All the next morning they marched, and all the evening, and knew they were
nearing now the deeps of the forest. And the citizens of Arn kept close
together and close behind the warriors. For the deeps of the forest were
all unknown to travellers, but not unknown to those tales of fear that men
tell at evening to their friends, in the comfort and the safety of their
hearths. Then night appeared, and an enormous moon. And the men of Camorak
slept. Sometimes they woke, and went to sleep again; and those that stayed
awake for long and listened heard heavy two-footed creatures pad through
the night on paws.
As soon as it was light the unarmed men of Arn began to slip away, and
went back by bands through the forest. When darkness came they did not
stop to sleep, but continued their flight straight on until they came to
Arn, and added there by the tales they told to the terror of the forest.
But the warriors feasted, and afterwards Arleon rose, and played his harp,
and led them on again; and a few faithful servants stayed with them still.
And they marched all day through a gloom that was as old as night, but
Arleon's inspiration burned in his mind like a star. And he led them till
the birds began to drop into the treetops, and it was evening and they all
encamped. They had only one pavilion left to them now, and near it they
lit a fire, and Camorak posted a sentry with drawn sword just beyond the
glow of the firelight. Some of the warriors slept in the pavilion and
others round about it.
When dawn came something terrible had killed and eaten the sentry. But the
splendour of the rumours of Carcassonne and Fate's decree that they should
never come there, and the inspiration of Arleon and his harp, all urged
the warriors on; and they marched deeper and deeper all day into the
forest.
Once they saw a dragon that had caught a bear and was playing with it,
letting it run a little way and overtaking it with a paw.
They came at last to a clear space in the forest just before nightfall. An
odour of flowers arose from it like a mist, and every drop of dew
interpreted heaven unto itself.
It was the hour when twilight kisses Earth.
It was the hour when a meaning comes into senseless things, and trees
out-majesty the pomp of monarchs, and the timid creatures steal abroad to
feed, and as yet the beasts of prey harmlessly dream, and Earth utters a
sigh, and it is night.
In the midst of the wide clearing Camorak's warriors camped, and rejoiced
to see stars again appearing one by one.
That night they ate the last of their provisions, and slept unmolested by
the prowling things that haunt the gloom of the forest.
On the next day some of the warriors hunted stags, and others lay in
rushes by a neighbouring lake and shot arrows at water-fowl. One stag was
killed, and some geese, and several teal.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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