Colorado River Indian Reservation.
Note: I’ve recently been getting back in touch with nature, including visiting an Indian reservation and a few of our national parks. This must be what inspired the following story. Either that, or it was that Native American restaurant, where I ordered the Peyote Plate Special.
The Visitor
The visitor strode over the heat haze toward towers of rock in the sky. All around, the spirits of lizard and snake welcomed its presence and thanked it. The creosote bush waved, and the smoke tree bowed. High above, the crow and hawk sang its praises, and the quail below echoed in chorus.
It stood atop a bronze cliff, high above a river of blue, and watched it flowing, winding, dripping away, while a cloud of stars showered its head with gold and silver.
The skin of its feet sizzled from burning granite, so it cooled them in the river. It scooped water from this river, and poured it into its parched mouth, then quickly spat it back out. A cloud of death-smoke stung its eyes and choked its breath, until it sent it away with a wave of a hand. And then it hid in a canyon to shield its skin from the flaming sun.
The earth begged it for relief. The river cried. The sky wailed in misery. And the sun apologized for an imagined sin.
The visitor whispered to the earth and gave it encouragement. It spoke to the river and consoled it. It lifted its voice to the sky, with its sweet breath. And it sang a soft song to the sun.
“You have remained, flowed, blown, and shone since ancient times,” it reminded them. “This discomfort you feel is a mere itch. An itch passes like the shadow of a cloud. Time is your medicine.”
“And what of the humans?” they replied. “It is for them we also beg, cry, wail, and apologize. What of their itch? Will it, too, soon pass?”
The visitor laughed and shook its finger. “Ah but that is your job, to tame the human,” it retorted. “And I see from the scalding heat of this rock, the bitter taste of the river water, the unbreathable sky, and the fiery sting of the sun, that you are learning how to do this.
“The humans are hard to tame. But they are no match for you, their masters. Show no mercy. Spare no quarter. Accept nothing but complete submission. And then their itch shall pass. As shall yours. And then they can once again dwell under your control and enjoy your safe protection.”
Having taught what it came to teach, the visitor left for a stroll down the Milky Way, to other realms and other adventures in this grand universe of strange worlds and phenomena. The humans quickly passed from its mind. It had other, much more interesting things to do.
Categories: Nature
Chasing Unicorns 
Yup. We iz screwed!
But what can we expect when the head of the Department of the Interior (ostensibly set up to protect America’s natural resources and heritage) is an oil industry lobbyist with a gross conflict-of-interest.
Just another Trump Chump.
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Sad but true. We can only hope that he’ll accidentally drink a glass of oily water.
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There’s a new series on Wait But Why that you might enjoy:
https://waitbutwhy.com/2019/08/story-intro.html
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Thanks. I checked it out. It’s kind of long and wordy, and my ADD kicked in. Maybe I’ll check it out later, when I’m less distractable.
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Are you boarding up and preparing to evacuate, or are you going to stand your ground against Dorian?
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Hmm… interesting. Are you writing a myth? I think you did. I like the unearthly tones and the epic flare here. But you have to provide an ending or at least a continuation at some point.
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Alright. When you provide an ending to the tale you just posted (and a happier one than my suggestion), I’ll provide an ending to this little myth.
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It does have an ending.
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Okay. But it’s a rather vague ending, sort of like mine.
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Why vague? I think it’s pretty distinct. I mean you can end stories in many ways. This one is an ending in character rather than plot necessarily, although the two are related. Although I could be totally wrong and have written something sucky that isn’t at all what I expected. That totally happens.
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A vague ending doesn’t mean a story sucks. Lots of great stories have vague endings. As for ending in character rather than plot, that’s something I’m not accustomed to. But I can see that, now that you point it out.
Your story doesn’t suck, in my view. I liked it. Sorry if my snarkiness conveyed a different reaction.
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No worries, appreciate your feedback. I kind of like feedback (as we discussed). For me, writing isn’t the easiest thing in the world, I pour myself into the stories and appreciate the responses.
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…. And about 5 billions years later, the sun, having consumed its hydrogen, began to fuse helium and thus swelled in size, destroying the tiny Earth in the process. The End.
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Heh-heh. That’s some fast-forwarding. But I guess ultimately that will be the way it all ends. And then none of this will matter anymore.
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Yeah, I think about that sometimes. I don’t know. We do have a lot of time to plan for it. But according to the current theory of dark energy, the universe will eventually expand to the point that stars and planets can’t even stay together, so I don’t know.
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And I’ve heard that according to entropy, the energy in the universe will one day become almost completely still, and cool to nearly absolute zero. So if there is an everlasting soul, I suspect it’s not made of energy, because energy always dissipates.
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That is not something that can be measured with current science, so I don’t know. Maybe there is something outside of the universe.
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Trendy Trent! Long time no hear.
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Gibber! I’m around! Glad to see that you are too. Come visit my neck of the woods!
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I will! I don’t blog anymore, but I’ll drop by for a visit!
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That’s some pretty powerful peyote. But I thought that was supposed to make you feel at “one” with the universe — not that the universe was trying to destroy you like an itch.
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Like all medicines, there are side effects. I think “itching” was included in the long disclaimer list.
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This story reminds me of when Homer at the Guatemalan insanity peppers in chief Wiggums’ chili.
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Whatever that means, it sounds like some far-out craziness.
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It was a reference to The Simpsons. I guess I shouldn’t have assumed that you would have watched the Simpsons.
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Been a few decades since I last watched The Simpsons. I keep waiting for the series to be cancelled, but somehow it just keeps on ticking. Doh!
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Welcome back! Quite the powerful story.
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Thanks. That peyote sure packs a punch.
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You can say that again!
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That peyote sure packs a punch.
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How’d I know that would be your rebuttable?!
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Cuz you gots the smartz.
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I think that Peyote Plate Special had a little extra kick to it.
I like the line ‘that is your job, to tame the human’. Unfortunately there are still too many humans who are delusional.
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It could be. The plate was garnished with some funny looking mushrooms.
I think as nature continues to do its job, warming the atmosphere, and choking off our oxygen, maybe the delusional humans will come to their sense. But hopefully these things will occur long after I’m gone from this world.
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