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Thalion
flint knapper
Username: Thalion
Post Number: 1575
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 22, 2005 - 11:58 am: |     |
The other day I was looking for something in my cd archives and came across this story that was written on a forum that no longer exists. I always wanted to put it up on Thalion's cave, but never got around to it. I found it as funny re-reading as I found it the first time. Therefore I'll put it up here, for your enjoyment, and as an incentive to get a new round robin story going. 
Each author is cited with the part they contributed. Enjoy!
Freedom for supporters of the government only, for members of one party only - no matter how big its membership may be - is no freedom at all. Freedom is always freedom for the person who thinks differently. - Rosa Luxemburg |
Thalion
flint knapper
Username: Thalion
Post Number: 1576
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 22, 2005 - 12:03 pm: | |
A Round Robin Game - The Giant Teddybear
by various authors
Madenia:
Anyone up for a new game? Each person writes a section where the last person left off. For starters, how about the Snoopy way?
***
It was a dark and stormy night...
Baghira:
Angelica angrily threw her teddybear to the ground, stomped with her little foot an screamed:"
Rosalind:
"Hey, watch it!"
Angelica's eyes grew wide with fright. Where did that voice come from?
"Down here, where you threw me."
She gasped and looked down to see her bear talking to her. "That can't be! You're a..."
Baghira:
"Hah, you meant to say I am a toy and toys cannot talk? A little girl like you can't know everything. I will show you what I can do. Take my hand and come with me to.."
Playwright:
. . . your closet." The girl pulled open the closet
door and . . .
walkhound:
....was surprised to see light shining from behind her clothes, she reached forward to hold the clothes back and saw....
A teddy bear sized hole at the bottom of the closet. But inside or rather outside the hole came the sound of the most joyfull singing and dancing.
Rosalind:
Curious, she leaned forward and and gasped. "Ow!" she yelled when....
Baghira:
Teddy pushed her through the hole and she tumbled down, all the way down, until she landed on her behind with an ungentle "thump". With a hysterical shriek, a group of wild-eyed and unkempt ...
walkhound:
skinny looking children grabbed her by the hand and dragged her quickly away from the hole, looking fearfully all around them. Blinking in the bright sunlight she ....
Rosalind:
began to feel sorry for herself. "Why did my bear turn against me? What did I ever do to him?" She sobbed.
The skinny child in front of her turned and said sternly, "you did something very bad. You..."
Freedom for supporters of the government only, for members of one party only - no matter how big its membership may be - is no freedom at all. Freedom is always freedom for the person who thinks differently. - Rosa Luxemburg |
Thalion
flint knapper
Username: Thalion
Post Number: 1577
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 22, 2005 - 12:08 pm: | |
Baghira:
played with other toys. The Teddy can't have that. That makes him angry. And then he doesn't love you anymore. That's why you are here. And that's why we are here, too. We are the lost children. Noone loves us any more. Noone hugs us any more."
The little boy blinked away a tear. Then he scowled at Angelica and continued, "we can't go back home. All we ever do here is to wait for the child who finds the way home and saves us from ...
Rosalind:
...the fate of the Teddy Bear Curse!
Openmouthed, Angelica stopped and stared at him. "The Teddy Bear Curse?"
The skinny boy looked around to see if anyone was listening. Seeing no one, he whispered, "it's the most awful thing that can happen to little girls and boys. Instead of growing up, you..."
Baghira:
get smaller and smaller. We don't know what will happen to us if we are babies again. We all haven't been here very long. I think the Teddy is an evil monster."
A loud thunderous roar interrupted the little boy. The children huddled together fearfully when suddenly ...
Rosalind:
A giant teddy bear appeared.
"Oh no!" A little girl whimpered, "it's the Teddy Cave Bear!"
"What's so bad about him?" Anglecia asked, "he's stil just a stuffed bear."
"You don't understand at all, do you. They make sacrifices to him, so just hope you're not chosen."
Angelica shuddered but didn't ask any more about the Cave Bear. Instead she chose her little-girl logic. "Why don't you just un-stuff the bears?"
A collective gasp came from the children. "Do you think we could?" The boy asked hopefully.
"Sure you can," she replied. "You just need..."
walkhound:
something to suck it all out, like a vacumn cleaner." The boy just looked at her with his mouth open. Another child stepped forward and said.....
Madenia:
"Oh, like what that door-to-door salesman tried to sell me. All hail the might Hoover!" He shouted as he produced a canister-style vacuum cleaner.
"Here's the plan..."
