Inmind

 Inmind

 brought over from "Memory" by H. P. Lovecraft

English draft:

In the dale of Nis the accursed waning moon shines thinly, tearing a path for its light with feeble horns through the deadly blades of a great uperas-tree. And within the depths of the dale, where the light reaches not, move shapes not meant to be beheld. Rank is the growth on each slope, where evil climbing and creeping wyrts crawl amidst the stones of ruined thronehalls, twining tightly about broken beams and odd stone thinktokens, and heaving up marma roads laid by forgotten hands. And in trees that grow mighty in crumbling hallyards leap little apes, while in and out of deep gavelguilds writhe atterful wyrms and scaly things without a name. Broad are the stones which sleep beneath coverlets of dank moss, and mighty were the walls from which they fell. For all time did their builders raise them up, and in sooth they yet work to good end, for beneath them the grey toad makes his dwelling.

At the very bottom of the dale lies the river Than, whose waters are slimy and filled with weeds. From hidden springs it rises, and to underground hollows it flows, so that the Ettin of the Dale knows not why its waters are red, nor whither they are bound.

The Fire-elf that stalks the moonbeams spake to the Ettin of the Dale, saying, "I am old, and forget much. Tell me the deeds and cast and name of them who built these things of Stone." And the Ettin replied, "I am Inmind, and am wise in lore of yore, but I too am old. These beings were like the waters of the river Than, not to be understood. Their deeds I bethink not, for they were but of the trice. Their cast I bethink dimly, it was like to that of the little apes in the trees. Their name I bethink clearly, for it rhymed with that of the river. These beings of yesterday were called Man."

So the Fire-elf flew back to the thin horned moon, and the Ettin looked carefully at a little ape in a tree that grew in a crumbling hallyard.