Once upon a time, two human beings, twins, emerged from the Earth.
“Aaahhh,” they said as the stretched, breathing in the pure air and feeling the warming rays of the sun on their faces.
“Wow, thank you for giving us life, Mother.” said Leba. “This is such a beautiful world!”
“You are welcome, my sons. Now go and enjoy your journey in this world. At the end of it, you will return to me and share all of your experiences with me.”
“But where shall we go? What shall we do here?” questioned Niac.
“You shall go wherever you please and do as you please, son,” replied the Earth. “Just make sure you are willing to accept the consequences of your actions.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“Just listen to your elders and you will be fine. Pay attention and listen.”
At that, the twins went on their way, walking with the sun. After wandering for a while along a path, they came upon a fork in the road, around a big oak tree with branches overhanging the right-hand path, when Niac screamed.
“Ah! What is that?”
His brother looked up. From the branches of the tree, a big eight-legged creature hung in the center of a giant web.
“I don’t know,” replied Leba. “Let’s go ask her.”
“Are you crazy?” exclaimed Niac as he put his arm across his brother’s chest to stop him. “This thing looks dangerous. Look, it built some kind of trap to entangle us!”
Leba shrugged. “It’s not even moving. Surely, it would have hurt us by now if it meant us any harm. Let’s just go and see what she’s about.”
“I don’t think so. It’s ugly and probably too stupid to reason with. I’ll go the other way and if you have any sense at all you’ll do the same.”
Leba watched his brother take the left-hand path and disappear over the other side of the hill. Then he walked up to the spider in her web.
“Hi,” he said with a slight wave of the hand.
“Well, hello Grandson,” the spider replied.
Leba was surprised. “Am I really your grandson?” he asked enthusiastically.
“Oh, of course. We are all related here,” she said as she harped on her web lightly. “Say, would you mind going to the river and bringing me a little water, please? I need to stay here and tend to my web.”
“Sure,” replied Leba. And he walked down the hill toward the stream.
“And don’t forget to ask politely and say thank you!” the spider shouted over her shoulder.
“OK,” briefly turned back Leba, and he continued on his way.
As he approached the river, he heard some giggling. He was not quite sure where it was coming from so, timidly, he said “Hi. Uhm, I’m coming to get some water for my Grandmother… please.” he added eagerly.
As it flowed over the rocks, the water giggled: “Of course. Help yourself to whatever you need. And take some for yourself as well.”
“Why, thank you.” said Leba. And he knelt over the bank to cup a little water in his hand. He drank slowly, curious at first, but then his eyes grew wide in delight.
“Wow, this feels really good! Thank you. It’s so… refreshing.” And Leba plunged his hands into the river again, this time rubbing the water all over his face, thrilled at the feeling.
The water giggled in amusement.
Leba sat at the river’s edge for a moment, smiling wide as he watched the swallows dart over the river. But then he remembered the task at hand, took some water in his cupped hands, thanked the water profusely, and hiked back up the hill at a good pace.
“Delightful, isn’t she?” said the spider, nodding toward the river, as Leba approached.
“I’d say!” replied Leba, as he handed the water to his Grandmother.
After the spider had drunk her fill, Leba wondered:
“Grandmother, why are you sitting in the middle of this web?”
“Well, this is how I catch insects, so that I can eat them.”
“Eat?”
“Yes, to regain strength and maintain my health. Aren’t you hungry?”
“I don’t know… I guess I am… Should I sit with you and catch insects then?”
The spider laughed. “No, Grandson. You are a human being. You need something a little more… substantial.”
“Like what?”
“Like a deer for instance.”
“A deer? Where do I find one?” Leba was intrigued.
“They eat grass so you should be able to find one a little further up this path, in the meadow. You should hurry before it gets too hot under the high sun or they will retreat back into the woods.”
“Oh, OK. Thanks, Grandmother! It was great spending some time with you.”
“Likewise, Grandson. Have a good journey,” she said with a glint in her eyes, and she waved as Leba started up the path.
