| Con Rep Just as an ant lion digs a pit to catch ants, a fish lion stirs a whirlpool to catch fish. Just as ant lions are babies of larger creatures, so are fish lions. An adult fish lion is a giant ocean centipede known as a Con Rit. A Con Rit swims as gracefully as any sea serpent. Its long, sharp pincers snap up tuna and swordfish and dolphins like they were sardines. Con Rits even swim to the sides of boats in case people decide to go diving. People make good meals, too. One early morning, a mother Con Rit laid her eggs on a shipwreck. Con Rit eggs are either white or gray, but on that morning one of the eggs came out red. The fish lion inside the red egg grew so fast that it hatched by sunset. The newborn fish lion spun up a whirlpool so strong, it caught entire schools of fish. It sucked down whales and giant squids whole. Even adult Con Rits weren’t safe. Inevitably, a ship came too close to the whirlpool. The ship was a great treasure galleon, its cargo hold loaded to the top with gold. The fish lion’s whirlpool threatened to take the whole ship down, so the sailors dumped their cargo. They dumped every coin and ingot into the great swirling trap and just barely managed to escape. The fish lion ate every bit of what the sailors abandoned. It had never eaten gold before. It was so tasty! All of a sudden, the fish lion started growing. It transformed into its adult phase in the span of ten minutes. It grew and grew until each of its twenty body segments was a hexagon five feet across, colored black above and red below. The name of that hundred-foot-long centipede was Con Rep. At birth he was already the greatest of the Con Rits and as smart as a human. He ate everything he could but quickly grew bored with his meals. Nothing tasted quite like the gold he ate as a fish lion. Con Rep needed his favorite food. One day, Con Rep followed a fishing ship to a small village nestled between a forest and the ocean. The moment the sailors began to unload the fish they had caught, Con Rep burst from the water and crawled over the ship. It scared the daylights out of everyone. “It’s a monster Con Rit!” The sailors cried. “It’s after our fish! We can’t afford to lose them!” The sailors ran to grab whatever weapons they could, but the monster stopped them all with a single word. “Wait!” Con Rep shouted. Its voice crashed like a storm and hissed like the tides at the same time. The sailors listened in fear. “I do not want your fish,” Con Rep continued. “Taking them would be wrong. You worked hard for your fish, and I see your small village needs as much as it can get. Let me help you! Feed me your coins and I promise to bring you enough food to feed your whole village three times a day!” The sailors were amazed. One of them took a coin from his pocket and flicked it to Con Rep. Con Rep snapped it out of the air and slid off the ship. A few moments later, Con Rep returned to the ship with a freshly-caught killer whale in its pincers. “This is worth a single coin to me,” Con Rep said. “Feed me more and I will bring you more!” The sailors cheered. That night, the village ate the ship-load of fish and Con Rep’s killer whale. They had never eaten so well before. The next day the whole village came out to Con Rep, who waited on the beach. Everyone gave him at least a few coins. Con Rep happily ate the offerings and swam out to sea. Con Rep swirled his long centipede body around like an underwater tornado in the same way a fish lion creates a whirlpool trap. He swirled so fast he sucked in fish from miles away. Every fish that fell into his trap, no matter how fast it swam, was caught for good. Con Rep swam back to the village’s harbor like a corkscrew with the fish trapped inside his coils. In a single movement he released his fish, straightened out and closed off the harbor with his long body. The harbor filled with fish like it never had before. The villagers jumped and cheered. For many years, the villagers ate the finest fish and traded some of it to big cities for the finest gold coins. Con Rep ate the money and the people were more than happy to feed him. The village grew wealthier as Con Rep grew bigger. The villagers stopped building wooden houses and made new ones from imported stone. They stopped fishing for themselves and let Con Rep bring them their food. The village grew into a town, which everyone agreed would be named “Rep” in honor of Con Rep. One day, some strange people visited the town of Rep. They came from a small village not far away, a village just like Rep had once been. The visitors said, “Our village is small and depends very much on fishing. Your protector, Con Rep, brings you so many fish that we can’t catch enough to feed ourselves! Winter is coming and we are afraid we might starve. Please tell Con Rep not to catch so much, or at least share some of your fish with us.” The townspeople considered what the visitors had to say. They traveled to the beach where Con Rep slept and told him the problem. Con Rep was furious. “I caught those fish for you, not them!” He said. “I only catch fish for those who feed me. If they want fish from me, let them give me coins. That’s the way of business and it’s just the right thing to do!” But the visitors had no coins to give. The village was very poor indeed. Con Rep was greedy and didn’t care about them one bit yet his townspeople cared because they knew first-hand the hardships of not having enough food. Con Rep wanted to make the townspeople care as little about the villagers as he did, so this is what he said: “My people!” He crash-hissed. “These poor people are not like you. They look different, they speak differently, they think differently and they