Madeline Warmbow

Spring was quickly arriving. Signs were apparent in the forest. Trees began to bud, shoots poked through the ground, the promise of new life everywhere. Like the sap of a tree at the end of winters frost, running to nourish new leaves, Maddy felt it in her blood.

The past week was a blur, counting down the days until the Equinox. Her studies on herbs had focused on fertility as the Winter days began to lengthen. Long afternoons were spent in Moonglow at the Lycaeum looking up rituals.

Several times Van had expressed he wished a child with her, but that he was infertile. He had been brought back from death more than once by the powers that be, and since, though he had been with many women before they married, no children had been born of these unions. Not since his second child had he fathered any, and his first was grown to the beginning of womanhood. The look in his eyes as he ran his hand over her flat belly held a tinge of sadness. She longed to change it to one of joy, to give him the child they both desired.

At sundown she tied a knot gently into the branch of a willow, saying her wish to Gaia. She collected pine nuts and acorns of oak leftover from winters store after following a squirrel for hours. A branch of Rue, to dip in water, and purify his body and hers for the rite. She prepared the sacred space in preparation. A small clearing of clover, surrounded by Hawthorne, Oak and Ash. She carefully chose a mandrake and put it in a bowl of milk, then drawing her dagger, pricked a small cut on her finger and let the blood drip onto the root, Small sacrifice for a large favor.

She returned home and prepared a tea, and told Van of its purpose. Ginseng and Saw Palmetto, Red Clover and False Unicorn Root, Licorice and cinnamon all blended carefully and made in careful preparation. After drinking the tea, she led Van to the place she had prepared for the ritual, to arrive just before midnight.

In the center of the clearing she lay a blanket, and made a circle of the nuts she had gathered, encanting a prayer. Sky clad she used the rue to sprinkle him with the cool water and bade him to cleanse her in the same manner. He looked a bit dubious at the whole thing, never one to trust trees and nature, being a man of the sea...but he went along with it. She called upon the six directions, East, West, North and South, Above to the sky, and to the earth at her feet, and as she did so a gentle breeze blew lightly on their skin. The new moon that had hidden its tiny sliver behind a cloud revealed itself. It was then, she called out to Gaia to grant them the gift of life.
A voice, silent to humans but heard by the land blew by, tousling their hair and entwining it as they embraced in a kiss.

My daughter, you have sacrificed much to serve my will with no memory of it. I grant you this gift of bounty. Raise them to care for the land, and life. Though you can not hear my words, your hearts will remember.

As he drew close, she could feel the power fill her, in answer to their call.

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