Rage Does No Good

A Dvencoili-Yahgahn Fable

Here me now, I speak, so please listen. Once there was a young Duenicallo named Negaris. He was quick to anger. If something frustrated him, he raged at it.

One day, Negaris was hunting in the woods by his home, and he saw a creature called a Gen. He chased this little Gen, named Fast Runner, for many minutes before Fast Runner ran up a tree that was too thin to allow Negaris to safely climb it. Negaris kept circling the tree, hoping that Fast Runner would eventually come down, but Fast Runner would not. After many hours, Negaris lost his patience and began screaming at Fast Runner, roaring, and trying to shake the tree. But the tree was too thick for Negaris to shake.

“TOO THIN FOR ME TO CLIMB, AND TOO THICK FOR ME TO SHAKE!!! I HATE THIS TREE!!!” he screamed.

Then, in his rage, Negaris ran away from the tree, and then toward the tree again. He slammed his body into the tree, finally causing it to shake a little, but he felt a horrible pain and heard a loud crack. His shoulder had broken, and he lay down, in pain.

Finally, Fast Runner came down from the tree, and stood out of reach from the wounded Negaris.

“Ha ha! You are much stupid! You let your rage get the better of you!” then Fast Runner ran off, leaving Negaris screaming in pain and rage. But finally, someone found Negaris and took him home.

After his bones healed, Negaris went out looking for Fast Runner again. He hunted for a long time, and was about to give up when he saw Fast Runner eating an Aloara fruit under a tree. He tried to sneak up on Fast Runner, but Fast Runner’s ears were very keen and heard Negaris. Fast Runner ran, and Negaris chased him. This time, Fast Runner swung across the river gorge on a vine. Negaris stopped. There was no way for Negaris to get over to the other side unless he traveled miles along the gorge to the next opening, or trust a vine. He did not have the patience for the first option, and was not stupid enough to try the second. So he roared with rage again, screaming and hollering. He got himself so worked up with rage that he went a little crazy and tried to jump the gorge. He made it enough of the way to grab the other edge of the gorge, but he was hanging on for dear life. Fast Runner laughed, and ran away.

It took several minutes, but Negaris finally pulled himself up. He turned around and looked down the gorge. It was a long way down, and he gulped with fear.

Several days later, he saw Fast Runner again, but again Fast Runner saw him too. Negaris began chasing him again, roaring and yelling and screaming at Fast Runner, cursing him for being the only animal he had not caught. Negaris, having still not learned to let go of his rage, again let it get the better of him. As they ran, Fast Runner went toward the gorge again, running on a log that went from one side to the other. In his rage, Negaris followed him onto the log. He got halfway over when the log broke, and fell into the gorge. The last thing he saw before falling out of sight of the other side was Fast Runner staring at him, eyes wide with surprise. Negaris did not survive.

The moral of the story is that anger should not control people, people should control anger. This story also has a second moral, which is that one should not become obsessed. Obsessions are very dangerous things indeed.

The End