Seeker and the Eastern Wind is a fantasy tale inspired by the earliest works of the legendary wordsmith J.R.R. Tolkien, including such masterpieces as "The Tale of Tinuviel", "Turin and the Foaloke", and The Silmarillion...

This magical story details the mysterious adventure of two unique central characters: Seeker, a stray cat whose curios nature is overshadowed only by his uncharacteristically bold outlook on life, and the Eastern Wind, a beautiful and natural force of the world freefalling through the innocent currents of his being. The two unlikely friends soon find themselves in a strange forest where faires dance in the trees and the animals live in almost complete harmony with one another. Soon Seeker must decide where his loyalties lie when the plague of Man treads with ill intentions into the realm of the Darken Wood.

The Eastern Wind blew west that day, passing over the bay and stretching his fingers to caress the white sands, tickling the whiskers of curiosity. Over the dunes and the fields below, where daisies and violets were coming to bloom does the Eastern Wind blow, passing over a stream of the clearest brilliance where a great bear fished and a white gull preened, and he continued to drift at a pace of the utmost leis. Unbeknownst to that great wind was the piqued interest of the whisker’s wearer, following below at a brisk, prancing trot as only cats do.            Following still that mystical breeze came the cat to a sparkling stream, and he paid no heed to the great bear between he and the opposite bank, nor the white gull who took off in a frenzied flight upon the cat’s noiseless approach. Now digging his claws and craning his neck, bunching his small shoulders and training his eyes, the cat prepared to spring, and spring he did, across the stream and over the bear who bellowed his name, Jarax, for the flying cat’s ears. On that day, however, this bold cat had no such desire to deal with a bear, even Jarax be his name, and so he continued on in pursuit of his goal, which took him to the broad mouth of a great darkened wood where no light should enter, and he sat for a while as the Eastern Wind howled above.           

The sun was high as the blue doves sang and the Eastern Wind espied many things nearing that darkened wood- a wood of no small encompassing- at the edge of a great sea of green and yellow and many other colors without. Here that great wind lingered, and he spied below him that frisky black cat whose tail was swinging and whose ears were pulled back, for it seemed to that curious cat that he spied green embers burning from within the ford of elms, and it was his sprawling nature that he deigned to enter into that, the darkest of places.            

Seeing this feat in its making, the Eastern Wind banked and swirled and dived and twirled so that he teased many a leaf on the first of those trees, until the followed became the follower as that mark of nature entered the wood behind the boldest of cats this day. Flitting through the trees with their infinite tresses and leafs, the wind tried hard to stir naught in that wood as he followed the swooshing black tail. So it came that the forest floor crunched and snapped and fluttered magically at the passing of those twain, and their fears were soon subsided as they lost themselves in the great foray.           

Glance behind those two chanced not, else they would have known they were lost, but instead, growing ever more bold as he was, that tiny cat came to a wide river’s edge thrice the length of the glittering stream, so that he had to pounce upon a boulder half its great girth as the Eastern Wind helped him along, crossing to the opposite bank. Still they did not tarry, but rather carried along at something of a visiting pace, and many a creature turned out to see a partnership strange and as yet unbeknownst to them, though all things in the wood were entwined in life and in death.           

See these folk of the forest those two did not, for mistrust of recent and strange happenings bid most of them stay hidden from view, and so those two carried ever onward, for they had each unto the other for companionship as the sun sank low in its cradling sky and night crept among them. Suddenly both the cat and the wind became wrought with fright, stealing away into a narrow cave, for all the sounds of the forest had ceased and the moonbeams did not penetrate so deep as to comfort them in their infinite venturing.           

After a while the cat’s ears perked up and he crept to the entrance of the cave, and all manner of things did he behold, for now all the folk of the forest mingled each alone and at length all together. The cat’s tail swung in tune with the hooting owls and his eyes danced with the glowing fireflies, and long he sat there and hearkened to the song of the wood at night, while the fairies danced in the boles of the trees, and the animals turned out as well.           

Now the cat, being caught up as he was, neglected to notice the absence of a certain breeze, nor did he sense the new stillness of that cave, for the other had noted a glow as of lavender fire from further down in the earth and had himself been ensnared by the teasing webs of curiosity that were once the cat’s bane. In this the rocky tunnel narrowed and expanded so that his passing made a great chorus as to the likes of a woodland song, and he sang with those melodies:                       

A passing breeze among the stones,                       
Chasing a light that warms the bones                       
Twisting and dipping and diving through,                      
To an underground river of deepest blue

As the Eastern Wind traveled he was amazed at finding now that he had a voice, if only in song then all the more beauteous still. Following the river to its fang-studded mouth, where the open and starry sky shown in, it seemed to that singing wind that the sight he beheld now was most spectacular indeed. The water fell from a height most dazzling to a pool of lavender radiance-of which it was ever after named- and it seemed to the Eastern Wind that a new forest as of a new world resided here, and he desired much to be a part and to bring his friends from above, and the world of Man would not follow.           

 Above, in the world of Man, the cat had finally noted the absence of his friend, and much worry was there in his heart, but he deigned not to retreat to the depths of the tunnel alone and so went he out into the forest to find those beasts brave enough to join him in this. Now the dancing and music of the forest was dimmed as all those folk observed the emboldened cat come among them, and the fox wanted much to eat him, but the bear merely to drive him out, and the leopard to make sport of him, but then came the most final consensus, for bourn by shadow was an immense black wolf holding green embers in the place of eyes.            

