of playing and growing out of diapers in a small suburban home in Arlington. The memories are nice and nurturing, just the kind of warm and fuzzy thoughts one would expect from a new family. That didn’t last long though. That memory is not fuzzy at all.

Adolescence: I remember spending so much time alone safe and secure with my imagination, and my nice toys, in my nice room, away from all the yelling and fighting. Of course that security was a lie also, as the yelling and fighting was just down the hall. I was content to believe the lie that everything was fine and that “this was just the way adults worked out their differences”.

I remember my parents making the same mistake so many other young couples make. They decided to have another child, believing that to be the answer to the problems neither of them wanted to truly address. So, unto my parents a daughter was born. Yeah. The addition of another child had the same effect it has had on fragile marriages since recorded history… it shattered it. I have broken memories of their divorce. I can remember that it was not pretty, it rarely is I suppose, and when the dust had settled my sister and I were living with Mom in Arlington, Texas, while my Father moved on to bigger and better things in Dallas.

Adulthood: The divorce broke them both really, and in so many ways. They were never really the same people after. Mom tried her best, but it was really me holding the remnants of our family together. It forced me to grow up quick, which was a good thing and helped me get serious about school early, which I threw myself into to forget the bad. Dad made genuine attempts to be there at first, but time took its toll and weekends, birthdays, and phone calls soon dwindled to a few times a year. Which was fine, school was something that took much of my time, helped me forget the past, and was something I excelled at. So, I pushed there.

Junior High School grew into High School and still, I pushed. I threw myself into academics and it paid off. When it was time to graduate I had offers from everyone. Harvard, Yale, all of them! You name it, I got an acceptance letter from them. I was so excited… but that didn’t last long either. We couldn’t afford any of them on my Mom’s salary and I was carrying so much of the load with my sister and at home. There was no way I could leave them. So, I started classes at the University of Texas at Arlington. It was here so I could continue to help out at home but still allowed me to do what I loved.

I received an undergraduate degree in Botany, but that wasn’t the best part of my stay at UTA. I met a girl. Not just any girl, either. The perfect girl. … I can’t quite remember what she looked like now … but she was passionate about all the things I loved too! Friendship blossomed into love and we eventually were married on the steps of the Arlington Municipal Courthouse in … in… I… can’t remember now. Hmm. Well, we were happy and soon after we were blessed with a daughter of our own. My sister followed me to UTA, but decided she wanted to be an elementary school teacher for some reason. Tragedy struck our family while I was finishing my Masters degree when my Mother passed away. No drama, it was just her time. But it was hard to push on after that. My sister and I leaned on each other pretty heavily to get through our degrees.

My sister… I … can’t remember her name now, but she graduated finally and moved to Dallas to teach. I joined the Doctoral program at The University of Texas in Austin and my family and I moved to our state’s capital. I had the opportunity to teach there while I was working on my degree and I found my calling. I guess my sister wasn’t so crazy after all! It must have been in our blood. It just took longer to kick in for me. Anyway, when I was finished, the university offered me a professorship at UT Austin, which I accepted. Things were going so well. I miss them so much… my daughter… my wife. If only I could remember their names.

Profession: Hawthorne is an advanced scholar with a concentration in the field of Ethnobotany, which is a cross disciplinary field of study that includes Anthropology, Biology, Chemistry, Botany, and Horticulture. He currently holds doctorate degrees in both Bio-Chemistry and Anthropology.

Prior to his abduction, his academic background provided him with a tenured position as an Anthropology Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. Since his return through the Hedge, he has been able to find work as one of the throngs of scientists working in San Antonio for the Southwest Foundation for Bio-Medical Research, the largest bio-medical research facility in the United States and one of only six, level three bio-containment facilities in all of North America. Here, he is able to both blend into the academic community as well as continue to conduct research developing new pharmaceuticals from plant life.

Abduction: Late one night while leaving the office and heading back to the car, I heard a large thud. No, that’s not true. It was a massive thud that shook the ground. Almost like a tree had fallen but I hadn’t heard all the usual noises leading up to the crash against the ground. I know it was stupid. Looking back now, it proved to be incredibly so. I couldn’t help it though. I had to go see. My curiosity got the better of me… and I paid the price for it.

The tree was lying there right where I head it hit the ground. Oddly, it was still covered with leaf and moss. To every inspection it still seemed alive enough, except for the fact that it was sprawled across the ground. I just couldn’t help it. I had to go see what happened. And then everything went … wrong. The tree, started to move slowly at first but then very fast! Too fast. Curiosity quickly turned to panic and then terror as I dropped my briefcase and fled. I might have been able to take two steps before it grabbed me, I don’t remember much of this clearly. It gripped my leg so tightly, I heard something pop. Then, it started dragging me back to him…her… it. Quickly, it lifted me high into the air by an arm, I think. It held me dangling and hyperventilating in front of its face and then I watched “it” smile at me. I just started screaming. The tree creature turned with me still dangling casually at its hand and began to trudge through the woods.

