He was a small man, almost childlike with his round face.
We loved to follow him around, not getting very close.
There were always birds near him - small little birds around him - which most didn’t notice as strange, and many didn’t notice at all.
But we did, especially for how thin the air was up there.
These little birds, always surrounding him, and sometimes a rabbit. And always the same one.
He lived up higher then the others.
We loved to sneak up and see what he was doing, although no one could make sense of him.
Moving things around, he would come down, break a stick, pull a flower, take some water, and go back up.
The older people told us to stay away from him, but no one knew why.
“They should stay away” we often heard, even though it was commonly known that he was good luck for us all.
So much so, that many people carried food up and left it for him.
And yet, they were also afraid of him.
It came one day that a woman was passing by his spot.
She stopped and asked him for some water.
We saw this because it was allowed to be shown.
He got a cup and brought it to her.
She drank it and asked for some more.
He took the cup, he went back, filled it up, brought it to her.
She drank it and asked for more.
He took the cup, filled it up, brought it back to her.
She drank it, and again, asked for more.
And this went on and on and on.
We were watching from a distance, but close enough to see, even before he did - at least so we thought - that she was starting to swell up.
He didn’t say a word; he just kept going back and forth.
Getting the cup, filling it up, bringing it back and giving it to her.
Eventually she started to swell to the point that there was no way he couldn’t have noticed.
And yet, he said nothing.
He just kept trotting back and forth, the same path, bringing cup after cup of water.
She began to become grotesquely swollen, and her face began to change.
Her voice deepened and became repugnant and abusive.
At first she just had a mean tone with him, but soon she started to speak unkindly.
He kept smiling his round smile, grabbing the cup, taking it away, filling it up and bringing it back, the little birds chirping at his side.
He didn’t even seem to notice the beast being born out of this woman; she grew larger and larger.
Eventually, she started throwing the cup at him and shouting,
“MORE WATER, YOU STUPID LITTLE MAN!”
And with his round smile he brought it to her.
Now, eventually, the birds began to become disturbed.
And when he was off with the cup, one time, they gathered together and made a plan.
And the next time he made his journey back with the empty cup to where the water came from, they snuck around behind her.
She was picking at her teeth and didn’t notice them, or didn’t care.
She was drunk, now, on all of this.
And as he brought back the cup, this final time, and handed it up to her, six of the birds came out from behind and stuck their little beaks deep into her skin.
One in each hand,
one in each ankle,
one in her neck,
and one in her back.
The second they did, small leaks formed, and the fluid began coming out.
A trickle at first, and then stronger, pushing the birds out of the way, as this huge beast deflated.
As soon as she became aware, her anger boiled, far beyond anything her rude manner had suggested.
She began shouting,
“WHAT’S HAPPENING? WHO’S DONE THIS?!?”
She turned and saw the six birds, and with a flash in her eye, incinerated them, leaving small scars on the ground.
Then she turned to the man and bellowed so fiercely,
her fiery breath burning his body,
charring it down to the bone in an instant.
All but the hand that held the cup. It fell against the rock,
smoldering.
She reached down and grabbed the cup and threw it away, but she couldn’t stop the wounds from leaking.
Her bellowing turned into pathetic cries, as everything that held her up oozed out onto the ground and into the earth.
Once there was complete silence and everything was still,
we came out of hiding and moved onto the scene.
It was as if a great battle had taken place,
and yet, it seemed no one had won.
And then we noticed the rock with a burn on it, and we saw the hand shining in the sun.