Baghira:
half of us try to distract the giant cave teddy bear and the other half sneaks up at his back. Then Angelica can poke a hole in his skin and use the mighty Hoover to unstuff him. I think it has to be Angelica. I think she is the child that has been prophesied to come and save us!"
Angelica frowned and replied, "
walkhound:
Phrophecy? first I've heard of this?! Anyway..as soon as I poke a hole in him he'll feel it and turn round.... we need to sedate him. We need someone to go into the blue forest and find the....
Rosalind:
blue smurfs of the red juice."
"But that's impossible!" The boy exclaimed, "they won't let anyone have their sacred red juice unless..."
cavebear:
"Yes, unless you use this", spoke a soft sibilant voice in the tree above their heads. Slowly, an object was lowered through the leaves on a silken thread. It was a demagnifying glass. The voice continued, "You just...
walkhound:
...take this and hold it so that the blue smurfs are looking through it towards me. That makes them into helpless baby smurfs."
Angelica gasped and said, "is that how the teddy cave bear turns the children into babies??"
There was a hiss from the tree and...
...they heard someone whispering.
Rosalind:
"Here's our chance, the Teddy Cave Bear is coming back!"
Sure enough, with a thunderous roar and menacing eyes, the Teddy Cave Bear was heading right for them.
Angelica slid around the tree and...
Baghira:
grabbed the demagnifying glass. While she tried to get it off the silk thread, she looked up the tree and saw a huge caterpillar grinning down on her. "You better hurry", the caterpillar whispered, "otherwise ...
Trinity:
"Otherwise the teddy cave bear will find you running away and..."
"Gotta go," Angelica said tearing herself from the silk thread and running frantically into the forest ahead.
Already she could hear a faint tune in the forest...
"La...la..lala..la..la..laa lalala.........."
The smurfs! Angelica thought as she clutched the demagnifying glass tightly in her hand.
Soon she could see the top of the village, it........
cavebear:
was Blue! As she climbed further, she saw that the houses were Blue, too. The roofs themselves were Smurfy, though the doors and windows were oddly Smurfy. As different as the windows were from the roofs, the walls were different still; they were downright Smurfy.
Angelica stopped in surprise. "Well", she said, isn't that just...
Baghira:
the village of the blue Smurfs?"
While the children looked around, a stately looking smurf was approaching. He was very round and very blue, with a very long white beard and a little red cap. He had a long close look at the children, stared at the demagnifying glass clutched in Angelica's hands and asked in a menacing manner, "...
Freedom for supporters of the government only, for members of one party only - no matter how big its membership may be - is no freedom at all. Freedom is always freedom for the person who thinks differently. - Rosa Luxemburg |
Thalion
flint knapper
Username: Thalion
Post Number: 1578
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 22, 2005 - 12:11 pm: | |
Rosalind:
"Are you the one to save us from the Teddy Cave Bear and his evil consort, Gargamel?"
One of the kids snickered, "he looks like a plump little blueberry."
"Silence!" The smurf said angrily. He fixed the child with a baleful glance then pointed his odd shaped stick at him. Zap!
Angelica gasped as the child turned into...
cavebear:
...into a 6 inch long Blue cat. And it...
Baghira:
jumped right on Angelica's shoulder where it started to bump its head at hers and to purr loudly. Between purrs, it hissed violently at the Blue Smurf from the safety of its refuge.
The children stood stunned. Angelica closed her mouth, blinked a few times and tried to come to a decision. Her heart beat like mad and she was torn between her fear of being transformed herself into a blue cat and her anger towards the humorless Smurf. Finally she coughed, resolutely lifted the demagnifying glass and croaked, "...
cavebear:
"Orange, yellow, red, and green;
All the non-blue colors seen,
Make their spirits now show true;
Eliminate the color "blue"!
Through demagnifier round;
Through the air and o'er the ground,
Bring the villan close at hand;
Show him small in shades of tan.
From the other side shall he;
See that I shall larger be.
Glass of power, Glass of Might,
Save the force of Good this Night!
