Setting my face toward the black pool, I walk to the shore, but I do not stop. I wade into the thick water, am assailed by the smaller creatures, but I do not stop. I walk along the bottom until I am completely submerged, and soon the greater sea-creatures try to bite off my limbs. I fend them off, but I do not stop.

Finally a great monster comes out of the inky depths, with a hulking body and many heads. Perfect. It comes at me, I dodge, and then jump onto its back, hugging it so that its left and right heads are in my hands, while its middle head cannot turn all the way round to get at mine. With no weapon but the power in my hands I crush the side heads until their tiny brains are squeezed into their throats. The middle head screams and the monster writhes away, my hand-grips now squished to a jelly. I take out my sax, waiting on the lake-bottom. As I expect, the creature lunges out of the murk with its remaining head, and I swing down quickly. Gently, the head floats to its rest on the mere-floor, while its red-grey blood floats blithely into the dark. I go to work skinning and defleshing its bones. At the shore above, the onlookers perceive a stillness over the water.

With the spear I have fashioned from its sturdy spine and three-pronged neckbone, I follow the slope of the floor downward, ever downward, for a long time downward. Finally, the bottom levels out, and I barely perceive ahead what appears only as a darker blackness, almost a substantial shadow. I have stopped moving, but it now approaches. Without waiting for her to attack, I lunge straight forward, swinging my gae bolga through the water, but her shadow begins to choke me. Pushing off, I assume my stance some paces away, and let out a small portion of my over-breath. Dark from my mouth issues an enveloping shadow of my own. We fight, exchanging blows and strokes, all the while our shadows intermingling. I am beyond exhaustion and still fighting until by chance, perhaps, we each perceive the face of the other. Our gaze, now met, will not be broken until morning. We continue our fight almost in a trance until our bodies finally stop. I have never let anyone else see the shadow of my soul, yet I do now willingly, and she shows me no less of herself.

Back at the top, the water moves again.