Somewhen in the middle of the night Jewel wakes as she feels terribly cold. Opening her eyes she looks directly into the red glowing eyes of Breathnacht who hovers over her.
With the initial scare Jewel can't help but scream in fear. Then she rolls off of the bed and tries to cloak herself with magical armor.
"Why are you harassing me? We're trying to help you! Go away and come back in the morning!!!
"Help me? You burned my bones and threw the ash in the river! For that alone I should kill you and raise you as a willing servant!" Breathnacht threatens.
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Tarjun wakes up with a start and jumps on his feet. His eyes widen when he spots Breathnacht standing a few feet away, threatening him and Jewel.
Paralysed with fear, he loses precious seconds trying to process what is happening, and doesn't even think of grabbing the club. He's too scared to even shout.
"Pathetic." Breathnacht snarls with a malicious sideglance at Tarjun.
Jewel stays on the floor, terrified of the ghost, but tries to respond. "You can probably do that. But we're trying to help you move on. We burned your bones to get you to go away. We're kids! We can only try, but you know Dawnbreeze wouldn't let you be buried in the shrine. We didn't do that!!!"
"Now you see what that got you. Now you're haunted!" Breathnacht tells, coming uncomfortably close.
Then he turns around and fades on his way to the wall, while his evil laughter echoes through the room.
Clara wakes to some noise. Daringly she checks under her bed for monsters hiding there. It would be a bad thing for them to be found. But, nothing! She wonders what the others are up to.
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Tarjun spends the rest of the night hugging Jewel tightly and trying to get her to sleep. Though he promises with his typical bravado that he'll hit Breathnacht with the club if he dares to come back, the boy doesn't sleep a wink, his eyes affixed on the wall into which the ghost disappeared.
It's with bags under his eyes that he greets Clara the next morning.
"Breathnacht showed up last night," he says morosely. "Told us we're haunted. Did you see him too?"
"I heard some noises at night, but nothing dared to show!" Clara boasts. "What did Bad-Breath say? What did he want? Did you show him, what he's in for?" she inquires, doing a shadow fight.
"Who is haunted? We all? That's good, right? If Stinkbreath comes every night, we can catch him." Clara concludes.
Jewel looks amused at Clara's bravado, but then stares off in the distance. "You have a good point. He said 'Now you're haunted!' Did he mean just me? Or all of us. But the only thing he did was wake me up and scare me...."
"But yes, if he keeps waking me up we know where and when we can catch him. Now what do we have left to gather? We have the incense. It's a bit, strange but it should work. And we need holy anointing oil and a goat to sacrifice for the ritual...."
"I think the oil would just be a clear light oil blessed for the ritual? But how does one anoint a ghost? Maybe if we spread it on the net the ghost touch power of the net will transfer the effect?"
"And the goat is to be prepared as a feast for the community. I'm sure we can get our moms to show us how to roast a goat. And they'll likely be happy for us to prepare a meal for everyone!"
A bear comes charging out of the woods 'attacking' Tarjun. Behind follows Gertrud with deep dark rings under her eyes, but otherwise happy. "Hi, I'm finally back. What happened here? You look so serious."
After an exchange of what happened here and there, Gertrud offers to help with the goat. "And with the oil, I have no better idea than you. Maybe get Dawnbreeze to bless it? Because we have no real cleric here. I have some oil worthy of becoming anointing oil." she offers. But it hurts her to see that good oil going to 'waste' instead of ending on her food.
Jewel rushes up to help Tarjun as the bear 'attacks', relaxing and grinning once the situation becomes clear.
"And I think we should bring the book along. We haven't done this before, and hopefully won't ever need to again!, but I'd hate to fail the ritual because we didn't know how much incense or oil to use or something. Dawnbreeze might have some advice to share."
"And does the goat get roasted before the ceremony? During? After? And do we need to roast vegetables and tubers with it? I really hope the ritual will work on a ghost. The whole anointing thing makes me wonder, and worry!"
"No worries, the goats will have lots more cute little baby goats for you to cuddle." Gertrud tries to encourage Tarjun. "I would think, sacrifice it during the ritual and roast it afterwards? Maybe the book can help there too."
"Does sacrificed goat taste different from normal goat?" Clara inquires.
Gertrud roll her eyes. "Really good kids can taste the difference. And really bad kids get a tummy ache from it." she tells with a straight face.
"I'll fetch the oil." With that she's on her way to the house.
"I'm back already. Here take the oil. I have something else to do, but you're fine on your own, aren't you?" Gertrud tells, hands over the small glass bottle with oil and leaves again.
The kids move to their play castle - the ruins of an old shrine for Erastil and there into the krypt below it. The wooden door at the end of the stairs leading down is left ajar. Inside the air is chill, stale and musty. It's not completely dark as some of the bright sunlight spots that make it through the thick foiliage above give a dim light in the entrance area.
The lid of Dawnbreeze's stone sarcophagus is still ajar too.
