There was not much different from the Forest Quiescence and the forest most recall from their own memory. The trees barely spoke to one another, but the Wind would whisper to them. Though, even the trees could not understand what the Wind had to say… She was proclaiming the arrival of a new protector, a new guardian who would be born of the Giver. The Wind knew it was coming, and that the Northern Spirit would soon arrive with the sapling, but she also knew that there would be another…

The Wind howled through the branches of the trees, young and old, both naive and wise alike. She wanted to warn them of the shadow that would come into being along with the given guardian; Mother was still obsessed with the idea of equality even among the Spirits.

The wisest, towering trees shook their limbs at the Wind for bothering them with her whispers. They did not understand the threat that was coming or know of the war that was approaching. They stayed in their seats in silence, never realizing that they never moved because they were waiting…

The Northern Spirit appeared on the horizon just as the sun was setting. He had taken the form of Man and he walked on his own. In his arms, he held a young plant that was unlike any other seen in the Forest Quiescence. At the base of the eldest tree in the forest, he dug a small hole in the earth for the child and bowed his head.

No words were spoken by the Northern Spirit, and the same way he had arrived, he left. The Northern Spirit never realized that the Southern Spirit had followed him in his footsteps in the same place as the Northern sapling, planted a Southern sapling that would carry a child to be born the same day as its twin.

…The trees had been waiting for them all along.