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When you see me, you pause. I lie still, reflecting forest
silence. You curse the peat that squelches around your boots,
flinch at the stench that rises from me, turn to stride away.
Do not hurry. Stay a while.
I have things to show you -- tales to tell you. Not my own
tales, for what am I? A mere nothing, a grave of nameless
creatures. But when they came to me, those creatures were alive.
Now they are a putrid ooze, but once they walked and breathed,
just like you.
Let me tell you their tales, as they told them to me while they
rotted in my darkness.
Watch yourself reflected in me. Hold your breath, if you cannot
bear to breathe.
Let me show you...
A young woman, wide eyes dark with agony. A bloodied creature,
keening feebly, drowning in its own slime.
You do not wish to see this?
A boy this time, ribs heaving in desperate bursts. One foot
wrongly placed, and he topples over. Limbs thresh a spray of
water.
Men's faces, laughing. One man dismounts from his horse, steps
cautiously through the mire, rests a booted foot on the boy's
back and presses him into me.
You do not wish to see this either?
A man then, well grown. His face is determined, his eyes
lustrous with the drug of the gods, mistletoe, the druids' gift
to a chosen sacrifice. A king you might call him, though he
wears no crown: a leader of people, fighter of battles, calmer
of feuds.
Harvest has failed and houses are burning, and the gods desire
sacrifice. So he is stripped of sword and clothes, sprinkled
with scent and wrapped in fresh linen. He fasts and prays for
three days by the sacred fire, drinks nothing but water, eats
nothing but the seeds of the seeing-herb, the granter of
visions, the caller of men to the great offering.
He comes to me willingly. Behind him walk robed figures who
chant old rhymes that are a part of me now, so many times have I
heard them. He comes to me, and he smiles. This sacrifice is one
he gladly makes, for by it his people are saved.
He enters me, sinks into me and becomes a part of me, willingly,
gladly. My waters close around him. His breath is mine and mine
is his.
This vision pleases you?
Let me show you more.
Come closer. Kneel on my lap, and gaze into my waters. Look far
and deep.
I am waiting for you. I will remember. I will tell your tale.
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