Short Story: Efram's Child

    "How is it you came to be here," Airity asked.
    "Oh, I've been many places.  The places just sort of ... happen.  I take them in, learn from them, and the place just moves on," Efram replied.
    "Don't you mean that you move on?"
    "No," said Efram, "I don't recall ever moving myself."
    Airity looked puzzled, but decided not to ponder this particular one of Efram's mysteries for the moment.
    "Can you tell me about another place?"
    Efram looked at the girl thoughtfully and said "I think I should tell you about Fellen."

    "Fellen was a place in a valley full of life.  Trees, animals, flowers, and every manner of thing lived there in balance.  Harmony came and went from time to time, but balance was always maintained."
    "Isn't harmony a kind of balance," Airity asked.
    "Harmony is the result of balance -- the effect.  It is not a cause of balance however.  Trying to achieve harmony without balance is like trying to catch a breeze in a teacup.  Trying would make you look foolish, and even if you succeeded, you'd have nothing in your cup for proof!"  Efram laughed at his own little joke.  Airity filed this away for future pondering.
    "In any case," Efram continued, "life there existed always in balance... until a great warrior came to pass through.  So taken with the beauty and splendor of the area, he decided to retire and make his home there.  He dismounted from his horse and scouted out a site for his future home.  He ordered his two squires to help him clear the chosen site of trees and brush and to level the ground for the house's foundation.  As the men gathered their tools and began to hack at the trees, they were suddenly beset by a mass of creatures.  Birds descended from the treetops, monkeys threw down fruits and dung from the branches, and insects swarmed from all sides.  The men were forced to throw down their tools a scatter to the winds for shelter and escape."
    "That's awful!" Airity exclaimed.
    "The warrior agreed.  He and his men returned with a vengeance. They wrapped themselves in thick linens, covered their faces in gauze, and returned to continue their work.  After winning countless battles throughout his life, the warrior was determined not to lose his honor to simple forest creatures.  But they were shocked to find that termites had eaten the handles to their axes, and their swords and daggers were hung high in the trees, stolen by the monkeys.  Utterly defeated, the warrior yelled and raged at the animals.  He shook the trees with his hands and tried with all his strength to knock down the brush with his fists and feet.  After exhausting himself, he collapsed to the ground and sat leaning against the tree.  As he sat, his breast heaving, he heard laughing from nearby.  Looking around, the warrior noticed that in the trees sat several monks who were, at this very moment, laughing at him."
    "'What are you laughing at?' he shouted at them."
    "'You, of course' they replied.  'You struggle and fight against that which is clearly stronger than you, you get angry at yourself for not defeating your enemy, then when you can fight no more, you take comfort against the very trees you seek to fell.  Do you not see your own folly?'"
    "The warrior sat, stunned, and had his epiphany.  His whole life had been spent in struggle -- often in struggles not of his own making -- and now, when he was ready to retire from that life, he still sought to fight against nature itself for the sake of his own comfort and without a care for those he would hurt.  The warrior dismissed his servants and joined the monks in the trees, enlightened."
    Airity grinned at the happy ending, but asked "So where were you in all this?"
    "I was here.  Just as I always have been."
    Airity looked puzzled again.
    "You will understand one day, my daughter.  Until then, continue to watch."
    With that, Efram left Airity's room and turned off the lights.  Airity looked at the ball in the corner, now dark and covered in pinholes.  The remaining light in Airity's room seeped in, and she rose quietly and crossed the room to it.  She peeked through one of the pinholes and with the eyes of a god, looked down into the world once more.