Vuori: Woods of Albaedinan

""*How could I, ever? How could I grade the memories? The undying Love, the feelings inside me for this place? Eye-opening, deep breaths amidst the pines, wondrous views…I know our Mountain might rise lower than its rivals beyond Athens, but was it ever a race of such material affairs? Could you ever contain what we felt in our hearts when listening to the wind rustling through the cypress, when we saw the antennae warming us to the tops, when we heard the cry of the partridge amidst dangerous underbrush and under humid skies?* ""

Vuori: Woods of Albaedinan is the twelfth chronicle in The Vuori Chronicles series, and also the series finale. It is a heavily emotional tale which summarizes the majority of locations expanded upon throughout the tales and concludes the series with a bittersweet appreciation for all locations included. A nod to the animal POVs which accompanied several of the tales throughout, the story also ends the circle of fox-human interactions with a final dialogue between a now old human and the fox who exchanged stories with him back in previous installments of the series. While individual stories and poems were drafted beyond this tale and still are, Woods of Albaedinan constitutes the finale of all canon tales in the series.

*Words*: 1638

*Preceded By*: Vuori: Wrong Turn In Evening Paths

*Succeeded By*: N/A

## Release

The finale was written July 13, 2018 and was the final story in The Vuori Chronicles. It is marked XII and the Series Finale.

## Plot

Following on a thread from Vuori: The Warehouses, where the fox had promised the human to share its stories of The Other Side, the part of the mountain behind the visible areas from Peristeri, Chaidari and Petroupoli, the tale begins with the two talking about the Road Whose End is Not Known and the antennae on the far side of the Mountain.

Seated on Zacharitsa, they turn the other way and the fox tells the human about Albaedinan, the antenna farther away at Krimnaia Ypsi, and then proceeds to describing the rest of the Antennae on the Falling Heights, before discussing the Skaramagkas Groves, clumps of pines and olive trees which over look Attiki Odos on the other side of Mount Poikilo, Vuori. These woods overlook the distant sea of Skaramagkas and the Elefshina Shipyards, and are the answer to the end of the Road Whose End is Not Known. The areas had been hinted at in earlier tales but were now brought back.

Finally, as the Human remembers most of the locations the fox realizes that there is nothing left to tell him he wouldn't know of. They enjoy the view from atop Zacharitsa, and a quick summary of most locations follows, including Korydallaia Ypsi, Kaskantami, the Army Field, Pefkies, Liopyri, The Monastere, the Evening Paths, The Long Road , Petroupoli and many more. Towards the end of the tales, the Human, teary-eyed and nostalgic of his youth, remembers the excursions with his friends, as the Vuoriors, who trod most of the areas in Poikilo Oros and states that it doesn't matter whether the Mountain is the highest of all, as long as the effect it has on the hearts of everyone who loves it remains grandiose.

By the end of the description, the reader is left with a strange feeling of sadness and appreciation of the beauty of Nature over all those tops, as the Human finishes by saying most of the Vuoriors are now scattered, but each of them holds a different appreciation of their own personal desires. For the Human, the Mountain meant everything and he makes sure to convey this same dazzling amazement to the fox who looks at him 'with wonder filled eyes'.

In the end, the fox invites the human to beat the tiredness of aging and 'dash through the woods' for a final trip around Vuori. Plenty of allusions to the origin story of the chronicles, the Song of Vuori, are made and the story ends with a short poem-much like in Vuori: Tale of the Shadow Slope in which Vuori greets all the wanderers who walk upon it and wishes them joy and health.

The final lines are a thank you from writer James Kingston to all the fans who have read the chronicles, ending the series in a bittersweet way.