After a pleasant walk thinking about his encounter with the spider, Leba found himself meandering among the grasses of the meadow. All of a sudden, a head shot up from behind a bush. Leba was startled but regained his composure quickly as he told himself that was probably the deer he was looking for.
“Hi,” he said amicably.
The deer stared at him, wide eyed, his ears twitching. He swallowed his cud – hard – and finally replied shyly “Hi,” but he took a cautious step back and looked for a way out with his peripheral vision.
“Are you a deer?” asked Leba.
“…Uhm, yes… why do you ask?”
“I’m hungry – I think – I’d like to eat you.”
“Gulp” was all that was heard from the deer who took another step back, now nervously turning his face from side to side.
“Oh, don’t worry, I don’t want to hurt you” Leba said honestly.
The deer’s left eyebrow shot up. “W-what?”
“I just want to eat you, that’s all.”
“And, uhm, what’s in it for me?” inquired the deer, perplexed.
“Well…” thought Leba out loud “… how about, once I have eaten you, I will poop in a hole in the Earth. My Mother thinks that would make the grass grow healthy and strong. Your family will surely enjoy eating that instead of this old brown grass” and he swept his arm across the meadow.
The deer relaxed a little and considered the offer.
“I guess it’s considerate of you… I just don’t know that I’m willing to give my life just for that though.”
“Hmm,” reflected Leba some more, “ maybe… No, I know! To honor your sacrifice I will make good use of all the gifts you have to offer. I will take your bones and use them to scrape off your hide. Then, I will smear your brains into it and stretch it until it becomes as soft as a cloud. And then I will use your tendons to sew your skin into something I can proudly wear. Surely it would please you to be shown to everyone like that, wouldn’t it?”
The deer tilted his head to the side. The quizzical look on his face slowly turned into a smile.
“I appreciate the respect you are showing me,” the deer said finally. “Go ahead and make me proud. I will be glad to feed you well and to clothe you with beauty!”
“Great!” exclaimed Leba. “… How do I go about eating you then?”
The deer snorted in laughter. “Well, you’ll have to kill me of course!”
“Kill you? Oh… Couldn’t you just die and make it easy for me?”
No, if you want to eat me you have to accept full responsibility for your action.”
“That’s what my Mother said,” admitted Leba.
“I know, Brother,” winked the deer.
Leba smiled a half-smile, picked up a sharp stick, and drove it into the deer’s heart. “Thank you, deer,” he said softly as the deer’s last breath expired.
After eating the meat from the deer, gratefully feeling new strength in his body, Leba honored his promises. He dug a small hole in the ground and pooped in it. Then, he covered it carefully with some earth and said in prayer: “May this nourish your family until we meet again, Brother.” Then he scraped the deer’s hide with a rib bone, softened it with brains, and sewed himself a beautiful garment.
Feeling warm and embraced by the spirit of the deer, Leba then continued on his journey, drawing admiration from all the beings who saw him. He spent much time sitting by majestic trees and ancient stones, listening to their slow, thoughtful words, imbuing himself with the wisdom of his ancestors.
Then, one day, as he was admiring a river gracefully undulating among the grassy hills, he came upon something he hadn’t seen before. Big rocks were piled atop each other, forming a mountain as high as any tree around it.
“What a strange sight,” he thought. “I wonder what kind of creature would create such a thing; and for what purpose? Do they live in it? Or maybe they use it to store food?”
Curious and eager to solve this new mystery, Leba made his way to the pile of rocks. When he got closer, he realized that someone – could it be a human being? – was painstakingly carrying a rock toward the top. Squinting and shading his eyes from the bright sun to see better, Leba suddenly jumped out of joy.
“Brother! Brother, Niac! It’s me, Leba!” and he ran toward the bottom of the rock pile.
Niac, startled by his brother’s screams of joy, dropped the rock he was carrying and it rolled and leaped down to the bottom in loud, thunderous “thumps”. Niac stared down at Leba who was now waiting for his brother at the foot of the pile, waving frantically. Niac then made his way down his mountain, visibly upset, though not to his brother’s overjoyed eyes.
