Chapter 1
Millenia ago:
They had both knelt together at the spot, the ground around them barren, the bald hill sloping away from them like the curve of a skull.
“Do it,” said his father.
The son looked up into his eyes, and for the briefest of moments, saw in them pain like a bottomless grave.
For a moment, neither spoke.
Then his father nodded, and they breathed down onto the earth in unison.
A sapling sprang up and muted green leaves appeared.
“It will be here,” his father said then and gripped his son’s arm. “It will be the final battle.”
