5: Rua Fish
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the folk of Craig Dun did not die that year. The fish kept them just alive, half-rotten though it was before they finished it, until the ewes had dropped their lambs and the badgers their kittens. The folk had been in a dangerous state; the Old Man, speaking now through his son, had not dared to call for a sacrifice.
In the darkness of his hut, with a trusted guard at the door, he had told Garroch: ‘I have known times like these before, on one hand’s fingers. Then we begged Earth Mother to help us. She was kind. She turned the old men and women into hogs and the young babies into sucking-pigs and we ate them to keep strength in our bodies.’
Garroch nodded. ‘It would be wasteful now to sacrifice them, Old Man. I understand you,’ he said.
Brach lay in a dark corner of t