From the far edge of the Smurf village, a hazy form began to appear. In the mist, lightening crackled and a sense of power issued forth. Angelica was prepared as she would ever be. With the sound of a barrier being broken, a slight tan figure stepped forth...
walkhound:
There was a gasp from the crowd and then a sudden silence descended on the scene. Not a bird twittered, not leaf rustled. Everyone watched the figure approached and the air crackled with tension. Angelica realised her mouth was open again and shut it. She tore her eyes away for the village and looked at the smurfs. They were wide eyed with what loked like horror - but not one of them moved. It was as if they had tuned to stone. Angelica was tempted to prod one to see if they had, but dismissed the idea and turned round to see who the tan figure was. Suddenly the blue cat (which had ben digging it's claws into her shoulder) jumped off her with a loud yowl and ran up the path towards the village. It reached the figure, who stopped walking and bent over to stroke it... the cat delightledly purring and rubbing itself round the legs of the mystery figure, who stood up straight and smiled at Angelica. Angelica drew in her breath sharply as she suddely realised who it was! It was....
Baghira:
the Teddy Cave Bear's evil consort, the tanned princess Gargamel.
The smurfs let out a desperate wail and the bearded Smurf yelled "You traitors! We tought you were saving us from those evil things and you summon them to get back at us and..." but before the Smurf could finish his sentence the brightly grinning Gargamel raised a magic wand and the Smurf turned to stone. Then Gargamel grabbed the cat, cradeled it and ..
cavebear:
began to stroke it. Imperceptably at first, but then more obviously, the cat began to grow. And as it grew, it began to change shape. Catlike to start, it elongated and became somewhat reminicent of a snake. Then, some wings sprouted. Tiny, then noticable, and finally large... And while Angelica had been focussing on the wings, the entire cat had been growing larger, too.
"It's a rainbow dragon", she realized with some dismay. Though smallish, rainbow dragons were exceedingly awkward to get rid of (as Angelica recalled from her teacher's lectures).
Gargamel smiled; the rainbow dragon was a tricky bit of magic. To dispose of it, Angelica would have to use up...
Baghira:
half of the demagnifying glasses potential. Then it would be useless against her and her beloved Teddy Cave Bear.
"Here is a present for you, my child", she wheedled. "I am sure it will give you much joy."
After a pat on Angelica's head, Gargamel stared threateningly at the remaining Smurfs, hopped in the air and disappeared as suddenly as she had appeared.
Gingerly Angelica took the little rainbow dragon on her fist and looked it in the eyes. The rainbow colored whirl in those eyes was almost nauseating. "Now what do I do with you?", she whispered. Maybe it was best to make friends with it. It was, after all, one of the lost children, hidden deeply in the magical creatures center.
From what she recalled from her teacher's tales about those dragons, they were annoying and mischievous, but not really dangerous.
Who would have thought that they really existed anyway. She had always assumed that those tales were funny fairy tales.
Gently she started to stroke the fragile creatures scales when one of the Smurfs ...
walkhound:
..spoke. "I'll give you 3 wishes if you let me have that dragon!"
Angelica turned around stunned to hear this. Was the dragon so valuable? She looked at it sitting peacefully in her hand. Was the value of the dragon worth more than 3 wishes to her?
Maybe she could use one of the wishes up...
"Fine, let me have one wish and the dragon is yours." She winked at the dragon, whose eyes swirled even faster and brighter than before.
The smurf who spoke stepped forward, "What is your wish?"
Angelica replied, "That this dragon be returned to it's orignal form."
NOOOOO! thought the smurfs in unison.... Too late... there was a loud crack, a puff of smoke and a child was standing before them again. She? ran over to the rest of the children and they hugged her gleefully.
"YOU!" Shouted a smurf. "You will pay for such trickery!"
Angelica laughed and feeling rather smug wandered over to welcome the child back.
The smurfs all huddled together to plan their next move........
Freedom for supporters of the government only, for members of one party only - no matter how big its membership may be - is no freedom at all. Freedom is always freedom for the person who thinks differently. - Rosa Luxemburg |
Thalion
flint knapper
Username: Thalion
Post Number: 1579
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 22, 2005 - 12:15 pm: | |
cavebear:
The Smurfs were pleased with their strategy. They would encourage Angelica to use the other two wishes. Everyone knew that wishes generally did not work out as planned because humans were greedy.
If Angelica did not phrase her wishes very very carefully she would get in trouble. At the least, she would have to wish for small inconsequential things and use them up at no harm to themselves.
The Huddle Spokes-smurf approached Angelica and said...
bluemoon:
"and what is your next wish?"
Angelica did not answer them at first. then she replied....
walkhound:
I want each child to receive a special Easter Egg from the Easter Bunny......" and before she could continue there was a puff of smoke at the top of the hill followed by a bang a second or so later.
"Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhh," went the smurfs and "Oooooooohhhhh," went the children. As the smoke cleared there was the most amazing sight! Behind two golden shetland ponies was a carriage piled highed with colourfully wrapped Chocolate Eggs. Driving the carriage was a rather large white rabbit wearing a fetching red suit and black top hat.
