1b: Tsinta Intro

I pray

to the large gods and to the small
to the gods of universal virtues and of sacred places
see me love me guide me teach me use me
let my path be a joyous harmonious chaos of exultation
and let my life and my deeds be beautiful in the sight of all good people

I watch

the cold clear water of the mountain stream
make barely a ripple
as my clay-colored elfin hands
dip my paddle
and push
my canoe
gently
forward
in the dappled light and shadow
of the bright morning sun in a clear sky
passing through the leaves
of the oak and the sugar maple and the beech and the yellow birch
and I can with perfect clarity see
the trout and the dragonfly larvae and the water beetles
moving dancing eating chasing mating
living their short happy fae lives and

I feel

I am happy
because I am them and they are me
they sense that I mean them no harm and will not disrupt their lives
and sharing these sensations
a trio of naiads
with their brood of love-children
and their mishipeshu
emerge from hiding
and wave at me and bless me and dance for me
and there is a tingling of magic and destiny from my toes to the tips of my pointy ears
and I know that this is a sign that something important is to happen today so

I listen

in the crisp still cool morning air
to the
gentle
rustle
of a light breeze
through the leaves
of the oak and the sugar maple and the beech and the yellow birch
to the gentle sussurus of the stream over the moss-covered rocks
to the droning of distant cicadas
to the calls of the blue jay and the cardinal
and the brown thrasher

I see

the brown thrasher
my bird my spirit my guide the chosen messenger of my patrons
this is an omen I must watch closely
the brown thrasher flies over to an old cracked gnarled red oak
where a spider the size of a bobcat
climbs up toward a nest with baby squirrels
the brown thrasher flutters and fights the spider as though it were defending its own nest this is not natural the spider is not natural it does not belong so

I kill the spider with a moonbeam

I pray I watch I feel I listen I see

I oracle

the body of the alien spider hits the water with a splash that echoes
beyond space beyond time beyond sensation into the depths of my soul
and the mishipeshu eats it in a single gulp
and I know
that the time has come
to go to the mountain that reaches beyond the pull of the land into the open sky
where goblins do foul unnatural things to try to own the sky

for I am in deeply in love with a man that I have never met
it is the will of the Goddess Melora
and the spirits of the land and of the water of and the sky
that I must seek out the favor of Martin Cooper and marry him
this has been true for a year and a day
which felt like a splash of water and also like the lifetime of a treant
and now the waiting is over and it is time for action and destiny

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