"Who are the men from there?" I asked.
"They are bad men," she replied. "Some of my people do not
believe that there are such creatures. But we have a
legend--a very old, old legend, that once the men from there
came across to Grabritin. They came upon the water, and
under the water, and even in the air. They came in great
numbers, so that they rolled across the land like a great
gray fog. They brought with them thunder and lightning and
smoke that killed, and they fell upon us and slew our people
by the thousands and the hundreds of thousands. But at last
we drove them back to the water's edge, back into the sea,
where many were drowned. Some escaped, and these our people
followed--men, women, and even children, we followed them
back. That is all. The legend says our people never
returned. Maybe they were all killed. Maybe they are still
there. But this, also, is in the legend, that as we drove
the men back across the water they swore that they would
return, and that when they left our shores they would leave
no human being alive behind them. I was afraid that you
were from there."
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