A Rose In The Shrine Pt. I
Gecklin was a young boy who spent half his time working for his father in the stables of the shrine and the other half in studies under the tutelage of the town vicar. He was a young lad who still liked to sneak away from either the stables or the vicar in order to play "knights and highwaymen" with the other boys in woods around their town. But today, it just didn't seem to be Gecklin's day.
Not only had the Vicar foisted upon them more homework than usual that morning but the shrine had seen more visitors thanks to an approaching holiday for the goddess.
Goddess Leindra was one of the Iluminaries and was considered a powerful local goddess associated with stone and wood working, particularly the art of carving stone or wood. The shrine dedicated to her had been put into place by the village's ancient founders and had grown over the course of decades into a sizable portion of the town's outer districts.
Indeed, the shrine itself was now a large wooden hut that could fit easily fifty people into it. And it was surrounded by a courtyard full of stone and wood carvings, all done by the grandmasters of the stoneworkers and woodcarvers guilds. There was even an artificial pond fed water from a nearby spring thanks to an intricate system of beautifully engraved metal pipes.
The ground around the shrine was laden with flowers, prayer scrolls and small trinkets dedicated to the goddess. Stoneworkers and woodcarvers far and wide had passed by here and made sure to leave small offerings of their own in tribute to the goddess, usually in the form of old tools left in her honor.
Gecklin was busy feeding the horses of the paying visitors to the shrine when he noticed a cloaked man enter the courtyard, the dust of the road thick on his boots and leggings. He was a man of medium height and build but his green and yellow cloak, edged with feathers and jangling with prayer beads on the edges, immediately set him off as someone unique from typical townsfolk and passing pilgrims.
When the man threw aside his cloak to reveal an emerald tunic with bright red sash, and dark purple leggings, it was obvious he was another of the bards.
The bards were chief among the worshipers of the Illuminaries and their kind were quite frequent in this place.
