Like every once in a while Judge Nogrod had been unable to sleep any longer after waking up before the daybreak and was sitting on the steps in front of the porch of the courthouse smoking his pipe. He enjoyed these moments before the morning broke when it was quiet and peaceful. But this night there was something strange in the air. It was somehow even too quiet.
Suddenly a blackbird broke the silence entering the village trailed by an unimaginable shapeless darkness Nogrod had ever seen. He wasn’t sure whether he should believe his eyes or not but still felt like nailed to the step he was sitting on. He didn’t even dare to breathe until the odd duo had passed him.
He sighed from relief realising they had either not seen him or had just ignored his presence. But it seemed not to be over. A strange light was trailing the darkness accompanied by a swallow rushing here and there. They too entered the village-square and disappeared as fast as the previous creatures.
Nogrod was trying to perceive where they had gone when the birds suddenly came back both flying in and out of the houses of the village trying every now and then to hamper the other’s entry into one when their trajectories met.
But then there was another sound. It was the sound of approaching footsteps. And clearly the one to whom those footsteps belonged was trying to be as silent as possible. Nogrod glanced around him to see whether there was anything he could use as a weapon if that was needed. He bent carefully down to reach under the steps where he remembered there was a poker. After some fumbling he got hold of it and then waited for the footsteps to come closer hoping that who- or whatever it was hadn’t heard him.
The footsteps stopped to the other side of the square but after a while started creeping carefully towards the well in the centre of the square. Nogrod had a bad feeling that his presence had not gone unnoticed as the sneaking pair of feet were coming steadily towards him. He rose up quietly and pressed the poker tighter in his hand starting quietly towards the well bowing down at the same time.
The blackbird suddenly emerged from inside one of the houses and flew down settling itself on top of the well. It glanced at both sides and then started whistling jumping from one end of the well to the other while it sang. Nogrod realised to his astonishment that he understood what it was
singing.
*~*
A villager woke up realising that she was covered all over by a darkness deeper than the deepest night. She felt like moving, moving outside the space and time into ever deepening darkness. She was losing her memories. She was losing her identity. She was becoming pure feeling of here and now. The anguish of a perspectiveless present started to grow inside her soon to be the only thing she was conscious of. It was becoming the only thing she was. She lived in a void of anticipation she couldn’t anticipate, in an absence of meaning and sense with no past or future.
*~*
Another villager woke up to a light she had never experienced before. It was cold and brighter than any sunlight ever. There was a serenity and calmness there which overtook her mind and carried her away from the toil and trouble of this world. There was an odd sadness in her but it was wiped away with the peace and beauty of the moment. She felt like having become whole in a way never before: like all her past, present and future had suddenly got a meaning. And then there was the music: the harmonies which overpowered her soul and carried her to the bliss of truth, beauty and goodness in an undivided totality.
*~*
It was night still even if it wasn't a night anymore.
Night1 has begun.
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