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Once upon a stormy night, where the wind blew and the trees shivered,
an old man walked along the road. He was crippled in the back,
and one of his legs dragged behind him; he had no home, his wife had
died long ago, and many were frightened of him, though they wouldn't
admit it.
On that night it was especially cold, and the old man was half starved
and frozen. He took a path into the trees, where he found a large
bonfire lit with young women dancing around it. When they saw
him,
they did not stop, but they moved faster and faster, until... a bright
ball of fire lit up the sky, and started to fall. It fell as
though bitten at the heels by dogs, and then it stopped. It just
stayed there, and the young women and the man watched for hours on
end. Finally the bonfire, which the women danced around, went
out. The women were not cold, but the man shivered. He
stood up straighter as the ball of fire began to move again; it
moved towards them, and then it hit the wood where the bonfire had
been. It landed softly on the wood, and the wood burst unto
flames once more. The women began to dance again, but
slowly. They gained momentum as the day past, and the old man
watched. When the cold night came, they reached their full speed,
and the same thing happened as from the night before.
The man was moved, but he turned around and began to walk away.
However,
where there had once been a path there was now trees. When he
tried to walk through the trees, he could not -- they held him and
pushed
him roughly back. When he turned to look the other way, the women
had stopped their dance and watched him blankly, as did he. They
watched each other intently, until one of the woman spoke, "You should
leave," she said shyly.
"Can you not see that that is precisly what I am trying to do?" the man
began to cry, "I only came to get warm!"
Another women stepped up, "And that is what we will help you do. You
will help form the next ball of fire, you will no longer be cold."
"What do you mean?"
"Do you not remeber the great ball of fire? It gives us energy and
warmth, as it will you." After the woman's words, the man saw
nothing. They revived him, and showed him out.
But the man was never the same: he was still crippled, but he now
always felt the warmth of the fire, though he somehow felt empty. The
only thing he missed was his wife. He was now 112 years old,
and yet... he had not been put to rest with his wife....
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