| A part of the Eternal Woods… |
| Late evening… |
| «Just after sunset on his way back to his camp after watching the sun unite |
| with the mountains in the west, he sees the flickering of light between the |
| tree trunks. Approaching, he sees an old man sitting calmly by a fire, |
| as if waiting for him. His left eye missing. His beard as if gold. |
| The signs on his cloak and hood familiar. The one eyed old man matches the |
| description of the soothsayer, as told by the elders of his village by the |
| fires at night when he only a child. The boy, now a young man, eager to know, |
| asks the one eyed old man about his dreams. Dreams he cannot understand. |
| Dreams about strange things he is seeing himself doing. Then the winds that |
| seem to talk to him. Voices that whisper to him behind his back. |
| The one eyed old man tells him of the cycles of the stars, of the |
| trail of fate and of the valley where time and space had ceased to exist… |
| where his world ends and the shadows begin. The one eyed old man tells the |
| young man that fate has chosen him to interfere with the other world. |
| The disturbance is already made. The daughters of the four winds have sold |
| themselves to the shadows, distorting the balance of the universe. |
| And the one eyed old man says he has seen him come for a thousand years, |
| and that the aging gods have told him to teach him all that he has ever known |
| and to prepare him to ride beyond his world and into the shadows as their |
| champion to restore the balance. To his aid he shall be given a sword forged |
| when this world was young. He shall be guarded and guided by two ravens, |
| and he shall ride the eight-legged stallion of his fathers' god. |
| He will encounter the Woodwoman, and he will make a visit to the Lake. |
| One hundred days and one hundred nights his training shall be hard. |
| And this very night it will already have begun. |
| And thus he had met the One Eyed old Man…» |
| O ye one eyed old man., You who see it all. |
| You who see the past and all to be |
| Say, ye one eyed old man. For I need to know. |
| Tell me which path fate has chosen for me. |
| Say does the Northstar still shine on me. |
| Say will I set my loved ones free. |
| O ye one eyed old man. Of ye our elders told. |
| You have been since land and sky was one. |
| And if you really know all that will be, tell me, |
| what the future wants with this young no-one's son. |
| Say does the Northstar still shine on me |
| What do you see in store for me… |
| Questions, questions. Many you ask. |
| About the future and some of the past. |
| Few have seen what I see. Fewer still will ever know. |
| I gave an eye to see better. |
| And your thirst for knowledge grows. |
| But you, my child, who treads the road of pain. |
| Who have felt such anger. Such that bears no name, |
| Thee shall I nurse as if you were my own son. |
| And this very night your training will already have begun. |
| For I have seen you come for a thousand years or so. |
| And the gods have told me to teach you all that I possess and know |
| And though my eye no longer sees my hand held out in front of me, |
| I still gaze crystal clear at all that mortal man cannot see. |