As he neared the end of his climb down, Niac shouted at his brother: “What do you think you’re doing? Do you think it’s easy to carry these big rocks up my mountain?!”
Leba, taken aback by the rude welcome, managed to answer softly: “Well… no… I imagine not… But it’s me… Leba.” and he opened his arms wide in shy anticipation of an embrace.
“Of course I know who you are!” Niac shot back as he walked right past his brother. “That doesn’t give you the right to disturb me in my work.”
Leba looked up to the top of the rock pile. “It must have been quite a bit of work…” he said, not quite loud enough for his brother to hear.
He then turned around and, seeing his brother sitting on the ground a little ways away with his head in his hands, walked to join him.
Something picked at his nostrils, subtly at first but it became stronger as he approached his brother. “What is this putrid smell?” he thought to himself, not daring to ask Niac so as not to upset him any more.
As Niac didn’t look up at his brother’s arrival, Leba stood silently next to him for a while. Finally, turning back to look at the rock pile, he said with forced enthusiasm:
“Your pile of rocks looks amazing… Why did you build it?”
“Why?” snorted Niac, suddenly jolting his head out of his hands. “Why?” he snorted again. “It doesn’t surprise me that you need to ask. Though it would be obvious to anyone with a little self-respect, you would never even think to make anything so magnificent!”
Leba looked toward the pile once again. “You’re probably right” he said, still confused at the pile’s purpose. He turned back toward his brother with inquisitive eyes but not daring to meet his brother’s stare directly.
“Of course I am right!” snapped Niac, standing up. “Actually,” he corrected himself, “nobody but me could have done anything like this.
Leba looked at his brother, still perplexed but now in a quiet agreement at that statement.
Niac studied his brother’s face for a moment, then exclaimed, full of self-pride: “You still don’t get it, do you?”
Leba just pursed his lips and raised his eyebrows.
“Huh!” snorted Niac. “I’m building this mountain as a testament to my genius” he said.
Leba narrowed his eyes slightly and attempted to refrain from smiling.
“You know,” Niac continued, “after I left you when you wanted to talk to that horrible thing hanging from the tree branch, I traveled all over this country and I observed many creatures. It was really puzzling to me that they didn’t do anything worthwhile with their lives…”
At this, Leba glanced at the rock pile briefly and frowned slightly, but his brother didn’t notice, continuing:
“And then it came to me: I – Am – Different; from all the rest. Obviously, I was gifted with intelligence and, while everyone else was just goofing around, just eating and sleeping and playing, I needed to do something to show them all what an intelligent person was like, to enlighten them and show them the way to an advanced state of being so to speak.”
Leba now just stared at his brother incredulously. Niac assumed it was a look of awe and it encouraged him to continue:
“And so I decided to build something that nobody else had done before, that nobody else could do, that nobody could ignore. Something that would speak to my greatness and that would inspire others to greatness.” And he waved his right arm toward his mountain of rocks triumphantly.
Leba just stared blankly at his brother. Niac started to get angry at his brother for not getting it but Leba let a “Wow” out of his lips and turned his head toward the rock pile so as to hide his thoughts that his brother had gone insane. But Niac took it as a compliment and smiled proudly, admiring his life’s work.
After an interminable, awkward silence for Leba, Niac finally asked him:
“Do you have any food? All that work made me hungry and food is very scarce here nowadays.”
Leba’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. He’d never had any trouble finding deer or anything else to eat before.
And all of a sudden, a wave of putrid smell washed over him again. He had been so absorbed by his brother’s behavior that he had almost forgotten about it, but he remembered now – strongly.
“What's this smell?” he dared to ask.
“Oh, that,” he said nonchalantly as he walked to the edge of the nearby ravine to look over hundreds of rotting deer carcasses.
