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We left her tree and I led the alking on a winding path through a forest of giants In some places, the overhead canopy of leaves sheltered us co rain In others, the water plashed down, fro to branch to leaf and then down, to soak into the forest floor It did not bother either of us I noticed in passing that although she seelanced at her, she appeared to be in some way part of the trees Her hand would touch the bark of one, her hair would tangle against another Always, always, she was in contact with the bulk of her body, her heavy walk had an odd grace She was strength and opulence in my dream The pillows of flesh that softened her silhouette to curves were no reat tree or the vast ueness ealth, aand gathering And this, too, seemed familiar
The deeper I went into her forest, the more I recalled of this world I knew the path I followed, knew that it would lead to the rocky place where a strealittering silver arc into the forest below It was a dangerous place The rocks close to the edge were always green and slick, but nowhere else was the water so cool and so fresh, even when the rain was falling It was a place I cherished She knew that Letting o there in the dream was one of my rewards
Rewards for what?
"What would happen, then," she asked me, "if many of the soldier sons who are to be the leaders were slain, and never ventured east to bring their people against the forest? Would this stop the road? Would it turn these people back?"
I had been thinking of so else I caht slow the will stop the road You can only delay it My people believe that the road will bring riches to them Lumber from the forest, meat, and furs And eventually a way to the sea beyond the mountain, and trade with the people there" I shookas wealth beckons, my people will find a way to it"
She scowled at me "You say ‘my people’ when you speak of theer of those ones We have taken you and you belong to the People, now" She cocked her head and stared deep into my eyes I felt she looked inside me and out the other side, as it were, to some other eyes I did not know I had "What is it, son of a soldier? Do you begin to wake to both worlds? That is not good Not yet should you do that" She set her hand fondly on the top oftouch that dispelled all anxiety Some worry I had felt had slipped away from me All would be well
She lifted both her hands to her face and hair She smoothed them over her head as if to ease the anxiety I knew she felt Then she looked at ers "You still have not spoken of your iven to you, it began to work through you What have you done for us? The ic chose you I felt it take you All know that once the od touches a man, he does his task You were to turn the intruders back and make those who are here leave What did you do?"
"I do not understand what you are asking me"
Both her question andprayers, learned at ain to explain "You would have done soic that you will finish when you are a great ic It will only ease my fears Please Just tell inning of the end of waiting has begun The guardians cannot dance er They weary They die And when they all die, there will no longer be a wall It will fall, and nothing will remain to hold the intruders at bay They alk freely under the trees, cutting and burning You knohat they will do We have seen it"
We were nearly to the waterfall I longed to see it I tried to see it through the forest, but the trees leaned together, blocking my view "I do not understand your words"
She sighed, like wind in the trees "If such a thing could be, I would say the ic chose poorly I would say that one of the People would have known better how to use the given gift" She shrugged, lifting the soft roundness of her shoulders and then letting them fall "I will have to do what is withinthings should be past This should be onlyBut I fear you cannot turn thehed and then she brushed her fat hands together Dust, fine brown dust, fell from the surfaces of her pal, and now I have decided I will do it I will send one of the old ics to you With it, we can harvest from the intruders some of what they are No knife is sharper than a ive us more time to discover what it is you have done to help us" She lifted her hand and waved it oddly at esture "When the in Do not struggle against it"