One Eyed Old Man

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.
And I see you riding up on a stallion as white as snow.
With the speed of the winds and endurance untold.
And you wield a sword of steel forged in fire and ice.
And the cry of a warrior you sound
and victory is in your eyes.