“They were being a nuisance and often made fun of me so…” he shrugged “… and I couldn’t process and eat them fast enough.” He turned around and extended his arms halfway up his body, palms up, a resigned smirk on his face.
Leba looked over the edge in apprehension and was shocked at the sight of the putrefying mass. He turned away in terror, only to witness his brother squatting in the stream.
“What are you doing? he exclaimed.
“I’m pooping.” Niac said simply. “Don’t look.”
But Leba couldn’t help it and as he staggered toward his brother he spoke in a desperate voice: “But don’t do that in the water! You’re soiling her!”
“Her? It’s OK. I drink upstream of this spot. Don’t worry, I’m not an idiot.” Niac said in a reassuring tone.
“But… But…” barely managed Leba, half in tears as his legs collapsed under him.
“What’s the matter?” asked Niac, not understanding.
“It’s just… It would be more respectful to bury your poop in the ground” stammered Leba.
“Oh yeah? Why is that?” inquired Niac honestly.
“Well,” said Leba, trying to regain his composure, “it’s just that by burying your poop you will feed the grass, and in turn that grass will feed many animals. They will be grateful for it.”
A short burst of laughter escaped Niac’s mouth. “What a quaint idea!” But his laughter rapidly turned to bitterness.
“Do you think that any of them has ever done anything for me?” He threw his arms up in the air. “I’ve had only myself to rely on. I’m the only one who understands how much can be accomplished in this life. When I started my grandiose project the only thing your little friends could do was snicker behind my back. They were making fun of me! Me, who spent so much time building this monument to intellect. The only thing they had to say was ‘just come and play with us.’ Play! I don’t have time to play! I have things to do, things to prove… No, they’ve never done anything for me so I don’t owe them a thing. I’ll never do anything for them; these lazy, inferior little rats. I have accomplished something! They should bow down to me.”
Leba watched speechlessly, his mouth agape as the storm abated. He was so horrified that his mind was blank, as if his thoughts could have been tainted by the bitter waves coming our of his brother’s mouth.
“Anyway,” said Niac, trying to wave away the last dark clouds hovering over his head and doing his best to calm down his voice. “Do you have any food; yes or no?”
Leba’s fear intensified. He took a step back. “I’ve gotta go” he finally managed to say.
“Oh come on Leba… my brother” Niac tried to be reassuring. “Forgive me; it’s just been a hard day of work, you know? But it’s worth it. One day they will understand. They will see it was not in vain. So join me. Help me make this mountain so big that it will inspire awe for the next thousand years and everyone will remember that human beings were the greatest beings who have ever lived. What do you say, brother? Hmm?”
Leba took another step back, his eyes wide, his palms sweaty, his heart beating hard. But out of desperation a wave of clarity washed over him. He said:
“Brother, is someone building a bigger mountain than you over there in the distance?”
Niac’s nostrils flared and his brow furrowed. Could it be possible?
“Where? he exclaimed as he rushed to the top of his rock pile to get a better view.
Leba fled and didn’t turn back until he collapsed, out of breath, choked by the tears in his throat. Over the trees he could barely hear his brother’s screams from the top of the rock pile.
“Damn you Leba… I will show you too… They will remember me…”
Leba’s spirit remained tormented by his encounter with his brother for a long time. He didn’t know if he could help him, if it was even possible. All the creatures tried to comfort him, saying that he could not take responsibility for his brother’s actions, that he was only responsible for his own. The Wise Ones told Leba that it is important to explore one’s journey fully and that it is as important to let other beings do the same with their own journey, even if we can’t understand what they are doing.
“Do not worry, Grandson,” they said, “in the end, all paths return to their source, no matter how tortuous these paths have been, no matter how aimlessly people have wandered, not hearing their own heart’s voice. So just keep on walking your path truthfully; follow your heart and accept the consequences of your actions.”
“That’s what my mother said.” Leba remembered, sadly attempting to smile. And his Elders nodded knowingly.