don’t even have money like yours! They are poor because they do not have my help and they do not deserve my help because they are poor. If you aren’t careful, my people, they will grow jealous of your wealth and all the fine food you eat. Jealousy will soon grow to hate! Some day they may attack you just because they hate what I do for you!” The townspeople grew afraid. They watched the visitors suspiciously. The visitors indeed looked, sounded and thought differently, just like Con Rep said. If Con Rep was right about that much, the townspeople thought he must be right about everything. Con Rep continued: “But do not worry, my people! My body is strong and no physical weapons can harm it. Feed me the metal you don’t use for coins and I will protect you from everyone who hates you.” The townspeople believed him completely for two reasons: They were afraid, and Con Rep was clearly powerful enough to protect them. Immediately they fed him their most worthless metal objects, from nails that used to hold together wooden houses to fish hooks that used to catch meals. Con Rep ate the gifts and harshly pushed the visitors out of town. For many years, the people of Rep fed their guardian centipede precious metal in the morning and worthless metal in the evening. During the day he caught fish and squid and sharks and during the night his long body made up an impenetrable wall around the town. The wall encouraged the town of Rep to become the city of Repolis. Just as Con Rep predicted, outsiders became jealous of the city’s prosperity. However, all that jealousy came not from poor people but from other large cities. Repolis paid them no mind since Con Rep was invincible to all threats that could come from sea or land. One day a threat came from the air. A Blue-Tailed Hawk visited the forest outside the edge of the city. Blue-Tailed Hawks are as tall as humans and just as intelligent. They enjoy talking to people, so they often live in forests next to cities. Con Rep was out gathering food for the city. Nothing stopped the citizens from talking to their new visitor. “My name is Achill,” said the Blue-Tailed Hawk. “You may not believe me but I am 6,515 years old. In all my years I never heard of a city springing up so quickly, so I simply had to pay it a visit. How are you so prosperous? What is your secret?” “The greatest of all Con Rits, Con Rep, of course!” Said the citizens of Repolis. “He brings us the bounties of the sea for nothing but coins and keeps us safe for nothing but scrap metal. We eat our fill of the food he brings and trade some of it for things that make our lives comfortable. Once we’ve done that, we trade the rest for what Con Rep needs. He does so much for us and it costs us so little! He is the secret of our success.” Achill asked coolly, “You depend entirely on a Con Rit for your food and trade yet you have no control over him? What would happen if he decided to stop gathering fish and so on for you? What would you eat? What would you trade?” “He would never abandon us!” Said the citizens. “Con Rep is our trusted guardian.” “I have lived long enough to know about the sea,” said Achill. “Animals eaten as seafood require time and food of their own to grow numerous. If Con Rep brings you too much too fast, soon there will be nothing left. Without seafood, you will have nothing to eat or trade. Without something to trade, you will have no coins or metals to feed Con Rep. “I warn you!” Achill shouted and spread his wings. “Con Rits are not to be trusted. No matter what he gives you, some day Con Rep will turn on you. He will demand you do evil things to keep him filled with his favorite food. You will be powerless to stop him because you have grown lazy just as much he has grown strong! You must destroy him and learn to live as a village again, peaceful and organized and caring for one another. You do not need Con Rep to live! You can live as a village, even in a city!” Achill flapped his wings and flew back to the forest. Con Rep returned that evening as usual with his great catch. The citizens waited until they had collected it all before telling him of Achill. Con Rep was livid. “Enemy!” He screamed. “That bird is a liar and an enemy of this city! It conspires to eat me, I tell you, and since your prosperity is mine the bird logically seeks to ruin you all! You dared listen to someone that old? You dared think about something that new?!” The citizens fell to their knees before their guardian and begged forgiveness. Con Rep devoured a week’s worth of scrap metal and sped away to the forest. By sunrise, the forest was gone. Con Rep had eaten it down to the last twig. Achill had no place to stay and so he flew away, never to return. Most citizens forgot Achill ever existed. They were content to eat and trade the food Con Rep supplied. However, the loss of the forest angered others. Those people had enjoyed walking through the trees and enjoying the soft music of birds. Now there were neither trees nor birds, only a flat brown field next to Repolis. Those who missed the forest the most had long been discontent with living to feed a monster over which they had no control. They wished to fish for themselves again, to grow their own food. They wished to make their own tools and comforts and homes again instead of trading excessive amounts of fish and other sea-meat for them. Con Rep had never allowed any of that. He always demanded trading fish for coins and everything else. One day the forest-lovers grouped together to discuss Achill’s warning. They called themselves Achills because they saw wisdom in the bird’s words. As a group, they voted to kill Con Rep before it was too late. That night they