Chapter II: Through The Hedge

"I think that if you shake the tree, you ought to be around when the fruit falls to pick it up." - Mary Cassatt

Durance: Tired and sore, I awoke unable to tell how long I had been unconscious. I found myself in the Lands of Spring, though at the time I did not know where I was. As I groggily tried to make sense of what happened, I felt an omni-present weight. It encased me and immediately caused me to come to my senses. What I saw did nothing to sooth or comfort. I had been placed in a garden. Though not in the sense one would normally be “placed” anywhere. I mean that I had been literally planted in a garden. And I was not alone. Buried alive up to my neck, I frantically looked around as best I could with my limited scope of vision to see additional horrified heads poking up out of the ground in front, to the left and to the right of me. All in nice, neat little rows and extending as far as my vision could reach. Screams, sobbing, crying, and pleas for mercy permeated the air of this enormous grove of … us. People. Normal, average, everyday people struggled in their earthly cages all around me. Obviously, they had been taken in a similar manner and we had all been forced, like living spikes, deep into the richest, most fertile soil I have ever seen.

As I inspected the ground around me, I noticed that the soil was taking on a decidedly red hue. At first I chalked it up to the type of soil I was in. It must have had a lot of clay like so much of Texas. But even as I tried to rationalize that in my head I knew it to be false. With each heartbeat, the pain that still wracked my body from so many lacerations eased and I knew that more of my life had to be flowing out of me and soaking into the thirsty earth that held me firm. I hung my head and cried softly to myself, wondering why this was happening and wishing I had been able to say goodbye before my heart beat out the last drop of blood to feed the ground.

I heard his approach long before I saw him. Then suddenly, he was in the garden. I watched him simply materialize through the tall, far off wall of the garden hedge. Blossoms and verge seemed to sprout spontaneously from his wake as he strode purposely toward me. He was careful to step over the many rows of his “crop” as he approached and I saw the semblance of a frown in all the vegetation that was his face. He dropped down on a knee that was more boulder and earth than plant. The action shook the ground all around me and he spoke to me for the first time.

He explained to me that I had been guilty of many transgressions in my short life, all of which he had been witness to. Apparently, my academic pursuits to better understand and cultivate the medicinal properties of many plants had been as a mortal sin to him. He further explained that the best way for me to understand the wrongs I had initiated, was for me to become what I had always struggled to understand. That was all he offered in voice before closing his eyes and looking skyward.

At his behest, the canopy of trees parted to reveal a bright blue sky, filled with cotton white clouds. He raised the giant trunks that served as arms and closed his massive thorn-like fingers into fists which caused the sky to turn dark and stormy. And without warning, we were all in a torrential downpour that blocked all vision further than a few feet away. The wind howled as loose debris and large raindrops struck me in the face. The lightning was so bright that closing your eyes still didn’t help you from going blind with each flash. The crack and boom of each thunderclap that followed the lightning was more felt than heard. Rooted to the ground as I was, my head was still knocked back from the thunder’s repetitive attack. My Keeper was nowhere to be seen. He could have stayed to watch or wondered off and I would have not known as my attention was quickly diverted to the rising pool of water that began to accumulate around me. Panic took me as I struggled to free my arms. But, the heavy, wet earth held me firmly in place. I was able to bite at a reed that floated lazily by my head and worked my mouth clumsily down to the end. Raising it with my mouth I took in a few practice breaths to see if it was hollow and shook with relief as I was rewarded with air.

As the water continued to rise, I witnessed several of the others gulp their last few breaths of air mixed with the dirty rainwater before the water rose above my mouth and nose. At first, I could still see the flashes of light in the sky and feel the boom that followed each flash of light until the rainwater grew too murky to see through. Then I closed my eyes and prayed for the rain to stop before reaching the other end of my makeshift straw. Periodically, I was forced to blow the rain back up and out of the reed and tried with difficulty to remain calm and concentrate on breathing. Minutes, or years, passed as I realized that I could no longer feel the thunder. In time, I once again saw the tiny waves on the surface of the pond as the water began to recede.

As the garden around us continued to drink in the rain, I spit out the reed and gulped in my first real breath in an eternity. It might have been the first real breath I have ever taken. I felt odd, different, as I continued to breathe in the new scents I could now smell in the garden. Had they been there before and I had just not been paying attention? I felt different. The pain was gone and there was strength in my limbs again. I could actually wiggle my fingers and toes and was somehow still able to sense the life giving water that was now deep in the ground. I wept again in part because I was alive, but also because I knew I had changed. The rain had been a baptism in many senses and somehow I knew I would never be the same again.

There were so many dead. The majority of the people I could see in the garden did not live to see the second day. I remained trapped and horrified, as I watched him “prune” the dead and gather the entire pile of bodies in one massive hand, taking them off to be discarded, as nonchalantly as we would treat weeds from our cookie cutter suburban yards.

Days passed and with each those that remained suffered the same fate. My Keeper would arrive, tend to his crop, call down the rain and leave. However, I no longer feared the rain. I discovered that I was able to draw nourishment from the ground around me now. And even the temporary absence of air was but an annoyance as I learned to draw breath from the ground too.

