The Cleverest Trill

Once upon time, a time when our spires rose unchallenged by the savages of the desert and the forests, there was a brave and brilliant scientist who lived only to serve our noble city. This scientist, a trill with great white wings and a mind that cut through ignorance like a scalpel through flesh, had a plan to make our city even better. He would make sure that even more people joined the noble ranks of our scientists. As you all know, practice makes perfect, and he knew it too. So, he reasoned, any reasonable person could be made into a great scientist if they are made to practice. He also knew that the earlier the practice comes, the better, because there will be more time to contribute those practiced skills to the collective.

Like every good scientist, he tested his theory. One day he gathered all of his students and went down from the city to study the animals that roamed the basin in those days. He took little children with him too, so that they could learn to be scientists like him when they grew up.

Most of them were naughty little children who ran off to run and play instead of learning to be useful members of the collective. Their silly games took them farther and farther away from good and hardworking people. Soon enough, three of them came across a great big lizard with eyes like molten glass. When those eyes fixed upon the useless little children, it roared and it thrashed and blew fire from its mouth.

The first little child saw the monster's scales sparkle in the sun and thought it was made of gems, for he was a stupid child who could not tell the noble minerals from a monster's body. The lizard snapped him up into his mouth and swallowed without so much as a word, for those creatures are foolish and most never learn to think or speak. Thus was the first child punished for his ignorance.

The second child was brave and arrogant. He saw his friend go into the monster's mouth and thought that he could take revenge and come back to the scientists as a hero and avoid the punishment that he deserved. He took up a rock, the biggest he could carry, and charged at the vile lizard. The monster gobbled him up. Thus was the second child punished for his ego.

The third child saw all of this and stopped to think for a moment. He was a clever little boy who had been lead astray by his fellows. He decided to run from the beast. He was a trill, and took to the sky where the terrible lizard could not reach him. He flew back to the others just as quickly as his wings would carry him, and told them what had happened.

The scientists knew what to do. They took up their weapons, for in those days everyone who left the city did so under arms, and sought out the monster. Every one of them attacked the great ugly beast at the same time, and it died before its tiny brain could work out what had happened. Thus was the third child taught the value of working with his fellows, and he went on to serve the collective for the rest of his days.

   
The City of Smoke

Once upon a time, my children, there was a great and glorious city that was nearly the equal of our own. It had been guided by a dozen wise men, one after the other, until it achieved greatness. It had artists who's ability has been surpassed only in Hallifax. It had scholars that tried to draw back the darkness of the misunderstood world and bring new works of science into the light. Every man and woman in the city was ready and willing to die in its defense.

So it was for centuries, until a single foolish man took to the streets and began to preach a new creed. He called for freedom, the rule of individual men over themselves. He spoke in the streets and in the studios, the libraries and the temples. Alas that he was allowed to speak freely, for he was not seen as a threat!

His words began to work their way into the hearts of the city's laborers, the people who should have known that the importance of their work is in supporting other, nobler men. The people who should have known better than to listen to him. They were fools, and they followed him.

Then he made progress with the artists, filling their heads with notions of art that did not have to answer to the wisdom of others, and world without critics or editors. The lesser artists followed him. The scholars were next, lured to his side by promises of a world where men make their own reality, and none need to suffer the indignity of being wrong. The lesser scholars followed him.

When wiser men realized the threat to their fair city, it was too late. The citizens were split, and the whole city fell into violence. For one long week, brother killed brother and lovers replaced their tender words with harsh blows.

Eventually the fighting reached the temples, where great gates of oak blocked the rebellion's advance. They were set on fire, and the priests burned on the altars. The fire spread, and the smoke rose. The city's leaders, who had guided their lesser brethren to a better future for untold generations were killed as their city burned. Soon, that city, in all its glory and nobility, was reduced to ash. Those who lived in their beloved freedom were reduced to savages.

Remember the simple fact that they could not; free men destroy themselves. It is in obedience to one's betters, not in freedom, that a better life may be found.

The Two Dwarves

Once upon a time, long before mortals learned to live in cities or practice the nobler arts and sciences, there were two dwarves. These two dwarves were brothers who wandered the world in search of their fortune. The first of these dwarves was larger and stronger than his brother, with a great golden beard. The second of these dwarves was a skinny fellow with a silver beard that was just as long as his brother's.

One day the pair wandered their way into a great big cave that went deep into the mountainside. They explored it for many hours and went until they could no longer find their way home. The dwarves were cold and tired and thirsty. Then, they found a man sitting by a fire and great clear pool of water.

The man told the dwarves that they could drink from the pool and warm themselves by the fire, and that he would even grant them one wish, for finding him in the cave and easing his loneliness. But he warned them that they must wish carefully, lest their wish destroy them.

The first dwarf, remembering the cause of his journey, asked for great wealth. The man nodded, and as the dwarf went to warm himself by the fire. As soon as he sat down, his beard which had only been golden in color soon became gold in material. The fire warmed his beard and it began to melt and the dwarf rushed over to the pool to drink from it and dull his pain. But his beard was heavy, as metals are, and it pulled him into the pool and he drowned.

