from the gap

Down here in the southern hills, things shift, change, are noticeably different.

The roads narrow and get rougher. The hills rise and get higher. Time seems to slow down, somehow.

Haste has no place here, but urgency can arise, when a fire  needs fighting, a calf needs pulling, a crop needs harvesting.

There are spirits dwelling here in these southern hills, deities of some kind that have been here since the last glacier scraped the earth raw, or even before. They are watchful and silent, but if you know where to go, you can feel them, can hear them. If you know how to listen.