Post by Kiet on Feb 27, 2007 16:54:47 GMT -5
"Long long ago, my sweet child, there were many animals that roamed the jungles and mountains which no longer live today. Some, like the Ngregir Deer, were so fierce among themselves that there came a day when all their kind lay bloody and broken, and there the lines did end. Others, like the Jade Cat, were so very fascinated by the world that they stepped so far into the depth of mystery and lost sight of one another, and thus died without passing on their spark of life to young. But one animal, my sweet child, was eradicated in a stranger way still. This animal was called the Kongzi.
The Kongzi were a strange animal, kin of the chattering money, who kept entirely to themselves. They loathed all other creatures, for the mighty dragons had gifted the elephant with great teeth and the deer with long horns and the tiger with sharp claws, but had somehow forgotten to give the Kongzi any physical might. During the time of Great Peace, there was little need for such things, but still they resented their neighbours and kin, and prayed to the gods to grant them a boon with which to defend themselves.
Knowing this, my sweet child, Huang-Jin swept through the fields and jungles where the Kongzi lived, but disguised himself as a gentle mist to listen to their woes. “O great and venerable Kiet! Wise and giving Huang-Jin! Gracious and loving Qi! Noble and fearsome Khalil! Prudent and insightful Bao-Wei! Grant us that gift which would make us even, so that we are not weaker than the rest!” Now, thinking himself very just and clever, my sweet child, the sweeping red and gold dragon took it upon himself to give to the Kongzi a gift which no talon or fang could match: he gave to each of these creatures cleverness, understanding, and just a little bit of magic. Satisfied that he had done a good thing, Huang-Jin flew back to the sky.
But for all this gift had given them, the Kongzi were not aware that they had been blessed, and continued to lament their position. Angry at being neglected they became hostile towards the tiger, the wolf, the monkey, the bear, and all the kin of such animals. The Kongzi were so filled with a hatred and a sadness and so convinced were they that they alone had no divine guidance that they killed any others that came into their paths.
My sweet child, they possessed knowledge that only the gods should have, but only the motivation to use it for evil. The Kongzi became a twisted animal, cutting the tails and horns of other animals to wear upon itself in mockery of the gifts they had failed to receive, and with magics we do not speak of ripped forth the tree and the stone from the earth and built a strange, unnatural den. Taller and taller they built it, and like the termite’s home as it stretches upward, the Kongzi den stretched towards the sky where the dragon gods flew.
“Dragons!” Cried the Kongzi, standing nearly among the clouds and stars and crying and braying in the twisted way that the sorely dejected do, “Dragons, we spite you now, and will strive to kill your creations and make new ones of our own! You who would ignore our pleas, though we beg for your mercy long after the seasons come and pass, and the response we get is naught but Khalil’s treacherous weather beating our thin hides in reply. O Gods, we say now that you are wicked, and we the Kongzi will strike you down and replace you!”
And with this the five were summoned, and fearsome were their faces, my sweet child. Their bellies filled with thunder and their eyes with lightning, and Huang-Jin was first to speak. “Your ignorance of your own blessings,” he hissed, with a voice more piercing than the most blinding beam of sunlight and his enraged countenance more terrible than the Thousand-Fanged Fish of the Deepest Waters, “will be your downfall!”
With great rage in them the dragons struck the den of the Kongzi from the sky, and under the falling stone and tree were the Kongzi crushed. This is why, my sweet child, the dragons no longer give gifts to everyone who asks, and why they keep that wisdom which only a god should have hidden from all the creatures who walk and swim and fly below them."
The Kongzi were a strange animal, kin of the chattering money, who kept entirely to themselves. They loathed all other creatures, for the mighty dragons had gifted the elephant with great teeth and the deer with long horns and the tiger with sharp claws, but had somehow forgotten to give the Kongzi any physical might. During the time of Great Peace, there was little need for such things, but still they resented their neighbours and kin, and prayed to the gods to grant them a boon with which to defend themselves.
Knowing this, my sweet child, Huang-Jin swept through the fields and jungles where the Kongzi lived, but disguised himself as a gentle mist to listen to their woes. “O great and venerable Kiet! Wise and giving Huang-Jin! Gracious and loving Qi! Noble and fearsome Khalil! Prudent and insightful Bao-Wei! Grant us that gift which would make us even, so that we are not weaker than the rest!” Now, thinking himself very just and clever, my sweet child, the sweeping red and gold dragon took it upon himself to give to the Kongzi a gift which no talon or fang could match: he gave to each of these creatures cleverness, understanding, and just a little bit of magic. Satisfied that he had done a good thing, Huang-Jin flew back to the sky.
But for all this gift had given them, the Kongzi were not aware that they had been blessed, and continued to lament their position. Angry at being neglected they became hostile towards the tiger, the wolf, the monkey, the bear, and all the kin of such animals. The Kongzi were so filled with a hatred and a sadness and so convinced were they that they alone had no divine guidance that they killed any others that came into their paths.
My sweet child, they possessed knowledge that only the gods should have, but only the motivation to use it for evil. The Kongzi became a twisted animal, cutting the tails and horns of other animals to wear upon itself in mockery of the gifts they had failed to receive, and with magics we do not speak of ripped forth the tree and the stone from the earth and built a strange, unnatural den. Taller and taller they built it, and like the termite’s home as it stretches upward, the Kongzi den stretched towards the sky where the dragon gods flew.
“Dragons!” Cried the Kongzi, standing nearly among the clouds and stars and crying and braying in the twisted way that the sorely dejected do, “Dragons, we spite you now, and will strive to kill your creations and make new ones of our own! You who would ignore our pleas, though we beg for your mercy long after the seasons come and pass, and the response we get is naught but Khalil’s treacherous weather beating our thin hides in reply. O Gods, we say now that you are wicked, and we the Kongzi will strike you down and replace you!”
And with this the five were summoned, and fearsome were their faces, my sweet child. Their bellies filled with thunder and their eyes with lightning, and Huang-Jin was first to speak. “Your ignorance of your own blessings,” he hissed, with a voice more piercing than the most blinding beam of sunlight and his enraged countenance more terrible than the Thousand-Fanged Fish of the Deepest Waters, “will be your downfall!”
With great rage in them the dragons struck the den of the Kongzi from the sky, and under the falling stone and tree were the Kongzi crushed. This is why, my sweet child, the dragons no longer give gifts to everyone who asks, and why they keep that wisdom which only a god should have hidden from all the creatures who walk and swim and fly below them."