"It would be nice if you came along for a game of cards or something for a change." Dawnbreeze jokes as he rises out of his resting place. "Or maybe some guessing game where I don't need to hold cards."
Jewel grins, happy to see Dawnbreeze in a good mood. "Not a bad idea, breaking up boring training to be good Guardians with some fun times."
"But.... unfortunately we do need help.... We know you've got issues with Mr. Breathnacht, but we're having trouble with him too. He's haunting us now. We've found a ritual in this book that sounds like it might put him to rest, but it seems pretty complicated. We've made incense with myrrh and elemi, see. And we've got some oil. But, the ritual says it needs to be holy annointing oil. Can you Bless it? Or if not, is there some way we could do it?"
Dawnbreeze looks into the offered book, his brow in furrows. Then he starts laughing out loud. "You're kidding me, right?"
Looking into serious or puzzled faces he goes on. "This is an atonement ritual. Kudos! You for sure don't lack courage and determination. But you need Breathnacht to cooperate for that."
"I can easily bless your oil. It won't fail because of that. And I'll call you princes and princesses of the wood from the moment you get him successfully through that ritual."
"Hold it in front of me."
Dawnbreeze does some gestures with his hands, speaks a prayer and holds out his ghostly holy symbol. The oil shortly gets a slight glow, before returning to normal. "There you are."
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Though getting the blessed oil seems a step forward, Tarjun is feeling slightly less reassured at the idea of having to bargain with Breathnacht.
"Yeah, Breathnacht kinda hates us right now. He says he'll be hauntin' us 'cause we did him wrong. Look, you know him better than us. You got any idea how we might convince him to go through with the ritual? Like, what could be in it for him?"
"Don't look at me for guidance here. If my ideas were any good, he'd be dead and out of this world. I don't know what incites this bastard." Dawnbreeze tells.
"Isn't there anything a ghost likes, that we could use as a treat?" Clara inquires.
"No."
"Not being bound to this world and being able to move on is the only real desire I have."
Jewel almost snatches the book back when Dawnbreeze laughs at it. She understood it as a ritual to seek the pardon of a God for a mistake. Then the words sink in. "OK. Atonement is the fancy word for it. To kids it's just saying that you're sorry for a mistake and getting forgiveness for that mistake. Don't the Gods do that 'cause they know that people make mistakes?"
"Thanks for blessing the oil. We'll let you know what happens." She turns away, but then turns back frowning, "Look. If we understand what happened, Breathnacht wasn't satisfied with how things were going for himself. He wanted more than he could get and cheated. He called on some powers that weren't allowed, right? Well now he's dead and has to deal with the consequences of what he did. That might be worse for him than how much fun he's having haunting us. We really don't know but we're offering him a chance to redeem himself and maybe earn his way back to acceptance by Erastil."
"And if he laughs and refuses, then we go with plan B."
"You're bound here? Why? And is there any way we could help you? Maybe some other ritual? There are lots of others in this book...."
"The gods for sure do that. You just have to be serious about being sorry. It's just beyond my imagination that Breathnacht is sorry about what he did. He even continues it in his death!"
"But I'm only a grumpy old man. Don't let me discourage you." Breathnacht explains.
"Get rid of Breathnacht first. We'll see to my issues then. But it's nice of you to offer."
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"Well, he's been banned from hangin' out with Erastil 'cause of what he did," Tarjun thinks. "He got stuck here on his own and everythin' sucks. That's bound to make everyone feel frustrated. Maybe he'd listen if we tell him that he'll always be better off on the other side? I mean, he can't haunt us forever anyway. We'll be gone before he is."
"You'll try teasing the ghost that he can't do anything right? Not even being dead? That's bold! Let's do that!" Clara tells.
"You mean now, of do you want to go to the river at midnight?" Clara inquires.
"I think we should leave the stuff for the ceremony where it'll be safe. Tonight we just try to talk to him. Not tease him though! If he's stuck, maybe he realizes that he needs help. Maybe he knows that he needs to apologize to Erastil, but doesn't know how? So I think we need to try to get him to listen and then explain that maybe we can help...."
"But yeah, at the river is away from home so he can't scare Mom and Dad!"
"Bring weapons though, just in case he refuses to listen. And then we'll figure out a trap!"
The flawless plan is put into action and the children dawdle the day away with some games, after the anointing oil is brought back to a safe place at Jewel's home.
After supper as it gets dark already the group walks to the river. A fire is made in the place where the bones were crushed and all sit around it. Clara produces some saussages and roasts them over the fire because two hours without provisions are infeasable.
Breathnacht's angry, booming voice is suddenly heard behind Jewel.
Clara sticks her tongue out at the ghost. "Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! Who's the one not getting into Erastil's afterlife paradise?"
She tries to look cool and impertinent, but her little hand tightly holds on to Caspar, just in case.
Jewel stands and steps toward Breathnacht. She pauses for a second with a glance back. "Clara! Not now...."
"Yes. Returning to the place of our childish mistake. We didn't know how to find you but thought that you might find us here. We want to help you."
