33: Barley Dream Ends
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the cold time had passed on, leaving its death behind it, and the sun had come again to warm the land, to drive away the last dark dreams of the peoples.
Across the chalk hills of the south the talking-drums sent their voices, dark folk speaking to dark folk, telling each other that life had stirred in the belly of the Earth once more, telling each other that all Winters must end, even the Winter of the Sun men.
And the birds rose into the air, startled, crying out that it was all about to begin again, the thing which unrolled each year across the land.
And in the forests oak and hornbeam put out their shoots and the thick grass seemed to stretch its arms as though awaking again to feed another generation of the four-footed creatures.
And the creatures sti