gathered old hooks and harpoons for Con Rep’s meal of metal and offered to hand-feed their guardian. Con Rep opened his mouth and the Achills stabbed and slashed him in the eyes and neck. Con Rep threw back his head and roared like a tidal wave, waking up the whole city. He snapped up and ate nearly all of his attackers. Only one man escaped because some citizens rushed to Con Rep’s aid and distracted him. “Enemies!” Con Rep screamed. “Enemies in my own city, behind my own border! They seek to kill me, my people. Without me, you would plummet at once into abject poverty and violent lawlessness -- or worse, become slaves in mind and body to a strong and indifferent king. What conclusion can you reach but that the enemies of this city hate your prosperity and freedom? They care nothing for you like I do! They are monsters! We must banish them!” The citizens asked how they could tell an enemy from a friend. “Trust me,” said Con Rep. So they did. Whenever people said something Con Rep didn’t like, the great centipede guardian of Repolis declared they were “Achillists,” picked them up and flung them out of the city. He then devoured the stone houses of banished Achillists down to the last pebble because, as he said, “The house of an evil Achillist is evil as well.” The truth was that after eating his attackers, Con Rep remembered how something made of meat and bones tasted. On top of that, he had never eaten a human before. They were so tasty! He couldn’t very well eat his own people and remain trusted, however, so he threw some out and ate their homes as a substitute. After a few weeks, stone just wasn’t enough. Con Rep needed more of his new favorite food. He gathered his citizens and said to them: “My people! I keep you safe from the land and sea but I cannot protect you from both at once. I have secret information that we will come under attack very soon! The Achillists we have banished are even now gathering to strike again, for they hate the gifts I give to you!” The citizens quaked in fear in spite of their guardian being in front of them. “Worry not, my people,” Con Rep continued. “I have a plan. I know of a land far across the sea. Let the children of the city climb upon my back and I shall take them over there so that they will not be vulnerable over here.” The parents of the city helped their children onto the titanic back of the bringer of their prosperity. Willingly, eagerly, the children clung to the guardian of their city. They knew he would not let them down. Con Rep set out at dusk. He returned at dawn. “Curse him! Curse Achill!” Con Rep cried to the waiting citizens. “That Blue-Tailed Hawk intercepted me within sight of the island! That terrible bird swooped down and ate the children off my back! Oh, woeful catastrophe! Oh, the children! If only I had reached my destination, the children would be safe this very minute!” The whole city moaned and wailed. Only Con Rep remained calm in the tide of mourning. “Mourn, my people, but listen as you do. I did not fight back against the terrible hawk for fear of drowning the other children I carried. Once the last one was gone, I lashed out and struck down the evil Achill with a single blow!” The citizens wept and sobbed. “He shall never again haunt you, my people, but do not forget his followers. I know they are still out there, ready to attack the moment I leave to gather your food. I’m afraid I can only keep you safe by taking you to the distant land across the sea. Climb upon my back, my people, and know that Achill will not attack you on your journey. I will surely succeed this time.” Quietly yet still weeping, the citizens of Repolis approached their great centipede guardian’s back. A common man, unseen in the crowd, wore a common coat. As people climbed Con Rep, he took off his coat and revealed an axe hanging on his back. It was a great wood-chopping axe, the likes of which Con Rep had long since eaten to extinction in Repolis. The weapon was huge in the man’s hands yet toothpick-sized to Con Rep. The man was one of the original Achills, the one who had escaped. He bought the axe from a neighboring city with one of Repolis’s fine gold coins and tied a single blue feather from the tail of Achill himself to the axe head. The man approached Con Rep in the middle, raised his weapon and swung it down. The feather flapped. The axe stuck fast in the monster’s exoskeleton. The instant the feather stopped flapping, Con Rep split in two. He screamed abominably and both parts writhed in agony. Proof of the monster’s last great lie tumbled wetly from his split halves. The bones of every child Con Rep took with him the night before fell upon the beach, some still bound by undigested clothes. The citizens who survived couldn’t remember which sight was more horrible. Con Rep screeched and roared and whipped his body everywhere. He had gotten so long, half of him was enough to knock down the city’s tallest buildings. He had gotten so heavy, half of him was enough to cause earthquakes and crumble the others. Con Rep finally lay still by dawn of the next day, very dead. The man with the miraculous axe was the first who dared return to the creature’s corpse. He had already started chopping it apart when the remaining citizens of the former Repolis cautiously approached him. He paused his work and said: “Achill told me that the armor of Con Rep’s body contains all the metal it ever ate. From now on, let’s keep whatever fish we catch. We have a whole new export!” The astonished citizens came closer and admired his axe. It was made of humble, ordinary wood and steel except for the dangling feather. They asked the man the meaning of the decoration. “Truth,” he said. |