Perun

As night fell once more Emil took the violin and mask and left for the forest. The clouds had gathered during the day and the air had the scent of imminent rain. As he walked along the trail past the stream he realized that despite visiting the glade many times so far he had not once gone there on purpose. He always found the way after a brief distraction or accident, that ended in him being in a different place from where he was only moments ago. He tried tripping intentionally and looked up at the clouds for a while, but after he regained his balance or looked back in front of him nothing was different. He was still in the same place. He sighed in slight frustration because of his own powerlessness over what had become a central part of his life over the past weeks. Without him realizing his feet had brought him to the fox den. As he approached he heard the rustling of the leaves in the bushes. He thought he caught a hint of a bushy tail, but he wasn’t sure.

“I’ll be back for you little kit. Just do your best to stay alive.” He turned around to go the other way, but the path he had taken was gone and replaced by an even thicker undergrowth. He understood he was now in the other domain now.

“I never even took my eyes off the path but I still made it here. It just keeps getting stranger.” He turned around, but already knew, that the area around the fox den would be replaced by a completely different part of another forest. He strained his ears and followed the rhythm of the music as it guided him through the darkness. Now and again he was greeted by the light of the ever waxing Moon. Before long he was already at the edge of the cliff. Despite Eon’s warning he was on the edge at the prospect of meeting the person with the mask of the mouse from the night before. He entered the glade, but took care to not attract any attention to himself as he moved along the crowd. The whole time he had his eye out for the mouse mask, but didn’t see it on any of the people at the party. He joined in the music and positioned himself in a larger crowd, where he hoped to remain hidden. Even then he was unable to fully relax and surreptitiously surveyed the masks all around the glade. The mouse was nowhere to be seen.

In the middle of the glade Yarilo and Morana sat next to each other, leaning on the old willow. Its branches grew long and thick with leaves, almost separating the two from the rest of the glade and gave them shelter and a small degree of privacy. Some branches extended even further into the glade and allowed the people to fill their tankards with the dew that fell from them. As the music came to a swell Yarilo and Morana got up and moved away from the tree hand in hand. Once again the tree transformed into the serpent. It shot straight up into the sky with a single mighty flap of its wings. It pierced the clouds, which scattered around and deformed because of the insane pressure. It roared loudly into the sky. It was answered by an equally loud piercing screech of the eagle. At first only a magenta blotch was visible descending from the great white oak. As it increased in size the fiery wings and the lightning shooting out of it became discernible.

On ground Morana and Yarilo became a raven and a horse respectively, one almost completely white and the other cowered in black feathers. The raven rested atop the horse’s back, holding on to the long golden mane with its long claws. The horse began running in circles, flowers blooming behind it and as it increased the radius of its run it went from a canter into a gallop. Above the eagle and the serpent flew towards each other, but none of them began unleashing any attacks. They passed by one another so close that a single stray fiery feather would cause them to come into contact. Immediately after that they began circling back around each completing an entire outside loop that overlapped with the other. While completing the loop the serpent was releasing water in the form of a mist in intricate forms and filled the middle of the loop with a big orb of water. The eagle first sent lightning, which travelled along those misty forms and sent a ball of fire, which turned the orb into a thick cloud of vapour. The people on the ground could see the blue likeness of a raven arising from the mist, followed seconds later by the loud rumbling of thunder. The serpent and the eagle continued and created many more celestial paintings depicting various animals, plants, symbols and other intricate patterns.

As they enacted their magnificent performance the clouds around them began producing soft rain. The horse and the raven became a single being, a combination of both with the white body of the horse sprouting large black wings, its two front legs became clawed and its mouth was a long and pointy beak. The new creature continued going in the outward spiral, but began flapping its wings and rising above the glade. The circling of the beast caused great winds above the glade that reflected the rain and kept the people there dry. It also seemed to carry the music up and amplify it. The display of magical fireworks didn’t stop for what felt like a whole hour, and it culminated in a large portion of the visible sky being covered in red and blue patterns depicting Yarilo and Morana in the middle of a forest. This final display caused the sky to clear up, and after everyone’s eyes adjusted to the darkness of the night they saw the stars that dotted the entire sky in wondrous constellations. Though the Moon was waxing its light was still not so bright as to conceal the nearby stars. Even distant nebulae and galaxies were visible that night. The serpent and the eagle both gracefully descended from the sky side by side, coming to a halt right above the ground, where they took on their humanoid forms. Veles stood with the head of the wolf, while Perun appeared as an old but strong man with a long grey beard and hair. A beautifully ornamented bearded axe hung by his belt. Both stood side by side and were met by Yarilo and Morana also in their human form. They both ran into the arms of Perun and Veles and remained in a tight embrace.