The second dwarf asked only for the tools to make wealth for himself and to defend his family, and the man told him to pull a few hairs from his silvery beard. The dwarf did as he was told, and the hairs grew and hardened into mighty sword. The second dwarf drank from the pool and warmed himself by the fire and his way home, where he used that mighty sword to defend his people and win the gratitude of his fellows.

Learn from his example: it is better to ask for tools and labor yourself than to ask for the fruits of the labor themselves.

The Two Farmers

Once upon a time there were two brothers who lived on a farm. They had lived there with their father for years and years and years, but their father's time had come. As the old man laid upon his deathbed, he called his sons to him.

"Sons," he said, "listen carefully. There is perhaps a week until my thread is snipped. Go out into the world and find me the greatest fruit that may be found, so that I can know who is fit to inherit the farm."

The two boys immediately set out to do as they were told, for they were good and dutiful sons. The first of them, the elder and a foolish fellow, thought that he would try his luck in the forests. Surely, he reasoned, that those who live amongst plants would know how best to tend to them!

That son walked his way deep into the forest until he found an old druid. The druid, like most of his kind, spent his days walking between the trees and speaking to squirrels. Now it may seem clear to you and me that a man who does that wastes his life, but that is because we are far smarter than any of his kind.

Now, this old druid offered the elder son a great big apple, which was red as the morning sun. All he asked in return was one day of honest labor beneath the trees. The elder son took the deal, and sweated and groaned beneath countless branches doing as the druid ordered. At nightfall, he took his apple and went back to the farm.

The younger son was a far more clever fellow. He knew that the best fruit could be taken from those who have studied the way that things grow. So, he went to Hallifax to seek help from the wisest of all scientists. There he bought an apple, for although he was a poor farmer the wealth of Hallifax was great and even the best of foods were cheap and plentiful. His apple was larger than any he had seen, redder than any he had seen, and smelled sweeter than any he had seen. He took it home and presented it to his father.

The father was pleased by the elder son's apple, but he gasped with joy when he saw that of his younger son, to whom he immediately gave the farm mere moments before his threat was cut.

Let this be a lesson to you; the fruits of science are far sweeter and more beautiful than those of superstition.

The Bees and the Butterfly

There once was a butterfly that lived side by side with a whole hive of bees. It was a butterfly like every other butterfly, for all such creatures are the same. It had pretty wings and an empty head. She would fly from flower to flower every day, thinking empty thoughts and singing thougtless songs. She was a popular creature, for most insects love a pretty butterfly that never lays its troubles upon them. But the bees did not like her, for she was foolish and lazy.

Instead the bees held together and worked and lived as one in their hive. They were rich in honey, for such work brings great rewards. They were warm, for by working together they built a mighty hive. Still, they were not popular, because the other insects thought that they were boring because they worked all day.

One day a great big bear came into their piece of the woods and started trampling flowers and eating insects! The butterfly began to fly this way and that, for such creatures never know what to do when trouble comes to them.

"Help!" it cried, "Help! Save me!"

But nobody came to save the butterfly, for its friends only loved her so long as she was pretty and asked nothing of them. The bear came down and gobbled the butterfly up.

Then the bear came up to the hive to try and eat all the bees. But the bees were united, and they were strong. They swarmed out of their hive and stung the bear until it turned and ran away. Safe and sound, the bees lived happily ever after.

There is a lesson in this that you should learn. Those that live side by side and love each other for their virtues will triumph, while those who think not, work not, and know not will always die alone.

The Poets and the King

Many years ago, long before your grandfather's grandfather was born, there was a great king who lived in a palace of gold and ivory who ruled a kingdom so large that it had no boundaries. For all his riches and all his land, he worried that he would be forgotten after he died. So he called every painter and sculptor and poet in the whole kingdom to his palace.

Once they were there, he set them a challenge. Each of those artists who was brave and clever and skilled would put forth his greatest offering to be judged. The best of them would be given a fine palace of his own, full of riches and servants. But the king did not want to waste his time with fools, so he promised to kill the worst of the artists who put forth his work.

Most of the artists left, fearing for their lives. Only two poets remained, confident in their ability to force words to be beautiful. The first of them took up his place before the king and began to recite his poem.

It was a long poem, and it was a repetitive poem. Line after line in praise of the king filled the room. The poet declared the king to be the fairest, the noblest, the kindest, and the wisest of all kings who ever lived and ever would live. His riches, the poet said, were without limit and his name would live on for all eternity.

The second poet laughed as he took his place and began to speak. He too began by speaking of the king's fortune, but soon he spoke lines condemning the king for allowing the poor to live unaided. He spoke of the king's power while reminding him of the powerless. His was a happy poem and a sad poem at the same time, and he offered only the slightest smile as he ended it.

The king spoke as soon as it was finished, declaring the second poet to be the winner while ordering that the first be dragged off to the dungeon in the same breath. Even better than that, the king learned of Collectivism from the poem, of one society bound together for the greater good rather than the glory of the king or the kingdom. He set about righting the wrongs and soon his kingdom came to be a better place for all, and such was his legacy.

Learn from this tale, dear reader, and remember that honesty breeds improvement while flattery can do no good.