The rabbit clucked to the ponies and they began to pull the carriage down the hill towards the crowd.
The smurf turned to Angleica and said....
cavebear:
"you have forgotten something about Smurfs". He grinned with satisfaction. "And what is your 3rd wish", he coaxed... To himself, he thought, "The Plan was going well!".
Baghira:
Angelica frowned. Something was wrong here. That Smurf was too eager to have her wishes fulfilled. If grown up people (the Smurf was grown up, although he was smaller than her, or was he?), well, if grown up people like her parents were too eagerly giving in to her wishes, they usually wanted to trick her to do something that she didn't really want to do, like going to bed early or eating her vegetables. That Smurf and the way he wheedled around her reminded her of that.
"So what did I forget?" she asked, "and please tell me, if you can grant me three wishes, why can't you wish the Giant Teddy Cave Bear and the evil princess Gargamel away?"
Silence set in. The chocolate smeared faces of all the children turned to the Smurf and ...
Baghira:
... even his fellow smurfs watched him full of curiosity.
"Oh, don't be so suspicious, smart little lady," the Smurf laughed. "You saw for yourself that the Bear and Gargamel are magical creatures. Our Smurf magic doesn't work too well with them. If we tried, we'd only anger them, and that would be dangerous, surely you understand that? Now tell me your third wish."
Angelica still wasn't too happy about that explanation. There was something in the smile of that Smurf that she didn't like. But if wish she must, she would.
"Alright then, here's my third wish..."
she hesitated. The tense silence had become so thick that even the birds had ceased to sing.
"I want the red juice of the Blue Smurfs", she finally yelled, and then all hell broke loose ...
cavebear:
Angelica stood stunned, but observant. From the Smurfs' reactions, it was as though she had asked for all the tea in China, all the gold in Fort Knox, and all the fishes in the sea.
She wasn't sure about the cause of the uproar, but she was certain that her clever guess had had the desired effect.
Papa Smurf stood before her, his face an admixture of slyness and fear... "What do you know of the red juice", he demanded crimsonly?
Angelica noted that his face was nearly violet, and that assured her that she had hit on an important secret. Still, she had to come up with an answer to his very direct question. How could she back up her intuitive guess with solid reasons?
Taking a deep breath, she said "I know about the red juice because...
Baghira:
.because it was hinted at in the prophesy. And now I want my wish granted".
With a loud wail, all Smurfs ...
cavebear:
moaned. "Prophecies" they cried as one. "How can we fight that? All our secrets are revealed!"
One Smurf pushed through the crowd. He was not one of the popular happy Smurfs, and they sometimes excluded him from their games and celebrations with the red-juice. But in a clear stentorian voice (part of why he was not popular at indoors celebrations) he demanded, "Tell us the details of the vision you had in this 'prophesy', or are you making this up?"
The crowd hushed suddenly. This demand intrigued them; perhaps the intruder knew less than she suggested. All eyes turned to Angelica...
cavebear:
"A few months ago", she began, "I fell asleep beneath an old tree, the biggest one in our woods. I woke up when I heard a loud noise above me. There were two dragons flying around and around and around, each trying to bite the other. Once, they even had ahold of each others' tails. The noise was terrible, but no one else was paying any attention.
One of the dragons was blue and the other one was red. Suddenly, the blue dragon grabbed the red one by the wings and flung it to the ground. The ground shook when it hit. The blue dragon landed beside it and said 'Evil one, trickster, betrayer; I have beaten you and you must serve me now'. The red dragon wept and bowed its head...
Blue dragon demanded that the other show him the source of his power. When red dragon had rested briefly, he breathed his flames on a spot on the ground. At first, nothing happened, but then a small plant started to grow. It grew very fast until it was a shrub taller than I am. Finally, red berries appeared on the shrub. 'This is the source of my power', it said finally. 'I squeeze the berries and let the red juice sit for two moons; then I drink it'.
The blue dragon smiled. 'I know that you speak the truth, for your thoughts have become clear to me now that I have bested you in battle. I shall use these berries for the children I shall create'."
Angelica continued, "I realized that I was watching a mighty struggle that had occurred long ago. Yet, when the red dragon was allowed to leave, the blue one looked straight at me (though I was hiding) and demanded that I come to the shrub. Afraid, but more afraid of disobeying such a mighty dragon, I came out and approached it. 'Remember this', it commanded, 'for a day will come when you must help my children in their hour of need, though they will not welcome your help'.
