〈 ... Time immemorial had seen the passage of days. The slow sweeps from glittering dawn into the depths of night had been recorded like scores carved into the bone of the ever-shifting instinct of animal kind. Each daybreak and dusk was perfectly alike, a mirror image of its former sister. The day and night were in harmonic bliss where neither was longer nor shorter than the other and both promised a respite from the other. This was, of course, only the beginning.
As time continued its march, the animals that speckled the land felt a marked change in the usual rhythm of things. Day still turned to night, and night to day but each were no longer equal. Morning had begun to stretch well past noon and soon into the evening. The sun ceased to set on time and instead lingered heavy in the air, dipping below the horizon only, it appeared, at the last possible moment. The golden glow that had once saturated the earth with bounty for all creatures was now scorching plant and animal alike. Soon the sun ceased to set at all, and animals were forced to cower under the shade of wilting trees lest they risk burning the delicate skin of their noses or paws.
The life once provided by the sunlight had come to a labored, agonizing stop.
Naturally, the animals were rather upset by this development. They had become quite used to their routine lives, and they were not adapted to the oppressive heat. Many lakes and streams had dried up, and the thirst that followed like a depraved phantom began driving creatures to delirium.
A meeting was quickly formed between all animals sane enough to travel and a quorum was reached. The goose, who was the strongest of all fliers present, would be accompanied by the dutiful and intelligent mockingbird; the pair would fly to the sun to investigate the source of its misfortune. All present knew that the flight would be arduous and neither might return, but they knew too that it had to be done.
The pair left the next morning, or at least what they assumed was morning, the sun hadn't set for weeks. True to concern, it was a hard flight. The higher the pair got, the hotter it became, and exhaustion soon had the mockingbird clinging to the feathers of the goose. After many hours of flying, the pair arrived half dead from sunsickness at the light's resting place.
Their beloved sun, as it turned out, was pinned to the roof of the sky by the antlers of a massive elk.
"Release the sun at once!" said the mockingbird, but the elk shook his head and stamped his hooves.
"The sun will melt the glaciers, and we shall have clean water and abundant food for all time," he bellowed.
The goose and the mockingbird knew that their meek voices would not sway such a beast, and the two returned to earth as swiftly as their wings could carry them. They explained the plight to the other animals, who shook their heads in dismay. Who could persuade the great elk to release the sun and return the chill of darkness to the land?
The bear and cougar both volunteered, for they were old friends of the great elk, and had the strength to make the him see reason. Neither of them could reach the elk, however, as neither of them could fly. The woodpecker offered to peck the antlers off the beast, but the other creatures worried that might set the sun rolling closer to the earth, and the land might become even hotter. The horsefly proposed that she bite the ankles of the elk so that he might buck and release the sun, but the creatures worried that this too could send the sun somewhere they could not retrieve it.
It was the shrewd wolf who had sat silent through all the meetings who retained heart even after all the other animals had given up. She said nothing when she slunk away from the other creatures, choosing, as she often had, to keep silence close to her chest.
She crept out of sight and began a trek up the mountain. It was a treacherous climb that forced her to swim across rivers far deeper and swifter than they should have been, and up the rocky facings of sheer cliffs where pawholds were no wider than her toes. She climbed for many days, resting in the little shade she could find above the tree line, and panted under the blistering sun. As she hiked, the deep black of her hide that had afforded her so much stealth in the shadows bleached bone white. Finally, exhausted and half starved, she reached the summit.
From the peak she could reach the great elk, whom she bared her teeth at and snarled, "Release the sun, you fool. You're killing us all."
The elk turned to her, "She-wolf," he said, "You misunderstand. With the sun aloft like this I'm melting the snow, and the great rivers will flow with life and bounty."
"The ice may be melting here, but in the valley the rivers run dry. Your brothers starve as grass and herbs wither in the heat, and we are all going mad with thirst," the wolf growled.
The elk was a proud creature and would not have believed the words of just any beast. He snorted at her with contempt.
"You doubt me," the wolf said. She turned so the elk could see her from nose to tail and see the way her bones protruded from hunger, "See how my pelt has turned white from the harshness of your sun. See how starved I am from lack of food and water."
As he saw this, the great elk was forced to reconsider his actions. With a heavy heart he released the sun from his crown of antlers, which were now golden and glistening from the heat they had carried. Immediately, the sun began to move towards dusk, and the wolf breathed a sigh of gratitude.
The pair descended the mountains, not as enemies, but as friends. The great elk with the warmth of the sun baked into his antlers became the guardian of the sun and the warm months that, with his giving heart, brought abundance and feasts for all creatures. The clever wolf with her bone white pelt became harbinger of the night and the cool respite brought by the winter months. Her hunger was felt by every beast, but all knew it would be tempered by the return of the elk.
Together they maintained the cycle of seasons; the days became longer as the elk carried the sun to its peak in his antlers, and the nights longer as the wolf talked him down from the mountaintops and the pair descended in arms, forever destined to return to the summit once more ... 〉
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