"I close my eyes.

"No wind, not the slightest; there was some breeze up in the branches, but down here the air is utterly calm. The sounds of the birds are like voices from heard from another room, present but removed from me. I feel the warm sun, the cool mud. I feel the stillness; no movement except my slow slow descent.

"Magic and imagination are close; hard to tell how much of what I'm feeling comes from the Forest and the "Sacrifice", how much of it comes from my own mind. I feel, or imagine, the great presence of the Forest around and beneath me. I feel as if I were at the center of the world, as if everything were focussed on me; a tiny speck of life that's somehow got the universe's attention.

"The mire gives slowly beneath me, embracing my legs, accepting me. I feel it taking my knees."

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Part 19
Part 21