Ibis is dead still in the shallow water, small ripples ebbing out from her one standing leg, the other tucked snugly beneath her wings. If she still breathes it isn’t detectable. The only thing that moves is her one open eye, scanning the perimeter, calmly, curiously waiting.

The back of her head is high, beak nuzzled into her chest. From afar she looks like a misshaped topiary on a flooded lawn.

His, huge claws – more like talons – dig deep and harsh into the soil. Deliberate. Heavy. Dutiful. He’s hungry. Angry. Desperate; though you’d never know it from his gait.

His eyes, deep as the forest and fierce as the churning sea, pierce every iota of the landscape. Huge expanses of grass dotted with trees, clumps of low lying bush where animals used to rest but which are now uninhabited, air so still the wind seems to have evacuated in fear, clouds floating wordlessly holding their breath, all life seems to have left or paused in this pregnant moment, in the company of ominous presence.

Aside from the padding of his huge cat feet on the grassy undergrowth, the only sound to be heard is a roar bubbling below the surface like a simmering hot pot, just waiting for the right moment to explode.

Eyes scan. Eye scans. Hearts race. Both in anticipation. Both in the dawn of annihilation.

The old world had died. Crumbled under a weight. All had left as fear rode in unannounced, without fanfare. An invisible wisp of wind in a still landscape, a whisper in a moment of still pondering, an inaudible tap on a shoulder in solitude, a quiet poke in the ribs from nowhere. One by one they all had felt it, though none had said anything for fear of being cast out. And it had been such a lovely place to be, who would have wanted to be cast out? With such comfort! And all the safety and security on needed to rest easy. With all the friends one could ask for to feel whole. It had all kept coming. The gifts, the food, the company, the niceties, the beauties, the enchantments; the awe inspiring magnitude of it was intoxicating. Who would want to be cast away from all this?

So the whispers and the prods and the sideways glances and the oddities continued and with every unspoken fear a ray of light had become quiet and after a time, very gradually, the colours of this place started to fall to grey. It faded so effortlessly, so subtly, like fabric left in the sun for too long, that everyone thought their own eyes were failing them. So no-one spoke up.

The gaieties of the soundwaves shifted; laughter slowly moved to harsh croaks, giggles to discordant sobs, music became the grate of rusty wire on stone, conversations fell to hushed paranoid gossip, and bird calls twisted macabrely to the sound of squeaking gates.

Even the smell of the village began to fall foul. Fresh fruit smelt mouldy, flowers fell from sweet perfume to dirty acid, the dense earthy aroma of the land reeked of rotten cabbage, and milk soured and curdled as soon as it was released from the skeletal cows.

And, as the greys became dark greys, even the light began to fade.

By then the people had become so afraid they’d stopped talking altogether, and their bodies which used to be open and tall curled up over themselves in protection.

In the darkness without light or colour or sound, the shadows of the deep that feasted on fear grew strong, their forms became more solid, and their whispers grew louder until their shrieks pierced the air and shattered space into shards of glass. The faint squalor in the air thickened to a foul odour that burnt the nose, and a new colour emerged that hadn’t been seen before. It was so hideous it burnt the eyes of those who beheld it, and could only be described as the colour of torment.

The land itself had become a corpse and those upon her back had dwindled to an existence so dire they couldn’t even summon the energy to die. Their senses had fallen to stupor, paralysis and hallucination in the hell that had grown up around them. Many were so far gone they actually believed the world was still as it had been. They frolicked and played obscenely amongst the decay and filth that had become their home. Many had stopped moving, a slight rise and fall in their chest the only sign that life still inhabited their bodies, as dust and bird shit accumulated daily until they resembled ancient statues of themselves.

Deep below Earth shuddered with silent tears as those in her care fell deep into the abyss of despair. Her heart reached deep into every corner of the land, searching for any who still had their wits about them. And finally she found, One. Little. Spirit.

She was still in her shell, unaware of what lay beyond the thin wall. But Earth reached to her through the shell and showed her what she was entering into. For one not yet born, the weight of the world was great. Yet it was not; She was she was simply asked to remember who she was, even as she saw the catastrophe around her. She was shown what her ancestors had seen; their world of colour, light, sound, smell, movement, flight, day and night, rain and sunshine. Fruits and flocks and friends and foe, all gathering in the great hum of life.  Journeying together. Sometimes apart, sometimes side by side. Sometimes in joy, sometimes in sorrow. Sometimes in peace, sometimes in angst. But always in balance.

‘You MUST see this, always, even as your eyes take in darkness,’ Earth told her while she curled in gestation and grew her little wings.

When Ibis felt it was time, she pushed and prodded and pecked at the shell until it fell away. The contrast between the image in her mind and the black landscape around her were startling, but she remembered what she’d been told. For a while she had to close her eyes every few seconds to remind herself of the old land, so she wouldn’t get stuck in this space. And then she discovered she could close one eye at a time, and see both worlds at once.

