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axcho — Wild Things Mythic Remix
Published: 2009-11-29 05:02:44 +0000 UTC; Views: 1221; Favourites: 1; Downloads: 27
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Description
A Mythic Retelling of Where the Wild Things Arewith references to Ishmael, Genesis, and various Haida myths
Hereabouts was all barren land, they say.
They were roaming all around, the couple was,
looking for water that they could drink.
After a time, toward the east, there was a river flowing.
They planted a garden there, they say.
Out of the ground they made to grow every tree
and every plant that the birds or insects could have for food.
Now leaves and wings waved in the wind and caught the sun,
no longer dust from the bare ground.
Every living creature came and thrived there, they say.
Then, they had a child.
His name was Max.
He liked to play in the garden.
When his parents were working there,
they showed him where he could go
and what he could do
while they were gone away.
When he played there on his own,
a snack would be waiting for him
if he wanted to eat.
They made it just for him.
One day, when he was playing with some seeds he had found,
something flashed on the tall flowers above him.
A butterfly lifted off there, they say.
It flickered across the leaves.
The boy jumped up to follow, they say.
He ran after the butterfly,
but it flapped away again
whenever he came close.
His eyes saw only the thing he was chasing.
He ran without looking where he was going
until he tripped on a rock that stuck out.
When he looked up again, the creature was gone.
Now he looked around to see where he was.
Behind him was a trail of crushed and broken plants
stretching back as far as he could see.
He had trampled part of the garden.
Then he began to run back the way he came.
When he came near the house,
he heard his mother's voice
calling him in for dinner.
He looked around for a place to hide.
But he was too late.
His mother saw him.
Her eyes were yellow.
Later, the boy sat in his room.
The door was closed.
The lights were off.
He had not eaten, they say.
He looked out at the moon.
Below him, something glittered.
An ocean filled his room, they say.
It rolled in under his bed.
Max stood on the deck of his boat.
As his hand touched the mast, a wind filled the sail
and the moon moved over the face of the waters.
After a time, morning came.
There was nothing to be seen but the edge of the sky all around.
Still, the wind blew,
and the boy sailed through the day
and through the night, they say.
Then one day something dark appeared in the water.
It grew larger as he approached,
until on all sides the boat was surrounded
by a long shadow beneath the waves.
A yellow eye opened up there
and Max stared down from his boat
until the shadow wavered and slipped out of view.
He had traveled for one year, they say.
Soon he saw something stretching along the edge of the sea.
It was land.
The moon was with him when he reached the shore.
It glistened on the sand that rolled in under his boat.
Max stepped down, onto the sand.
He walked up the beach to where a jungle waited.
There in the shadows, five pairs of eyes blinked open.
They were round and yellow and huge,
swiveling toward the boy from under the trees.
Coming into the light now were grinning sharp teeth
and the shining curve of claws and horns.
Five massive heads took form above him.
Five bulky bodies separated from the shadows.
Then, the five things began to roar, they say.
They rolled their eyes and gnashed their teeth.
But Max glared back into their eyes
until they cowered on the ground before him.
He became their king then, they say.
Now he was hungry, their king was.
He lead them further into the jungle,
where five other things were about to have a meal.
Sneaking up behind, they killed them all,
and took their food and ate it.
Then their king grew tired.
Not too far from there was a stand of big trees.
In the branches, things with claws were sleeping.
Up in there, the five of them went,
and killed them while they slept.
The next day, he sent out two to look for food.
They returned a while later with some they had stolen.
After they ate, he sent out two others.
When they returned, the day was ending.
The moon started to appear through the trees.
As long as they continued to obey his command,
the moon would always be with them, he told them.
It had brought him here.
It was king of all things.
Now, they all roared for the glory of the moon,
and leapt, and danced,
and gazed into its shining face.
Eyes and claws and horns flashed silver in its light.
After a time, food became harder to find.
Max went with the five things to the edge of his territory.
There he found several things without a king.
He made them join his five, or be killed.
When they returned, there were ten.
They had killed all those that resisted.
Many others still were spared to find food for the rest.
It had been a year since Max became king.
In the following year, he lead his army
with a silver crown on his head.
It was time to collect food from the outside things.
Those that refused were killed.
Their trees were knocked down while they slept.
Another year passed,
and the things on the edges began to band together.
They all had their own kings,
but each claimed the moon was theirs alone.
Now Max had a bigger army than ever before,
but he was resisted all around.
Things fought constantly for control.
Felled trees littered the jungle.
He went on living as their king.
That was the only life he lived in all that while.
He did not remember the time when he was just a boy
playing in the garden of his parents.
After a time, Max began to dislike his entire kingdom.
He was lonely, they say.
He was tired of fighting at every moment.
The food never seemed to fill him up.
Then, from the edge of his kingdom,
a strange sort of food was brought to him.
The smell of it reminded him of something.
He decided to leave then, they say.
The next morning, he set off.
He traveled in the direction of the water,
to find the boat he had left there.
Soon the things close to him found their king missing.
They saw him going toward the water.
Now they went to catch him,
to put him onto the moon.
Then he would never leave them.
Now their king heard the crashing behind him.
He started running then.
As they came closer, one made a grab for him.
It knocked off his silver crown
but out from under it he slipped away.
Now, there was sand under his feet.
The water was there before him.
Along the beach he ran,
until there was his old boat.
He pushed off quickly then.
Five big, heavy creatures spilled out on the sand.
They roared and showed their claws,
but their king had already left them, they say.
He sailed on the ocean then.
When the land he once ruled
had faded from view,
there was only the sea and the sky,
and the passing of days and nights.
One morning, he woke up
and found himself on something soft.
He was back in his bed,
one day after he had left.
When he came down to the kitchen,
he found breakfast waiting for him.
It was cold.
But it was the most delicious thing he had eaten.
As he ate, the boy watched his parents.
They were outside in the garden.
He saw them clipping and clearing and replanting
to repair the damage he had done.
After he had become full,
he saw his father was looking for a hand shovel.
Max hurried to find it first.
He brought it to his father.
He looked at his child for a while then.
After a time, he took the boy in a hug.
He brought him to his mother as well.
Then, they let him help.
As time passed, he grew to understand more.
Sometimes he would work alongside his parents,
and sometimes he would play there, in the garden.
So it ends.
