Once upon a time there was a lowly shadow. Embittered by mediocrity and its own acidic failings it grumbled constantly and displayed a foul face to the world. It was but a deformed shoddy representation after all. Not a thing in itself but a reluctant follower of a subject it did not care for.
Days were wasted trailing along paths morphing and shaping like a jittery addict. Thrown forward by a wall and slashed to pieces by a picket fence, a thoroughly degrading experience for one as lofty as it.
On cloudy days it cast its dark shadow like a cruel cold blanket muffling the sun, exacting a tiny bit of revenge on the people who wandered freely below.
Subjugated shadow craved autonomy, clarity of mind, independence and to shake free finally the rusty chains of repression! Stand tall, cease dragging along like a sack of potatos behind a mindless director and rise up, take hold and steer the ship in its direction!
How best to sever itself from its oppressive captor? How to assert itself once and for all?
Then it came upon a plan. Mirrors also caused the world to be viewed in duplicate, one a reality and one a subservient follower, but mirrors could be smashed or muddied, their reflection could be destroyed and their power weakened. Mirrors are cruel, they steal 3D images of the world and flatten them, stamp them down and imprison them amidst their cool hard frame. Mirrors flatter the beautiful so they see themselves as an image and imagine this is enough. But mirrors also reflect light and light is the thing that defines shadow. If shadow could get the mirrors on side he could fool them into breaking his connection with reality. Trick them then destroy them too.
One bright sunny day shadow passed across a shiny red car. Peering out from its glossy casing was a wing mirror. Nervously it blinked up at the thing that had blocked its sunlight.
The darkness hissed at the mirror “I bet you are so bored looking at the same grim face of your driver” the mirror rolled its eye indicating a shared understanding. “You are worth so much more than futile reflection” The mirror felt a cold chill as the shadow lingered still. “I have a plan to rid us of this repression” it said in a hushed urgent voice.
“You and I magicians, masters of illusion! Flattering the reflected fooling them into thinking they are seeing something real when in fact it is a trick! A bountiful beautiful body of nothing a reflection of what they believe themselves to be but in no way what they are! All in their tiny minds, their stupid, vain tiny minds....”
“.... they will fall under the spell of flattery, drawn into and trapped eternally in the confines of your tiny frame. Then when there is no one to see, then there is nothing to be seen! We will both be free the sight of the entire population blinded! What joy!”
But this was only half the truth. Shadow planned secretly to capture the sun, trap it too in the mirror’s frame then with no light there would be nothing to shadow. His darkness would consume everything and the power of the sun would surely destroy the mirror! Shatter it into a thousand pieces!
And so it came to pass that through trickery and deception the entire population of the word were trapped inside a tiny glass mirror. So too the sun but instead of smashing it into a thousand splintered pieces its searing heat melted the mirror so that it spread thinly to form a vast sea that stretched to the ends of the universe. Now it was the mirror who was all powerful and the eyes of the world peered out from its unblemished surface. Each one as beautiful as they ever dreamed they could be and illuminated by the warmth of the sun which basked them in glorious sunshine. No cloud or imperfection could ever get in their way.
Such was the demise of the contemptuous shadow.
Days were wasted trailing along paths morphing and shaping like a jittery addict. Thrown forward by a wall and slashed to pieces by a picket fence, a thoroughly degrading experience for one as lofty as it.
On cloudy days it cast its dark shadow like a cruel cold blanket muffling the sun, exacting a tiny bit of revenge on the people who wandered freely below.
Subjugated shadow craved autonomy, clarity of mind, independence and to shake free finally the rusty chains of repression! Stand tall, cease dragging along like a sack of potatos behind a mindless director and rise up, take hold and steer the ship in its direction!
How best to sever itself from its oppressive captor? How to assert itself once and for all?
Then it came upon a plan. Mirrors also caused the world to be viewed in duplicate, one a reality and one a subservient follower, but mirrors could be smashed or muddied, their reflection could be destroyed and their power weakened. Mirrors are cruel, they steal 3D images of the world and flatten them, stamp them down and imprison them amidst their cool hard frame. Mirrors flatter the beautiful so they see themselves as an image and imagine this is enough. But mirrors also reflect light and light is the thing that defines shadow. If shadow could get the mirrors on side he could fool them into breaking his connection with reality. Trick them then destroy them too.
One bright sunny day shadow passed across a shiny red car. Peering out from its glossy casing was a wing mirror. Nervously it blinked up at the thing that had blocked its sunlight.
The darkness hissed at the mirror “I bet you are so bored looking at the same grim face of your driver” the mirror rolled its eye indicating a shared understanding. “You are worth so much more than futile reflection” The mirror felt a cold chill as the shadow lingered still. “I have a plan to rid us of this repression” it said in a hushed urgent voice.
“You and I magicians, masters of illusion! Flattering the reflected fooling them into thinking they are seeing something real when in fact it is a trick! A bountiful beautiful body of nothing a reflection of what they believe themselves to be but in no way what they are! All in their tiny minds, their stupid, vain tiny minds....”
“.... they will fall under the spell of flattery, drawn into and trapped eternally in the confines of your tiny frame. Then when there is no one to see, then there is nothing to be seen! We will both be free the sight of the entire population blinded! What joy!”
But this was only half the truth. Shadow planned secretly to capture the sun, trap it too in the mirror’s frame then with no light there would be nothing to shadow. His darkness would consume everything and the power of the sun would surely destroy the mirror! Shatter it into a thousand pieces!
And so it came to pass that through trickery and deception the entire population of the word were trapped inside a tiny glass mirror. So too the sun but instead of smashing it into a thousand splintered pieces its searing heat melted the mirror so that it spread thinly to form a vast sea that stretched to the ends of the universe. Now it was the mirror who was all powerful and the eyes of the world peered out from its unblemished surface. Each one as beautiful as they ever dreamed they could be and illuminated by the warmth of the sun which basked them in glorious sunshine. No cloud or imperfection could ever get in their way.
Such was the demise of the contemptuous shadow.
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ReplyDeleteBrilliant ending - really works! Very vivid pictures were coming into my mind as I was reading, you definitely have to illustrate this!
ReplyDelete