The Forest of Gleeb

Calum Waite Calum.Waite@aspen-waite.co.uk

It is a quiet evening; I walk alone through the trees as the birds sing their last tunes of the day. All of the birds from places far and wide have either travelled back to their distant homes or settled down for the night. Rusty the Enchanted Battlemage Hare stumbles down into his burrow after a day of archery, spellcasting, tomfoolery and chiefly mead drinking with his friends the courier raccoons and the magic squirrels. The mysterious and solitary yet ultimately benevolent Gnomes are starting to stir, awakening from their hiding places ready to stand vigil in the night against any possible threat that could muster on our borders. Never… cross… a gnome.

The wizard Schleeb is at the centre of the forest, busy in his shaman’s hut brewing up all manner of potions and concoctions as I finally make it to the edge of the Forest of Gleeb and sit. I wistfully stare into the horizon as the sun departs slowly into the west past the Plains of Anathor. No harm can befall me for I am sheathed in the carapace of protection spells that are woven seamlessly into the very fabric of these lands.

I contemplate my existence, who am I? Ah yes, I am Meeb of course, wizard of the mystic arts and guardian of the Forest and all of its kin. But where did it all begin? I have vague memories of a time not long ago when I was but a

regular man in a strange far away land… but then one day I awoke. I floated through the realms of Aetherius, I was somehow everywhere and nowhere at the same time and I travelled for what seemed like both an eternity and the blink of an eye simultaneously, but then, I stopped.

In the cold dark chasm of what I believe was space I heard a voice call out to me yet what he called me I cannot remember? Was it Meeb? Was it Calum? Or was it Eldridge Oddbod (denizen and one of the supreme rulers of The Dark Dell)? Maybe it was a strange amalgamation of all of them, but for the sake of this text I will stick with the aforementioned title, “Meeb… Meeb! I have work for you...” said the voice. I looked around yet could see nothing. “Who are you? Where are you? Did you bring me to this place?” I retorted.

The voice replied “I understand that you have many questions Meeb, all you need know is that I am your father and it is indeed I who both created this universe and brought you here, it is up to you however to create your own world in this realm, be warned, for it will not be without peril, the clay that will be moulded into your world consists of both light and dark and you must balance it as such, as do all things in existence… Look within and you’ll know what to do. You will not be the only one I am laying this task upon, other worlds will be created in this realm by travellers such as yourself and what they do with their lands is up to them”.