As days turned into weeks, I learned to enjoy my Keeper’s presence. In time, I even longed for it. I was also growing. I could feel the strength not just returning to my limbs but flooding them with a renewed vigor I had not felt since I was much younger. I could not tell you how long the process took but there came a day when I was able to raise my arms and pull myself up out of the earth. On that day, I stood in awe at the creature I had transformed into. I now stood almost nine feet tall and strong. I had taken on the form of my Keeper in that I now resembled, albeit a smaller version in comparison, a sturdy tree with plant and vegetation binding all the parts together. My Keeper actually laughed on that day. He threw his head back and laughed low and rumbling so that the trees around the garden shook, mocking the tiny tree I had become.

He said that maybe now I would be able to understand what it is to be forced to grow a certain way. He bade me tend the garden that had become my new home and I was gracious for the opportunity to serve my Keeper.

more to come...

Chapter III: The Mind of a Tree

"Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing." - Abraham Lincoln"

This is a collection of random thoughts and ideas on the nature of changeling existence.

The Hedge Herbology is a thick, leather bound, hand-written journal of Hawthorne's collected observations and research on the indiginous plant life of The Hedge.

Wyrd

Glamour

Chapter IV: Fertilizer

"A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love." - Saint Basil

Quotations

Thoughts and Quotations from or about Hawthorne.

• "I have to admit, I'm not used to the trees talking back, but I'm glad that he was so polite. I know I'm not the smartest fire in the world, so I'm glad that I didn't offend him. He makes pretty flowers while I'm standing near him though. I would make him something to eat, but don't I cook with things that come from trees? What a puzzle..." - Calliope

• "Hawthorne is a sweetheart. He watches out for the rest of us and we try to do the same for him. I just wish he wasn't as sad some times." - Masked_Molly

• "He's a great guy...... Just REALLY hard to make clothes for." -Malic Stitch

Rumor

Bits of information spoken about Hawthorne.

• Malic Stitch is not really intrested in being friends with Hawthone, but rather wants to get his hands on Hawthone's book of Hedge Herbology. To what end? No one knows

• The Thorns believe Hawthorne is out to deflower and despoil thier prize possession, Summer

"Still Being Worked On..." To Be Determined

Chapter V: Forest for the Trees

"We ought to think that we are one of the leaves of a tree, and the tree is all humanity. We cannot live without the others, without the tree." - Pablo Casals

Family:

• Ursus - A Bear Beast Hunterheart that has grown from friend to beloved family. He owns a cozy, down to earth Bed and Breakfast on a small lake in the Texas hill country that also serves as both oasis for traveling Changelings and a place to start for the newly escaped.

• To Be Determined

Motley:

• To Be Determined

Friends:

• Masked Molly - A lady of the night in San Antonio.

• Debbie - A Draconic Fairest stuck in the pin up days of the 50s and 60s.

• Gregory - A gentle man trapped inside the body of a Stoneskin Ogre.

• Malic Stitch - A quite and polite member of the Winter court, famous for his hedgespun designs.

• Summer - A rare and sweet innocent among our kind, a blossoming rosebud.

Allies:

• Contrary Mary - A Farwalker Ogre in Kansas City with a prediliction for Botany. A friend with which Hawthorne is collaborating on a project to engineer hybrid Goblin Fruit. The two are also exchanging information in an attempt to better understand the plant life of the Hedge.

• Arien Steele – A Wind Elemental and performer of the Spring Court in Atlantic City who studied under Hawthorne while in Arcadia. However, while his mentoring in the Hedge did help him survive the harsh wilderness, Arien’s true strength became more about the animal life rather than the plants. His knowledge of poisons and antidotes based on the indigenous life’s physiology is in part the reason they were able to escape the Hedge together.

• Calliope - A Fireheart Elemental of the Spring Court in Florida. Hawthorne met the lovely Calliope at the 2007 Fallen Fair. Her very presense forced blooms to spontaneously sprout from his wooden frame. She was kind and considerate, despite our fire/wood differences.

• Catherine Wheel - A Fairest Flowering of the Winter Court in Cincinnati, Ohio. Hawthorne was fortunate enough to meet Catherine as a patron of the Hedgeapple while making a delivery to Sebastian, owner and chef of the restaurant. Catherine is a Doctor by trade and their “shop talk” as advanced academics have, in time, turned a chance meeting into a valued friendship.

• Ember - A Fireheart Elemental of the Spring Court in Richmond, Virginia. Hawthorne met this mezmerizing and beautiful flame touched at the 2007 Fallen Fair. The two sparked a friendship that holds much promise.

• Sebastian Wulfhiem CEC - A Draconic Fairest that owns and operates "the" place for Changelings to be in Cincinnati, Ohio, called the Hedgeapple. Hawthorne has been a supplier of Hedge flora delicacies to Sebastian for years and has watched in amazement as this talented chef is able to turn food into an art form.

Adversaries:

• To Be Determined

Pledges:

Epilogue

"Earth, teach me to forget myself as melted snow forgets its life. Teach me resignation as the leaves which die in the fall. Teach me courage as the tree which stands all alone. Teach me regeneration as the seed which rises in the spring." - William Alexander

OOC Information

Player Name: William Broderick

VST: Lee Nuckols

Venue: San Antonio, Texas

Domain: (San Antonio, Texas)