The druid had just left the offerings on the foot of the oak tree and had started chanting the standard invocation of his age.

The oak was sitting in a small clearing inside a thick ancient forest, it was the oldest tree in the forest, in fact it stood there from the beginning of time as far as Lokee knew.

The offering was a generous one a piece of rabbit meat and more than a few drops of ale. Lokee would consume their essence with delight.

“Oh ye noble spirit of the Oak, please accept these humble offerings and come forth to offer your poor servant your wise guidance,” the druid chanted.

He was wearing a white robe, or at least what passed for a white robe by people of his time, more of a washed brownish colour, his cap hung on his shoulders. He had long brown hair that were left hanging below his shoulders and a long beard. He looked clean, but Lokee expected no less since it was customary for anyone who came to see him to go through a ritual cleansing at the nearby stream. His face bore two long scars starting just bellow each ear and going halfway through his cheeks, they were the marks of those who had went through the initiation tests and survived to become druids. His eyes were filled with awe and apprehension, he was after all about to meet and have counsel with the noble spirit of the oak.

Lokee really wouldn’t mind if they spared him with all these rituals but they were the necessary key to unlock the barrier blocking his realm from the outside world, the world of the humans. After the druid had finished chanting he felt the mist around him dissipating and he felt himself being pushed out of his realm. To the druid he would appear like a faint figure of a man in a roe deer hide, too faint for him to make out any special characteristics. In reality he could assume any shape he wanted but he preferred that of a man in his mid thirties with black hair and eyes, wearing a roe deer hide with nothing underneath it.

“Who calls me?” Said Lokee in his deep resonant voice.

“I’m Bran the son of Adair, druid of the Atrebates.”

“And what do you want of me Bran son of Adair?”

“I’m here to seek your advice oh noble spirit of the Oak.”

“Speak!” Said Lokee in a commanding tone.

The druid didn’t seem to get unsettled by Lokee’s tone and kept his cool saying, “My Lord Tincomar wishes to know if now it would be wise for him to go to war with the Belgae and if so what would be the right time to do it.”

It was always the same, war seemed to be the only thing that these people were ever concerned with, war and power. Lokee felt for the answer, he didn’t have any knowledge of the particulars of each questions but somehow he could sense the right answer and offer it. He had no special interest for these people but since they had dedicated to him a proper offering and had uttered the ritual chants with respect he was in turn obliged to serve them. On the rare instances that they would behave with disrespect in conducting the rituals or in offering his dues, he would in turn try to trick them by offering the wrong advice. He had no power to physically harm them, nor any will to do so.

After feeling for the answer for a few moments Lokee said, “Tell your Lord oh druid that the right time to attack will be right after the first full moon that comes after the spring equinox.”

“Thank you for your wise advice, oh noble spirit!” The druid said and bowed all the way.

“Now be gone!” Lokee said angrily.

The druid got up from his knees and rushed out of the small clearing almost tripping in his robes as he went. Lokee loved scaring the people who came to see him, especially those who appeared more cool, it was one of his few pleasures.

As soon as the druid left, Lokee felt the mist rising slowly around him once again imprisoning him in his realm. Lokee lived in a realm, separate from the world of men that existed out of the fabric of time. He only came out of there, his prison, when people summoned him. He didn’t have a clear view of his situation or how he had gotten to the state he was, but he understood that the summons came from people that lived in many different ages of time.

The people who summoned him came from all ages and he knew that he didn’t receive them in any particular order corresponding to the flow of time on the outside world. He could be summoned by a stone age shaman the one moment and by an iron age druid the next. Time had no bearing within his realm.

Lokee had no clear understanding of the world of the humans, he could only “feel” for the right answer to the questions the summoners posed and so his knowledge of the outside world was limited to what he could glimpse from these questions.

He was ever curious for the outside world but he had no way to quench his curiosity since he had no way of accessing it except through the summons he received.

The oak had been his prison for as long as he could remember his existence, he had no knowledge of how or when he had come to be, he only knew that he was a spirit and that the oak was his dwelling.

From time to time he imagined how it would be like to be able to see the outside world, to bathe in the sun he sensed lied beyond the mist that surrounded his dwelling, to see the full moon he could only glimpse at through the fog. He longed to roam in the world of the humans, to find out for himself what motivated them in their endless struggles with each other. Sometimes he dreamed of what it would be to be a human.

He could assume the shape of a human easily but he did not know if he could retain that form once he ventured outside his realm. In fact he didn’t know if he could sustain his existence on the world of the humans, perhaps the moment he stepped out of his realm he would evaporate, the way the summer morning mist disappears with the first stroke of daylight.

Even if he could sustain his existence on the outside world would he be able to feed himself the way humans did? In his present state he didn’t need to eat to survive, he consumed the essence of the offerings the humans brought him, but these merely offered him satisfaction, they were not necessary for his subsistence. Would he need to eat to survive once he was on the outside? He had no way of knowing.

All these questions where of course hypothetical, for he had yet to find a way to escape his prison.

