Speaker 1: Chapter eight of Anthem. This is a LibriVox recording. All
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Speaker 1: Caden von Klegg Anthem by Einrand, Chapter eight. It has
Speaker 1: been a day of wonder, this our first day in
Speaker 1: the forest. We awoke when a ray of sunlight fell
Speaker 1: across our face. We wanted to leap to our feet,
Speaker 1: as we have had to leap every morning of our life.
Speaker 1: But we remembered suddenly that no bell had rung, and
Speaker 1: that there was no bell to ring anywhere. We lay
Speaker 1: on our back. We threw our arms out, and we
Speaker 1: looked up at the sky. The leaves had edges of
Speaker 1: silver that trembled and rippled like a river of green
Speaker 1: and fire flowing high above us. We did not wish
Speaker 1: to move. We thought suddenly that we could lie thus
Speaker 1: as long as we wished, and we laughed aloud at
Speaker 1: the thought. We could also rise, or run, or leap
Speaker 1: or fall down again. We were thinking that these were
Speaker 1: thoughts without sense, But before we knew it, our body
Speaker 1: had risen in one leap. Our arms stretched out of
Speaker 1: their own will, and our body whirled and whirled till
Speaker 1: it raised a wind to rustle through the leaves of
Speaker 1: the bushes. Then our hands seized a branch and swung
Speaker 1: us high into a tree, with no aim save the
Speaker 1: wonder of learning the strength of our body. The branch
Speaker 1: snapped under us, and we fell upon the moss that
Speaker 1: was soft as a cushion. Then our body, losing all sense,
Speaker 1: rolled over and over on the moss, dry leaves in
Speaker 1: our tunic, in our hair, in our face, and we
Speaker 1: heard suddenly that we were laughing, laughing aloud, laughing, as
Speaker 1: if there were no power left in us save laughter.
Speaker 1: Then we took our glass box and we went on
Speaker 1: into the forest. We went on, cutting through the branches,
Speaker 1: and it was as if we were swimming through a
Speaker 1: of leaves, with the bushes as waves rising and falling
Speaker 1: and rising around us, and flinging their green sprays high
Speaker 1: to the tree tops. The trees parted before us, calling
Speaker 1: us forward. The forest seemed to welcome us. We went
Speaker 1: on without thought, without care, with nothing to feel save
Speaker 1: the song of our body. We stopped when we felt hunger.
Speaker 1: We saw birds in the tree branches and flying from
Speaker 1: under our footsteps. We picked a stone, and we scent
Speaker 1: it as an arrow at a bird. It fell before us.
Speaker 1: We made a fire, we cooked the bird, and we
Speaker 1: ate it, and no meal had ever tasted better to us.
Speaker 1: And we thought suddenly that there was a great satisfaction
Speaker 1: to be found in the food which we need and
Speaker 1: obtain by our own hand. And we wished to be
Speaker 1: hungry again, and soon that we might know again this
Speaker 1: strange new pride in eating. Then we walked on, and
Speaker 1: we came to a stream which lay as a streak
Speaker 1: of glass among the trees. It lay so still that
Speaker 1: we saw no water, but only a cut in the
Speaker 1: earth in which the trees grew down, upturned, and the
Speaker 1: sky lay at the bottom. We knelt by the stream,
Speaker 1: and we bent down to drink. And then we stopped,
Speaker 1: for upon the blue of the sky below us, we
Speaker 1: saw our own face for the first time. We sat still,
Speaker 1: and we held our breath, for our face and our
Speaker 1: body were beautiful. Our face was not like the faces
Speaker 1: of our brothers, for we felt no pity when looking
Speaker 1: upon it. Our body was not like the bodies of
Speaker 1: our brothers. For our limbs were straight and thin, and
Speaker 1: hard and strong. And we thought that we could trust
Speaker 1: this being who looked upon us from the stream, and
Speaker 1: that we had nothing to fear with this being. We
Speaker 1: walked on till the sun had set, When the shadows
Speaker 1: gathered among the trees, we stopped in a hollow between
Speaker 1: the roots, where we shall sleep to night. And suddenly,
Speaker 1: for the first time this day, we remembered that we
Speaker 1: are the damned. We remembered it, and we laughed. We
Speaker 1: are writing this on the paper we had hidden in
Speaker 1: our tunic, together with the written pages we had brought
Speaker 1: for the World Council of Scholars, but never given to them.
Speaker 1: We have much to speak of to ourselves, and we
Speaker 1: hope we shall find the words for it in the
Speaker 1: days to come. Now we cannot speak, for we cannot understand.
Speaker 1: End of chapter eight. Recording by Caden von Clegg The
Speaker 1: Lunar Island dot blogspot dot com.