Now all the folk of the forest, even Jarax the bear and Nithiel the leopard, made war for his passing form, and upon approaching the intruder the wolf issued a bow and named himself Jade of the Darkened Wood, and the cat gave his as Seeker the Bold come to ask the forest’s aid in his most recent plight. After the telling of that tale Jade told Seeker he had naught to worry about, for the great wolf alone of the whole of the forest knew where those tunneling paths lead, and he had deigned not to tell his forest kin of this for fear they would flee the world of Man without a fight, and many would have.           

Upon hearing this, Seeker sat himself down among the toadstools and heaved a great sigh, and all the folk of the forest- seeing this lowly cat treated akin to a hero by their leader- launched into the proud telling of all the secrets of their abode, and with lesser mirth of the plague of Man, who would think to steal this land and make it his own; thus the festivities started anew.           

After many dances had passed the Eastern Wind returned and he sang to them songs of what he had found, and Jade stopped him not, sensing a dread thing on the way, whence the Eastern Wind sang:

A sparkling waterfall of stars did I see,                       
And it fell through fangs of silver with me                      
And partway down on a scaffold of rock,                       
The river turns purple and my eyes did it lock                       
Then spiraling down to a pool of great splendor,                       
Where midmost rose a hillock so tender                       
For moss and clovers of silk grow there,                       
And never had I seen an island so fair 

And so the Eastern Wind sang on, and the animals swooned, but the fairies were gone and none noticed save Jade. As that great wind sang of lands of the utmost perfection beyond the lavender pool, a smell as of sulfur and burning filled the wolf’s nose, and tears ran rampant and unchecked down his face, for he knew what must surely be coming.            

A silvery form limping toward them confirmed this, and it was Jade’s dearest friend, the white stag, Indis, who had stolen his heart long ago. Pierced by an arrow of Man she was, winning many a tear as she comes to warn these, her people, before darkness took her, and it did. Because of this, any man in the forest that night will tell you surely that the howl they beheld split the eardrum and caused many a brave lad to flee ere the melee started, for Jade’s heart had broken.           

The blackest of wolves ordered his folk flee with the fairies to the fair Elven realm- for that is where the tunnel will lead- and someday return to avenge the soul of the Darken Wood. And so began the journey from the old stars to the new, but those of a stronger spirit and bond with this wood would not flee, and chose instead to make a stand. Among them lead by Jade that night were Jarax the bear and Nithiel the leopard, Seeker the Bold and the Eastern Wind, and a great many spirits beside.           

A river of tears flowed that night as Jelek the fox lead his people to the Elven realm, for he was no fighter and smartest among them, and so would lead them right and true. The rains began even as the fires were launched, and Jade and his folk stood shoulder to shoulder, facing a line of hulking and armored men come to take their home, and no great pity had he for those hounds which Man had converted to his services, even as many of their number marched against him now.           

That great snaking line, seeing those green embers glow, soon ceased their advance, and a moment of reckoning passed before Jade brandished white fangs and attacked. Jarax and Nithiel and all the remaining host of the Darken Wood came behind as the Eastern Wind carried Seeker the Bold above that fray, for the men hurled spears and loosed great hounds upon that bloodthirsty throng.            

Able to do nothing else, Seeker watched as Jade reached the line of men, tearing at their soft necks and howling terribly all the while. He watched as Jarax the bear was overcome by the traitorous hounds, though he slew many, and that saddened cat caught sight of a hurdling spear as it buried itself in Nithiel’s heart… and the fires consumed all else.           

Now enraged, the Eastern Wind threw his might against the fires and blew them back toward the men, consuming many, and Seeker, having escaped his friend’s grasp, pounced over a fallen oak to find the crushed form of Jade under a tree aflame, all manner of dead foes around him. Seeker the Bold earned his name that day, for he pounced upon and drove away a hound that would despoil that sight, and Jade opened eyes of the brightest green.           

Now Seeker looked into those eyes and cried, though Jade bid him not, and ere the wolf breathed his last, he lent the little cat hope when he said that if many beside could be found with heart akin to Seeker the Bold, then hope remained so long as the bravest lead them, and with a last mighty leer a wolf gave away his eyes to a cat, who now grew to a great size and power, and he resembled a tiger of black and jade, so that he and the Eastern Wind set the rest of the men and hounds to running.           

As the sun of a new day dawned, the tiger and the wind bore with them the bodies of those three they saw fall back to the Elven realm, and once there they learned the sad truth that Jelek the fox had been taken by the river’s fangs. This being so, it was decided that Seeker should lead the rest of that folk abroad and make a new home for them in this twilit place, and perhaps one day they would fare back to the world of Man and the Darken Wood, which was already bearing witness to the first green shoots of rebirth.           

The Eastern Wind sang a song of hope and lamentation on the little hillock in the lavender pool, and Seeker and all his folk hearkened with still hearts under the Elven stars, and Seeker took a new name that night, and it was he who led them, Seeker of the Jade Hope.                       

By Steven Kelliher