THE DRYAD AND THE ÂDUNAE
The Ghomorin
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Beloved of the Great Mother, the Ghomorin was a wanderer, his time divided between two worlds. In his home of Â-dun, he acted as story dispensary for eager children, the most persistent of whom Roedanya herself had seen fit to name Januchten. On foreign Earth, he fulfilled his role in a rather different capacity, offering wisdom to whomsoever sought him out: be they human, phaerie, or elsewise. In either world, he was a great, lone figure — a giant tortoise of sorts — who carried the weight of a wizened tree on his back. Yet however much he loved the land of his birth, his heart called him away again and again to the seed of the Stars, abandoned ages past by its gods.
It was there, in the southwestern jungles of Ludambi, that he encountered Khelle.
He saw her first from a distance as he wended his weary way through the trees, little more than a glimpse of shadow moving amongst shadow. Here was a place unlike any the Ghomorin had previously known, where each tree lifted its roots on proud display, where the undergrowth often bristled with long, bladed leaves, where one could just as easily see a vine in place of a patient snake, where vibrant colors exploded in every direction. Any plant that did not grow monstrously tall found some other way to adapt to its environment so that…
