Role

Chapter 3

There are nothing but trees as far as the eye
can see until we float higher, then we see the
mountains rising out of the distance and desert
off in another direction with a winding river running
through it, scouring a gorge in the face of the rock.

Ideas of North and South seem different here.
There is a magnetic pull in one direction, and
adjusting our wings we soar towards it. Soon the
air grows cold for we are moving faster than one
should. Below us we have seen the elk and the ox and
the otyugh and the fox but where are the men?
Where are the giants? We adjust and soar some more.

Where are the cities? Where are the roads? Deer
paths wind through the woods below, but even our
avian eyes can detect no hint of man or his things. Is
this even Thera? Eventually we spot a great tree growing
out of the center of a dark wood. No, not a tree. A Tree.
The Tree. It thrums with the power of the ancients who
slumber now at its roots.

And here are the men, naked, bestial. They have
become animals again, though perhaps that's all they
ever were anyway. There is no art, there is no magic,
there are no stories. There is only grazing and eating
raw meat and rutting, endless rutting. Dirty things.

I point myself towards the sun and awaken.