Adapted from the Song "Stairway to Heaven" by Robert Plant and Jimmy Page

Johan Ingleson, the son of Ingle (a respected forester) and Elsa, was born and raised in a small, isolated village called Forssa in the country of Finnheim. His was a normal and happy childhood, and like most sons in Forssa, Johan would have followed in his father's footsteps and become a forester. However, Johan was not like most sons in Forssa; his secret desire was to become a priest of Mielikki, the Goddess of Nature, the Mistress of the Forest.

Johan had another secret as well, one that if revealed would brand him as an evil man, a servant of Hiisi, the God of Evil. The secret that he kept hidden was the fact that he possessed mind-magic, psionics as he would later learn to call them.

When he first found out about his powers soon after his fourteenth birthday, Johan at first truly believed that he had become evil and corrupted. Yet, he didn't feel evil. His love for family, friends, and country hadn't changed, nor his love of nature. Thus he began to think his earlier belief about mind-magic was wrong. Still, nobody in Forssa would feel that way if he revealed his powers, so he kept them secret, experimenting only when he was alone in the woods. Johan always wondered why he had this mind-magic when no one else in his family, or Forssa for that matter, was known to have them.

His secret was discovered however' less than a year after he "received" the mind-magic, on the occasion of his coming-of-age ceremony on his fifteenth birthday.

During the ceremony Johan had announced, much to his father's dismay, his intention to become a priest of the Nature Goddess. Ingle knew that priests were respected and Johan's choice would bring lionor to their family, but priests were also feared of the powers bestowed upon them by the deity. And besides, he had hoped that his son would follow in his footsteps.

Johan thoroughly enjoyed himself in the celebration that took place after the ceremony. The ale flowed freely, and soon Johan was completely drunk. All caution flew to the wind as he engaged in a bit of horseplay with one of his friends.

When this friend scratched him with his fingernails, Johan didn't think, he simply reacted. Backing away from the object of his drunken anger, Johan unleashed what he called his "invisible punch" (project force) power, causing his friend, even though Johan hadn't physically touched him, to be flung back into the table upon which rested tile kegs of ale. The table was broken and most of the kegs along with it as the table, kegs, and friend came crashing to the floor.

Johan sobered immediately. Looking around him, he saw that some of those nearby had seen that he hadn't touched his friend before the lad flew into the table. Though they were all as drunk as he had been, Johan couldn't take any chances: the superstitious villagers would probably burn him as a witch, if they didn't kill him on the spot! He did the only thing he could: he fled.

For two miserable years Johan wandered throughout Finnheim, looking for a place he could call home. He avoided the cities for he feared the powerful priests, thinking that they would be able to recognize that he possessed the mind- magic. Nor did he return to Forssa, though his heart longed for the familiar places where he had spent many happy hours. But most of all, he missed the love of his family. He hoped that they weren't worried about him, or ashamed of him if his secret had been discovered, or (Mielikki forbid!) they weren't in any danger or trouble because of him.

Eventually he found himself outside the village of Ekenas. He was just about to enter the village proper when he heard a voice from behind call out his name.

Johan knew no one in this village, thus no one should know him. Fearing the worst, he whirled around with his hunting knife in hand... only to find a man in his 30's regarding him, hand held up and empty in a sign of peace.

"Peace friend Johan, peace. Put away your knife, you have nothing to fear from me. I am Paavo, a simple ranger, and, like yourself, a psionicist."

Johan stared at him blankly. "A what?!"

Paavo gave him a wry grin and said, "Forgive me, perhaps you call it mind-magic."

Johan didn't know this Paavo, or how he had found out about his mind- magic, but he couldn't trust him. He turned to flee, but there was the man again, in front of him, blocking his path. He turned again... and there was Paavo once again! Johan held up his holy symbol in fear and said weakly, "Mielikki, protect me!"

Paavo laughed and pulled out his own evergreen branch, the holy symbol of Mielikki. "I worship her also, and she has seen fit to show me, through my psionics, of your coming and of her desire that I should aid you in understanding your powers. There is no need to fear me."

Seeing the holy symbol of Mielikki calmed Johan, and so he put away his knife and own symbol. "I'm sorry Paavo, but so many people fear these... 'psionics' did you call them? I have never met any one else with these powers, so I didn't know what to think.... How did you know who I was, and that I was coming here, and that I have the mindmagic?"

Paavo was shrugging off the apology, and then said, "As I have already said, Mielikki showed me through the use of my psionics that you were coming. The powers allowed me to see the future in my dreams, Johan, and I kept dreaming of you, meeting you here, and bringing you to my cottage in the woods so that I could teach you how to control your powers."

