At the center of the world sleeps an old serpent. One day, he will wake up. When he does, he will eat the stars. Then he will be stronger, strong enough to swallow the world.
He has woken before, many times. There is one way to send him back to sleep, and that is to read aloud the special words that stop him.
Now, at one time, the serpent had awoken. He wanted to make sure that the special words could not be read. But at least one copy of the words must be written, or the serpent will die, and the stars with him. So he had the words written on a scale at the end of his tail, and then all the other copies he had destroyed.
Then since he was weak from his long sleep, he put his minions to the task of feeding him so that he would grow strong, a chore that would take many days.
Now there was a little man whose name was Gill. He knew of Old Serpent; the tale had been passed down in his family for generations. His many-times-great grandpa had put Old Serpent to sleep once, and that was the story he'd heard.
One night Gill was out late in his field, and he saw that the stars were beginning to disappear from the sky.
"Old Serpent must be awake again," he said.
Then he went back to his house and told his wife, "I'm going on a long trip."
So she made him up some food for the trip and a charm to protect him from evil, and he left to find Old Serpent.
Along the way, Gill met a dog. The dog asked him, "Where do you go on such a night, farmer Gill?"
"I go to find Old Serpent and put him to sleep," replied the little man.
"Then luck be with you," said the dog, "for Old Serpent has had all copies of the special words destroyed but those written on the end of his tail."
And Gill thanked the dog and went on his way.
Gill walked for several days until he found the cave where Old Serpent dwelled. It was night, and Old Serpent laid with his head outside the cave, swallowing the stars one by one.
Gill said, "I must stop this," for he saw that only half of the stars were left. But Old Serpent was very, very long, so long that the tip of his tail was still at the center of the world.
But Gill was a brave little man, and he walked right up to Old Serpent without being bothered (for Old Serpent, being what he was, had eaten his minions days ago). He grabbed Old Serpent around the neck and began to pull him right out of that hole, and the beast never noticed- he was too busy eating the stars.
It took Gill a very long time to pull Old Serpent out of the cave, because he was such a little man. By the time he'd done it, there were only two stars left.
Old Serpent gulped down one star, and Gill found the scale at the very end of his tail, the one with the words written on it. As Old Serpent reached up for the very last star, a beautiful, tiny one far away, Gill began to read the words.
Old Serpent was tormented and began to spit up the stars in a big string, writhing and screaming for Gill to stop. But the little man just pulled the scale right off and didn't stop reading, for if he stopped, he would have to begin all over again.
When Gill read the last word, Old Serpent let loose all the rest of the stars in one great burst and raced back, screaming, to the center of the world, where he went back to his long sleep.
Gill went back home with the scale, and he copied the words many times over, lest Old Serpent wake again, and he and his family, and the dog, of course, lived prosperously and in peace.
And the words were this tale, and as long as they should be known, Old Serpent will not wake again until the end of time, when he will be destroyed.
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