In the terminus of the bay, the land came togetherfrom north and south, the waters remaining deep enough for the Leviathan toswim with ease. He came to the place the goddess had chosen, and brought thewarm and magical essence of herself through his body. With a great, spumingexplosion, he cast the liquid into the air, shooting a shower of warm rain.Precious water splashed onto the rocks of the shoreline, gathered in manystreams, flowed downward to collect in a rocky bowl near the gravel-strewnbeach.
The essence of the goddess gathered into that pool,milky waters of potent magic. Her presence focused on the skies, on the vaultof heavens she had so long imagined. The first thing that came into view was aperfect orb of white, rising into the twilight skies, coursing ever higher,beaming reflected light across the body and blood of the earthmother.
From the waters of her newly made well, the goddessbeheld the moon. Alabaster light reflected from the shoals and waves of theshoreline and blessed the land all around. The earthmother saw this light, andshe was pleased.
Yet still there was a dimness to her vision, an unfocusedhaze that prevented her from fully absorbing the presence of the world. TheLeviathan lay offshore, rolling in the heavy swell, but the pool was remotefrom him, bounded as it was by dry ground and rocks. She knew then that itwas not enough to have her children in the sea.
The goddess would require a presence on the land, as well.
The wolf, gray flanks lean with hunger, shaggy peltworn by the ravages of a long hibernation, loped after a mighty stag. The buckran easily through the spring growth, exhibiting none of the wide-eyed panicthat might have driven a younger deer into headlong-and ultimatelydisastrous-flight. Instead, the proud animal bounded in graceful leaps, stayingwell beyond the reach of hungry jaws, veering only when necessary to maintain aclear avenue of flight.
In the midst of the keen, lupine face, blue eyesremained fixed upon the lofty rack of antlers. Patience, counseled the wolf'sinstinct, knowing that the pack could accomplish what one strong hunter couldnot. As if in response to their leader's thought, more wolves burst fromconcealment to the side, rushing to join the chase. But the stag had chosen itscourse well; a long, curving adjustment took it away from the newer hunters,without allowing the big male to draw appreciably closer.
A low cliff loomed ahead, and though no breeze stirredin the depths of the glen, the buck sensed another ambush, canine formsconcealed in the thickness of ferns lining the shady depths of the bower. Nowthe stag threw itself at the limestone precipice, leaping upward with catlikegrace, finding purchase for broad hooves on ledges and mossy outcrops.
With snorting exertion and flaring nostrils, the firstoutward signs of desperation, the buck scrambled up a rock face three timesits own height. A trio of wolves burst from the ferny camouflage below, howlingin frustrated hunger as the antlered deer reached the level ground above thecliff and once again increased its speed. Hooves pounded and thundered on thefirm ground as, with a flick of a white-feathered tail, the stag raced towardopen terrain.
But the leader of the small wolf pack would not, couldnot, admit defeat. Throwing himself at the rocky face, pouncing upward with allthe strength of powerful rear legs, the wolf clawed and scraped and pulled,driven by the desperation of the starving hunter. At last, broad forepawscrested the summit, and the carnivore again loped after his prey, howls echoingafter the gasping, thudding noise of the stag's flight.
Others of the wolves tried to follow, though most fellback. Still, a few young males and a proud, yellow-eyed bitch made the ascent.Their baying song added to the din of flight and gave the rest of the pack afocus as smaller wolves raced to either side, seeking an easier way to theelevation above the limestone shelf
Weariness began to drag at the leader, bringing to hisstep a stumbling uncertainty that had been utterly lacking before. Yet thescent of the prey was strong, and mingled with that acrid odor came the spoorof the stag's own weariness, its growing desperation. Those signals gave thewolf hope, and he raised his head in a braying summons to the rest of thepack, a cry of anticipation that rang like a prayer through the silent giantsof the wood, along the verdant blanket of the cool ground.
But the powerful deer found a reserve that surprisedand dismayed the proud hunter. The predator raced through the woods with bellylow, shaggy tail extended straight behind. Those bright blue eyes fixed uponthe image of the fleeing stag, watching antlers brush overhanging limbs andleaves. Straining, no longer howling as he gasped to make the most of eachdesperate breath, the wolf pursued in deadly silence.
And in that silence he began to sense his failure. Theloping forms of his packmates whispered like ghosts through the fern-linedwoodland behind him, but neither were they able to close the distance to thefleeing prey. Even the yellow-eyed female, long jaws gaping in a fang-linedgrin of hunger, could not hold the pace much longer.
Then, with an abrupt turn, the stag darted to theleft. Cutting the corner of the angle, the leading pair of wolves closed thedistance. Soon the male was racing just behind the prey's left quarter, whilethe powerful bitch closed in from the opposite side. The twin hunters flankedthe prey, blocking any attempt to change course.
But the stag continued its flight with single-mindeddetermination, as if it had found a goal. The antlered deer ran downward alongthe slope of a broad ridge, plunging through thickets, leaping large bouldersthat would be obstacles only to lesser creatures. The woods opened still more,and the vista showed a swath of blue water, a bay extending between twin necksof rugged land.
Finally the stag broke from the woods to gallop acrossa wide swath of moor. Soft loam cushioned the broad hooves, and though thedeer's tongue flopped loosely from wide jaws and nostrils flared madly with thestrain of each breath, the animal actually increased the speed of its desperateflight.
But so, too, did the wolves. More and more of the packburst from the woods, trailing across the spongy grassland, running in grimand purposeful silence. If the great male had looked back, he would havenoticed a surprising number of canine predators, more by far than had belongedto his pack when they had settled into the den for a winter's rest. And stillmore wolves came along the shores, gathering from north and south, highland andcoast, drawn toward the scene of the hunt, hundreds of gray forms ghostingtoward a single point.
The stag finally faltered, but not because of fatigue.The animal slowed to a regal trot, proud antlers held high. The sea was verynear, but the buck did not strive for the shoreline. Instead, the forestmonarch turned its course along that rocky beach, toward a pool of liquid thatrested in the perfect shelter of a rocky bowl.
The pond was too high to be a tidal pool, nor did thewater seem like a collection of mere rain or runoff. Instead, the liquid waspale, almost milky-white in color, and it swirled in a hypnotic pattern. Theshoreline was steep, but in one place a steplike progression of rocks allowedthe buck to move carefully downward.
Wolves gathered on the rocks, surrounding the stag andthe pool, knowing that the prey was trapped. Yet some silent compulsion heldthe hungry predators at bay. Glittering eyes watched with keen intelligence asthe stag's muzzle touched the surface of the water; long, panting tonguesflopped loosely as the carnivores waited for their prey to drink.
For a long time, the great deer lapped at the watersof the Moonwell, and when finally it had drunk its fill it stepped away,mounting the steps toward the leader. The stag raised its head, baring theshaggy throat, uttering a final, triumphant bellow at the powdery clouds thathad gathered in the sky.