I have paced these forests for so long I don't know if I am man or I am beast.
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I, though, hold deep within me a quest for revenge.
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Then I must be a man as much as I can be.
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I have learned to speak the tongue of the animal
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I have learned to read the signs in bark and snow.
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I have taken within myself the spirits of my fathers,
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long time gone.
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In this short time, far from home, a man of Iron I've grown.
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A man of Iron I have grown.
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A part of the Eternal Woods...
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Late evening...
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["Just after sunset on his way back to his camp after watching the sun unite]
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[with the mountains in the west, he sees the flickering of light between the]
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[tree trunks. Approaching, he sees an old man sitting calmly by a fire, as]
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[if waiting for him. His left eye missing. His beard as if gold. The signs]
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[on his cloak and hood familiar. The one eyed old man matches the]
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[description of the soothsayer, as told by the elders of his village by the]
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[fires at night when he only a child. The boy, now a young man, eager to]
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[know, asks the one eyed old man about his dreams. Dreams he cannot]
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[understand. Dreams about strange things he is seeing himself doing. Then]
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[the winds that seem to talk to him. Voices that whisper to him behind his]
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[back. The one eyed old man tells him of the cycles of the stars, of the]
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[trail of fate and of the valley where time and space had ceased to exist...]
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[where his world ends and the shadows begin. The one eyed old man tells the]
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[young man that fate has chosen him to interfere with the other world. The]
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[disturbance is already made. The daughters of the four winds have sold]
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[themselves to the shadows, distorting the balance of the universe. And the]
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[one eyed old man says he has seen him come for a thousand years, and that]
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[the aging gods have told him to teach him all that he has ever known and to]
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[prepare him to ride beyond his world and into the shadows as their champion]
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[to restore the balance. To his aid he shall be given a sword forged when]
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[this world was young. He shall be guarded and guided by two ravens, and he]
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[shall ride the eight-legged stallion of his fathers' god. He will encounter]
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[the Woodwoman, and he will make a visit to the Lake. One hundred days and]
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[one hundred nights his training shall be hard. And this very night it will]
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[already have begun.]
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[And thus he had met the One Eyed old Man..."]
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-----------------
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Man Of Iron
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Bathory |