It was a joyous night within the wood elven village. Other than it being the most important night of the year for the druids, Summer Solstice, one of the head druids, Malahcanti Sylverwillow was about to see his first child. Within the healer's home, a scream rent the air. Finally there was quiet...for a few seconds before the lustful cries of a newborn baby could be heard. Within, Malahcanti stood near his exhausted wife, as the healer from the nearest village handed him the tiny squalling bundle. Immediately, the cries ceased and his newborn daughter opened her eyes. The color of the purest amethysts stared back at him in frank curiousity as the baby lay within the comforting protection of his arms, and then promptly spit up on him.

"Her name shall be Amethyst." The name was quickly agreed upon by her mother, the village healer named Luciani Sylverwillow. And so, Amethyst came to be. But early on, the new parents noticed that there was something strange about their daughter. She was terrified of the dark and would keep them up through the night with her cries.

The next day, Malahcanti took the money that he had been saving from the small donations that travellers would give to the druids' grove and set out to the nearest dwarven town, in search of something that would help his daughter.

Under the light of the next full moon, he prepared a ritual in the druid grove, and laid down the item he had bought for his daughter. One month later, he presented his daughter with her first piece of jewlery. A rearing unicorn in purest mithril on a matching mithril chain, imbued with the moon's light. For as long as she wore it, it would provide a faint halo of milky moonlight around her so that she would never be in the dark.

"Atar' what is that?"

Malahcanti turned around to his daughter. Answering her endless stream of questions about the various plants as they walked, he would point out certain properties about it, what each could be used for, in healing and rituals. Even at such a young age, she was becoming her father's pride and joy, his only hope that she would follow in his footsteps as a Druid. A sound behind them stopped him in his tracks, and as he turned around, he saw a fellow druid.

"Ah, Vedui' (insert Llethyr's mother's name)....and vedui' to you too little Llethyr Shootingstar." Malahcanti smiled at the young woodelf, the same age as his daughter. Not surprisingly, Amethyst was hidden behind his legs, peeking out with wide eyes in sudden shyness around the new strangers, her ebony black hair falling in disarray over her eyes.

"Vedui'," Llethyr replied with a mischievious grin, his eyes twinkling in merriment at the partially hidden girl.

Malahcanti stepped over his daughter, and at the same time shoved her forward gently.

"Go on, tinu, he won't hurt you. The least you could say is Vedui'. It's only proper when a handsome man says it to you."

Amethyst found herself nose to nose with Shootingstar. She stared at the ground and shuffled her feet.

"Vedui'," she whispered in a small voice, as she reached up automatically to clutch the rearing unicorn necklace.

That seemed to set the stranger over the edge and he giggled with glee as he grabbed her hand and dragged her off to play with him.

It was the beginning of a lifelong friendship....

"This is the beginning of a lifelong dedication to The Balance and Nature. Only those who enter this Grove freely are accepted as apprentices. How do you enter?"

"In unequiable love for nature, and trust in my heart that the Goddess guides my footsteps."

A smile of pride threatened to upset the stern demeanor of the Druid's face as he welcomed the newest student, his daughter, into the Druids' Grove, Amethyst Sylverwillow, and handed her a small silver sickle, a representation of her new status and a tool that would be her lifelong companion.

"You will be the apprentice of Serephina, take care to pay attention to her lessons, and heed her words."

The months went by after that in a flurry of activity for Amethyst. It seemed every day, all day, she would either be learning something, or Serephina would set her to cleaning some small patch of the Grove. Ony the evenings were free for her own time, but even then she rarely saw her friend, Llethyr. As she dug out a root of rhatany, she thought about the last time she saw him....he was swimming in the nearby river as she passed him on an errand. She couldn't help but notice the changes his body had went through over the past few years. Instead of being lanky, his training as a ranger had filled out his frame in breath-taking muscle and sinew. Every rare time she saw him, her heart beat just a tad bit faster, and every time she saw him talking with another woman, her heart broke just a little more.

She sat back on her heels and wiped a smudge of dirt off her face as she wondered what was wrong with her. Llethyr was her best friend! Everything would be destroyed if she told him her feelings for him. She shook her head slightly, her long hair moving over her shoulders as the edges rested on the ground. Perhaps she should speak with Serephina about this, she would know the answer...she knew the answer to everything. But *after* Amethyst found the rest of these roots that Serephina needed to give her apprentice the lastest lesson in herbalism.

It wasn't until weeks later that Amethyst was finally able to approach her mentor about the problem. Amy clutched the unicorn in a silent prayer to Mielikki for strength and walked into Serephina's room.

"Lady? May I ask you a question? It's sort of...personal...a personal question..."

Serephina looked up from her old herbal grimoire, and smiled.

"Of course Amy, if ye grind these herbs for me in the meanwhile. I'd be happy to answer any question that ye have."

Amy took up the heavy granite mortar and pestle, sprinkled in a few balsam leaves and started the monotonous process, letting it center her before continuing.

"Lady? I have a "friend"....and she's in love with her friend, another friend I mean. And, and she doesn't know what to do. She's scared that the friendship would be destroyed if she lets out her feelings."

Serephina made a small noise as she studied her apprentice.

"I think that a feeling like that would be rather difficult to cover up. Certainly she must be sure that he feels the same way before telling him her feelings, otherwise the friendship could be destroyed. And yet, she must know that she can never go through life and regret doing anything, or more importantly, not doing something. But she must let time take over and not do anything impetous and rash. Love is like a fine elven wine...the more it is allowed to sit and ferment, the sweeter and more full it is. Will you tell your "friend" this?"