So she had grown, alone, in this way. Using the memories behind her closed eye for guidance she taught herself to find food, scarce as it was, to fly, to build a nest in the trees and hide from the predators of the endless night. She never interacted with her own kind, or any others for that matter, as they had all fallen to the dark and may have infected her with their blindness. She counted cycles by the dim light of the moon, for the sun no longer rose in these parts. She spent most of her time in the light lands, learning from the ancestors’ memories lodged deep in her body where the darkness couldn’t reach. For a while she had found a way to be safe and unseen.

But one day, one of the shadows found her. It wasn’t hard, for when she joyed in the light lands, a little glimmer of radiance emanated from her heart. A tiny gold beacon in a turbulent sea of dark greys.

It’s huge black form found furious at her light. That filthy element that could kill off darkness in a single flash. He had to end her while she was sleeping or his world would be finished. With a steaming heavy gait he suppressed the roar gurgling quietly in the back of this throat, eyes fixated on this little glow. It burnt his eyes but he bit down on the pain and moved closer to her, curled up in the jagged forest undergrowth. Though she was not asleep as she appeared, for the ancestors and the earth were in deep conversation with her behind that closed eye.  And they all knew he was coming for Earth had sensed it.

They all gathered in her heart to illuminate her even more and cast off the darkness as she turned to meet his eye. Swallowing her terror, she knew his immensity could not actually overcome her. She also knew his fear was greater than hers as he had so much more to lose.

He roared with pain as the intensity exploded and he was caught in a brilliant white light. He backed away angrily as it bit into his being, and his shadow gave way, painfully to form. Several times he reared back, steadied himself and tried to pounce again, but the brilliant light kept getting stronger and his great roars echoed across the lands shaking what was left of the trees and the houses. Eventually, distraught and defeated, he retreated and watched from the deep blackness as this little light threatened to overcome all he had destroyed. He knew he could not fight her alone and swiftly moved to the centre of the village for ammunition. He shrunk his shadowy form to create an alliance.

‘Listen up all of you!’ his low voice rattled the silence in an icy splash,  ‘I know who has been stealing all your power. I have witnessed she who is taking all of your light. She must be stopped or you will all fall into absolute darkness and disappear completely.’ He pounded through the village, taking on a human persona, spreading word of this dreadful creature.

Many, still far off in their fantasy, ignored him.

Many, who’d turned to stone, ignored him.

But many, who had simply been reduced to human rubble, heard his words and became angry. Very, very, angry.

‘She must be stopped. She must be stopped. She must be stopped.’

It didn’t take much to persuade them. Their anger was the first spark of life that had entered for many, many moons. It was invigorating, and much more satisfying than fear. They came together, a handful at first, which grew and grew, until there was a crown of about fifty, holding hands, chanting together, marching in unison. ‘She must be stopped. She must be stopped. She must be stopped.’

In their unity, something remarkable happened. Little red lights started igniting in their bellies, as their anger fired up. Then little golden lights started igniting in their chests as they found purpose and camaraderie for the first time in many moons. The angrier and louder they became, the more they glowed. He of the shadows watched aghast; he had not expected this. He searched his mind for a way through this mess, as the growing light ate at his skin.

‘Wait! You must stop!! Your anger isn’t going to work, she’ll see you coming!” he roared trying to stifle his pain.

The people looked around confused wondering if he could be trusted, looking for answers in their neighbours’ eyes, and for the first time started noticing the glow emanating from their bodies. They moved around him in a big circle. ‘But we want our light back!!’ they yelled.

He form began to crumble in the glow, his man skin burning under their glowing bodies. He had to dispel their anger to put their lights out again. And fear was the only way to do it.

Letting his facade fall away completely he opened his huge jaw and let out an almighty roar that shook the ground beneath them all.  The people trembled at the size of his monstrous form, clinging to each other and blinking aside tears from their wide eyes. But their glow didn’t fade. As they reached out and comforted each other, soothing and protecting, white lights beginning to trickle out from their hearts.

He of the shadows lashed out at them with huge claws, burnt by their light each time he came too close. They armed themselves with spikey saplings that had long died in the ground, and a check mate held them all in place for a few moments. He was surrounded, at a loss.

With a roar he called to the other shadows, to help send these people back to the greyness they had previously succumbed to. A chorus of terrible shrieks soon filled the air and the flap of rotten wings, crumbling talons and twisted beaks flew around them. Though, the shadow birds did not recognise him as the glow had permeated his skin, dissolving his shadow and sending great stripes of gold and ebony across his body. They swirled around above his head, feeding on the fear he himself had fallen to. They didn’t even notice the people, who had now found strength in each other. He cowered and roared and lashed out, as their shrieks grew louder and louder into a raucous of gritty laughter.

