This is just a teaser of the story to see if there's any interest in it.
PLEASE send any C&C you wish, I want to hear what you people thing.
Public or private, it's up to you.


    Those of you who already know the self insert story 'A Druid's
Way' I'm sorry to say I scrapped it as it was. I came to the conclusion
that it was too much like other ones to make it interesting to myself
anymore. Basically I hate it. So I'm rewriting it.

   For those who say what's happening in this chapter has little to to
with the original, you'd be both right and wrong. Right in that many of
the elements are new to you, but wrong in that I'd planned on doing much

of this in the original story. I just hadn't gotten that far.


Prologue


   Druid awoke with a groan, and looked around as he muttered to
himself, "Damn Washuu! Who does she think she is throwing me around like

that."

   He recalled her words vividly, "I made you, and I will do with you as

I see fit!." She'd then left him no time to do anything, and in the
process of sending him away she'd knocked him unconscious somehow.

   Setting that aside for the moment Druid took in his surroundings.
Instead of fall it was springtime here, judging by the flowering trees
around him.

   He felt a vague tug to the west, but he saw nothing but trees.

   "It couldn't be...," Druid thought with a sinking feeling.
Suspiciously he delved into his own mind, and came upon something that
left him with mixed feelings.

   *Washuu seems to filled my head with the Japanese language.*

   He sighed, *At least I'll be able to communicate with the people
there, but that means she's probably planning on leaving me here for a
while.

   Why did she put me here in the US though?! I'm going to have to cross

the ocean and most things in it don't like me! It's not MY fault that my

energies are disruptive to them!

   Well screw Washuu. I'm going to make sure I have someplace at least
semi safe to come back to if necessary!*

   He took off his pack and settled himself more comfortably. Closing
his eyes he tried to find out where he was, and came to an unwelcome
conclusion. *DAMN HER! Why is she always make things difficult for me!*

   For some unknown reason he could find any major city, and was unable
to pinpoint his own location. All he could tell was that he was many
miles away from any people or roads, and that he was in the foothills of

some mountains.

   He set that aside for the time being and began making himself a
home.

   Over the next week he gradually made himself a home and concealed it
from physical and magical view as best he could.

   The house was small, and had four rooms. A bathroom, bedroom,
living room, and a good sized kitchen. He cheated on most of it, shaping

it out of stone with magic. The house was empty but for one chair a a
bed frame work, he hadn't yet had time to do more yet. There was running

water and sanitation but that was also done by magic.

   It was wasteful of energy and if he had more time he'd have done it
the normal way, but he didn't have that time. For as each day had passed

the tug he'd felt increased dramatically. The only other thing he'd been

able to accomplish was to tunnel a small cavern under the house to leave

some things behind.

   He stood and admired his accomplishments a week after he'd begun, and

was satisfied. *It's not perfect but not bad considering the time I've
had.*

   The final thing he did was pull out a large glowing green crystal
from his pack and bury it at the base of a tree. *There, now I won't
have to fly if I have to come back over here.*

   Closing his eyes, Druid formed a shape in his mind and let his body
flow into it. When he opened his eyes he was in the form of a Stellar
Jay.

   *I'm glad my master taught me how to fly, It looks like it's the only

way I'm going to get where I need to go.*

   As he flew off Druid didn't see the tree he'd buried the crystal
under begin to glow the same green as the crystal.


----Chapter 1 Journey----


   He reached the coast in a very leisurely fashion, as he found that as

long as he kept moving the tug didn't increase. This allowed him to
recover some of the immense energy he used in the hurried construction
of
his haven.

   By the end of the week he'd reached the coast, and after a bit of
searching he found a high cliff the start his journey from. He gazed in
trepidation down at the ocean, and the elementals and spirits within.

   *This could be painful,* he thought ruefully. Little did he know how
true that thought would become.

   He moved to the edge of the cliff and changed his shape to that of an

Albatross, it being more suited to long distance flight.

   Summoning a gust of wind he launched himself off the cliff. He
concentrated hard on gaining altitude, searching for thermals to lift
him up high.

   After reaching a good altitude he oriented himself on the mental pull

and flew toward it.

   It wasn't long before he ran into the first challenge to his flight.

   Several miles from him a waterspout formed out of nothing. In the
center he saw an angry elemental. The elemental began moving toward him,

the waterspout following it like a puppy.

   *Uh oh...* Druid thought. *How am I going to deal with this?*

   Looking at the spout carefully, he judged that it wasn't quite as
high as he could fly.

   Straining to get altitude he slowing inched upward as it came toward
him and was just able to get above it before it reached him.

