What The Moon Brings
From Atlantic Roleplay Wiki
Title: What The Moon Brings
Author: H.P. Lovecraft
I hate the moon-I am afraid of it-for when it shines on certain scenes familiar&loved it some- times makes them un- familiar&hideous.It was in the spectral summer when the moon shone down on the old garden where I wandered; the spectral summer of narcotic flowers&humid seas of foliage that bring wild &many coloured dreams. And as I walked by the shallow crystal stream I saw unwonted ripples tipped with yellow light,as if those placid waters were drawn on in resist- less currents to strange oceans that are not in the world.Silent&spark- ling,bright&baleful,those moon-cursed waters hur -ried I knew not whither; whilst from the embow- ered banks white lotos -blossoms fluttered one by one in the stream, swirling away horribly under the arched,carven bridge,&staring back with the sinister resign- ation of calm,dead faces. And as I ran along the shore,crushing sleeping flowers with heedless feet&maddened ever by the fear of unknown things&the lure of the dead faces,I saw that the garden had no end under that moon;for where by day the walls were,there stretched now only new vistas of trees&paths, flowers&shrubs,stone idols&pagodas,&bendings of the yellow-litten stream past grassy banks&under grotesque bridges of mar -ble.And the lips of the dead lotos-faces whispered sadly,&bade me follow,nor did I cease my steps till the stream became a river,&joined amidst marshes of swaying reeds &beaches of gleaming sand the shore of a vast &nameless sea.Upon the sea the hateful moon shone,&over its unvocal waves weird perfumes breeded.And as I saw therein the lotos-faces vanish,I longed for nets that I might capture them&from them the secrets which the moon had brought upon the night. But when that moon went over to the west&the still tide ebbed from the sullen shore,I saw in that light old spires that the waves almost uncovered,&white columns gay with festoons of green seaweed.And knowing that to this sunken place all the dead had come,I trembled&did not wish again to speak with the lotos-faces.Yet when I saw afar out in the sea a black condor descend from the sky to seek rest on a vast reef,I would fain have questioned him,&asked him of those whom I had known when they were alive.This I would have asked him had he not been so far away,but he was very far,&could not be seen at all when he drew nigh that gigantic reef.So I watched under that sinking moon,&saw gleaming the spires,the towers,&the roofs of that dead dripping city. And as I watched my nostrils tried to close against the perfume conquering stench of the world's dead;for truly,in this unplaced&forgotten spot had all the flesh of the churchyards gathered for puffy sea-worms to gnaw&glut upon.Over these horrors the evil moon hung very low,but the puffy worms of the sea need no moon to feed by. And as I watched the ripples that told of the writhing of worms beneath, I felt a new chill from afar out whither the condor had flown,as if my flesh had caught a horror before my eyes had seen it.Nor had my flesh trembled without cause,for when I raised my eyes I saw that the waters had ebbed very low,shewing much of the vast reef whose rim I had seen before.And when I saw that the reef was but the black basalt crown of a shocking eikon whose monstrous forehead now shown in the dim moonlight&whose vile hooves must paw the hell -ish ooze miles below, I shrieked&shrieked lest the hidden face rise above the waters,lest the hidden eyes look at me after the slinking away of that learing&treacherous yellow moon.And to escape this relentless thing I plunged gladly into the stinking shallows where amidst weedy walls&sunken streets fat sea-worms feast upon the dead.