The entire situation was confusing Emil right from the start. The two who fought nearly to the death, if such a thing was possible for them of course, but there they stood beside each other like two friends who had known one another since their childhood. Emil felt the urge to ask one of the people around him about what was going on, but the combination of Eon’s warning, fear of the mouse mask and his recent expedition with Iwo persuaded him to keep his mouth shut and remain inconspicuous. The four of them drunk together and even joined in the singing. Other than Veles playing his balalaika it was the first time Emil saw any of them participate in the music. All four sang in unison at first, which developed over the repetition of the melody into a harmony and then into a simple counterpoint. It elevated the music into an almost religious ritual. People stared at the four in awe, but were compelled to continue playing and singing anyway, led by the captivating performance of the four supreme beings. They dictated both the dynamics and the tempo with no difficulty. They all held hands and stood in a circle facing inward and as they began slowly walking in a circle a strong light began shining in the middle, extending like a pillar upwards and enveloping the entire glade in a warm blinding light. Emil felt his body overflowing with energy. The feeling was as intense if not more than tasting the flowers of the willow tree. One last swell of music came as all the four leaders began holding one note, building tension with the use of the leading tone, submediant, subdominant and the supertonic. At first the almost jarring tones grew louder, but then commanded the rest of the ensemble to slow down and play softly and quietly. The note was held even longer until it faded away into the night. After a second of complete silence the voices returned just as softly as they had left into the tonic mediant and the dominant, releasing the vast built up tension. As the final notes faded into the night, the light disappeared from the middle of the glade. By the time that Emil’s eyes grew accustomed to the black night he was once more alone in the familiar woods close to the fox den. He turned around and began walking towards his home. As he closed his eyes, he could still see the amazing fireworks appearing in front of his good left eye.

“In the end the mouse mask was nowhere to be seen. Was the mysterious stranger missing or am I just worse at hiding and spying than that burglar? Am I just wrong about the whole thing?” He made his way home and kept his eye on anyone that could be sneaking about, but he didn’t meet a single soul on the way home.

When he finally arrived home he realized he still had a couple of hours before the Sun would rise. He looked around the house, but Eon was absent. He spent the time reading a book.

“It’s amazing how much more comfortable it is to just read about the unbelievable adventures of other people, than it is actually having to live through one. Even if the book mentions all of the hardships that the heroes went through, it elicits only sympathy at best. Empathy is impossible when you have no concept of the physical and psychological anguish that they endured.” As he was reading he suddenly heard a noise from behind. Eon was walking towards the bed.

“Hi Eon. Where have you been?”
“Hello Emil. I’ve been out searching for your current target. I feel confident that you’ll get some good information very soon. But not today.”

“I see. Say tonight has been somewhat strange at the glade. Instead of fighting like they did the last time, Veles and Perun were making fireworks and celebrated together like friends.”
“That means that Morana showed up looking for Yarilo. They have called for a truce between themselves to celebrate the two children coming together.”
“But this happens every year right?”
“Correct.”
“Then they already knew that they would call a truce. Why even fight in the first place?”
“It may look like they are simply repeating the same things through the seasons from our perspective, but for them this is the reality they live in. Every little variation in what happens can have immense consequences on the entire world. This is why despite repeating, every instance feels completely new and different from the one before. Similarly tonight you people will hold a festival dedicated to these customs.”
“Wait. The festival is related to Veles and Perun?”

“In a way. It is the remnants of the old religions that were once held in this part of the world. Pay attention when you go to the festival this year. I’m sure you will see some parallels with the glade.”