The fog slept over Ash Grove valley. The trees drooped, the dew not sparkling, for the dawn sun did not penetrate the clouds. The ravens in the trees stood quiet attentive watch over the winding soil tracks that descended from the hills down to the grove.

Five wizards of timeless place and name, old beyond reckoning, young in bright appearance, gathered. The wizard of Oak had gathered dry branches, and blew on them to make them burn a little fire. Hickory stood by the pathway, his bark made vest concealing strange things. He watched to the pathways and listened for the raven call. An eagle flew round in the sky above. She cried out three times.

Then the wizards, five of them, sat round the fire, watching the smoke as it rose off to the sky. Maple waved his hands through the smoke, which quickly took form as sprites and ghosts and creatures of shadow. With a gesture he sent them out a sentinel for the gathering.

Then Cedar brought forth from his silk vest a small satchel. "A pig in a poke!" he exclaimed. The other wizards raised their eyebrows, then dug into their jackets. They dug to find their pipes.

"This is the last poke of the Smoke," said Cedar.

Maple's nose was seen to have a tear drip down, which he wiped off with his sleeve.

"The smoke is of life for the wizard, but it is poison to man. The ordinance of elimination was passed with no wizard giving dissent. We sit for our last pipe," said Oak.

"I have forests in the mountains," said Holly. "I have fields far from the trail of any man. Still there are seeds for the smoke root to prosper. Must the wizard follow the ordinance of mortal man?"

All were quiet for a long time. Cedar filled his pipe, the passed the poke round. Each filled his pipe. Holly took a branch from the fire, one with red embers at its end, and fired up his pipe. He passed the branch to the wizard at right who did the same, and so on all around.

The five wizards drew deep on the pipe and held the smoke inside them. They looked at the foggy ask grove, and listened for the raven. There was a craw off to the west, and they exhaled. Slowly they drew again, silently looking into each other's eyes.

Cedar let out his smoke first, and said "We are not shepherds who are above the laws of the flock. We live and work in the worlds of mankind. We must live by laws that were not made for us, and practice fortitude."

Holly let out his smoke with a twinkle in his eye. "Long years ago this ordinance was passed. Those who passed it destroyed each other in terrible wars. We guarded their children and watched for a new dawn, and Earth herself let the smoke herbs grow. As I recall, the abstinence was but a short one."

Oak blew his smoke into Holly's face. "Of old Earth gave us herb and flower for our craft. In this time the smoke plants have been mutilated and corrupted by the sciences of man, sciences of addiction and profit, changing the herbs into great poisons. It is right that the people rebel against these poisons, and right that we abstain."

Cedar took his bag, now empty, back into his pocket, feeling the other bag there, the bag with the seeds he had collected before the human scientists had altered the crops. He said nothing.

All the wizards drew hard the last burnt out dregs at the basements of their pipes. All of them dreamed of replacement supplies, but only one knew from where.

Cedar announced that he had some treasure from a lost time buried in the sand. The others looked at him with a tired face. "Ancient treasure will not excite the mind when the dew no longer shines in the dawn," said Holly.

The ravens in the trees began a chorus of warning, while the smoke spirits and sprites began to weave visions of illusion around and about.

As the sunlight hit the Ash Grove there was a little smoke from the fire left behind. There were no wizards, nor were there any pipes.