Subject: A weird story...  :) 
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 92 18:13:54 -0700
From: li@inigo.Data-IO.COM


This is a re-write of a story that John and I heard last fall (I think..)
or was is Spring?  It was told by a Raven man of the Tsimshian, though,
perhaps not in quite this way.

I roughed it up for a collection of stories someone was getting together
for alt.callahans, and I hope you like it rough and simple.  Chuckle...

Phyllis

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There once was a village that was being ravaged by a terrible creature. No
one knew what it was and no one knew what it looked like.  People would
just go out into the forest, on any kind of errand, and would disappear,
never to be found again.

The village headman was troubled by the disappearances, and after a large
number of people disappeared, he called on the oldest of his five
nephews.  This one was the greatest warrior of the tribe, with a war club
so large that no one else in the village could even lift it and armor so
beautiful it hurt the eyes to see it in the sun.  The nephew was a crafty
young man asked, "What will you give me when I kill this monster?"

The headman, knowing that there would be no village if the monster were
not stopped, talked with the rest of the villagers and came back to say,
"We will give you anything you want.  The wealth of the village is yours
if you will do this thing."

So the greatest warrior agreed to the deal, shouted in triumph and shook
his giant club.  "I will bring its brains back to you on my club!"

The village threw a *huge* party in his honor, feasting and music and no
one knows how to party like a Tsimshian village.

In the cold morning, after the party, the young man left, never to be seen
again.

The disappearances continued.

So the headman called his second nephew, the finest Hunter in the village,
known for his nets, his accuracy with a spear, and his tracking
capability.  When the young man came to the headman he asked, "What will
you give me when I track this monster down?"

"I have been empowered to give you all the wealth of the village." said
the headman, "If you can do this thing."

So the greatest hunter of the village agreed to do what needed to be done.
"I will track this monster and bring his head back on my spear!"

The village threw a *huge* party in his honor, feasting, music, and
dancing.  By a bonfire as tall as a man they had roasted salmon and deer
and ate until they could eat no more.

In the cold morning, after the last ashes had burnt down from the bonfire,
the hunter left the village, never to be seen again.

The disappearances continued.

So the headman called the third of the five nephews, the smartest man in
the village, and pleaded with the nephew to save the village.  The young
man asked, "What will you give me if I do this thing?"

"I am empowered to give you all the wealth of the village." said the
headman.

The young man shook his head.  Remember, he was the smartest one.  "No, I
do not want all the wealth, if I had all the wealth, no one in the village
would like me.  What I'd really like is to rule the village as headman,
and only half the wealth."

The headman blinked, but then nodded and said, "You may have my place if
you can kill this creature who is ruining us."

So they were agreed.

And the village had an even wilder party than before.   This time the
bonfire was as big as a house, and the drink flowed until almost everyone
was just passed out.

In the cold morning, while the bonfire still smoldered as large as a dog,
the third brother, the smartest man in the village, left, never to be seen
again.

The headman called on the fourth of the five brothers, the fastest man in
the village and pleaded with him to simply get the news out to another
village and to bring help to catch the monster.

"What will you give me if I do this thing?"

"I am empowered to give you all the wealth and my position if you can save
us from this terrible curse."

The young man shook his head, "I don't want your job, you're looking
really tired with all this worry; but the wealth I'll take."

So they agreed.

And the village had a party that night that lasted until morning.

Later that day, the fourth nephew left, never to be seen again.

The headman, after several days of hoping that the fastest nephew might
have gotten through, finally gave up and started preparing himself to go
out and try and kill the monster himself.  There was a tug on his sleeve
and a young voice said, "May I try?"

The headman pulled his face from out of his hands and looked around. There
was the fifth and last of his five nephews.  The boy was still so young he
hadn't shown the hair on his chin yet, and was beautiful with large dark
eyes and long, silken hair.

"I can't let you go." said the headman, "You're just a child.  How can you
hope to succeed where the best fighter, best hunter, best thinking, and
fastest runner have all failed?"

"Let me try, Uncle.  I can do it." said the youngest nephew.

The headman sighed, "What do you want if you manage to do this?"

The young man smiled, "If I do this, I'll have what I want, a safe village
and home."

"Well," said the headman with a sigh, "if you're dead set on this, at
least let me give you a set of armor and some weapons."  So the headman
took the boy over to his own armor store, and they tried putting armor on
the boy. It was *way* too big, and clattered horribly; but it managed to
just barely stay on.  Then the headman tried to give the boy one of his
war clubs.  The boy fell to the ground trying to hold the club.  The
headman tried giving him a hunting spear, but the boy fell down trying to
hold that, too.