…

While he pondered his predicament and fantasized on the possibility of escaping it, he felt another summon. This time it was a more slender figure that stood in the clearing before the oak.

Lokee hear the ritual words being uttered in a language from one of the older ages, the voice was a strong female one. Druidesses were not uncommon at all ages so Lokee was not at all surprised, he had a feeling however that not many things were common about this particular druidess.

She wore a bull’s hide complete with a head and horns, under the hide she was wearing a loose white robe. Her complexion was light and her eyes where the most intriguing Lokee had seen, so intriguing that he had trouble making out what colour they were.

Who ever this druidess was she had won his attention, “Who calls me?” he said in his deep voice.

“I’m Ceridwen daughter of Taliesin!” The druidess said in her strong voice.

“And what is your tribe oh Ceridwen daughter of Taliesin?”

“At the moment I have no tribe…” Ceridwen said frowning.

“How’s so?”

“I come from the tribe of the Iceni and was their druidess, but I have now left them.”

Lokee was getting more and more curious about this particular druidess, “And why have you left your tribe?”

“Let’s just say that we had our disagreements.”

“What short of disagreements?”

“Some of the other druids wanted us to offer a human sacrifice to Damara the fertility goddess after we had a string of poor harvests.”

“And you objected.”

“I thought that a human sacrifice was too drastic a measure and that we should try some animal sacrifices first. I told them that Damara would require a human sacrifice from us only if she was particularly angry about something and that I didn’t think we had done anything to anger her that much and that it wasn’t necessary to sacrifice some poor fellow to achieve it. They decided to go ahead with the sacrifice anyway so I decided to pack my stuff and leave.”

“Leaving your tribe is quite a drastic measure.”

“Well, staying meant that I would be sanctioning a human sacrifice. I’m not totally against that, but I think that human sacrifices should be a measure of last resort, when all else fail.”

“And what do you think of doing now that you’re tribeless?”

“I have no specific plans, that’s why I came to ask for your advice, where should I go oh noble spirit?”

Lokee felt for the answer for a few moments.

“I can feel a great path open before you,” he began saying, “one that will eventually lead you to your destiny.”

“Where should I start on this path?”

“Be patient! And don’t interrupt me!”

“Forgive me noble spirit.”

“I see a place a long way south from here, a place with many mehnirs and dolmens and tumuli. This is where you should start your journey from.”

“I think you must mean Carnac, the sacred site beyond the sea.”

“Yes Carnac is the name of the place.”

“And what next from then on?”

“The gods will show you the path you must follow, I see that you’re to travel far and wide before you reach the place where you’ll eventually settle down.”

“Well I always wanted to see as much of the world as I can.”

At that Lokee’s own longing about seeing the world surfaced, “Tell me of the world.”

“What do you mean?” Ceridwen said, surprised at the seemingly out of place question coming from a spirit.

“I want to know about the world, how is it outside there?”

“I thought you knew everything about the world oh noble spirit, after all you’re the one to which we mortals come for guidance.”

“I know the answers to your questions, but I know nothing about the world itself. I know nothing about how the sun feels on your face or how the breeze touches your skin.” Lokee began saying and then continued to explain to her his predicament, how he was essentially imprisoned here in this realm out of time, forever barred from the world of the humans. He didn’t know why he decided to open himself like that to this mortal woman, maybe it was her own act of defiance against her tribe that had put ideas on his mind about perpetuating some acts of defiance himself, defiance against the state of things in his existence.

So Ceridwen went on and told him about the world, she tried to describe to him how the morning sun felt when it first showed its face in the horizon and how it feels when it is on its highest point in the sky at noon. She told him about the rain and the snow and how it felt when they fell on your face. She described how the grass felt on your naked toes on a spring day.

Everything she could think about the world she told him and Lokee listened in awe.

After she was finished they both fell silent for quite some time, after a while Lokee spoke, “I want to experience this stuff.”

“Why don’t you?”

“I don’t know how to leave this place.”

“Have you ever tried?”

“No, but I don’t think its possible.”

“How do you know if you haven’t tried it?”

“You’re right. It’s just that I’ve been like this for as long as I can remember.”

“That sounds like too long.”

“Indeed it is.”

“Would you like to join me on my travels?”

“I would like to, but you see I don’t even know if I can survive outside here.”

“You’ll never know if you never try.”

“You’re right.”

“Come with me she said,” and offered him her hand.

Lokee reached out for it and together they walked out of the clearing. Lokee was waiting for something to happen, for something to block his way and hold him near the oak, but nothing did.

Slowly they moved through the forest until they reached the end of it and stepped out into the most beautiful meadow, the grass was plush and the field was filled with white and yellow daisies. The sight filled Lokee with excitement and apprehension for the new chapter of his life that was beginning. He would have to clear a lot of the details about his new existence but he didn’t care, right now he just felt intoxicated by what he was experiencing.

Ceridwen turned to look at him as they walked next to each other Lokee still holding her hand, she smiled and asked, “off to Carnac then spirit?”

“My name is Lokee,” he said, ”My Name is Lokee.”