Tiger Stories And Tiger Songs.
My it's been a long time hasn't it? Nearly two years since the last time I uploaded a story. Most of the time I can only think of character and story ideas but I can never think how to piece them together into a cohesive whole, but tonight the writing bug bit me and here we are. I expect you to be highly critical, because an author is only as good as his best critic.
For those of you that read it, I was inspired to write this by the Neil Gaiman book "Anansi Boys" and thus, indirectly, African oral tradition. So it has similar ideas but this is, of course, my story so it's different from that. Any resemblance to any other story out there, other than the given sources and possibly others that I may have forgotten but probably didn't, is entirely coincidental and any character that is similar to any other character out there, other than those from the given sources and possibly others that I may have forgotten but probably didn't, is also coincidental. I ask that you not take my story without permission. Thank you. :)
And so, without further ado, I give you Tiger Stories and Tiger Songs.
Long ago, when the world was young and mortals were still influenced by the Stories they told and the Songs they sang, the god Tiger went to his father, Spider, and said, "Give me the Stories, father. Give me the Songs. I will make them Tiger Stories and Tiger Songs. Mortals must know the world they live in is one of hardship and with Tiger Stories and Tiger Songs they will always remember." Spider said no, knowing his son would fail, for Spider knew his son better than Tiger knew himself.
But the next day, Tiger came unto his father once more and said, "Give me the Stories, father. Give me the Songs. I will make them Tiger Stories and Tiger Songs." Spider again said no, but the next day, Tiger once more came unto his father and said, "Give me the Stories, father. Give me the Songs. I will make them Tiger Stories and Tiger Songs." Spider again said no. The next day and for many days afterwards, Tiger came unto his father and said, "Give me the Stories, father. Give me the Songs. I will make them Tiger Stories and Tiger Songs." and each time Spider would say no. Finally Tiger sought the intervention of Lion, who was king. Lion said to Spider, "Give Tiger the Stories, brother, give him the Songs. He must learn the folly of youth as you did when our mother created us, as I did when our mother created us. As did our sister when our mother created us." So Spider finally agreed and he have his son the Stories and the Songs. Tiger took the Stories and the Songs went into the world and he began telling Tiger Stories and singing Tiger Songs. He went to the mortal children of his brother, Fox, who were made in the image of Lion. The Nojin Clan Leo were the first clan of Fox's children, like Tiger's own children, the Humans, but unalike as they resembled Lion. The Nojin Clan Leo listened to the Tiger Stories and the Tiger Songs and some of them concluded that because they were better equipped to live in this harsh world, they must be better than their neighbours. They were convinced that even among their Clan they were superior, and because they were only mortal, and lacked the essential ability to foresee the problems this would cause, they endeavored to remain better and in this endeavor, bred along amongst themselves, family with family, forsaking intermarriage between families. In the fullness of time, this inbreeding led the Clan to its own destruction and Tiger looked upon what he had wrought and he grew angry. Angry that the mortals were so unintelligent, and he became more determined than ever to teach them of their stupidity with the Tiger Stories and the Tiger Songs. Ones of blood and death, ones of war and treachery, they must be aware that as the world is dangerous, they must seek refuge in the arms of their gods, for as they are not better than eachother, so are they all equally inferior to the gods. But Fox was more angry for his first children were dead, brought low by the negligence of his brother. He went to his father and his uncle and said, "See what Tiger has done to my children with his Stories and his Songs. I demand that you take back the Stories and that you take back the Songs, and I demand vengeance upon his children in kind. I will curse them so that they may never appreciate this world we have given them. I will make them hate and I will make them fear and I will make them covetous. I will take from them the ability to experience any emotion other than hate and fear and greed and then will I be avenged upon my children." But Owl, who was a great adviser to Lion, intervened and said to Fox, "Your vengeance must not upset balance. As they hate and fear and covet, so must they love and hope and commiserate and if you seek to rob them of these emotions, you must also rob them of the others." So Fox said to Owl, "Then I will not take from them the ability to feel. I will take instead the ability to truly feel. I will make it so that as they love, they can never understand what it is to truly love as we love, and as they hate, they can never understand what it is to truly hate as we hate. And to ensure this never happens again, I demand that you take back the Stories and that you take back the Songs, for Tiger's Stories and Tiger's Songs will destroy this world we created together." And so it was that Tiger lost the Stories and the Songs and Humanity lost the intensity of emotion they had before. But as they were no longer burdened with excess emotions, Humans had more time to focus on other tasks and so, though Fox cursed them in vengeance, he made them better than they were and they devoted themselves to becoming better, for the Spider Stories and the Spider Songs were not about how the world was cruel and they were not about how mortals are inferior, they were about how any obstacle can be overcome with cleverness and cunning.
And there you have it. I hope you enjoyed it. If not, feel free to point out any flaws you may have noticed. But remember to be nice. If you're naughty I'll have to spank you. Though some of you might enjoy that... ;)
By the by, if you've read my other entries, you'll probably recognize one of these characters as one of those. I won't tell you which, but don't worry. It's not hard to figure out. :)