Druid of the Antler

(Someday I’ll write a short drabble. >.>)

Moss covered the rocks that lined the stream. Though they were wet with spray from the waterfall but the kaldorei was confident in her steps. Bare feet padded along and she skipped a gap, nimble as the deer she loved so. Here, deep in the woods of Ashenvale, she was more comfortable than the Temple of Elune her mother dragged her to again this morning. There could be no doubt Elune was sacred to them all and her divinity could not be called into question.

It just wasn’t the calling Ileyna was pulled to.

She’d finished her work for her mother as quick as possible when they returned home and fled into the woods. There had been a change, a shift in dynamics of her people, and it made her question things she’d never have thought of before.

The trees opened to a familiar path to her right and she skipped off the stones to follow it. Night was near and shadows were thick between the trees but it mattered little. Ileyna had walked this path many times since childhood. Silver eyes glowed dimly in the fading light and she sang softly to herself as her mind wandered.

Mother had brought her five times now to the Temple to try and seek out some connection to Elune. The Goddess was the mother of them all but she did not favor this child as one of her priestess. It had only bothered Ileyna because it vexed her mother so; her temples were the wilds and she did not just pray to the moon goddess. Words of the song trailed off as she whispered her worries to those she found solace in. 

“Cenarius, help me find balance. Help me find the strength to tell my mother the path I wish for myself.”

A bird called in the trees and she smiled, closing her eyes to listen to it bidding goodnight to its fellows.

“Malorne, gone so long from us and missed dearly, help me do what I know is right even when it hurts.”

A gentle breeze tickled a strand of her long white hair against her cheeks and she sighed, opening her eyes. Moonlight already streamed down and one path seemed brighter than the others. It only took a moment but Ileyna vanished down it. Whether her prayers were answered or it was just the way night had fallen, she did not care. 

It brought her to a tiny clearing of the trees and something precious. A stag’s skeleton lay on his side, little more than bones now. Flowers grew through the rib cage and only at the hooves did any trace of his white fur remain. Ileyna knelt next to it and reverently ran a finger between the antlers. The skull cracked and those antlers she so admired fell against her thighs.

A sign. What else could it be? She had waffled for weeks since hearing the druids would accept females. Mother would be furious. Mother wanted her to be a priestess. There had been no sign to bring to her mother for Elune’s blessing but now, now she had one. Five times she went empty handed, and one time she got what she wanted: the love and acceptance of something greater than herself.