   As he began to pass over it's outer edge he made a hardened shell of
air around himself and waited. After a few moments a stream of water
shot up at him and tried to knock him down, but the air deflected it
away.

   That seemed to take most of the elemental's energy for the waterspout

dissipated and the water fell back to the ocean.

   Druid wasn't very happy however, *Hardening the at air might have
saved
me from being knocked down, but I still lost some altitude.*

   Pumping his wings he worked at regaining the altitude lost. Once he
reached a suitable height he returned to his original heading.

   After a while he locked his wings and let himself fall asleep.

   Some time later his instincts jarred him awake.

   Ahead of him was a very nasty looking storm, with enough magical
energy in it to do just about anything.

   It was heading straight for him. *It's coming too fast for me to even

think of going around it. This is going to hurt,* he thought with a
mental groan.

   He formed another shell of air around himself, except that this one
was MUCH larger. *I need enough air movement to keep me up or I'm a
gonner.*

   He had no more time for thought as the storm came on him. Even with
the shell of air he was still buffeted about like a rag doll. The only
reason he lived through it at all was that he was able to tap some of
the storm's own energy to keep his protections in place.

   By the time he came through the storm he was only a few hundred feet
off the ocean surface. He was so exhausted that he wasn't sure he could
make it.

   He wearily sent out his senses and found to his surprise that he was
only an hour's flight from land.

   *How did that happen?! I've only been flying for a day or two!* he
thought incredulously.

   This gave him enough energy to make it to land.

   As the coast came into view he saw nothing in the way of human
settlements.

   Druid was too tired to care as he came in to a rather rough landing.

   He folded up his wings and promptly fell asleep.

----Chapter 2 Meetings and Changes----

   The next morning Druid stirred painfully. *Jeez! I'm NEVER going over

the ocean again if I have any say about it!*

   Slowly he changed from an albatross to a deer. *I think this for is
better suited to this terain,* he thought as he eyed the broken wooded
land.

   He continued his trek at a careful pace, keeping alert for signs of
people. He still felt phantom pain from the arrow he'd been hit with in
this form in the past.

   This leg of the journey however was quiet when compared with the
ocean crossing.

   It took him three more days to reach his goal.

   Late in the afternoon of the third day he came out of the forest into

a clearing at the base of the mountain. The tug he'd been following led
INTO the mountain, and it took him a moment to find out how to get in.

   Reaching out with his senses Druid eventually found the source of the

mental tug that had been incessantly pulling on him since the day he'd
arrived here.

   There was a boulder blocking the entrance. Reaching out carefully
Druid felt the rock for any weaknesses, and came upon an unpleasant
surprise.

   The boulder had been sealed in both physically and magically. The
magical part was what worried him. *This looks like very powerful magic,

yet from how it looks now, I would guess it was DESIGNED to decay over
time.*

   He started to sweat with nervousness, *I don't know who did it but
this looks a little to much to be coincidence. Yet I don't think Washuu
does this kind of magic.*

   The mental tug he'd been feeling throughout his journey chose that
moment to increase dramatically.

   His whole body twitched with pain and he made his decision, *I guess
I don't have any choices do I?* he thought rhetorically.

   Reaching out once again he sought a weak point in the boulder, and
was only partially surprised to find such a point. Marshaling his
energies he prepared to open the way to his destination.

   Elsewhere an almost inhumanly beautiful man of indeterminate age
smiled at the young man who sat across from him.

   "What's happening?" the young man asked.

   There was warmth in the elder's smile as he answered, "It's almost
time for you to return to she who is a part of you."

   Inside the cave a dragon stirred, bother by the energy it felt just
outside it's lair. It looked at the ragged young woman laying asleep at
it's feet and thought, *I will protect you.*

   Outside Druid was almost ready. Reaching into the earth he drew some
of it's energy into himself and used it to reach a harmony with the
magic and boulder.

   With a sharp twist the magical seal broke, the boulder along with it.

Druid fell on his side almost completely exhausted.

   He watched with blurred vision as a woman staggered out of the cave.
He was unable to see her face clearly, and after a moment he a had much
larger concern than seeing her face. For a black dragon emerged from the

cave and charged him.

   The dragon was not confused by the for which Druid was in, for it
felt the power emanating from the deer's body.

   It seemed to be intent on killing him, so Druid did the only thing
possible in his weak state, activated a long dormant spell.

   Using the crystal he'd buried as an anchor, the spell teleported him
back to his haven. This took the last of his energy, causing him to
black out.

   He therefore didn't notice as someone reached in and modified his
spell, allowing it to take both the dragon and the woman with him.

--
Bree
bree.duffy@bbs.chemek.cc.or.us
Druid
druid@bbs.chemek.cc.or.us