In the swirling hurricane of wings and beaks and talons and shrieks the people backed away, with him pacing in circles unable to escape. They ran back to the village, lighting the way in the darkness with their own glow, shaking their kin out of their stupors and seeing each other for the first time in many moons. They had something visible to fight now, and they would fight it together. They scoured homes for knives and matches and torches and axes and spears, anything to help end this creature and the fear it had cast. Gathering in the main street they put together their plan to end the monsters that had kept them in the dark for so long.

Their feet stomped in unison. Their shouts shot into the air like bullets. ‘The darkness ends now. The darkness ends now. The darkness ends now.’ Claps and cheers and fists and shouts permeated the long night.

Walk quickens to a jog.

Jog quickens to a run.

Run… halts.

Suddenly.

All is silent.

Not a horrible silent.

Just an inquisitive quiet.

A blinding white light sprayed their fragile bodies with silver highlights. At first it stung, but as it grew stronger, it bubbled and caressed. Their initial fear quickly fell to a calm curiosity. Her shimmering body glided in on a slipstream, like a moon sliding to earth, as wings folded and feet landed with the grace of a gentle breeze.

She looked lovingly at these people through her open eye, full of joy that those in the darkness had found their light. Well, some of it.

‘Dear ones, I am so thankful you have found yourselves again. But this is not the way forwards. In order to bring back the light fully you must end what has made you dark.’

‘It is HE who has made us dark.’ One of the men pointed in the direction of the shadow cat, ‘It is HE who must be ended. NOW!’

A low cheer erupted in a wave through the people.

‘I understand why you feel that, but HE has not brought you to darkness, your own FEAR has. And it is that same fear that drives you to slay him. But please, look around you. You are all so much brighter that before, simply because some of your fear has moved aside.’

They looked around at themselves and each other and did have to agree, a semi dawn was moving in as their bodies became lighter.

‘I ask of you, please close one eye, look into your memories, and those of your ancestors, hidden there behind your sight, and see how beautiful this place and your life in it used to be.’

Hesitantly they did as she asked, and a trickle of smiles and tiny strands of colours sparked throughout the crowd as they remembered what lay beneath the shadows.

‘Please, come with me. We SHALL end this, but not in the way you think.’

They agreed, moved as one, a ball of light and coloured threads weaving itself from moment to moment, she up ahead leading them to where the Tiger was still being circled.

‘Your friends seem to have forgotten who you are,’ her words came silky smooth as the people gathered around in a circle, Ibis and Shadow Cat in the centre, ‘But we haven’t’

She looked up at the flock of Shadow Birds, disintegrating in the light of her body and fading to ether. Tigers’ stripes were shining a brilliant gold. In full light he was quite magnificent, the people marveled, but he was not pleased as his shadow fell to ether also.

‘You may jest, but you will NOT make a mockery of me!!’ he roared.

‘And we will NOT be reduced to fear by you anymore.’ Said she, ‘Go now, away from this place, and you will not be harmed.’ She motioned the people to lower their arms and move aside so Tiger could leave. Feeling Earth’s voice she added, ‘and from now on no creature will find itself in harms way; in your way, ever again.’

‘I leave for now, but I will be back. I will find you when you are dancing with your dreams and end you.’

Ibis let him have the last word as he leapt angrily out of the circle towards the forest edge to simmer. An empty stillness followed him from then on like a huge bubble wherever he moved.

‘Why didn’t we just kill him?’ one of the men asked.

‘Because that would have been done in fear, and would make us no better than him. Now he is in the light he won’t be able to do any harm. Now quit worrying and look around you!’

In the growing light they could see far into the landscape. Colour bled into the sky as rays of sun crept over distant mountains. The call of birds and insects and laughter and leaves rustling in the wind tickled the air. Rich greenery spotted with brightly coloured flowers reached over the land. People hugged and cried and looked into the cosmos of each other’s eyes for the first time in many moons.

‘Just remember, if you are ever in darkness, close one eye so you can see the real world, and let it guide you.’ Ibis reminded them, before flying to the low waters of the flat plains to rest.

He paces, constantly, relentlessly in the shadows of the forest, hoping for a time to pounce.

She curls her foot up into her belly, nestles her beak into her chest, and closes an eye so she can tend to both sides of the world while she rests.

The village rebuilds itself, and eventually other creatures of the forest move back to the trees and the grasses and the flowers, though they magically disappear when He is around.

Mother earth purrs in the rich and delicate balance of life upon her back.

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If you are interested in having Tjoni Johansen write a personal dreamscape or myth for your self or a project please get in touch via email at tjoni@in-spiral.org.

Many thanks.

Image from Pixabay

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