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Years pass in seconds.

Then decades.

More people come.

Trees fall.

Houses rise.

Roads cut through fields.

Fences appear where there were none before.

Lines carved into land that never asked to be divided.

Then names.

WARD.

Another fence.

WINSLOW.

More land claimed.

WRIGHT.

Another boundary.

MCBRIDE.

The four names spread across the earth.

And everything changes.

The offerings become rites.

The rites become rules.

The rules become power.

And power becomes fear.

The laughter disappears.

The dancing stops.

Masks cover faces.

Animals replace bread.

Blood replaces wine.

Then animals aren’t enough.

People kneel where food once sat.

Women stand where the four once stood together.