Rellik42
Registered user
Global user
Registered: 09-2007
Posts: 14
Karma: 0 (+0/-0)
|
|
Reply | Quote
|
|
 The queen of the frogs
Have you ever been beside a lake in Holodeck at night and listened to the frogs? you haven't? Then you cannot imagine what the noise is like. And it's not just one kind of noise, it's several. Over there for instance are a thousand creaking doors that have never had their hinges oiled and someone opens and ****s them-and keeps on doing just that. Over there are a thousand fat men snoring and no one wakes them up. Then there are a thousand carpenters sawing planks and all the saws want a touch of grease, and a thousand little bells are being struck and a thousand corks are being pulled out of bottles.
Noise! You can hardly hear yourself think.
Then you go a little closer until you can just see the edge of the water and perhaps a reed or two and there in the MUD is silence. Just the splash of a frog jumping into the water late because he was asleep and didn't hear you coming. Then nothing, and you can hear the whole server hum and lag.
There's a story about this.
Long ago the frogs did as they pleased and the result was dreadful. Not one of them would listen to what another said and they all shouted at once. Children wouldn't obey their parents and even wives wouldn't listen to their husbands, which is, indeed, something hardly to be understood. It was all noisy and untidy beyond bearing and nothing ever got done.
At last a wise, wise old frog called everyone to a meting and, since he had a very fine voice and went on shouting for long enough, he managed to get them all there at once, for to tell you the truth they were pretty sick of living the way they did.
"Frogs!" said the old frog, puffing himself up. "We cannot go on like this. It's no sort of life for anyone and, anyway, when you see how all the other creatures live it makes one ashamed of being a frog. There is only one thing to do. We must get a queen. When people have queens there is peace and order and everyone does as he is told."
"Agreed!" they all shouted and they stayed long enough to commission the old frog to see what he could about getting them one, before everybody fell into quarreling and pushing and splashing and the meeting broke up in disorder. As usual.
Then the wise, wise old frog went to see the Great God Manwe (you will say Man and We. Manwe happened to be in charge of that part of the world.
He is a very slow god and usually gives people more than they bargained for. He agreed drowsily that the frogs needed a queen and promised to do something about it. Then he went to sleep again.
So the frogs went on as usual, which was badly, until one day Manwe woke up, remembered his promise, took a great green mossy boulder which had the rough shape of a gigantic frog and threw it into the water. SPLASH!
"There you are!" he shouted (it sounded like thunder). "There's your queen, her name is Rellik and like me she doesn't want to be disturbed. Respect her and be satisfied."
The whole lake was shaking by Rellik's fall. The waves washed through the reeds and tore up the shore, and in the middle of a great cloud of MUD Relik settled on the bottom and the fat green waterweeds curled round her and over her. She looked shocking.
The frogs were terrified and fled under stones and into dark corners and holes under the bank. Their long white legs streaked behind them as they swam. Parents found their children and husbands their wives and then settled down to explaining what had happened.
"This is our queen," they said, "and a fine terrible one she seems, and from the splash she made not the sort to fool about with. Now all will be well and the scandalous behavior will stop."
And so it did, for a while.
But although Rellik had made such a wonderful first impression, as time passed they noticed that she never moved. She just sat quietly in the MUD and stared in the same direction. Presently they began to get used to her until finally some young, bold, bad frogs ventured to get close to her and then one of them touched her nose.
And still Rellik said and did nothing.
"Bah! She's not a queen!" they shouted. "She's not even a frog. She's just an old stone and couldn't hurt anyone." And they just swam around her until they were dizzy and jumped all over her back and went away and spoke rudely about her to their elders.
At first none of the elders believed them. They had told their children Rellik was a queen and a queen she had to be, but soon it was impossible to deny that the children were right and then... Well, the noise began again and things were as they always had been only worse. Terrible!
The wise, wise old frog sighed and sent out to see Manwe again, who was not at all pleased of being woken a second time.
"Alright!" he shouted in a passion. "Alright! You aren't satisfied with the queen I've given you. Is that the way it is? Very well, you shall have another and I hope you like him."
And the very next night he gave them Teseron the crocodile.
Rellik had come to her people with a splash that shook the lake but Teseron slid into the water with only a whisper and left but one small ring spreading gently to show that he had come. Then he swam, silent as a shadow, lithe and long and secret, his jaws grinning like a trap. Rellik had never visited the people that she had been given to rule but Teseron visited them often and suddenly, and whenever he met a subject the great jaws gaped and closed and often it was the last of that frog.
The frogs developed the greatest respect for their new king and lived quietly, looking over the backs of their heads as frogs can. Now and again they break out but they keep their ears open and if you go near the lake they shut up.
They think that it's Teseron coming to put a little order into them and they keep quiet.
|
|
4/9/2009, 1:20 pm
|
Send Email to Rellik42
Send PM to Rellik42
|
Teseron
Registered user
Global user
Registered: 04-2009
Posts: 22
Karma: 0 (+0/-0)
|
|
Reply | Quote
|
|
Re: The queen of the frogs
Being able to swim undetected beneath the feet of frogs is both beautiful and empowering. And there is a subtle beauty to baiting. Sitting motionless for a length of time, with the mouth open wide waiting for the prey to come to to the teeth, instead of bringing the maw of doom to the victim.
Crocodiles are one of the oldest creatures ever to roam our planet. With wisdom of age, experience of the hunt and patience of their time they can prove to be most deadly when they appear most helpless.
|
|
4/9/2009, 1:49 pm
|
Send Email to Teseron
Send PM to Teseron
|