Grateful, Johan said a prayer to his patron goddess, for surely she must have led him here and intended this meeting, so that Paavo could teach him how to master his powers. He wondered if every one in Forssa was wrong when they believed that these "psionics" were a corruption of the soul, when they were in fact a gift from the gods? If this was so, then there must surely be a price to pay for being specially favored. Mielikki was not a cruel goddess, so Johan didn't believe that his price for the gift was being feared and distrusted; they just didn't understand them, that was all. So what then would Mielikki require of him for giving him this gift?

Johan gratefully accompanied Paavo to his cottage, where he was greeted warmly by Lahti, Paavo's wife. The couple had never had any children of their own, and soon enough they began to treat Johan like they would have their own child. Eventually, Johan learned to trust them and slowly began to return their love.

Lahti had partitioned off a portion of their home for Johan's private use, and even altered some of Paavo's clothes so that they would fit him. As the days and months passed, she taught him how to cook and raise vegetables.

Paavo taught him much as well. Under his tutelage, Johan became an even better hunter, as Paavo also showed him how to track his prey. He even taught Johan how to make bows and arrows which allowed him to earn some money by selling some of which he made to the villagers in Ekenas. Of course, Paavo taught him how to use and control his powers. Much to Paavo's joy, they soon discovered that Johan possessed Clairsentient (as he called it) powers like Paavo's as well as Psychokinetic powers.

But perhaps the most important things Paavo and Lahti taught him were the things he should know about the world around him. They taught him as much as they knew about the history of Finnheim and the surrounding area, and even schooled him in the language of the Elves, those fun-loving forest folk. They dispelled his myths about the cities and explained how people in the cities really lived, including the differences in the laws which governed city dwellers and those for villagers.

They were also responsible for changing his feelings and prejudices toward other people, feelings he had learned from his family and the people of Forssa. They were hard feelings to change.

Johan soaked up all this knowledge and his curiosity grew. He wanted to see the places and people Paavo and Lahti described for him. He grew very restless.

Thus after seven happy years with his adoptive parents, Johan sensed that it was time for him to strike out on his own; but that would have to wait for another two days, since on the morrow it was the holy day of both Mielikki and Ahto, the God of Seas and Water, and Johan would never miss celebrating this day.

The villagers of Ekenas held a celebration each year on the same day, the first day of spring (the vernal equinox). The celebration served both the purpose of proclaiming the end of winter and the beginning of spring, and to praise both Ahto and Mielikki, petitioning them for a plentiful year to come. Both deities were honored by a day's long festival, during which the villagers feasted, told stories, sang, and danced in the streets. To the people of Ekenas, the celebration served to bring them new hope for the year ahead as well as to honor the gods, and they sorely needed that hope after the year which had just ended, Johan reflected. Mielikki and Ahto must have been in some way displeased with the celebration last year, because the weather they had experienced in this last year was the most severe he could recall.

During the last year, the spring rains were more like floods, causing seeds to rot in the ground, while the summer was one of unending, uncommon heat with little rain, so those crops that did survive the spring withered and died in the fields. The autumn was a short, cold one, a foreshadowing of the long, cold winter that followed. Many people died of starvation and from the harshness of the winter weather; only the fisherman of the village had kept the people of Ekenas from starving altogether, and if the weather proved to be the same in the year to come, even they would be helpless to prevent complete disaster.

A yawn broke Johan from his sad thoughts. As he got ready for bed , his mind drifted to the last celebration in which he had participated, and the horrible results. Remembering that, he decided not to get involved in any of the friendly competitions like wrestling, not because of any fear of losing control of his psionics again-Paavo had taught him too well for that to happen again-but because he didn't want to start his journey possibly sore and bruised. With thoughts of the morrow's festivities dancing in his head, Johan drifted off into sleep .....

... only to awake the next morning in a place far different than his bed! Johan found himself laying in an open field, at the edge of an unfamiliar forest. A light dusting of snow covered the field in which he lay, glistening in the morning sun. Oddly enough, the snow was unmarked by any tracks of man or beast, and when looking around, he noted that his possessions were in a neat pile just behind him. Johan regarded the forest, which seemed strangely silent, as if it was holding its breath, awaiting his next actions. He noticed then a trail leading off into these woods, as if inviting him to follow it.

A slight breeze began to blow in the next moment, so the loose snow on the needles of the evergreens fell and did a swirling dance as it was caught in this early morning wind. Suddenly, he realized something: it was obviously very chilly here, and though he was dressed only in his light bedclothes, he wasn't cold at all!

Perplexed by all these puzzles, he ran his hand through his disheveled hair, and this action caused the sunlight to reflect from a ring on his hand, a ring he had never seen before. Could this have been a going away present from Paavo and Lahti? Johan didn't thinks so: they would have given it to him personally. It wasn't like them to do things on the sly!

