Excerpt: New Heavens, New Earth

The room, for it was truly a room, seperated off from the main part of the cave, was well furnished: pots filled with water and excrement were set against the wall, and soft bracken covered with even softer animal furs formed a bed in one corner.

On the bed was a man; two women, younger than Moon Child, but already born to the man children, waited by his side.

'Greyfather,' Moon Child said. He knelt upon the floor, knees scraping against rocks, but they were weathered, leathered knees. He bowed his head in submission, but still held tightly to the staff.

'My son,' Greyfather said, though Moon Child was son of no man nor woman, but of the Moon Gooddess. 'Rise and counsel me.'

The women left; to feed a child from their breasts; to grind berries and fruits together as a paste with a little water, to be eaten with the roasted auroch. Moon child came to the bed, and, on a gesture, was seated at its base.

'Strangers have come to our valley,' Moon Child said. 'They have hunted our animals, burn our wood, make home in our caves.'

Greyfather's eyes showed his anger, but his body remained calm, repose; though frail looking, the man was agile upon his feet, and could kill any contender to the leadership of the Moon Clan with a swift stone blade. His speech was measured, 'Do they make permanant home?'

Moon Child shrugged. 'I do not know.'

'We must consult with the ancestors,' Greyfather said. He rose from the bed, and then placed his hand upon Moon Child's shoulder. 'You shall lead us, and we shall prosper.'

Moon Child bowed his head.

The ritual was not simple, and though the phase of the moon (waning, well over half of the cresent gone) was not ideal, they climbed to the very top of the hill through interconnected passageways and caves, and came to the cairn of small, white stones.

There, Moon Child dug a hole in the barrow, and Greyfather took a quivering rabbit, grey, mangy, flea-bitten, but all that could be find now that the animals who feared the winter or slept the winter away had hid themselves.

From the blood that poured from the rabbit's neck, they both drank. As it died, they placed it in the barrow, and they piled dirt upon it and then stones, with the stone blade (sharp, with years of use) still buried in the creature.

The sacrifice done, Greyfather stood away from the barrow. Others of the Moon Clan had come to watch the scene, and he turned to his daughter who was his wife, and kissed the forehead of her firstborn.

'We can merely wait and see what the ancestors say, now,' Greyfather said.

Moon Child began to chant and pray; the taste of rabbit blood was thick in his mouth. He looked up to the moon, focused upon it, and then closed his eyes. At that point in time Moon Child fell upon his knees, and then upon his face, and the staff fell next to him, though tightly clutched in his hand; after that, there was no movement.