[Dulwitch]

Every journey starts with a single step. 

That Step for me was hard and Wobbly. Why you ask well I'm a pile of leaves. I've never inhabited a body before. I couldn't tell you what was up, left or right but I knew down. Down was a crisp Autumn morning where the frost was first forming on my beloved mother tree. Her leaves where that of amber and gold and I was amongst the first few hundred leaves to float gently down to the ground below. 

I landed in a somewhat undignified fashion in mud where lots of crawling ants scurrying around abouts gathering the debris from some of my unfortunate brothers and sisters. I needed that same crisp breeze to pick me up again and move me from them some where safe and dry so I could mulch in peace. You know something a good leaf would do, not that those who became ant food weren't good leaves, just they seemed to be gone before seeing another summer.  That  was , sorry is my goal. To see one more summer, to feel the warm sun on my leaves again would bring joy into my crispy veins. 


I mean after all what else can but a humble leaf ask for? To feel joy like that on a daily basis all life has a right to grow and spread. And I needed that air so, so very much just even to lift me up just a inch so I could feel my beloved mother trees bark once more. I wasn't going to ask for much, really. What is the use in being greedy it's not my way. Take too much water and become too frail and fall too soon, my mother used to whisper to me. I listened I lasted till the middle of Autumn.

[Dulwitch]

Even though I was beginning to dry and change colours I was still green and vibrant, I still have life in me yet. Even if I have no idea what that life may be. I'm no seed that is meant to start a new Mother tree. No nought but a humble leaf. And that is where the trouble really starts you see.

How is a leaf supposed to make it though till a new summer with out turning to Mulch? I ask my self this daily. I know to stay away from this hot red stuff that feels as if it burns. But apart from that to what end can I but a leaf really live up to?.

[Dulwitch]

That blessed breeze picked me up once more letting me skirt past my mother her trunk felt sturdy and worn. I had never put into consideration how truly old she was till that moment. I picked up some of her sap onto my leaf so I may always take a part of her with me, where ever this breeze would take me.

Up and away I floated twisting and turning the world was lush with many other Mother trees and grass, and moss and many other things. I felt like I was flying, but maybe that as I was. Across rivers and streams I moved in the quick Autumn breeze feeling the chill around me. I swear it got hotter though as I went past a Daedric gate, it's red portal crying for me to enter. But I remembered my Mothers advise " Never believe the Daedric princes lies little ones, you won't find lush pastures there only flames for you to feed". I am still unsure to this day what a flame is, but maybe it is the red hot stuff those portals are made from. They flickered and danced and looked ever so enticing. But that breeze had other ideas it carried me further away into a large soft ever green bush. I laid there feeling the rest of these strange leaves around me. They may be strangers but they where cousins of mine I nesslted in even with them crying for me to be away.

Why Should I move it was comfortable here, it felt safe here. Safe like my mothers embrace when I was just a budding leaf.

[Dulwitch]

Oh those where the day's. The warm spring breeze that used to caress ,my ever changing form. The sunlight and rain where my favorite things in Spring as neither where too harsh And summer was meet with warm endless days with joyful laughter heard from afar as courtships bloomed fully from the two legged things that roamed the lands. I liked those Two legged things. They where such strange creatures and had many different forms from tall to thin and young and old.

Mother said that they where mostly Argonian. I did ask what that meant but she just made me look at a lizard. Mother had such a odd way of teaching me about the world. But I respected her ever more for it. She was Old and wise and her knots held much knowledge of the world her roots where deep you see. The deeper the root the wiser the tree, at least in her wood.

[Dulwitch]

The breeze made me move again it's crisp telling of the winter to come and I moved ever more across pond and river and even across the large blue grey body of water the birds named the sea. It looked heavy with storms and i could hear shouting from the two legged things in old wooden hulls. That wood looked as if it had come from a great mother tree. It had many knots and it smelled of pine and a tar.

Still the breeze carried me and many others of my kind across the bristling waters ever onward journey towards some place different. I could feel a summer like heat on my vaines almost as if the world was tuning quicker then before. It the breeze that is made me land on some soft ground the grass felt fresh and vibrant and i could feel the rustling of many other leaves near by. And as if by some gods trick or maybe blessing I started to form. First into a blob of leaves with face then slowly into a two legged thing. I looked at the stumps they called legs and tried to stand.

I fell but falling was fun!. I giggled like any small two legged would do to my self and noticed I produced sound. Two legged sounds. What did they call it again. Ah yes Speech, I moved and seemed to form a head and then a face and a body came next all round and squishy, and many a leaf was part of well me now. I'd also seemed to consist of twigs in places like the two legs had bones. As the day waned I grew arms and stubby things that wiggled at the ends. I made my self walk each step was wobbly i had no idea how the two legged things usually did this but it was interesting and onwards I went till I hit a town bustling with many other creatures and a small spider scuttering into my pile and called this place Sanctuary.