| |
| | - Chapter 9 |
 | | Ma, whose belly was the soil, whose bones were the rocks, whose breasts were springs and holy pools, whose veins were rivers and streams, did not accept the usurper-goddess Danu, and she kept many dark ones safe in her swamps and low places. |
 | | So Taranis lay with her, and in time she gave birth to a beast with a serpent's body, but with legs to stride on land, with a great maw filled with teeth sharp as lightning bolts, and as bright. |
 | | The beast's name was Taran-asco, which meant 'in Taranis' stead,' and it went where the Gauls feared to go, into the swamps and low places, where it lived upon the bodies of the small folk. |
| www.baen.com /chapters/W200303/0743435982___9.htm (1071 words) |
|