Journal of Growth *updated 12/7/11*

The Beginning

I always knew when this day would come. Well, more like everyone in my family knew. Being one of the middle children in a family with 14 young spriggans made the coming of age ceremony where you leave the protection of your parent’s trees a well-known thing.

I had spent most of the day prior in anticipation and dread, not knowing what to expect. This lead to a lack of sleep, and perhaps caused my first steps out of the market where my parents had left me all the more dangerous. The gods must have been against me for a few steps on my journey and I was beset upon by a spider that I then had to beat up with my own two hands. I survived, and the meat from the spider provided me with sustenance for my journey to find my own tree.

I followed the path from the market and then went off on my own, searching for a tree that I could bless and help mature. It did not seem to be a long journey, for not long after I had started searching I came upon what one of my parent’s would call a ‘sign’. Perhaps it was a combination of the saying ‘when pigs fly’ and the cold surrounding me that brought on my choice. For in the tree that I picked was a pig. It was sitting there on one of the branches.



It was with slight trepidation that I chose the tree, but I stuck with it. That first night the gods must have been protecting me for I did not encounter any monsters except for a stray zombie or two. One of which burned up in the holy light of the sun.

After collecting the saplings and gathering the logs from my tree I set out planting them. I then went into that slumber well known to many of my kind that live in cold climates.

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The Encounter

When I awoke all of the saplings that I had planted had grown to an enormous height. So much so that I have decided to keep their bows to form the canopy of my tree. During my waking hours I ventured out a bit, growing my roots towards a slight hole in the ground that I noticed the zombies coming from the other time I was awake.

It was then I realized that I would probably be subject to attack under my current state. I grabbed some dirt from the hill that in my mind, is behind me and used that to create a basic wall that I was planning on using to determine where the trunk of my tree would end up growing up.

After having set up a basic defense I cut down some of the new trees and sent a support spire up to the canopy of my tree's offspring. It took some work, but I cut some of the canopy down so that it was on the same basic level that I would make my basic living quarters. It was from this height that I saw some water, but was in fact startled to find that it was in fact ice that I was seeing. At that point I felt silly, because I was in fact living in a winter wonderland.

I was working one of my roots over there when suddenly the ground dropped out from right in front of me, and right into a pit of lava! I was so shocked that I quickly backed up my root away from the drop that faced me, also afraid of possibly burning up and or catching my tree on fire. It was then that I retreated, stopping to think of what to do next, and I entered into sleep again.

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Yeah, I totally don't have any pictures for that last entry, but I guess I'll have to post some when I update again.