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"You must not walk into the dark woods. At night, the best you can do is stay home." That's what my uncle used to say. I never took him seriously.

One day I walked into the woods and went to the lake for some fishing. I used the little boat that's always there, for anyone to row it, and got to the center of the lake.
I put my rod to work, but the fishing was slow and the afternoon so pretty and calm that I fell asleep.

I dreamed about this old king made of tree branches and leaves, who was also a sage and a warrior. The king gave me a pouch full of seeds that I planted on a hill and from each one of those, a beautiful child grew and bloomed.
They were seven hundred, half were boys and half were girls. The boys were armed with spears and slings, the girls had a shield and a scythe.
There was a war and so they all marched to the battlefield and left me in the hill, waiting for them to return, but none of them did it and several years passed. Then I cursed the war and cried, then the sun spoke to me and asked me to leave the hill and walk through the forest.

And I woke up.

I was in the middle of the lake, my oars were lost and the sun was already setting. I overslept and now things seemed bad.
I had a really hard time rowing with my bare hands, but somehow I made it to the shore, tired, wet and at night.

Then I walked into the forest. At night. Alone.
I walked straight by the path I thought I knew, but suddenly I found me lost. I kept on walking but it was useless.
And I heard a song. A beautiful, soft voiced song in some language I was totally unfamiliar with. And following this song, I found a fair beauty, carrying a shield and a scythe.
"You're here," she said looking at me with eyes full of sparkling stars. "I missed you, but I lost my way when returning from the field. I was the only survivor."

I didn't know if I was still dreaming, but I didn't care and hugged her full of happiness. And then she told me the stories of the war, her years lost and her waiting, and I told her about the time when I thought I was dreaming but was in fact living the adventure of my life.
She then invited me to dance, sang more beautiful songs and took me for a walk through the eternal forest. We became friends, then fell in love and so we stayed as a couple for years and years and she gave me two children, a boy and a girl. The boy grew up and became a fierce warlord; the girl grew up and became a great healer of bodies and souls. Then I wrote a song about my entire story since the day I left home to go fishing and this song was so long that I passed years writing and writing until it was done and then I died.
Old age had got me while I was living the happiest life ever.

When I opened my eyes, I was again in the boat, in the afternoon, the oars were there and so I row to the shore and found that I was chained to the boat, by the neck and feet. And then a devil appeared in front of me.
"You're dead, poor thing, you were carried away by the fae because you walked in the dark wood and lost your way, and now your soul is mine because the fae pays a tithe of human souls to Hell. Every year we get a lot of your kind and use them as slaves for all eternity and now, your work is to row this boat forever." The devil explained to me.

And so, since that day I row the boat. Around and across the lake I row, just to keep my masters happy and thus avoid punishment. And sometimes I daydream about the dreams I had and guess if maybe I'm still sleeping in the boat.