(no subject)
I was the mother of a forest tribe. We were a fun little crowd of primitives, lots of laughing, sex and setting fire to things. Then, one day, one of my scouts told me that someone was waiting on the beaches beyond the forest. It was a place I had been to before in my dreams - miles of grey wet sand that was bordered by distant black mountains. Kinda like this, but far bigger.
As a group of tall shapes on horses approached us over the wet sand. I could hear faint voices, sibilant whispers. Suddenly, one voice was understood clearly, or rather a collection of images and feelings. Peace, warmth.
My people began holding their ears and crying, running toward the safety of the forest. After a few moments of confusion on my part, I had the sense to show her their fear, telling her never to speak to any one but me in that fashion. I brought them back to our village, and into my house, where she and her four bodyguards showed me the image of a creature from the forest, a large insect . It created a chrysalis, and in the moment it became dormant, it gave forth an image, a prophecy of the future. Once produced, the image (or sequence of images) was lost forever. They looked like cashew fruit before it's harvested.
The female said that only they could hear it, and that they were interested in the study of them. So they offered a compromise.
They would give us pretty things and take us into the sky (where they were from, incidentally). After calming my village down and explaining things, we convened and voted to take them up on their offer, but I was privately concerned. But, I decided to let it happen, because there was so much to gain. So, they harvested these creatures from the forest, and they began to show me their technology and society. Her other promise was to let me into those prophecies. She and I would share one mind, to see the process and a glimpse of the future. After awhile I noticed her private need to guide those futures. I saw her internal will to bring these creatures to speak of things concerning their people, rather than our world. She didn't worry about how much a I saw, because she thought me primitive and stupid (which I was, incidentally. and only slightly smarter than others of my kind. That was certainly an experience on its own - my inability to grasp complex ideas was infuriating.)
So I saw everything, unfiltered. At first the creature only told about vagaries of spring weather, the death of trees and the songs of flowers. But eventually, the prophecies changed, and not in her favor. She became more frustrated when the references seemingly became increasingly esoteric. But for me, they were becoming clearer and clearer. They were warnings. Images of things that WE understood were danger, but that appeared to her as nothing more than very specific creatures (a strong and graceful horse with snakes for a mane, a beautiful vine that ate flesh instead of water.)
It was everything I could do to grow privately in such a subtle and immense fashion right under her very eyes, connected to her mind. But she came to feel it. Each time, things changed a bit more. Offers of food and drink were withdrawn, the guards became more and more overtly armed. Finally, she saw my mind in an unguarded moment, saw a glimpse of what I knew After an emotional outburst, she calmed and acted like everything was fine. (I was getting some SERIOUS Bene Gesserit willies at this point.) She allowed me to go back alone, but I understood that there was little time to waste. There was one thing we did know, and that was magic. (Always with the magic!!!) Anyway, all of us were summoning everything we could find and stripping it of power to save ourselves. We were all singing incantations, (and this is where it gets foggy - I was waking up..) but when I finally did wake up, I was saying out loud, "Black as midnight, black as pitch. Blacker than the foulest witch"
...neat.
As a group of tall shapes on horses approached us over the wet sand. I could hear faint voices, sibilant whispers. Suddenly, one voice was understood clearly, or rather a collection of images and feelings. Peace, warmth.
My people began holding their ears and crying, running toward the safety of the forest. After a few moments of confusion on my part, I had the sense to show her their fear, telling her never to speak to any one but me in that fashion. I brought them back to our village, and into my house, where she and her four bodyguards showed me the image of a creature from the forest, a large insect . It created a chrysalis, and in the moment it became dormant, it gave forth an image, a prophecy of the future. Once produced, the image (or sequence of images) was lost forever. They looked like cashew fruit before it's harvested.
The female said that only they could hear it, and that they were interested in the study of them. So they offered a compromise.
They would give us pretty things and take us into the sky (where they were from, incidentally). After calming my village down and explaining things, we convened and voted to take them up on their offer, but I was privately concerned. But, I decided to let it happen, because there was so much to gain. So, they harvested these creatures from the forest, and they began to show me their technology and society. Her other promise was to let me into those prophecies. She and I would share one mind, to see the process and a glimpse of the future. After awhile I noticed her private need to guide those futures. I saw her internal will to bring these creatures to speak of things concerning their people, rather than our world. She didn't worry about how much a I saw, because she thought me primitive and stupid (which I was, incidentally. and only slightly smarter than others of my kind. That was certainly an experience on its own - my inability to grasp complex ideas was infuriating.)
So I saw everything, unfiltered. At first the creature only told about vagaries of spring weather, the death of trees and the songs of flowers. But eventually, the prophecies changed, and not in her favor. She became more frustrated when the references seemingly became increasingly esoteric. But for me, they were becoming clearer and clearer. They were warnings. Images of things that WE understood were danger, but that appeared to her as nothing more than very specific creatures (a strong and graceful horse with snakes for a mane, a beautiful vine that ate flesh instead of water.)
It was everything I could do to grow privately in such a subtle and immense fashion right under her very eyes, connected to her mind. But she came to feel it. Each time, things changed a bit more. Offers of food and drink were withdrawn, the guards became more and more overtly armed. Finally, she saw my mind in an unguarded moment, saw a glimpse of what I knew After an emotional outburst, she calmed and acted like everything was fine. (I was getting some SERIOUS Bene Gesserit willies at this point.) She allowed me to go back alone, but I understood that there was little time to waste. There was one thing we did know, and that was magic. (Always with the magic!!!) Anyway, all of us were summoning everything we could find and stripping it of power to save ourselves. We were all singing incantations, (and this is where it gets foggy - I was waking up..) but when I finally did wake up, I was saying out loud, "Black as midnight, black as pitch. Blacker than the foulest witch"
...neat.