POOL OF ETERNAL YOUTH

The Pool of Eternal Youth, one of six legendary pools, were mystically linked with the seventeen cubes of foundation when The One Eru laid down the foundations of the world. The exact nature of these pools remains unclear even today; tradition has left only vague information concerning two of these magical bodies of water, and the only one whose whereabouts is known is that of Eternal Youth. For example, there were very specific instructions in the Scrolls of Fizbin about how to find the Pools, but every detail related to geographical locations of archaic names which are no longer known.

Abiding in a clearing in the Forest of Youth, soft rays of sunlight filter down through the overhanging trees to form a circular, shallow pool of radiance that rippled like a golden liquid. Any object that was placed within the Pool of Eternal Youth literally retained its youth forever. (Its effects upon living creatures has not been fully studied, and has yielded unpredictable results, such as a permanent increase of the Gurthian infant population, forcing the erection of the largest, and largest growing, kintergarden in all of Zork.)

Until 966 GUE, this Pool of Eternal Youth was hidden and marked only by a large magical boulder with an inscription carved upon it:

"Never ahead, ever behind,
 Yet flying swiftly past;
 For a child, I last forever,
 For adults, I'm gone too fast.
 What am I?"

When an unknown peasant in that year uttered the correct answer, "Youth", a hollow voice resonated, in response, "Behold the Pool of Eternal Youth," then faded. The beams of sunlight converged on the cleared to form the pool.