Eritopia

Men Are Blessed

'The Elders aren't like that,' Bear said, 'although they are men.'

'The Elders are a special case. You see, not all men believe the same things. Yet the ones who are the most ignorant will not listen to any other opinion.' He paused. Bear had never known him talk so much.

Van went on. 'Elders believe, like animals, in Nature.'

'But don't they control us?' Bear asked. 'And how are they different from the most stubborn, optimistic men?' he wondered.

'Being men, they are organised, which is their nature.'

'They administer the Rules, although they didn't create them,' Anya interrupted. She came over and walked with them.

'Ah, Anya,' Van acknowledged. 'Why don't you tell Bear a little His-Story.'

'Rules, you see, make life easier to live,' she began. 'We accept that, being animals. The Elders, being men, need to identify with a past. We animals are not too bothered about that, we live in the present.'

'Then why do we accept them?' Bear asked.

'For their other qualities,' she replied.

Van spoke again. 'Men are always fighting among themselves. They have abrasive natures, which generates a lot of friction,' he told them. 'But the Elders are wiser. They descend from one man, who escaped from the world of men and lived a long time in the Forest. After a while, that part of the Forest he lived in became known as the Inside. This was the person you know as Reed.'

'This was before the creatures came of course,' said Anya. 'Soon the Inside became home for all refugees and lost animals, some from very far away.'

'He didn't harm us?' said Bear.

'No, he was gentle, having lived in Nature so long. He created the Inside as we know it. He built homes and showed us the available food, named animals that never had names. He organised the clearing of the Forest, planting the right kinds of trees and bushes. Now there are enough nuts and berries for everyone. It was the creation of a new part of the world.'

They all stopped and sat down, because the story seemed to be getting longer and their steps shorter. Bear squatted next to Anya, while Van sat on the other side of her, forming a triangle. Calypso, who was now awake, hung around her neck. The deer continued, 'When the Inside was beginning to take shape, the man decided he wanted to take a mate. So some of the animals, one of them a deer, volunteered to go and get one for him. They made the long trip, as we are now, to the End of the World, to find a woman, as the female men are called.'

'He could have had a monkey,' Calypso interrupted, 'and spared them the effort.'

'I think you'll find that monkeys and men are incompatible,' Anya told him.

'They look the same,' said the monkey, 'except for that ugly pink skin. It would be a brave monkey who wanted to mate with them.'

'Hush,' said Van.

'Sorry,' Calypso said without meaning it, and fidgeted a bit more around Anya's neck.

'Well, they found a woman they thought suitable, and asked her to come with them.'

'And did she?' Bear asked as tears sparkled in Anya's eyes.

'No, she screamed and ran off,' Van continued, sensing the deer's distress. 'She ran up to the City, where it stood on the high ground above the river. She told the authorities about the small band of animals outside its gates. Soldiers were sent to capture them.'

'What happened then?'

'They tortured them.' Anya had composed herself. 'Some, including the deer, had their legs and ears cut off.' She stopped again, unable to continue.

'It was a sad day for the Insiders,' Van carried on. 'The bodies were dumped on the edge of the Forest. Animals brought them back to the Inside for burial. That was the start of the One War, culminating in the Great Battle. The animals rose in anger and travelled across the Outside. Many days of fighting began, the animals with tooth and claw, the men with crude axes and knives. The plain was soon littered with the bodies from both armies. The men were eventually overcome and the King surrendered. Reed received the daughter of the King in exchange for the animals' withdrawal. He thus had the mate he desired, a young woman called Chloe, with whom he produced many babies. He continued to create His-Story, Rules, and organisational things, like Elders.'

'What happened then?' Calypso's inquisitive little voice started.

'That is enough for the moment,' Van declared.

'You can't stop there!' Bear declared. 'How...?'

'Enough.' Van declared, and no amount of pleading could get him to continue.