Of course, Leba knew that his relations were right. He couldn’t change his brother’s path with words. The best he could do was to live a good life, honoring all the beings around him, and hope that his example would be inspiring. Still, it was hard for Leba to not think of his brother, to not wish that things could be different. But in time, Leba continued on his journey, following the soft voices on the wind. And, one day, as the sun came to set behind the hills on the horizon, Leba heard a familiar voice.
“Leba, my son.”
“Mother?”
“Yes, Leba. Your journey his approaching its end. It is time for you to return to me and let others take your place.”
“Yes, Mother. I am ready.”
Leba had lived a good life and he was happy for the nourishment the many relationships he had formed with the beings all over the land had given him. But now he was also tired and he was looking forward to his Mother’s warm embrace so he walked peacefully toward a large stone sitting by a magnificent tree. There, the Earth opened her arms wide and, after giving a last look over the beautiful world he had come to know so intimately, he lied down and pulled his mother’s arms back over himself. Falling asleep, he was vaguely aware of the tree’s roots lovingly reaching toward him, as in a dream.
“Niac, my son.”
Niac lifted his head as he thought he had heard something. He was old and wary, having worked his whole life on the mountain of rocks that gave him so much pride, that proved to all that he was unique, above all the rest. As he stood at the very top he mumbled to himself.
“Well, that was hard work but it was worth it. At least, everyone will know that I did something with my life and they will marvel at my accomplishment.”
Then, seeing a pair of squirrels playing up and down a tree he felt a hint of sadness that he rapidly waved off, repeating with a determined nod of his head, “Yes, it was definitely worth it.”
“Niac, my son.” the Earth repeated.
Niac’s body tensed up. This time he had definitely heard something.
“Who’s there?” he shouted as loud as he could, betraying a rising fear, readying himself for whatever threat might be lurking in the shadows.
“Niac, it is your Mother, the Earth. Your journey is coming to an end. It is time for you to come back to me.”
“No!” Niac shouted, turning his fear into anger, still unsure of where the voice was coming from.
“It is the only way, my son.” the Earth said calmly. “It is time for others to take your place.” And the Earth opened her arms wide to welcome her son back.
“Others?” Niac exploded, throwing one of his precious rocks down at her. “Others?... Do you really think others will do better than I did?” and he pointed to his mountain.
“I have suffered my whole life to build this monument to glory.” He screamed with all his might, desperately trying to swallow back the tears that were inexplicably flowing down his cheeks.
“I built this,” he continued. “I built this by myself while everyone else was lazying around, making fun of me. But I know they were jealous. You’re all jealous!” He screamed louder for his echo to travel over the rolling hills.
“You never did anything for me; I don’t owe you anything!”
“Niac, we are all family. You belong with us.” said his Mother.
“Nooo!” he exploded even more intensely, a volcano of rage erupting as he threw more rocks at the Earth. “I do not belong to you. I belong only to myself. You will never have me back; never!” And in a flash of insane genius, despite his otherwise blinding rage, he noticed the hole he had created in his mountain by throwing rocks at the earth and he jumped into it. Then, using his legs as a lever, he collapsed the rock wall unto himself.
“You will never have me back” he whispered in a final breath.
Afterword:
A few years ago, a group of archeologists uncovered Niac’s remains from his stone mountain. They never found any written record of his existence and the oral history of the region’s inhabitants was equally devoid of information. Nevertheless, it was obvious that the rock pile was man-made and that it must have taken a great number of slaves to build such a monument. Thus, the best conclusion they came up with was that these remains belonged to a quiet king who had ordered his people to entomb him where he could be remembered. It is then possible that his people were annihilated for one reason or another and that no record of them was ever made. Though intriguing, the discovery of the stone tomb was not deemed worthy enough to take space in a museum. Therefore, the archeologists buried the “king’s” remains at a top of a nearby hill.
Leba’s story didn’t make it into history books either. However, the indigenous people of the region know that the trees, stones, spiders, deer, and other beings of the land remember Leba well, and they will tell of his life if one is willing to sit with them and listen for a while.