"And the dragon told me of its plans", she went on. "it told me to remember its color, and that I would be the only human to ever drink the red juice, and that I would know the time. Then, it shook itself, sending blue scales to the ground. The scales began to grow and change shape and I ran away."
"Then I fell asleep again. When I woke up, there were no dragons, no shrub with red berries, and no burnt marks on the ground. Until just now, I thought it was only a dream."
Angelica stood, hands on hips, and smiled to herself as the Smurfs gazed at each other. She had had the dream for real, but had invented the blue scales part hoping that the Smurfs did not know their origins and fearing to say too much.
Most of them were confused, but some few were wide-eyed. The one who had challenged her about the prophesy turned as pale blue as the glacial ice in the far North, and backed away in fear; he did not know whereof she spoke, but Angelica had seemed so certain in what she said.
The eldest few Smurfs solemnly approached her. "It is indeed a prophesy", one said. "It matches our ancient legends" said another. The third Smurf motioned the others to be silent. "This is not known to any except us three elders", he said quietly, "and not even all of it is known to us. Our oldest legends speak of a powerful creature who briefly watched over the first Smurfs, taught them of the red juice, and then vanished, never to be seen again. The creature was never described".
Hesitating slightly, unwilling to break the ancient restraint concerning the secret of the red juice, the eldest Smurf bowed his head and said, simply, "I accept your claim and grant your wish".
That said, several sturdy Smurfs were commanded to bring forth some of the red juice. "Drink", said the eldest.
Angelica drank. The juice was cool, refreshing, and potent. Shortly, she began to feel a strange sensation within her...
Freedom for supporters of the government only, for members of one party only - no matter how big its membership may be - is no freedom at all. Freedom is always freedom for the person who thinks differently. - Rosa Luxemburg |
Thalion
flint knapper
Username: Thalion
Post Number: 1580
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 22, 2005 - 12:18 pm: | |
Baghira:
her mind seemed to reach out of her body and then leave it behind entirely, giving her a view of herself, her surroundings and even things far away. At the same time a quiet confidence filled her, and she sent out a mental call, certain to be obeyed.
Children and Smurfs stood in dead silence, watching Angelica mesmerized, waiting for what they felt would come.
They did not have to wait long. A barely discernible quiver of the ground was soon followed by a dull thump and merged into earth shattering footsteps. Cracking branches indicated the approach of something very big, and the fascination of children and Smurfs turned to paralyzing fear when the giant shape of the Teddy Cave Bear emerged from the forest and approached.
The huge animal stared into Angelica's eyes like hypnotized and...
cavebear:
shudderred. "I have come as called, the Great Teddy Cave Bear slowly spoke..."
Angelica pointed her left index finger square between the Teddy's eyes and commanded distinctly "Take your proper shape!" To the surprise of all, the Teddy began to waver in appearance. Struggling, it reformed it's shape, lost it, regained it, and then finally lost it a last time.
Smurfs fled in every whichway, and even the Elders gave back several paces. Where the great Teddy Cave Bear had stood before was now a shifting shapeless mass of many hues and colors. At the first of several terrible screams and sounds of ancient hatred, even Angelica turned away briefly.
As the vision solidified into a new final shape, Angelica turned back towards it. Before her stood an immense red dragon! She sighed to herself, understanding at last that it was the only explanation for all the events, adventures, and visions she had experienced. How could she fight the red dragon, though? It understood the power of the red juice! But there was another, she realized. If she had wrought the transformation with the left, sinister, hand, than what of the right?
Angelica pointed her right index finger to the clearing near the Smurf camp, willing all her red-juice energy into that spot. As the red dragon was raising itself up to full height, a specter appeared where Angelica had pointed. The blue swirling shapes spoke to her mind before the form settled down. In her mind, Angelica sensed the love and gratefulness of the blue dragon, and it snapped into visibility with a crack of ozone and a shard of blue flame.
Blue dragon faced red dragon once again. Yet the blue dragon seemed lesser than it appeared in the fight in her prophesy! With powerful screams, the two flashed together
Baghira:
.. and clawed violently at each other, lashing out with their tails and wings. But Blue Dragon wasn't strong enough for Red Dragon and slowly lost ground.
Angelica, the children, and the Smurfs watched in horror how Blue Dragon became weaker and weaker, barely being able to shield himself from the violent onslaught of his opponent.
"We have to help him," the oldest Smurf yelled. "We are his children, he gave up part of his strength to create us. He will not survive without us"
But the Smurfs didn't know how to help. Whenever they tried to approach the dragons, an invisible barrier pushed them back.
