A Song for Winter: Terrible Outfit

William stood in the enchanted grove of the Harvest Druids visibly annoyed as he was being redressed in ceremonial garb. Violet, William’s wife, had declared that he was to be made her grove warden for practical and ceremonial purposes. As Violet would one day become the archdruid she would need a warden to act as her protector and stand by her side during rituals. While William wasn’t technically a member of the druidic order he was married to a druid and could easily outmatch any other warden candidate in a duel so technicality was put to the side to allow him to be Violet’s warden.

 

Firstly, William was stripped of all of his clothes, even his eye patch, before he was bathed in an enchanted pool of pure magical water. Next, he was air-dried by warm gusts of summoned air by druid acolytes before he was handed a simple loincloth to wear. Acolytes were then tasked with using blessed dyed mud to draw druidic symbols on William’s white and grey fur. The mud was dyed red, blue, green, and yellow to represent the four primary elements. Despite the mud being enchanted, it itched and made William look like he walked through half a rainbow. Next, since William’s latent element was air, feathers of all kinds were woven into his fur with beads and strands of multicolored threads. He started to look less like an arctic folf and more like some sort of bird that flew into a freshly painted house.

 

As the runes and feathers were finished, Violet stepped forward and tapped William on the forehead with her bladed staff. Magic jumped from the staff to William which caused the runes to glow for a moment before all the mud fell away. In its places were the markings of the runes on William’s skin in the colors that matched the dyed mud. He was then provided with pants and a shirt woven from various different types of grasses that were harvested from the druid groove. When the clothes touched one of the runes the colored rune transferred through onto the fabric. William soon realized that he was just going to be a multicolored mess no matter what they dressed him in. Tree bark armor that was specially made to fit him preciously was tied on of the now tie-dyed clothes. Soon the colored runes seeped through the clothes and began to show on the armor. 

 

Now a tie-dyed mess with beads and bird feathers in his fur William took to his knee in front of Violet’s father, Archdruid Regalius, and swore to always try to preserve the balance of nature while he always protected Violet. As he did so the runes he was painted ignited with a colorful array of lights. Now a grove warden, William stood dressed in multi-colored tree armor covered in beads and feathers. He felt and looked ridiculous but this was the last time he would ever have to dress like this. However, if Violet asked him to William would gladly don the outfit again for her.