Brilliantly Blinded Bats, a Faux Feathered Faith, and Bountiful Forest Burdens
Elephant's Ascent to Enlightenment
The Elephant had hoped his rejection by the Mole was an anomaly. Though disappointed, he turned his attention to the next opportunity: the role of Chief Spiritual Advisor. This was no small task—the jungle’s spiritual well-being had long been in disarray, with animals divided on how best to navigate the challenges of life. Surely, the Elephant thought, his deep understanding of the jungle and its interconnectedness made him an ideal candidate to guide its denizens toward harmony.
Illumination of the Bats
The cavern reverberated with the fluttering of leathery wings. The Bats, the jungle’s priestly class, hung in a great congregation from the stalactites above. Revered for their uncanny ability to see with sound and their distribution of holy guano—a gift that nourished crops far and wide—the Bats commanded deep respect. Their nocturnal flights were seen as divine journeys, spreading blessings across the jungle.
When the Elephant approached the holy clearing outside the cavern for his interview, the Bats encircled his head, their chirps and flutters creating an almost hypnotic drone. The clearing, framed by towering trees and thick vines, served as a sacred space where no creature dared tread carelessly. They took no notice of his mass, his legs, or his trunk, obscured as they were by the holy haze of their sonar-guided vision. Their focus fell entirely on his ears—large, flexible, and reminiscent of wings.
“Ah, a cousin!” one Bat exclaimed. “A winged celestial being, come to join our sacred flock!”
The Elephant’s ears twitched in confusion, but the Bats interpreted this as a gesture of humility. “Your silence is a testament to your enlightenment,” another Bat proclaimed. “Only those who carry the divine within can be so still, so present.”
The Elephant opened his mouth to explain, but the Bats’ frenzied adoration drowned him out. They concluded their ritual by anointing him with guano, a mark of divine favor.
Just as the Bats were about to declare the Elephant the Chief Spiritual Advisor, a sudden wall of brilliance appeared. The Peacock had unfurled his dazzling tail feathers, creating an iridescent fan that seemed to materialize from nowhere. The Bats, startled and disoriented by this sudden obstruction, veered wildly in mid-flight, thinking they were about to collide with a massive wall. Their chirps turned into a panicked cacophony as they darted erratically through the clearing, only to realize moments later that the 'wall' was nothing more than the Peacock's radiant fan. The Peacock calmly extended one of his longest, most radiant feathers toward the nearest Bat. "Fear not," he said in a soothing tone. "This is a gift from the greatest flying creator to have ever existed." The Bats, clutching the feather, began passing it among themselves with great care, each one chirping in awe as they held it briefly. "Surely, this is a sacred relic," one Bat declared. "A gift from the greatest flying creator to have ever existed." Their reverence for the sacred feather solidified with every exchange, their focus fully devoted to what they believed was a divine message from the Peacock. “Behold this sacred gift!” one Bat cried. "Surely, this is a relic from the greatest flying creator to have ever existed, sent to guide us all.”
The Elephant’s ears drooped as the Bats shifted their focus entirely to the Peacock. His feathers fanned out in a dazzling display, sealing his appointment as the jungle’s spiritual leader.
Plumage and Piety
The Peacock wasted no time establishing his spiritual doctrine. Feathers, he proclaimed, were the key to divine empowerment. Weekly gatherings became a ritual where animals donated their feathers to the lavish temple atop the Bat's cavern. The Bats declared that these offerings imbued their guano with celestial power, ensuring the jungle's harvests would flourish.
At first, the animals were captivated. Feathers of every color adorned the lavish temple atop the Bat's cavern, creating a dazzling spectacle. The Bats praised the donors, promising that their feathers would bring abundant harvests. But as the rituals continued, the toll on the jungle’s birds became evident. Many sold all their feathers for scraps of food, leaving them bald and vulnerable. Feathered animals eagerly made their offerings and profited greatly by charging exorbitant premiums to featherless creatures desperate to contribute to the divine cause. Birds far and wide grew enriched and fattened by these transactions, their grotesque appearances marked by large, swollen 'peckers' protruding prominently from their faces as symbols of excess and greed. The crows, however, saw the folly in this arrangement, while flying away they squalked to one another, "No sacred creature would demand a bird harm itself under the guise of self-empowerment."
Meanwhile, the Peacock lived in opulence within the lavish temple atop the Bat's cavern, surrounded by offerings and grandeur. The Bats, too, enjoyed the newfound riches, their cavern filled with offerings of fruit and adornments. However, their ability to spread guano, once their most sacred duty, became more limited. Weighed down by their lavish adornments, their flights became sluggish and fewer in number. They praised the Peacock’s vision, oblivious to how their diminishing role was affecting the jungle’s balance.
A Crisis of the Spirit
The jungle descended into spiritual chaos. Once vibrant flocks now resembled plucked chickens, their beauty stripped away. The Peacock and the Bats thrived, their lives lush with offerings, while the rest of the jungle grew cold and divided. Whispers of discontent spread among the animals.
The jungle, once thriving with shared purpose, now splintered under the weight of blindness and indulgence. What had once been a united spirit was now fragmented and frail, struggling to endure the creeping cold of division.
As the moon rose over the jungle, the wind carried the mournful sound of wings too bare to fly. Enlightenment had become a featherless pursuit.
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