We have a winner - Tale of The Week 46
Congratulations
And the winner of ToTW 46 is .... Don't Tread on Me with his outstanding work, Our Time is Ending.
Our Time is Ending
My beloved sons and daughters, a new beast has come from the West. From his horned head of steel his voice calls on you to kneel before a new god. In his right hand he holds the sword that demands your submission; in his left is the shield adorned with the cross where his peasant-god perished.
His god said the strong shall follow the weak, and so it has been. First came the priests of the peasant-god; they were foolish, haughty men who dared violate the sanctity of our oak groves and brought low the sacred trees that housed me and my brothers and sisters. I cried out for vengeance, and you rid our forests and glens of their foul presence. You brought back the old ways to your brothers and sisters who had fallen under the spell of the new god, and you sent to the underworld those who still clung to those delusions.
But you have called down the anger of the metal beast. Silently he smashes through our warriors, casting aside their axes and spears like playthings, gutting their bodies like pigs. He stops at nothing, his countenance revealing naught but the grim determination of his eyes, searching for his next sacrifice to the peasant-god.
I know little of the peasant-god, but to conjure such mighty armies and rule all of the West with commandments of mercy and forgiveness is the mark of a truly potent being. For many thousands of years, I – and my brothers and sisters – have protected you in the darkness of the piney woods, the turbulence of the cold seas, and the bitterness of the winter’s wind. But this new god brings a power we do not understand.
Yield to the metal beast and worship his god if you must. The promise of a divine mercy that will spare you from the fires of the underworld is a tempting one indeed. If you yield, then so shall we. For only through you do we live.
Pray to the peasant-god, but forget not the stories that were told to you as children. The oak groves still have much to teach you and your descendants, even as you accept the new god as your Lord. Forget not the household gods that protected the hearths of your families, or the witches and trolls and other fell beings that lurk in the woods, or the spirits and gnomes that see you safely on the path in the forest. Your hearts will be a dwelling-place for a new God, but that dwelling-place was built by the old ones.
Our time is ending, but forget us not.
...is my daddy!
