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The Mystery of the
Spectacular Ending to the Story of the World
The Ahala believe that before the earth was
created, all of the gods gathered around the great campfire
for a feast, and Agwan, the god of contests, suggested that
they celebrate the plentiful feast with a storytelling
competition. Agwan began, and each god in the circle of
gods took a turn telling an astonishing and infinitely
complex tale, far beyond human comprehension. When all of
the stories were told, a heated discussion arose which
lasted perhaps thousands of years in human time, but which
was of course very brief in the life of a god. Finally, and
by the narrowest of margins, it was resolved that the story
of the goddess Ma’hal, the silver-tongued goddess of words,
was the most interesting, particularly because of its
spectacular ending. Thus it is that Ma’hal’s story became
the story of the earth, of all that has happened since the
beginning and all that is to come, including the spectacular
ending that is far more interesting and exciting than
anything humans could ever imagine.
There was one god who refused to accept the
results. La’nat, the goddess of mystification, had come in
a close second. Her story, she claimed, was more
spectacular in every respect but the ending, and she could
have invented a more spectacular ending, but that would only
have detracted from the mysterious spectacle of the rest of
the story. The other gods laughed at La’nat, refusing to
hear her out. Unappreciated and angry, La’nat vowed to
disrupt the story of Ma’hal in every way possible.
This is why, say the Ahala, things don’t
always go as planned, and why people sometimes get confused,
and why people sometimes say one thing and do another.
La’nat is at work. An exasperated Ahala will tell you, when
you don’t understand what he has asked you to do, “You’ve
been kissed by La’nat!” And then he’ll knock on your skull.
Despite the steady stream of curses hurled at
La’nat, the Ahala are secretly thankful for her. They know
that were it not for La’nat, they’d have no will of their
own and would speak and act only to play out the
prize-winning story already told by Ma’hal. Of course, the
important features of Ma’hal’s plot are too sound to be
corrupted; it’s on the smaller details and the lesser events
that La’nat works her mischief, so that the minor characters
in the story take on lives of their own, and many of the
day’s decisions fall into the hands of humans, who are fair
enough storytellers but lack the sweeping vision and the
good judgment of the gods and so are likely to foul things
up--only in small ways, but enough to bring a wry smile to
La’nat’s lips.
To honor the gods, the Ahala recreate their
competition with storytelling competitions of their own at
the village’s weekly campfire. A good story there doesn’t
make you a god, but it can win you a new and colorful set of
evening wear. Then you’ll be the toast of the village for
many days, with many people admiring your new clothes and
praising your storytelling abilities.
Occasionally, an Ahala will tell a story out
of revenge. If a man feels he has been wronged by another,
he may invent a story that makes fun of the other. Then,
when the story is told around the evening fire, the offender
will be forced to buy the story so it is not told again.
For this reason, too, the best storytellers are also the
best treated. You wouldn’t want to offend someone whose
revenge story might be so compelling that others would want
to hear it again and again; the price will rise accordingly
and you’ll end up paying dearly for your transgression.
What is the spectacular ending to Ma’hal’s
story? This is a favorite speculation of the Ahala, even
though they know it is beyond their wildest imaginations.
Some say the entire world will crumble apart and float up
like sparks from the gods’ campfire. Others say that when
the gods grow tired they will simply stomp out the story and
go to bed, which is a spectacular enough ending for weary
gods. Some say Ma’hal’s story is really a revenge story
against La’nat, and this explains La’nat’s anger and her
desire to steal the story away from Ma’hal. But Ma’hal, in
her wisdom, has accounted for that: knowing that La’nat
really is the better creator of spectacular endings, Ma’hal
has a plan. She will allow La’nat to disrupt the story so
thoroughly that she finally rests control of it and smashes
it to bits in some wild, mysterious fashion, thus ensuring
the spectacular and in that case rather ironic nature of the
world’s end.
Such a story, so full of intrigue and high
drama, say the Ahala, would certainly want to be heard again
and again.
They hope the gods agree.
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