Bal's Bane

© 1994

By James Lester

Part 3 of 3 [4 min.]

 

The Trees became the faces and shoulders of men!

Bal jerked his finger away from the image as if it were hot, and it collapsed, again, to its first appearance.

"That's what I mean, Father!"

Bal held up his hand for silence.

Now, Bal could see that what looked like a Forest was actually a forest of men. Too many men to comprehend. It seemed impossible that Mothers could give birth to so many men. And yet, there they were, stretching out as far as the eye could see around that huge white square object.

Bal began to point at various places in the image to make it show a close-up view. He found that all the men were standing, angry faces toward the square in the middle of the image, fists raised defiantly in the same direction. And he found that the white square was an immense shelter of some kind with openings in the sides. And in those openings could be seen the frightened faces of men, women and children looking out over the forest of angry men outside.

These images really were quite upsetting, Bal realized, and he did not blame his son for being disturbed by what had happened to him. He was even breathing fast himself, though he now understood what the images meant.

Slowly, Bal closed the two halves, and the image disappeared.

"Now, I know the story Clan Mother teaches us at the elder initiation is true," he said.

"There was a time, long, long ago, my son, when Evil men decided to force The Mother to give more Food than She and The Father wished to give. The Mother and The Father warned them not to do this. But, they would not listen.

"They had forgotten that sometimes The Mother and The Father roll over some of their creatures in the fullness of Their love-making, just as we sometimes step on ants as we walk along a path. But, Who are we to instruct The Mother and The Father? And, Do ants force us not to walk on the paths?

"And so, these evil men made fire so they could live where The Mother does not want us to live. They forced The Mother to produce more plants than she intends to produce, and they forced other creatures to produce great numbers only to be killed as food. Then, they were able to increase their numbers because they forced women to bear many children just as they forced The Mother. They used these many children as soldiers to kill people like us who did not agree to live in this new, evil way.

"They cut down the many Forests so they could force The Mother to grow even more food. They enslaved all these Extra people to do the bidding of the Few who had this sinful idea. These men wanted to become like The Father. But, they raped The Mother and the women. They forgot their longnames. They forgot how to remember. They had to use these markings to help them survive. they had to think up things to keep the Extra people busy, so they would not go mad and kill the Few who did this to The Mother.

"The Few felt guilty because The Father could see what they were doing all along. They invented a person whom they said came from The Father to forgive them for what they were doing to The Mother. They did this so the extra people would keep on raping The Mother for them.

"Our Clan did not know of these things until almost all the Forests were gone. But then, the Evil ones and the Extra ones turned upon each other.

"This is an image of what happened in the end.

"You were not supposed to hear this story for many namings yet, my son. Put it out of your mind, for now. When you do hear it again, you will be the only one who will be able to see the horror of it, clearly. Remember that, my son."

That same day, Bal and Gom took the strange object to the Cave by the river. They put it back inside the opening and sealed it up, so The Mother could keep those things in Her care, forever.

The End