The Light Of The Living

There was once a boy whose favourite game was to capture a glowfly and tear off its tail just to hold the glowing tail between his fingers and admire it until the light died out.

All of the glowflies were so afraid of the boy and saw him as a murderous ogre because each time he caught one of them and tore of its tail the glowfly would die.

Often the glowflies would hide from the boy when he came into the forest to look for them, some covering their tails over with mud to hide the glow and others dipping there bright tails in the water of the lake to hide them but no matter what they did the boy would always manage to capture a glowfly and pull off its tail as he laughed with glee.

After many months and many lost glowfly lives, the glowflies could take no more of this boys cruelty and prayed to their gods, the stars in the night sky, “Oh great eternal glowflies, whose tails light up the night sky and burn for many thousands of years please look down upon us with mercy in your heart and put an end to our suffering at the hands of this cruel and thoughtless boy”.

Then, late one night, a star fell down from the sky and, rather than striking the earth it swooped in through the open window of the room where the boy was fast asleep.

Woken by the bright light of the star, the boy opened his eyes but, seeing the star standing in this room upon two leg-like beams of light, the boy was terrified and shivered, backing into a corner of his room and calling for his mother and father to come.

“They will not come”, said the star, “For I have cast a sleeping spell upon them. We stars have great power, you know”.

“Wh-what do you want with me?”, asked the boy, stammering “Wh-why are you in my room?”.

“Because I have looked down from high up in the sky and seen your light and I wish to take it from you”, said the star, “Just to watch it burn brightly until it burns out altogether”.

“What?!”, said the boy, utterly terrified and bemused, “What light? I don’t have a light?”.

“Oh but you do”, said the star, laughing like the chime of crystal bells, “You have a very bright light indeed! That light that now glows out of your eyes; the light of life and I have come to take it”.

“No!”, cried the boy quaking so much that it looked as if he might shake himself to pieces, “No! Please! Don’t!”.

“But why not?”, asked the star, “Do you not pull the tails off of glowflies just for your own amusement? How many glowfly fathers and mothers have you killed? How many glowfly sons and daughters, brothers and sisters; friends and partners have you placed in the towering pit of darkness that is death?”

Then the boy got down upon his knees and begged the star for its forgiveness and promised never again to tear the tail off of a glowfly and, because stars are a wise, good and merciful race of people,the star took pity upon the cowering boy, “But just remember”, he said, “That a glowflies light is its life and that you can enjoy its light without trying to possess it and without doing it harm”.

After that, the star spread its wings of radiant, white light and shot out of the boys window again, soaring upwards into the night sky, back to its distant home in the heavens and, so frightened was the boy that the angry star might return, that the boy kept his promise and never again pulled the tail off of another glowfly and, after many months, the glowflys forgot their fear of the boy and came out in their hundreds and the boy saw that he could enjoy their beauty without depriving them of their tails.