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| - "I was invited here by a miss Merlyna I am Oveon priest of Odin." Greetins Oveon. Be welcome t' Brigit's Grove. Ye say tha' Miss Merlyna invited ye? Strange tha' me sister would nae send word o' yer comin'. She mos' certain would hae let me know ye were comin', so's I could welcome ye proper. I be McMannanan, brother o' Merlyna, an priest o' this grove a' th' momen'. Oveon smiled and walked to the man raising his hand reviling only slightly the wolf head flash attached to his belt." It's good to meet you sir and I think I'm actually a little early myself." Seeing the man approach unarmed, McMannanan closes the distance and clasps hands with the stranger. A raven alits on a nearby branch, looking at McMannanan. Seeing the raven there, calmly sitting on the branch, he senses the lack of malice in Oveon and gets a feeling from his sister. Knowing that had the stranger lied to him about his sister, the raven would not be calm, he recognizes Oveon as a friend of the Grove and welcomes him to help prepare the circle for the coming celebration. Paddy the Scot leaves a offering of fresh breads, a jug of ale and several bushels of wood. "may all those who care be blessed, and may the blessed thus care" Brennus walks through the forest looking for the place Merlya told him about, suddenly he finds himself in a small grove. "This must be the place." Looking around he notices a few people in the shadows but decides not to bother them, he places his offerings of a few gold coins and corn on the floor and sits in the shade of a nearby tree. McMannanan walked slowly into the Grove, carrying a small bag of corn, some uisge, and a sprig of heather. He moved to the base of a a rowan tree, his name-tree. Kneeling, he opened the bag and spread some of the grain in a small circle. Taking his flask of uisge, he poured a libation onto the corn he'd spread. Finally, he placed the sprig in the center. He was about to take the mayorship of Hereford, and he was deeply scared. All those townsfolk placing their livelihoods in his hands. He hoped that he would do them the justice they deserved. He knew several mayors and mayoresses. They had all seemed heavily worried at times. Especially with the recent edicts coming out of London. He worried about whether he'd be able to stem the tides that seemed to rise against him. Well, he was going to be mayor, no doubt about that. He had been unopposed. Sighing heavily, he looked up into the branches. How he wanted to run north to Scotland! Knowing that his conscience would never let him leave his commitments, he wept a single tear. Saying a prayer to Brighid and to his Patron, he slowly stood up and left the offerings for the gods to enjoy. He had to get back to town and face his responsibilities. Desi's dogs snuffle and wander round, and she is calling them. Following them where they explore, she finds a quiet grove, with traces of offerings around and about. She sends the dogs out and back to the vardo, as they had done their job helping her find this place. She sits down a while, to clear her head after a long party in the tavern in town, where she had drunk far too much and got far too fascinated with the new Mayor for her own good... She is ostensibly an Aristotlean, baptised on the eve of the Battle of Birmingham in sudden fear for her soul, but her time with Sir Julien Delval introduced her to what he called the Midnight Queen. The time they found a small grove like this one, near Evesham, where a statue of the Queen had seemed to nod to her, had made Desi profoundly open-minded on the matter of faith. Well, it had seemed to nod. It may have been the mushrooms they'd had for breakfast, though. So Desi now honours all Gods, just in case one is watching. And if indeed Jah is the one, then He makes such calm places. And if some people want to give the force of nature a name and worship Her, so be it. She still has a pouch containing a small piece of stone from that statue, and, holding it in her hand, she makes a small "corn dolly" from grass and lays it in the centre of the grove. A small Queen, but a personification of the passions of nature and life nonetheless. Satisfied that she has brought the Queen to this place, Desi puts the stone back in her pouch and shuts her eyes, trying to come to terms with her own passions and desires. One of her best friends is an Aristotlean deaconess, but Desi secretly feels much more comfortable in these natural places, than she does in church. But in her own mind, there is a being that some people called Jah, and He is in these places as much as any other. She just prefers to sit and commune with that spirit under the trees, than in some URACE chapel. Finally flat on her back, watching the moonlight through the trees, she feels at peace and falls into a happy, drunken sleep. Whether it is Jah or the Queen that watches over her, she doesn't know. But she feels safe here, anyway.
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