Amy nodded in understanding, trying to seem neutral about the situation, but in her eyes was revealed the pain of the emotions swirling around her.

It was only a few days after her birthday. That Summer Solstice the newest Druids were named, Amethyst included. High up on their favorite childhood nook, Llethyr and Amy sat, basking in the soft light of the stars and crescent moon. His back rested against the trunk and she leaning back against him as his arms encircled her. She sighed softly, giving into the fantasies of his love, imagining him looking at her and seeing her as a woman, no longer as a "just a friend". His voice jolted her out of her reveries.

"Amethyst? What are you thinking right now?"

That I love you, that I want you to kiss me, that I just want you to keep holding me forever...A million of these thoughts raced through her mind like hawks on a strong upper wind. And yet, she couldn't lie to him, so she framed her answer differently.

"I wonder what the future holds for us, Shootingstar. I mean, our destinies, our service to the People, to our families. Scared, that's what I am, at least a little, though I don't know why."

Oh I know alright, I'm scared that if I tell you this you'll hate me.....never regret never regret never regret......Llethyr I love you....Amin mela lle. She reached up for the comforting protection of the unicorn, symbol of her Goddess Mielikki, asking for strength in what she was about to tell him, hoping against hope he wouldn't hate her for her feelings.

"....Everything will be as always...." he finished.

A shooting star passed their view, as if a symbol of the chance she just had that passed like moonlight through water.

An explosion rocked the large tree. The echoes of it reverberated through the woods, and everything fell deathly silent. Both, as if on cue jumped down and hit the ground running, towards the village, towards the explosion. The sight that greeted their eyes was one that would give Amy nightmares for the rest of her life, the entire village deccimated. Bodies were piled on bodies. Fires still crackled in parts of the village. The great trees that had once sheltered them, now were only ash and rubble. The place that once housed them, that provided their shelter, was no more, and in it's place a ghastly image mocking the life that was once there.

Perhaps it was because of his training, but Llethyr moved into action, checking bodies, seeing if anyone was left alive. Amy stood there, her body refusing to work just as her mind refused to take in the scene before her completely. It has to be some other village, not ours, not....Some dim corner of her mind realised she was shaking like a willow leaf in an autumn breeze, and dry-heaving. A person's face passed into her view and stayed there...it was vaguely familiar. Green eyes...who has green eyes that I know of...? The face is so familiar, I should know him.

Llethyr stood there shaking her, until finally she came to her senses. She blinked up into his face then asked a very stupid question "who..?"

A hand come up into her line of sight, holding a tiny crossbow bolt. "Drow."

She watched him, as he knelt by a body, one she recognised dimly as his father's. She reached over, putting a hand on his shoulder, trying to give a little comfort to her beloved friend. As he slapped it away, she noticed the knife slashing across his forearms.

"Llethyr! What are you doing? Are you crazy! Here... let me..." her words stopped short as she saw the pure hatred in his eyes.

"Don't touch me."

He stalked purposefully towards his once home. She turned to the tree that once housed her, so many years ago, nothing was there now. Home...The Grove! Amethyst sprinted in the direction of the grove, so very close to the village. She stopped at the sight before her. The entire grove was a mirror image of the village. The bodies of a few Druids lay upon one another in a heap, the others were nowhere to be found. She looked around numbly. Nothing was left. She went to Serephina's house, stumbling over something in the process. Barely looking down, she was arrested by the sight of her father's face looking up at her. It was too much for her. She collapsed in a heap over his body, her black hair shrouding his body.

She wept silently as the agonizing pain swept through her. Never regret....She stood up on shaky legs, and walked back to the village. Nothing left....nothing was left for her but Llethyr. And without any training in protecting herself, she had to be next to her friend to survive.

Just as she walked into the village, she noticed a shadow walking into the woods. Llethyr. She looked back at the ruins of the village and wiped back tears, then hurried to catch up with Llethyr.

During the years that passed as Llethyr studied under the priests of the Drow-hating elven god Sheverash "The Dark Archer", she stayed outside in the woods, catching glimpses of him every once in awhile, taking comfort in his nearness. There wasn't a night that passed that she either couldn't sleep, or had nightmares so badly she was too scared to sleep the next night. The days were passed in trying to come to grips with the hatred that seethed in her own soul, either by doing mind-numbingly boring work, or meditation. She worked tirelessly on her druidic abilities, even tried her herbalism, but without a proper mortar and pestle, or bottles or containers of any kind, nothing much came out of it. She spent days finding herbs, and kept in mind a certain place where fragrant valerian grew in large quantities. One day, she promised herself, she would make herself a drink that would put her into a dreamless sleep for at least 2 days.

"Come."

The voice startled her out of her meditation. Her eyes fluttered open to look into the cold, emotionless green eyes of her beloved. She stood quickly and looked around. The small cave she had used as shelter these years was still sparce and as she looked, there was nothing to take with her but the bow she carved in the beginning with her sickle. If he noticed that she had lost a bit of weight, he didn't mention it. The clothes she wore the day of the village destruction were as clean as she could make them, but they were threadbare and barely clung to her now overly-thin frame.

As she glanced into his eyes, her purpose became clear. One day she would hear him say to her, "I love you."