Forest & Kingdom Balance by Robert Reed Paul Thomas Page A

King
Palinar as leader of the strongest kingdom, to conquer the other
realms and create a single kingdom on the coast.
    This was against every tenant of Palinar’s beliefs,
so he decided that since the Red Knight’s influence was minimal in
the new lands, he could ignore the decree. He judged
incorrectly.
    On a sunny spring day much like this one, the
lookouts at Kingsport harbor bore news to Palinar. Warships
approached baring the flame on crimson flag of the Red Knight.
    A fleet had crossed the sea led by the Red Knight
himself, they were joined by ships of the northern and southern
kingdoms who were more than willing to divvy up the Mindow’s land
and wealth among themselves. The Mindow fought bravely, but to no
avail.
    Palinar was gravely wounded repelling the third
assault on the harbor. He was taken to a house of healing south of
the capital where he regained consciousness two days later. By then
the battle had long been lost. Bands of invaders had flooded the
kingdom to round up the Mindow and loot as they went. When just
such a band arrived at the house of healing where Palinar had been
taken, his fellow wounded as well as their caregivers fought
fiercely to allow Palinar time to escape.
    Two of Palinar’s captains, both themselves wounded,
took him east toward the mountains. For weeks the three traveled
farther and farther inland. During the journey both captains
succumbed to their wounds. Palinar, lost and alone, felt his life
slipping away. Starving, exhausted, and injured, he stumbled onto a
beautiful glade with a pond fed by a waterfall where he rested and
prepared for the end of his mortal journey. The glade he found was
Angel Falls.

    “Wait, what happened to the Mindow?” Dionara
questioned, then leaned forward thinking she’d spotted the flaw in
his tale. “And besides I thought that no one could enter the
mountains or they’d get gobbled up by an evil ghoul or
something.”
    John’s response was a deep, robust laughter, “I
don’t know about an evil ghoul, but to put it in terms you can
identify with, normally they would have been sat on by a very
annoyed frog! But you’re getting ahead of me, don’t interrupt your
storyteller.”
    Then John’s expression turned solemn once again. “As
far as the Mindow, their fate was much more dire. The Red Knight
declared them non-people, not protected by King’s Law. They had no
rights and could be taken at any time as slaves, or simply used,
abused or even killed with no recourse or consequence.”
    While Dionara absorbed that sobering thought, John
returned his focus to Palinar’s plight. “Whether through fate,
luck, or happenstance, Palinar had stumbled onto the one place most
protected throughout the mountain range, the entrance to the
Caretaker’s home. To understand the Forest, or why your Kingdom
even exists, you must first understand who your friend Froggy
really is.”

    The Caretaker
    The Caretaker is an immortal being whose flame is
independent of any physical form. He is an observer who has roamed
the world since the dawn of time. He studies life by taking the
forms around him and has experienced every aspect of the natural
balance; the seasons, the rain that falls to nourish the forests,
and the fire that gives birth to new growth. He has felt the seed
and the fertile earth that gave it life. He was the doe giving
birth to the fawn and the cougar that hunted. Above all he seeks
balance and knowledge, and is always in search of a deeper
understanding,
    Over time he perceived a new predator, one that was
intelligent and self-aware yet preyed upon its own kind. Disturbed,
he took the form of these beings hoping to understand them. Over
millennium he watched the flame of life grow within them,
eventually achieving the complexity of sentience. Seeing the vast
destruction they could cause, he came to believe that they were not
of his understanding, they were not balance. This predator called
himself, “man.”
    The Caretaker kept an eye toward