Angelica sighed. "Let's try it all toghether,then," she suggested, "we all need to defeat the Red Dragon if we ever want to get home again."
She closed her eyes and reached out for the hands of the Smurfs standing beside her. Soon all Smurfs and children were forming a large circle, holding hands. Angelica felt how the strength from the red juice left her, but with a last effort, she ...
cavebear:
realized the Power was not being lost, but spread. What she felt flowing out of her was also being pickied up by the one she held hands with, and so to the next and the next. Yet, she retained some small portion of the Power still, as did each one in the circle, in turn!
"This must be what Multiplication is" she thought. Meanwhile, she watched the responses of all the Smurfs in the circle. Some reacted fastrer than others, and some brightenedd Bluer than others.
"Everyone of them is different, as I am different, and it all maters", she thought to herself, and she sent that thought down the circle of held hands.
When the change had gone through all the members of the circle, Angelica raised her hands aloft (carrying with them the hands of the next circle-member) and began a chant-like poem:
Red Dragon, Blue Dragon...
Blue Dragon, Red Dragon...
We call together,
Your fighting to cease.
Blue Dragon, Red Dragon...
Red Dragon, Blue Dragon...
We call you both,
Together for Peace!
The chant went on for some minutes, and slowly, the 3 elder Smurfs moved to quadrants in the circle relative to Angelica. When they were in place, they and she lifted their hands toward the fighting dragons and felt the force of the circle gather and release...
cavebear:
All around the circle, a glowing light began to spread. Around most of the Smurfs (and Angelica) the glow was blue. But around some of the Smurfs, the glow was red. This was a surprise to Angelica, but she understood then that some of the difficulties among the Smurfs were due to ancient troubles and divided loyalties.
As she directed the glowing energy-flow toward the sky (where the two dragons were fighting), she realized that a blending was taking place. Pointing to a spot in the sky where the red and blue dragons were streaking together for a final battle, she grasped that the flow of energy was changing color to adapt to all the various Smurf loyalties and emotions.
An electric purple bolt of power leapt upwards from the circle and struck the precise spot where the two dragons converged. In a rending shatter of power, the spot exploded, lightening crackles of energy and ancient emnities spread to the horizons.
In the midst of the circle, the two dragons lay merged and stunned. Angelica was the first to notice that they were both purple!
In a shimmerring fog, all in the circle saw the two dragons become one. After a time, the hybrid dragon awakened and looked around slowly. All in the circle drew back, frightened at the closeness to such danger and power. At last the new purple dragon aquired the power of speech.
"I am whole again,", it said, wonderingly. "I am as I once was, at the beginning of all time. The purple dragon turned to Angelica. "This is your doing", it thundered!
And it smiled. Smiled like the joy of a child seeing its first firefly, like a mother seeing a newborn babe, like a father proud of a child riding a bicycle alone... It smiled with a purer joy than any known under the stars of so many millennia.
"My children", it said, "you have returned me to that which I once was". In way of explanation, it pointed one irridecent claw to the left and there upsprung a wonderful red-berried bush with fragrant blue flowers. Pointing the other limb, a wondrous blue-leaved shrub came into existence with the most beutiful red flowers that had ever been in the history of the world!
"Do you underastand, my children", the dragon asked? "The blue needs the red, and the red needs the blue. Color cannot and must not separate you, for neither can thrive without the other."
Angelica stepped forth. "I hear your message", she said quietly, but I do not know if I can teach it well.
The purple dragon smiled again, and reached out a claw to Angelica's head. "I make no change in you" it said, "for you have no need of change. You have learned what you were needing to learn, and nothing I can now do can expand or diminish your learning. Be yourself, be kind to all, and return to your home".
Angelica turned to the Smurfs, many of whom were now also talking to the dragon. Then she looked to the hill over which she had first seen the Smurf village. "If this were a dream:, she thought to herself, "I would just wake up now".
Trudging back the way she came, it occured to her that perhaps a dream of a *really important thing* might not end very abruptly, and that it might end quite gradually. "perhaps I will not even notice the difference. If this *is* a dream: she added.
The last thing she recalled, as she fell asleep under a shady tree by a sweetly babbling brook, was that she held in her hand one red berry and one very blue leaf....
Fini.
Freedom for supporters of the government only, for members of one party only - no matter how big its membership may be - is no freedom at all. Freedom is always freedom for the person who thinks differently. - Rosa Luxemburg |
|
Creativity Cave