the legend of magic

although the shortest (and yes i read the others) i like this one the most because even though they all deal with mysticism and folk in relation to the land, this one seemed the simplest and the most magically real. it talks about a people whos subsistence relies on the water and the food it can provide, but who must ultimately return to the land. in their hunting excursion (we could take this to be a symbol of human en devour of any kind) they get stranded on an ever shrinking piece of ice, frozen water, that from which they gain a living supports them, but barely, and shrinks as men argue on solutions. the beauty is that the least knowledgeable in their contemporary science, the science of magic, finds the solution, not by turning to God necessarily, though it is implied, but by turning to nature and speaking frankly to it, acknowledging creation in a way, and hence gaining their safe return to Terra firma. their livelihood and existence is put in perspective them, as only having importance if they can "return to the land"