Flora and Liese continued their southward journey through the great boreal forest. Each night, using their power to tap the Earth Mother's love for her creation and bring the joy of her song to the life she brought.
After a journey of many weeks, there was visibly less shadows and a brighter light began to penetrate the forest. Flora sensing Liese's question said, "We are beginning to reach human settlements. You left these settlements at a young age when your awakening power reached our attention and we have kept you on the fringe's of the strongest of power in order to fully awaken your potential once you became an apprentice."
Eventually, they stepped out of the forest and Liese saw a ribbon of dirt stretching to the east and west. "This is the northern boundary road," said Flora. "Humans are allowed no activity past this boundary and even to the south of it they are very limited in their use of Mother's creation," continued Flora.
Flora continued to explain that the Earth Mother cared for all her creations but she could not allow a deterioration of power ever again that necessitated the cataclysmic cleansing of her creation.
"Our primary purpose is to insure that Mother's forest stays pure and strong and that human activity is kept to the regions where it is allowed," said Flora. "Mother does not hate the male species and she knows it was her own protracted absence that brought forth the damaging male powers," explained Flora. "But," she continued, "the males are carefully supervised and swiftly deterred as necessary."
They journeyed west for a distance, crossing paths with none until they came upon a crossroads with a track heading south. After a comfortable night in the embrace of a great oak they headed south. As they journeyed, signs of activity slowly grew. Passing farms and other activities of human life.
Liese was awed as she was seeing more people in days then she had seen in her remembered lifetime. Since her elevation to Flora's apprentice there had only been the occasional meeting with Ruby sisters or Green sisters and their apprentices during chance meetings at territory boundaries.
Liese's memory of her time before becoming Flora's apprentice was limited. She remembered a period of six or seven years where she was well cared for by kind and gentle people and a learning process. On her 18th birthday, she remembered being brought to the communities edge and with a loving embrace told to venture into the forest.
She remembered being apprehensive but trust of a loving bond saw her doing as directed. She remembered travelling for many days and using her skills to live off what the forest provided until suddenly one evening sensing a presence. She followed that presence until she came across a bright clearing near some towering pines.
