Man of Iron

I have paced these forests for so long I don't know if I am man or I am beast.

I, though, hold deep within me a quest for revenge.

Then I must be a man as much as I can be.

I have learned to speak the tongue of the animal

I have learned to read the signs in bark and snow.

I have taken within myself the spirits of my fathers,

long time gone.

In this short time, far from home, a man of Iron I've grown.

A man of Iron I have grown.

A part of the Eternal Woods...

Late evening...

["Just after sunset on his way back to his camp after watching the sun unite]

[with the mountains in the west, he sees the flickering of light between the]

[tree trunks. Approaching, he sees an old man sitting calmly by a fire, as]

[if waiting for him. His left eye missing. His beard as if gold. The signs]

[on his cloak and hood familiar. The one eyed old man matches the]

[description of the soothsayer, as told by the elders of his village by the]

[fires at night when he only a child. The boy, now a young man, eager to]

[know, asks the one eyed old man about his dreams. Dreams he cannot]

[understand. Dreams about strange things he is seeing himself doing. Then]

[the winds that seem to talk to him. Voices that whisper to him behind his]

[back. The one eyed old man tells him of the cycles of the stars, of the]

[trail of fate and of the valley where time and space had ceased to exist...]

[where his world ends and the shadows begin. The one eyed old man tells the]

[young man that fate has chosen him to interfere with the other world. The]

[disturbance is already made. The daughters of the four winds have sold]

[themselves to the shadows, distorting the balance of the universe. And the]

[one eyed old man says he has seen him come for a thousand years, and that]

[the aging gods have told him to teach him all that he has ever known and to]

[prepare him to ride beyond his world and into the shadows as their champion]

[to restore the balance. To his aid he shall be given a sword forged when]

[this world was young. He shall be guarded and guided by two ravens, and he]

[shall ride the eight-legged stallion of his fathers' god. He will encounter]

[the Woodwoman, and he will make a visit to the Lake. One hundred days and]

[one hundred nights his training shall be hard. And this very night it will]

[already have begun.]

[And thus he had met the One Eyed old Man..."]