It is said that long ago a traveling healer, an outsider not of the Misriki, found themselves lost in the deep Misriki forest.

The healer had come to the woods of the Misriki to find healing herbs that would help heal the sick people in their village.

The traveler found what they needed, but once they had, they found that under the thick dark canopy of the forest it was impossible to find the path out of the forest.

The traveler was hopelessly lost, with no food or water, and on the brink of death when they came across a small tree with a single plum in it’s branches. The tree spoke:

“Woe to us both traveler. I am but a small tree and I like you cannot survive long in the darkness of the forest. Without the light that hides above the canopy I will perish. We need not both suffer, traveler, it will not sustain you long, but take the last of my life and claim it as your own. I offer you my plum.”

The traveler reached out towards the tree, and the small tree thought this was their end. Instead of plucking the plum, the traveler hoisted the small tree on to their back.

“One who heals would not ask one to do something for them, they were not willing to offer themselves. Your plum might offer me another day of life, but your nourishment is light. With the last of my strength I will carry you above the canopy so that you will live- and that will be my final gift of healing I can offer to this world.”

The trek up the trees was arduous and high up these towering trees the traveler climbed.

At last the traveler reached the top of the forest, to discover a bright full moon graced the swaying tree tops with her light.

The small tree, so thirsty and malnourished it was, drank in the light of the moon- so much so that the full moon shrank until only a sliver of it… a crescent remained. As it drank the small tree grew until it produced many plums and could reach the forest floor with it’s roots, and there under the canopy it returned the traveler to the floor. This tree now glowing silvery like the moon, spoke to the traveler:

“Kind stranger, irregular to your kind, you who lost your path chose to be selfless at great cost and sacrifice to yourself. In doing so you have found a path none other have trodden. I offer you these boons.”

The tree gave the traveler many plums, and a silvery crescent shaped branch.

“Eat of my fruit and be nourished, for in their flesh you will find restoration. Make a torch of my branch and it will never go out until you find your way out of the dark canopy of this forest. Lastly I ask that you pass on this branch through your family tree so your descendants may find their path back to this forest some day.”

The traveler thanked the tree graciously, and having eaten (only some of plums, they were careful to save most of them) and lit the silvery crescent torch, it glowed with a blue light that illuminated the dark canopy of the forest better than any normal torch ever could. Not once did the torch go out until the traveler emerged from the forest.

The traveler brought back the herbs and left over plums to the sick people in their village and all the sick recovered.

True to their promise the traveler passed down the silvery wooden limb, along with the story behind the crescent torch- the story carried a morale inspired by the first words of the tree themself after the tree had transformed- that to find the light to ones path, even when you are lost, be true. Be selfless. Be irregular.