path of fallen leaves
an excerpt

"allfather would like you to follow the path, please, falstaff," it says. like this - made corporeal – the metatron's voice is gentler, somehow.
"he says fate is a certain thing, but that humans and other thinking beings make it uncertain. he hopes that - when you get to the terminal point of the path, there will be no fire, even though fate quite strongly suggests that there will be."
"who are you?" i ask, going to my haunches.
the tableaux behind us is frozon, as if we are standing inside a watercolour painting of this stretch of forest.
"you have a name for me. you've been thinking on this subject for years."
i find, much to my surprise, that i do have a name prepared for this first, true meeting.
"wolfheart?" i try, rolling the name around on my tongue.
he nods. "i heard it in your mind, not so long ago."
"wouldn't there be others more fit for this job?"
he does something that i later come to think of as "a laugh," but for right now, it sounds like a cacophony of grating noises.
"you will have trouble with this as you grow up, i am willing to wager," he says, as he finally gets himself under some sort of control.
"but you have qualities which are particular and allfather knows you will do well, besides..." he seems to do something very like shrugging. "godsworn would be too fanatical. true unbelievers would dismiss me as a figment of their imagination and rational beings would dismiss me as a talking dog." he seems to grin at this thought.
"but you are in a unique position. your mother was just godsworn enough to immpress just enough skepticism on your father, who is just rational enough to have taught you how to think critically." he seems to cock his head up at me, as he continues: "and this is what allfather wants. he wants someone who is critical and who will analyze the situation before falling into it. as much as that test of your abilities was useful to fenrus, so our test of how you reacted was useful to us. you thought. that was important."
"and if i refuse to do what you want?"
the wolf shrugs again, looking into the distance.
"the world will not come to an end. it will merely be a darker place."
this isn't exactly clear to me, so i try again:
"so, i can refuse?"
he nods. "you can. and i will leave you in peace and you will never hear from me again." i let this sink in. i am surprised by his candour. i expected there would be a trick in here, somewhere. maybe something along the lines of: "what we are doing is on the side of right." or "it would jeopardize your mortal soul."
and so on and so forth, but i'm finding that allfather – or at least - the voice of allfather - is far more rational than his followers can be.
for a few seconds we sit like that, together. me staring at myself from some short distance away, and he looking up at me. he doesn't look particularly expectant, but he does
look ready to go.
the last thing i remember of the dream as it begins to fade is him walking alongside of me as i walk down the green path, listening to a whispered voice in my head say:
"follow..."