• Listen, O Beloved Children, and I will tell you a story of a foolish man and his descendants. At the end of the First Age, Gaia the Earth Mother made the Ten Thousand Things of creation. She created the valleys and the mountains, the forests and the deserts, and the endless waters of the ocean, And in the midst of the Ten Thousand Things, she raised a sacred hill to watch over it all.
    For reasons only She knows the Earth Mother set women and men upon the Earth. Almost immediately, one foolish man ran to the top of the sacred hill and said, "This land is mine! It will be mine forever!" Gaia wanted the man to respect what she had created, so she sent Wolf to watch over him.
    Each day and night, Wolf hunted in the forests beside the sacred hill. From the woods, he howled, "Be cautious! You must respect this hill. If you do not, my children will devour you." The man did not listen-he fathered many children, taught them to build fires, and drove away the wolves that howled in the night.
    By the dawn of the Third Age, a hundred men lived at the top of the sacred hill. "This land is ours!" They said, "it will be ours forever!" Gaia did not want so many men to live on the sacred hill, so she sent Tiger to them.
    Tiger took the form of a human warrior and walked among them. In the center of the village, he said, "You are still living on this hill, but you do not respect it. I will teach you honor, so that your children and mine may live on the hill together." The men did not listen-they tore down the tress in the forest, made weapons, and hunted the tigers.
    By the dawn of the Fourth Age, a thousand men had built a great city around the hill. "This land is ours!" They said, "It will be ours forever!" Gaia was getting very impatient, so she sent Raven to them.
    Raven flew through the city in the night, stealing all the weapons and tools the men had made. Then he cried out, "You are still on the hill, but I will steal every tool that you make. You will have to leave and build somewhere else." But the men did not listen-each time Raven stole from them, they built new and better tools.
    By the dawn of the Fifth Age, a hundred thousand men lived in the city by the sacred hill. "This land is ours!" They said, "it will be ours forever!" So Gaia sent Fox to them.
    Fox poisoned their food and their water. From the bottom of the well, she said, "This is what you have brought upon yourselves! You have made the land fallow, and now nothing will grow here. you must leave the hill." But the men did not listen-they brought their food from a distant place, and they covered the hill with stones and tar. The hill was sacred no more.
    To this day, the men in the great city do not listen. And O My Many Beloved Children, at the dawn of the Sixth Age, a hundred million men will live where the sacred hill once was. "This land is ours!" They will say, "it will be ours forever!" Then Gaia will send the Rat to them.
    Rat will look upon them and say, "Once this was a sacred hill. Wolf came, but you did not listen. Tiger and Raven and Fox came, but you did not listen. I am the smallest of Gaia's Children, but now, you will hear me." And Rat will run through the city of ten million men, spreading a terrible disease that will kill them all in one night.
    And a plague and a pestilence will sweep across the land, O The Many Beloved. The men will learn that they should have listened, for Rat will do what none of the others could do. You, The Many Beloved Children, will swarm over the millions of the bodies dying on the hill. And the hill will be ours forever. And the hill will be sacred again.