Arboria Greenroot, the Great Mother of the Quilleaf forest scratched her head as she examined the roots of a nearby Skysong willow. The roots looked healthy enough, they were gnarled, twisted and flying Widoweeds chattered as they nested underneath. It was like the rest, they all looked normal.
No one else in the forest knew the trees well enough, to understand that someone had stolen some of their ancient memories. Not important memories, just small memories of flying squirrels battling for a nest, thoughts of an opening moon flower just before sunrise, or the remembrance of the odour of the Mother tree’s perfume as she released her seeds to a warm wind.
Worst of all, the trees were starting to forget Arboria’s chanting spells to help the young seedlings grow. Everywhere throughout the forest, the trees were sending messages through their roots, and rustling their leaves in a chorus.
As Arboria wandered through the forest, one of the largest Quilleafs called to her. “Mother, you must help us! I’ve forgotten something amusing and annoying. I don’t remember what it was, but I’m sure I once knew it.
The Sombre Survivor, basking in the heightened sound of the forest, cleared his throat. “I’ve lost my leaves, Great Mother. I don’t remember when I last saw them.
As Arboria was listening to her friends, a soft chuckle traveled from the deepest darkes part of the forest. It continued to laugh, as more and more of the trees talked about what they thought they’d lost.
Arboria was worried. If the Sombre Survivor couldn’t remember that his leaves were so small that even he couldn’t see them, than the situation was worse than she thought. And the Quilleaf, he was always making up stories, she wasn’t sure if the tree lost anything, but she needed to find out.
Arboria told the trees that she would investigate and walked towards the deep forest. She past the gathering place, where she had been initiated into the Great Mother Tree’s mind, and she walked past the dark hole where Midan, the cranky leaf fox lived.
When she reached the area of the forest where creatures would not go, it was so quiet, she could feel her blood as it flowed through her veins. She quietly focused her thoughts and connected with the few shrubs that still survived here, looking for whoeverwas laughing.
She heard a rustle in hollowed out tree trunk, and she peered into the darkness. Her eyes adjusted, showing her thousands of tiny glowing spheres. Inside each orb, images moved silently. Each orb contained one stolen memory.
Arboria crossed her arms in front of her and in a sharp voice called, “Memory spirit, I don’t care if it is the time of year for the Celebration of Spirits, you cannot steal the trees memories.
The tiny spirit’s wings shimmered with cobalt as it moved closer to Arboria. “I… I wanted to remember what happiness, and being part of a family was like.
The spirit ducked back in the hollow and hid its face from the Great Mother.
Arboria’s face softened as she looked at the tiny spirit. She studied it for several moments, waiting for it to look at her again.
It had been many sols since Arboria had seen one of the Memory Spirits in the forest. The Memmers, as they were once called, once lived freely amongst her people, and her men and women used to freely offer happy memories to the tiny ghosts. But, as suspicions between people on Erudus grew, her people no longer offered their thoughts freely, even to the Memmers. The memory spirit just wanted to belong again. It was lonely.
“Come, little Memmer, come with me back to my home.” She waited while the spirit came out of the hollow and began to follow her. It’s head was held low, and it trailed behind.
When Arboria reached the Quilleaf gathering place, she sang one pure note, calling the forest together.
“My family, this young Memmer has been taking your memories. None of you have been sharing anything lately, and she is all alone. Consider offering her a new memory, as she releases the ones she stole.
The memory spirit’s form changed form alabaster to a rosy pink. It lowered its head ever further as it closed its eyes, hundreds of tiny lights rose upwards. They floated around the clearing and stopped above each tree. As the old memory entered a tree’s branches the tips of the tree’s leaves glowed silver. Each tree in the forest breathed in the memory and then exhaled a new joyous thought for the little Memmer.
After each tree had given the spirit a memory, Arboria raised her arms, showing herself years before. She gathered forest spirits and singing off key. Her singing was so horrible, that a young boy began to cry. “Don’t kill us Great Mother, we love you!”
At first the trees stood in silence, Then some of the saplings began to chuckle, and then one of the willows. Soon, warm laughter filled the forest. With each chuckle, the Memmer glowed brighter.
Arboria realized that although she had spent centuries hiding that memory, her shoulders somehow felt looser now everyone knew what had happened
From that day forward, the Quilleaf people began remembering the joy of the previous year. One night, during the Celebration of Spirits, a gathering is called where the trees sing, dance and talk of their happy memories, and they welcome the Memmer’s each year.
👻 Celebration of Spirits 👻 Spirits of Erudus 👻 Wander through Erudus 👻