Page:Daany Beédxe.djvu/61

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Now each of you shall enter the depths of these mountains, and will only carry bow and arrows. Tomorrow at the same time, at dawn, we will meet in this same place, here will wait for you. We hope each find his prey."

Night Eagle entered a closed ravine. In the evening came to a small clear, with a few boulders with a water spring. He felt that this was the place, rubbed himself with fragrant herbs throughout the body and looked for a place in a thicket to hide and then waited.

Nighttime came and the forest began to produce various strange noises. Night Eagle suppressed his thoughts and concentrated on the spirit of the deer. At midnight a thirsty puma came to drink. Night Eagle looked at him and focused even more on the deer; without moving, without making any noise, so to minimize his breathing, absolutely absorbed in the spirit of the deer. After a while, Night Eagle suffered an extraordinary change, he felt that his feet slowly transformed into roots that gradually affirmed into the soil. He perceived that his body gradually grew long branches. Night Eagle ceased to be him and became a splendid pine, a forest creature.

It was then that he began to hear nearby trees talking to him. His brothers were telling him wonderful stories; told him that thousands of years ago there were only trees on earth and one day human beings began to be born of them, at a place called "Where were the Lords, the lineage were born", that is north in the cloud mountains. There —the trees told him— is a deep cave which goes to the heart of our dear mother. From this cave endless amounts of water come out, which is the essence of life. Flanking the cave entrance, are our oldest Lords, "the venerable elders living next to divine water". Humans were then born from them and as they are our closest brothers in this world, we the trees provide for them in many ways,

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