Forest & Kingdom Balance by Robert Reed Paul Thomas Page B

humanity as he
continued his search for knowledge. Many ages passed until the
Caretaker was once again faced with an even greater disruption to
balance, the Red Knight. The Caretaker looked into the Red Knight’s
immortal flame and perceived his true warrior’s spirit. Unlike the
white flame of mankind, the Red Knight’s flame burned with the
bright crimson of heart’s blood. The Caretaker knew that the Red
Knight’s hunger for battle would never be sated, and that he would
lead mankind to greater and greater conflict.
    The Caretaker then cloaked his own emerald green
flame and withdrew. He came to a mountain range on an uninhabited
continent and created a sanctuary hidden from mankind’s world where
balance could be preserved.
    The Caretaker found peace and balance in his
sanctuary, this sanctuary, and time passed. He was aware of the
first ships to land on his shores, but was content not to interfere
as long as they did not threaten to disrupt the balance he
maintained. He merely kept watch and dissuaded any attempt to
explore the mountain range. Those who heeded the gentler warnings,
a general feeling of fear at proceeding, were no worse for their
experience. Those who ignored the warnings were less fortunate.
    Here in the Forest, away from outside influences,
the Caretaker chose to maintain his human form. Partially to
understand us, and partially because of the range of physical and
emotional experience that being human offers. So it was that when
he sensed the Red Knight’s armada approach, he knew that death
would follow and felt the very human emotion of revulsion at the
physical carnage that was about to take place. He turned his
thoughts away.
    When he opened his senses to humanity’s world once
more, the first thing he perceived was the flame of a single human
life at the very entrance to his home. The life was ebbing, barely
a flicker, but the Caretaker could sense what incredible purity and
strength it must once have had.
    Unexpected emotions stirred within him, he
experienced loneliness and felt a desire for company. Curiosity too
played its part, he desired to learn of the man who’s flame, even
near death, could be so powerful and pure.
    He brought Palinar into his sanctuary and then
spread his awareness out into the world to learn from healers how
to care for him. It was a close thing. Palinar was near death.
Fortunately for us all, the Caretaker could draw upon the
experiences and knowledge of the world’s greatest healers and
Palinar survived.
    As Palinar convalesced, he and the Caretaker would
talk endlessly of art, life, balance, war, and even the nature of
being human. They grew to be very close friends. One of their
favorite topics was the Red Knight and humanity’s seeming need to
inflict pain and death merely for its own sake. Palinar convinced
the Caretaker that while the darker side exists in all humanity,
there were those who felt that the baser instincts could be used as
an opportunity to strive for self improvement, people like himself
who looked at their harmful side, accepted it, and chose to follow
a path of love, peace, and service to the greater good.
    By convincing the Caretaker of the truth that he
lived by, Palinar made the life that your Kingdom and we of the
Forest enjoy today. Palinar persuaded the Caretaker to extend his
protection to an area around Angel Falls where people could live in
peace, away from the turmoil of the Red Knight’s world.
    Guided by Palinar, the Caretaker extended his
awareness to search the surviving Mindow for the brightest, purest
flames of humanity. Several thousand of the Mindow were chosen. The
Caretaker placed in their minds a feeling of destiny and a
determination to escape into the mountains. Over time each of the
chosen found that perhaps an absent minded guard had left shackles
unlocked, or that sentries dozed off at just right time. Slave
hunters were often sent to track the escapees only to be forcefully
reminded that they had entered the