"This isn't going to work." said the boy.  "I'll just take the armor."

"Do you want a party before you go?" asked the headman.

"No." said the fifth nephew, thoughtfully, "It'd be more fun to party
after I get back.  But I could use some food to pack along with me."

So the headman helped his nephew pack up a bag of dried salmon and journey
cake and crumpled tobacco leaf and sent him on his way with a hug.

The youngest nephew trudged along through the forest, catching the armor
on all sorts of stuff, but he kept it on because it felt like it was
protecting him.  Eventually, he came to a stream by a clearing, and, being
thirsty after the long walk, he decided to take a drink.  The darned
armor, made it almost impossible for him to drink, so he took it off,
stood it up against a tree, put his stuff in it and went back to the
stream to take a drink.

While he was drinking, something HUGE ran by and hit the armor with a
*THUMP*.  Then the boy was dumped in a sack with the hard and now rather
dented armor and slung *OOF* onto something's back.  The something ran
with gigantic steps and tossed and banged the child around mercilessly.
Eventually, the boy passed out.

When he woke up, he was still, and the armor was being pulled out of the
bag.  At awful crunching noises, he quickly crept out of the bag, to see
some Huge man-like creature with its back to him, the armor splintering
under the creature's hands.  He took the bag that had held him and *quick*
put it over the giant's head, and *swoop* the giant was captured in the
magic bag.  The bag made it so that the young boy could tote the giant
around with ease, which was a good thing, because when he stepped out of
the giant's house, he had no idea where he was.

This strange land was flat and as empty and dry as he'd never seen.  A
strange place with no water and little food.  But the youngest brother had
courage and remembered old stories of the land to the East of his own, so
he picked up the bag and trudged in the same direction that the Sun
traveled on his journeys.

A long and hard journey later, he finally reached his village, a little
bigger, a lot taller, and with the monster still slung in the bag on his
back.  The people, as they came out of their lodge, didn't recognize him
at first, but then there was laughter and cheering and much rejoicing by
all the members of the tribe.  The headman came out, a little more
stooped, with a little more white in his hair, but the smile that he
smiled when he saw his last nephew made him look young.

And so they had a party, the likes of which was never seen before, and has
never been seen again.  They say that there was so much fish and meat that
they covered a lodge's floor with it, the fire was as high as the sky, the
drink flowed like a river, and the music was so wonderful that dead
relatives traveled from the second hell to dance by it.

The boy left his sack by the fire near the beginning of the party and
forgot it as he enjoyed his long overdue homecoming.

During the dancing, someone accidentally kicked the sack, not knowing what
was in it; and the monster jumped out of the sack...

Everyone started screaming when they got a look at it, and the boy was
petrified to finally see it from the front.  It was tall, spindly, with
and giant, wickedly clawed hands on the ends of four arms!  But, worst of
all, it's face was all *WRONG*.  It had a nose as long as a man's arm, and
eyes as big as shields.

It had been in that sack for a very long time without food, so not only
was it a mad monster for being stuck in that sack for so long, but a
HUNGRY monster as well...

It started picking people, dogs, cattle, goats, anything up in its
long-clawed hands and sticking them on the end of it's long nose, and it
sucked all the life out of them.  They people around it tried to hit it,
but it didn't even notice.  Instead, it would pick up the more insistent
ones and eat them, too.

The village was disorganized, confused, frightened and the people started
running away.  But the boy, now a young man, yelled, "STOP.  We can fight
this thing, we HAVE to fight it!!  Do you want to go back to being afraid
of leaving the village at all??!  We have to FIGHT IT!!"

The young man charged the monster with a spear, and managed to cut off an
arm.  Encouraged by his success, other warriors charged into the fray,
cutting off big chunks of the monster.  To their horror, the pieces took
on a life of their own, and each of them started sucking the life out of
anyone they could get hold of.

The young man was in a fight for his life with the arm that he cut off.
With a huge effort, he threw it off him, and it landed in the fire.
Suddenly, there was an explosion, and the arm disappeared.

"THROW THE PIECES IN THE FIRE!!" he screamed, and the warriors nearest the
fire heard him and obeyed.  Soon, all the pieces of the monster were
deposited in the fire.

*KABOOOOM*  all the pieces blew up, and the remaining people of the
village breathed a huge sigh of relief.  Slowly, they got up and started
caring for the wounded and the dead; but happy, now, in knowing that they
*had* destroyed the monster that had killed them.

However, the pieces had only blown up into millions of infinitely small
pieces.  Pieces that lived and carried on as their originator did,
existing solely to suck the life and blood from anything living.

And that is how mosquitos came to be.

----- 
Liralen Li




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