Duenicallo
and Vungtraf
A
Yahgahn Fable
A long time ago, when the world was still
young, there was a Duenicallo napping in the sunlight one day after having
eaten something he had hunted down. He was contented.
But soon he heard a loud noise behind him,
and it startled him. He went to go seek out what was the matter, being curious.
Looking, he saw that it was a vungtraf that was eating bugs on a log.
“What was that big noise?” asked the
Duenicallo.
Startled, Vungtraf replied, “You startled
me. The noise was the log falling down because I wanted to get the bugs in it.”
The Duenicallo smiled, and said, “Then you
are not affected by insanity, eh? Then it would be all right for me to eat
you.”
Hearing this, Vungtraf started twitching,
then the twitching became spasms and jerks; finally, Vungtraf was bouncing
around shaking his head and generally acting crazy.
Duenicallo laughed. “You cannot fool me,
Vungtraf. The Voong brain fungus does not work that fast. You are good to eat.”
With this, Vungtraf stopped and resumed
acting normal. He looked at Duenicallo, and seeing Duenicallo’s sagging belly,
said, “Your belly is full. You have already eaten. To kill me now when you do
not need to would be wasteful and very bad. It would be no different from
murder.”
Duenicallo just smiled and said, “I care
not. I am a predator. Hunting is fun, but killing is better.”
Vungtraf’s eyes went wide with shock, and,
scared, he took off running in the other direction. Duenicallo chased him.
Though Vungtraf ran fast, it was hopeless against such a large and fast
predator, for they were too close. It did not take long for Duenicallo to catch
and kill him.
After dragging the body to the area just
outside her den, Duenicallo played with the body for a while; when she grew
bored of that game, she tossed the body into a pile of vegetation.
Many weeks later, Duenicallo was hunting
with a note of desperation in her mind, for game had been hard to find of late.
When she had killed Vungtraf, there had been much game to find, so that she had
only gone hungry a few times in her life. But now, Duenicallo was finding that
there was no game to be found on her territory. So, having not eaten in weeks,
Duenicallo took the risk of going onto another’s territory to hunt, which is
very dangerous indeed.
She was having no luck on the other’s
territory either. Maybe many Duenicallo were having problems? She did not know,
but suspected it, which added to her surprise when she saw the Duenicallo that
had the territory she was hunting on. He had a full belly.
“YOU! You are hunting on my territory!” he
said gruffly.
“I am sorry, but there has been no game on
my territory for several weeks, and I am starving.”
The other looked surprised that anyone
should starve. “Well, there is plenty of game on my territory. Maybe we can
hunt together. I hate to see anyone starve needlessly, and I cannot think of
why there would be no game on your territory, but come… let us hunt together.”
“If you think it will help. I have hunted
on your territory for several hours and have found nothing, not even so much as
a Uuijin.”
Now the other Duenicallo looked really
perplexed. “Maybe… maybe you are not a good hunter?”
“I AM AN EXCELLENT HUNTER! I never starved
or went hungry before this! This situation did not start until I killed that
Vungtraf a few weeks ago.”
“Oh?”
“Yes. I had just eaten, and found a
perfectly healthy Vungtraf who was reasoning quite well, and hunted him down
and killed him.”
“Did you eat him?”
“No. I played with the body and then threw
it away when I got bored.”
The other Duenicallo backed up away from
her. “I want not your bad karma. You have done a wrong and your soul is
punishing you for it. Please get off of my territory until your karma is
repaid.”
Duenicallo looked shocked. She did not move
from her spot, but stared at the other.
“NOW!” he shouted. This scared her into
running away, back to her own territory.
It was dark when she got back to her
favorite clearing in the forest. She ran to the top of the large hill on the
clearing and stood there, looking into the sky at the stars. She called out to
the Deities, asking them what was wrong and how to ‘repay her karma’ as the
other Duenicallo had said.
Soon, she began to see the outline of
Vungtraf in the stars. She shook her head, thinking she was seeing things that
weren’t there. Yet when she looked again, there he was, plain as day, in the
night sky. He even moved. Startled, she jumped back two steps.
“Duenicallo, you ask for answers. It is a
simple answer. Souls work together to make this universe, and they have decided
that in order to fully experience and appreciate their knowledge, souls must
experience things through us. They have also decided to have a system of
actions causing consequences, called karma. Your soul did a bad thing and
decided that the karma of it should be repaid in this lifetime. You are
suffering needlessly, just as you caused me to suffer needlessly. Our souls
decided on this situation that got us here.”
“But why?” Duenicallo asked, sounding
confused.
“Because our souls wanted this experience.
Our souls are connected to us; we just don’t remember the connection. The
ultimate goal is for mind, body, and soul to fully remember their connections
to each other. All experiences we have are part of our path; the path we choose
that will lead us to this goal. Everyone’s path is different, but the goal is
the same.”
Duenicallo thought about this for a while,
then spoke hesitantly, “I… I’m sorry for what I did, Vungtraf. I know now that
it was a very, very bad thing I did. I… I have learned my lesson.” She bowed
her head.
Vungtraf smiled. “Then we have both
benefited from this exchange. I had the benefit of this experience, and now I
get to go on to another life to get more, different experiences. And you are
now wiser, as a result of this karmic exchange. Your karmic debt to me is now
lifted. Live a good life, my friend.”
And he disappeared, gone back to the Other
Side. Duenicallo smiled, said a blessing to Vungtraf, and loped off of the
hill. She searched for a while in the vegetation pile, and soon found what she
was looking for. She took Vungtraf’s bones to the head of her hill, buried them
there, and placed a large stone there.
“May your body return to the earth, my
friend; and may you be forever blessed on your journey.”