The Archers and The Dreamers

There was once, in the land of Believe it or not, two tribes called the Archers and the Dreamers.

 

The Dreamers would put on painted wings and fly; fly so high that they could pick fruit off of the fruit trees of heaven.

 

But the Archers thought that flying was frivolous and they, instead, devoted themselves to hunting and killing; shooting things down, not flying, was what they excelled at.

 

And because the Archers hated the Dreamers, if they ever caught a Dreamer returning from Heaven, they would fire an arrow at them and shoot them out of the sky.

 

But then, one day, an Archer named Mavin had a Dreamer called Emmel cornered in the Dreamer’s wood, his arrow head aimed at Emmel’s heart.

 

“I’m going to clip your wings so that you can never fly again”, said the Archer.

 

“But wouldn’t you like to fly?”, asked the Dreamer.

 

“Arrows are the only things that are meant to fly”, said Mavin, “Anything else gets shot down”.

 

“Oh but you’re wrong”, said Emmel, “If only you could feel what it’s like to fly you wouldn’t think that”.

 

Just then, however, the dreamer had an idea and, singing just like a bird to all his fellow Dreamers, he called out,

 

“Help me to lift this Archer. He wants to know how it feels to fly”.

 

And then, suddenly, swarming all around him, the dreamers took hold of Mavin and, flapping their wings together, lifted the Archer up off of the ground.

 

“Stop!”, cried Mavin, “Put me down”.

 

But the Dreamers wouldn’t listen and, very soon, the Archer was miles above the ground.

 

“Don’t be afraid”, Emmel told him, “We just want you to see how good it feels to fly”.

 

“But I can’t fly”, said the Archer, terrified of being dropped.

 

The dreamers tied a pair of golden wings upon the archers back.

 

“Fly with us”, they said.

 

“No”, protested the Archer, “Put me down. I refuse to fly”.

 

But then the Dreamers let the Archer go and he started to plummet like a stone towards the ground.

 

“Help me!”, he screamed out in terror.

 

“Flap your wings”, said the Dreamers, “Flap your wings and you won’t fall”.

“But I don’t know how”, said Mavin.

 

“Dream of them flapping”, they replied, “And they will flap”.

 

So the Archer closed his eyes and imagined the wings flapping and he, instead of falling, soaring.

 

And when he opened his eyes again, to his amazement, Mavin realised that he was not falling any more but soaring high towards the clouds.

 

“Wow”, he said, “I can fly…and its…wonderful”.

 

And not only did the Archer fly but he swooped and glided; hovered, looped and pirouetted upon the air.

 

“If only all the Archers could feel what I’m feeling”, he said, as he circled around a cloud, “Then they wouldn’t shoot Dreamers down anymore”.

 

“But how do you make them feel it”, asked Emmel, “If words can’t convince them?”.

 

Just then, however, Mavin had a bright idea.

 

And that night, while his tribe were all asleep within their huts, Mavin crept into the hut of the Chief Archer and stole his golden bow and his quiver of golden arrows.

 

Then, putting on his pair of Dreamer wings, he carried the bow and arrows to the top of the Unassailable mountain; a mountain made of smooth glass that no one could climb and he left them there.

 

And in their place, outside the hut of the chief, he left a pair of wings and a note.

 

“If you want your golden bow and arrow back, they are at the top of the Unassailable mountain”, the note said.

 

Now, when the Chief Archer awoke and saw his Golden Bow and Arrows gone and discovered the wings and the note outside his hut, he was furious.

 

“The Dreamers have done this and they will pay for it with their lives”, he said to his fellow Archers, “We’ll find a Dreamer and force him to retrieve my Golden Bow and Arrows, then we’ll put them all to death”.

 

However, when the Archers went into the Dreamers wood to look for a Dreamer they couldn’t find a single one for they had all flown up to the top of the Unassailable mountain.

 

And so, because they couldn’t find a Dreamer and because they refused to fly the Chief decided that they must try to climb the mountain.

 

So that is what they did, first they tried firing arrows into the side of the mountain and, stepping upon the arrows, climbing them like a ladder but the arrows only broke because they were too weak to hold their weight so then they tried using a gigantic bow to fire broad arrows with grappling hooks for heads at the top of the mountain but when they did, the dreamers loosened them so that they fell down again.

“There is nothing else for it”, said the Chief finally, looking at the pair of Dreamer wings that Mavin had left, “Someone will just have to put on these wings and fly up the mountain to retrieve my Golden Bow and Arrow”.

 

Unfortunately, none of the Archers knew how to make the wings work, though they tried running with them and jumping, they just couldn’t seem to get off of the ground.

 

But just then, Mavin stepped forward.

 

“Your chiefness”, he said, “I think I have an idea how to make the wings work, if you would allow me to try”.

 

“Very well”, said the Chief, handing the wings to Mavin, “You have your chance, make them fly”.

 

So then Mavin put on the wings and closing his eyes and dreaming, just as the Dreamers had taught him, he made the wings flap.

 

But then, just as he was about to take off, he put his arms around the chief and, the wings starting to flap harder, he lifted him up off of the ground.

 

“Put me down this instant”, said the Chief, angrily, “This is treason”.

 

But Mavin did not listen.

 

Instead he soared up into the air as fast as an arrow from a bow, right up to the clouds and the other Archers who would normally have tried to shoot him down, couldn’t shoot because they were too afraid of hitting their chief.

 

“Put me down, I said”, yelled the Chief again.

 

“Not till I’ve shown you how it feels to fly”, said Mavin.

 

Then Mavin flew westward, over the Archer village and over the Dreamer’s Wood and far out across the shining sea of Silver and looking down the Chief was amazed.

 

“So this is how it feels to be a bird”, said the Chief, he breath utterly taken away.

 

“Yes, this is why Dreamers fly and we could all fly, Dreamers and Archers, together as friends if your majesty would permit it”, said Mavin.

 

“I agree”, said the Chief, smiling.

 

And so Mavin took the chief back to the foot of the Unassailable mountain and then, addressing all the people of his tribe he said.

 

“Mavin has showed me that it is good to fly and we should not try to shoot down those who do. Instead we should join them as Brothers in the Air”, proclaimed the chief.

 

And from that day forward, the two tribes lived in peace and friendship and, just like two wings beating, together the tribes soared to unimaginable heights.