"We tried to do as you wanted and move your bones to the shrine. Mr. Dawnbreeze wouldn't accept that and wouldn't let us. You probably knew that before you told us to do it. But we are just children so we tried!"
"Then you attacked Mr. Dawnbreeze and you started killing everything around you. We acted like the children that we are and tried to get rid of you by getting rid of your bones. You've proven that didn't work and you keep attacking us. We want that to stop, and really it doesn't make sense for you to keep doing it. I mean, what happens once we're gone? What happens when everybody around here dies or moves away? Then you are alone with the consequences of your actions during your life."
"That's what we want to help you with. Erastil will accept you back, if you want it. We've found a ceremony. Mr. Dawnbreeze said it is something called an Atonement. Like I said, we're kids, but we're also willing to help. Wanting to help you! But if I understand, an atonement is an apology so you have to actually want it. You have to be honest and apologize, 'cause this is for real and the apology is to Erastil."
"Anyway, that's why we are here, looking for you. We want to help."
"Erastil! Atone, to him!" Breathnacht hastedly circles the kids, spitting the name out like a curse.
"I was the best, , in this part of the world. My magic, unchallenged, my knowledge vast! I would have been the perfect guardian of these woods!"
"But noooooo! That sorry excuse for a guardian wouldn't pass on the title. Babbling something about Erastil not agreeing, me not being ready! I was more ready than he ever was! And I proved it! Nothing could he do when I challanged him to protect the woods! And when I died, he even denied me a proper burial in the crypt, but buried my corpse like a rabid dog."
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"Well, you've got your magic now" Tarjun retorts. "Was it really worth all the fuss? It didn't bring you nothin', you're still gonna remain as a ghost hauntin' the woods. And when you'll have scared off all of us, it won't get you nowhere either. You really want to stay a wraith for all your afterlife? I mean, I thought you wanted the honour and responsibility of protectin' these woods. And if you're just gonna destroy 'em, doesn't it prove that you're a bad guardian?"
Breathnacht comes unpleasantly close to Tarjun's face, the red glowing eyes of the otherwise transluces ghost staring into his. Tarjun sees all the anger and frustration which Breathnacht would love to releave by rooting out that little brat.
But Tarjun has a point. Breathnacht turns and starts circling the kids again. "I'm not going to give in to that becoming humble, accepting my fate, bla bla bla shit and then be forgotten! I want to be remembered. And if I can't be remebered as a guardian, I shall be feared as, ... as the angry ghost of these woods."
Clara chuckles. "Come to the haunted woods! Where the great Breathnacht will make you pee your pants! I can see the signs and the ticket booth right before my inner eye!" Clara teases the ghost.
Jewel watches and listens. She hopes Breathnacht doesn't decide to attack, but isn't sure how to change his mind. Clara's teasing might get his attention off of Tarjun. But... "So your issue was with Mr. Dawnbreeze? Not Erastil? But Mr. Dawnbreeze said that you rejected Erastil and embraced necromancy? And that was why Erastil rejected you. Maybe the problem is just a misunderstanding...."
"But where did your magic come from? If it was necromancy it wouldn't have come from Erastil, unless the books are all wrong about him!?! And I thought the Guardian needs to be a disciple of Erastil. Maybe we just need to understand you better?"
She pauses, watching Breathnacht to be sure she has his attention, "We found the ceremony in the book, assuming that you might want to be remembered for the good that you did, in the name of Erastil. And then to be allowed proper burial in the shrine. Even if it worked we'd likely need your help afterwards to find enough of your body since you scared us into scattering the pieces. But if that's all wrong.... Then we need you to explain your side to us. And remember that we're kids. None of us is a trained priest of Erastil."
Breathnacht gives Clara a glare. "I see you know nothing about the power of the divine. The magic is all there for you to take. And when Erastil turned away from me another was eager to take his place." But suddenly he turns silent.
"But that's not for you to know." he adds after a pause.
Asmodeus, the prince of darkness
Calistria, the savored sting
Gorum, the lord in iron
Lamashtu, the mother of monsters
Nethys, the all seeing eye
Norgorber, the reaper of reputation
Rovagug, the rough beast
Urgathoa, the pallid princess
Zon Kuthon, the midnight lord
Glad, well somewhat, to have gotten Breathnacht's attention away from Clara without anyone getting hurt, Jewel notices his 'little slip'. She considers what little she knows about other gods....
"You are right. None of us are trained priests or priestesses. We do know a bit about magic. My ability is what you would call a witch." Pausing for a moment she furrows her brow a bit. "But wouldn't a witch be similar? I mean, I get magic from a patron, sort of a higher power. But I really don't know what it is, or who. But when I commune to get my spells, isn't that kind of like what you did to gain divine magic?"
"But I don't think there'd be another patron around if I somehow rejected mine. I don't think that works the same...."
"Don't these gods introduce themselves properly? Also all those pious folks wave around some symbols. Which one do you have?" Clara inquires, getting ever bolder under the unfounded impression she can't be really hurt by that see through bully.