Whispering Verse

According to Professor Drake's research materials, he collected information from citizens who had claimed to have seen the Lady of the Lake. After excluding those who were obviously making up stories, he combined local legends and folk customs and concluded that he could Five rules for meeting the "Lady of the Lake."

First of all, you must appear alone by the lake in the west of Huntington City. You can have a mount or pet, but you cannot be accompanied by other humanoid intelligent creatures;

Secondly, when encountering the Lady of the Lake, the sun must still be above the horizon, because there are no sightings that occur on a dark night;

Third, all those who claimed to have encountered the "Lady of the Lake" or entered the "Lake of the Cherubim", including Professor Drake, were all men. Even the protagonists of the rumors in local folklore stories, Also all men;

Fourth, those who encounter the Lady of the Lake need to carry items that prove their "courage" and "wisdom", that is, they need a book and a weapon;

Fifth, and the most important point, if you always think in your mind that you want to meet the "Lady of the Lake", then you will definitely not meet it. Only by forgetting your purpose can you turn around and see the legendary lake inadvertently. of lake.

The above rules were summarized by Professor Drake himself. Many people have read this information, and even the local church has obtained this information from Professor Drake, but no one has been able to see the rumored goddess again.

But for Shade, having a clue is better than having none, and the professor's summary seems reasonable.

He prepared a notebook, a gun and a sword, went into the city to visit Professor Drake again in a wheelchair, talked to him in more detail, and had lunch in the city before leaving the city again and heading to the city. of the west.

Unlike the great plains and low hills to the east of Huntington, the west of the city is mostly wetlands and lakes because it is close to the Pantanal. Although the terrain is relatively flat, miasma drifts in from the swamp every summer. out and therefore unfit for habitation.

Immediately on the edge of the city to the west of Huntington, there are several smaller towns. Further west, you can only see small farms and orchards interspersed with lakes.

The road here is quite difficult, and even if you are riding a horse, your horse's hooves will occasionally get stuck in the mud puddles on the road. There is little regular maintenance on rural dirt roads, and coupled with the influence of the Pantanal, there is almost no infrastructure here.

The clues that Shade currently has are not enough for him to directly find the Lake of Cherubim where the Lady of the Lake is rumored to live. Therefore, according to Professor Drake's notes from back then, he planned to re-take the path that Professor Drake took.

The first stop was Lower Luther Village, located in the west of Huntingdon. The professor set out from this village, and there happened to be an eyewitness of the "Lady of the Lake" in the village. The origin of the village's name is that the village is located to the south of Lake Luther, just below Lake Luther on the map.

This is a typical rural village of Kasenlik. When the well-dressed Shade came on horseback, the villagers cast curious eyes but did not dare to get too close. It wasn't until Shade stepped on the mud and led the maroon horse into the village that the village sheriff approached cautiously and asked Shade about his purpose.

Most of the local villagers had strong accents, but the accent of the middle-aged police officer who looked strong was very standard. When Shade explained the purpose of his visit in broken Kassenric and hoped to meet the old Mr. Grave who claimed to have seen the Lady of the Lake eight years ago, the sheriff happily agreed:

"Old Grave loved telling this story to people, and we liked hearing it at first, but then he kept repeating it over and over again, and people got tired of it. Sir, you come from a big city, and you may not understand our country life here. It's boring. It's fun to hear other people's stories in those days, but when that story is repeated for eight years, no one can stand it."

Old Mr. Grave lived a pretty good life in the small village. He fished by Lake Luther when he was young, and later dug his own fish ponds to raise fish artificially. Although his annual income was not as good as that of people in the city, it was at least better than digging in the ground. People from the same village who eat are better.

When Shade saw this old gentleman, he was sitting in a rocking chair, basking in the sun in front of the gray-white earthen wall of his house. There was also a string of bacon drying on the wall. When the skinny old man looked at Shade, Shade noticed that there was nothing in the socket of his left eye.

Since the language communication between the two parties was somewhat difficult, the peace officer who was free to join in the fun was the one who translated for both parties.

The content of the conversation was very simple. Shade asked the gray-haired old Mr. Grave about his past affairs. The talkative old man spoke in a thick country accent and described the "big adventure" eight years ago in as much detail as possible.

The rough process is that eight years ago, in the winter of 1845 in the universal calendar, because there was nothing to do in winter, on a snowy morning, the then 43-year-old Mr. Grave was carrying a fishing rod, a bucket, and a notebook. , planning to go fishing in the frozen Luther Lake.

He set out at eight o'clock that morning and found a suitable spot on the lake at nine-thirty. After breaking the ice, the first rod actually caught a black snake, and the snake spoke:

"I'm going to kill you that's what it says."

The old man excitedly described to Shade that when he opened his mouth, Shade could clearly count the few teeth he had left.

