Terror seized her heart. And she coughed and coughed until she coughed up the berry of the tree that grows on the mountains of the sun, coughed it onto the floor of the dream lord's throne room. And she awoke to her own room. Standing beside her was the dream lord. ``Why did you hunt me?'' he asked her. ``Why did you flee me?'' ``I hunted you because I love you more than mortal man has ever been loved by a woman. And I fled you because it is not given to mortals to love the endless. Only disaster can follow from it -- disaster for you, disaster for my people. But Kai'ckul shook his head. ``Never has one loved me enough to seek me out. Never have I seen another woman I would take for my own. I would marry you, Nada, and make you queen of my Dream world, to rule the dreams of all that dream by my side, to be with me forever, never to die as mankind knows death. And this I swear by the ruby on my chest.''

And at this Nada was deathly afraid, for thou she loved him, she knew this was not meant to be, and she could not countenance his destruction, and hers. For love is not part of the dream world. Love belongs to desire, and desire is always cruel. So Nada took the form of a gazelle and she ran until she could run no more. But he came after her as a hunter, and slew the gazelle. Then she took on her own form again and ran into the wasteland. Still he pursued her. She climbed a high mountain, but still he came on. ``He wants me to be his bride,'' she thought, ``so if I give up my virginity he will not want me.'' And she took a sharp rock, and with it she took her maiden head. And she split her virgin blood on the earth. Where to blood fell red flowers grew. And she turned and Kai'ckul stood there before her.

``You know I am now not virgin?'' she said, expecting him to leave her be. ``I am no mortal man, and I love you as no mortal man could love. What matters your body to me?''. And he touched her sex with his hand, and at his touch she was healed, and the pain left her, and though wound was healed, her maiden head was not restored. Then he took her hand, and he drew her into the darkness of his robe, and there, in the flames and the darkness, they made love. All that night they stayed together, and every living thing that dreamed, dreamed hat night of her face, and of her body, and of the warm salt taste of her sweat and her skin. And every living thing that could dream dreamed of love.

When the sun arose that morning, and saw the two of them together, it knew that something that was not meant to be had happened. And a blazing fireball fell from the sun and burnt up the city of glass, razing it to the ground, leaving just a desert. A desert strewn with shards of glass, just like this one. From the mountain top Nada saw the sun throw down the fireball, saw her city melt, saw her land become a parched wasteland. ``This is because of what we did'' she said to him, ``and worse will come if I stay by your side.'' And then she took the dream lord, her lover, by the hand, as lovers do. She pressed herself to him. Then she released his hand, and before he knew what she was about, Nada threw herself off the mountain top, and her body was dashed to death on the rocks below.

And this is also in this tale, and this is the way my mother's brother told this to me, and his father told it to him, and back and back through uncounted generations.

After Nada died her spirit awoke to itself in the forest on the borders of the realm of death. And she knew that was one standing behind her, and she turned, and the dream lord was there. ``You hurt me. You could have been my queen, but instead you chose the realm of Grandmother Death'' Nada hung her head low. ``Once more I will offer you my love, to you, once more, and that is all. If you refuse me a third time, I will condemn your soul to eternal pain. So I ask you, sweet love, for the last time, will you be my queen? -- Answer me,'' said Kai'ckul, the dream lord, to the dead queen. ``How can I be your queen?'' she asked him. ``For my people are no more because of what I did, and my city is a waste. If I were to stay with you, still darker things would happen. Mortals to not marry the endless, my love. Now leave me to the realm of grandmother death, dream lord, and forget me.'' And she walked down the sun-less road into the realm of grandmother death. But he caught up with her. ``Please,'' she begged him. ``Do not ask me again to be your bride. For if you ask me, I must refuse you again, and if I do that you will condemn me to eternal suffering. So leave me, lord.'' But the Dream Lord is a proud one. And for the last time he asked her to be his bride.

``What happened then?'' asks the young man.

``That is the story. That is all there is.''

``But--that's not a real story. It doesn't end properly! What did Nada say Kai'ckul asked her for the last time? What happened?''

``She said no. What else could she say?''

``Here. Take this shard of glass, put it down somewhere. Perhaps your son, of your grandson will find it, when you bring him out here to tell him the tale. But the fire has burnt out, and the sun will rise soon. Now we must make our way back to the tribe. You have lost your fore skin, and you have heard the tale. That makes you truly a man. Let us go. The tale is over, and my bones grow cold.

There is another version of this tale. That is the tale the women tall each other, in their private language that the men-children are not taught, and that the old men are too wise to learn. And in that version of the tale perhaps things happened differently. But then, that is a women's tale, and it is never told to men.