Johan removed the ring to study it more closely. It seemed to be made of pure silver and was unadorned. Suddenly, he was hit by a blast of cold air which set his teeth to chattering. He quickly put the ring back on and his eyes widened in surprise as he was once again comfortably warm.

Johan stared at the ring, a little scared at its magical nature. His fear of magic from his childhood had been a prejudice that Paavo and Lahti could not totally erase. He wondered who had given it to him, and why they had brought him here.

The howl of a far-away wolf shook him out of his reverie. He realized that just because this seemed to be a peaceful place didn't mean it actually was. So first things first, he thought, and so he closed his eyes and quickly entered into a light trance just as Paavo had taught him to do, in order to focus his powers. He opened his mind to the surroundings, using his "danger sense" to see if there was anything threatening nearby. His sense revealed nothing.

With that taken care of, Johan moved on to the next order of business: getting dressed. He felt that he must have been brought here for a purpose, so he would feel rather silly if /when he met that person or persons just dressed in his night clothes. When dressing, Johan made another strange discovery, finding a set of tracks straddling where he had lain, which then moved over to his belongings, then led off into the woods. Once dressed and gear packed, Johan followed them for about 10 feet into the forest, where they suddenly vanished. He examined them more closely and noted two things.

First, from the exact same place where the first set of tracks vanished, he saw that there were really two sets of tracks made by the same person. The first set led from that point to where he had been placed, with the second set leading back to that spot and ending there. The other discovery was that the tracks seemed to have been made by either an adolescent lad, an elf, or a woman, judging from their size and depth.

It seemed he couldn't follow the tracks, so Johan began to examine his belongings, and when doing so found two things that were different. One was that both his waterskins, which had been empty last night, were now filled with fresh, cold water. Second, he found a small cloth bundle at the top of his pack. Gingerly, Johan opened it and found four large blueberries. These definitely didn't belong to him!

Seeing the potential food, Johan's stomach began to growl, reminding him that he would be eating breakfast with Paavo and Lahti right about now. Thinking of them only served to remind Johan of how much he missed Paavo and Lahti.

He considered hunting up some breakfast, after all he had his bow and arrows, but his attention was again drawn to the forest, and he was struck immediately by what was wrong with these woods. By now the wildlife within should be active, but save for the gently sighing wind, there wasn't any sound or movement.

Four blueberries would do little to satisfy his hunger, but it seemed that his options were rather limited, so he decided to try one of them. He picked one up and examined it; it felt, smelled, and looked like a blueberry, so he gave it a tentative taste. It was delicious, and--did he imagine--his tongue actually tingled.

Johan realized that he was being foolish over the berry. He grinned sheepishly and popped it into his mouth... and found that it wasn't his imagination, for his entire mouth began to tingle warmly, the berry's favor absolutely delicious. For a moment he had a feeling that he should maybe spit it out, but the feeling quickly passed and besides, it was probably too late by now anyway. He swallowed it, and much to his surprise, found that his hunger completely disappeared within a few seconds of doing so, just as if he had eaten an entire meal!

"More magic," Johan thought grumpily. But as with the ring, it seemed to be helpful magic. Johan said a quick "thank you" to the one who had given the magic to him.

Having taken care of those necessities, Johan decided to take stock of his options. As he thought back to what he had seen and learned this morning, he realized that things had occurred in twos several times. First, he had discovered two sets of tracks, though admittedly made by the same person (apparently), but still two sets. Then he had found two things different with his belongings, and he had been given two magic gifts, the ring and the berries. Last of all there seemed to be two options, either the woods or the field: or was there another option he hadn't noticed yet? Johan was very curious about who had brought him here and why, and wondered if this person (or persons) would come to check on him if he waited at the edge of the forest.

No sooner than he had decided to wait, the wind changed. It suddenly stopped blowing as a steady sigh, instead changing to a gusting pulse. As he listened, the hairs on the nape of his neck stood oil end, and a chill ran down his spine, for the wind seemed to be whispering "Johan Johan calling him from within the forest, urging him to follow the path leading into it.

All thought of waiting left his mind in that moment. He again entered a trance, taking a close look at his surroundings once his mind magic was focused. His powers would allow him to remember this place, so that he could return here if he had to. Paavo had called this power "Radial Navigation," a rather ugly name, Johan thought, so he preferred to call it "Trail Memory."

Having so readied himself, Johan determined that he would now follow the trail. He placed his hand on the hilt of his scimitar, ready to draw it in response to any attack once he had entered the woods. No sooner than he had touch his weapon, however, the wind gasped! The sound was like a person's sharp intake of breath upon being shocked or surprised, but louder. A cold shiver once again ran down Johan's spine, causing him to hesitate for a moment. Then, licking his lips nervously, he took his hand from his weapon and stepped forward into the forest to face an unknown fate. 71