FISHER KING

You rush into the water and you manage to keep your balance for a while before the current sweeps you away. You struggle to stay on the surface and fight for every breath of air until someone grabs you and pulls you out of the water.
– You can not die more than once a week. you hear.
– Excuse me? you ask, half laughing as you sit up.
– I mean you could die everyday, but who wants to? We have families and friends and other good things to live for.
Now you see that you are on a raft swimming downstream and see that your saviour is a man with a long beard and bald head. You are not certain about his age. Though his eyes seem to be quite young, the beard makes him seem older.
– Who are you?
– If I said I am the Fisher King, would you believe me?
You don’t answer his question. His previous statement left you a bit philosophically confused… But you don’t see any counterarguments… So. He is the Fisher King. ¹³
– Is it worth not dying? you ask.
He doesn’t answer; he just giggles and steers the raft to the left side of the river with a paddle.
The Fisher King… you think pulling your finger through the ◎logs◎.

The Fisher King keeps on paddling the raft. You see dolphins and a crocodile in the water and willow branches  that hang down to the water. You hear a waterfall nearby and get scared. You look at the Fisher King and ask:
– Are we going to die?
– Not now. You will die many times, – in battles, bombings, car accidents, snake attacks and by the hands of murderers, but not now. He pushes the raft to the shore. You must leave for the woods now.
– Why?
– This is the Arcanum Forest. It’ll do you good. I have to go back to the city of the Incubus.
– But… we’ve been traveling in the opposite direction the whole time… you say, confused.
He points to the current  
– I’ll go with the waterfall.

You stand there for a while, trying to think of a proper way to say goodbye, but he pushes the raft back to the middle of the river with the paddle.
– Have a nice journey, Parsifal!  he says, and you answer the only thing that comes to your mind.
– I won’t go mad!
– You’d better not, because if you do, we’ll change you to another. With these words, he disappears from your sight.
You are standing there alone, and the Arcanum Forest awaits.