Most people living in the countryside have seen snakes, but they have never seen a talking snake. In this era of low literacy and relative superstition, the old man was chased by the snake on the ice for more than 20 minutes before he finally jumped ashore from the other side of Lake Luther. After entering a forest that was bare in winter, the snake disappeared, but a big fluffy rabbit jumped out again:

"You're on the wrong track or so it says."

Old Mr. Grave waved his hands and tried his best to imitate the sound of the rabbit back then, while the middle-aged Sheriff was trying hard to suppress his laughter. It seemed that no matter how many times he heard the story, it was still interesting to him.

The rabbit didn't have any ill intentions towards old Mr. Graves. Instead, he asked him to leave the woods very kindly and told him how to avoid the snake. Therefore, Mr. Graves, who did not dare to go near Luther Lake, planned to take a detour home. However, as soon as he left the woods, he encountered a raven flying from nowhere on the snowy dirt road in the countryside. :

"I'll tell you where you should go now it says so!"

The old man telling the story became more and more excited, as if he had returned to the "big adventure" that day again, with the wrinkles on his face stacked up in a smile. Shade had a sullen face and said nothing, listening to him continue to speak.

Under the guidance of the raven, the old Mr. Grave eight years ago went further and further away. After passing through an unfamiliar winter wetland shrub area, he unexpectedly encountered a small lake that he had never seen before.

At that time, Mr. Grave seemed to have received a "divine revelation". Somehow, he stepped on the frozen lake into the middle of the lake, and met a white-haired old woman on the island in the middle of the lake.

The old man on the island in the middle of the lake invited Mr. Grave to go fishing with her. Mr. Grave thought that he couldn't go home empty-handed, so he agreed. We fished from noon to evening. Mr. Grave, who was very lucky, caught six big carp, while the old woman caught three.

"She said at the time that I won her, so she allowed me to make a wish."

Speaking of this, the old man's eyes seemed to light up. This was obviously the climax of his memorable story.

"So what did you wish for?"

Shade asked curiously, glancing at the Sheriff, who was staring at him, as if he wanted to see what kind of expression Shade would show next.

"Yes, I want her fishing rod!"

Mr. Graves raised his hands and praised Shade:

"Her fishing rod is really good. I have been fishing for so many years and I have never seen such a beautiful, strong and convenient alloy telescopic fishing rod. The fishing line and matching fishhook are also items that can only be seen in big cities. . Even if she doesn’t give it to me, I am willing to exchange my house for that fishing rod, so when she asked me to make my wish, I immediately agreed!”

"and after?"

Shade asked curiously.

"later?"

Mr. Grave was stunned:

"Then I came back with the fishing rod and the fish."

"Where's the fish?"

"I ate them eight years ago, should I keep them?"

"Where's the fishing rod?"

"Three years ago, my grandson, the naughty little Louis, poked me. I was sad for a while. Later, someone from the cathedral in the city bought it for 10 pounds."

Because Mr. Graves' story was more like a random fairy tale, Shade had to look at the sheriff who was holding back a smile, and the latter nodded:

"Yes, after Grave came back with that beautiful fishing rod and his story eight years ago, it did attract people from the city, but people came to listen to the story. As for that magical lake , Grave looked for it himself, but couldn’t find it. I bet he fell into the lake that day and was so cold that he fainted. As for the fishing rod, I don’t know where he picked it up.”

As he spoke, he burst into laughter. Old Mr. Grave was not angry, but repeatedly explained to Shade that his story was absolutely true. Although there are some processing elements in the details, the experience is absolutely real.

Not only the Orthodox Church and Professor Drake, but also many people in this village have heard the story of old Mr. Grave. Most of them were interested in the "Lady of the Lake", but no one could find the lake based on Mr. Grave's story.

But no matter what, at least this story is still very interesting, and Shade thinks that his time was not wasted.

He left 1 pound to the old man as a fee for listening to the story. Before leaving the village, Shade asked the enthusiastic middle-aged sheriff what happened to old Grave's blind left eye. The latter was strange. asked:

"Is this also related to his story? The left eye was blinded many years ago."

"What time exactly?"

Shade asked again and took the maroon horse. The latter docilely ate the grass that the neighbor had piled outside the house for the winter, so Shade had to pay 5 pence. The woman with her head wrapped in a scarf waved her hand and said she didn't want any money, so Shade gave her child a few sugar cubes.

"I really don't know about this. I was transferred here from the town next door to work as the sheriff. That is, 12 years ago, he was already blind."

The Sheriff followed Shade, who was leading the horse, towards the entrance of the village, and then loudly greeted the gray-haired old man who was forging iron with his upper body bare at the end of the village:

"Hans, when did old Gretel lose his eyesight?"

"Damn, how do I know?"

The old blacksmith cursed something in Kasenric that Shade couldn't translate, and then said:

"When you're blind, you're blind."

The middle-aged Sheriff then turned to Shade and shrugged:

"You see, country people have no sense of time. If nothing memorable happened in that year, it would be difficult for people to distinguish 1853 from 1852. However, old Grave was indeed blinder than he was before the story began. Much earlier.”