Pen of Passion

~vintage 12/2007

A couple years ago, there was a tragic incident occurring in the jungle of Southeast Asia. In the years before the incident, there had been a lot of explorations taking place in the jungle. Many elephants had been driven out of their habitat, as a result. Some of the elephants ended up living near a farming village. At nighttime when no villagers were around, a few of them would sneak into the farm and make a nice feast out of the crops there. Since the elephants were so big in size, their unwanted visits left behind a lot of damages.

The villagers were not very happy about the intrusion. They hired a couple of professional elephant hunters to track down the culprits. The hunt was successful; the two elephants that were responsible for the damaged crops were killed.

For several days after the killing, the villagers enjoyed some very quiet time. They would, however, start to hear the sound of elephants mournfully trumpeting - coming from where the two elephants were killed. The sound would get louder and become more depressing in the days after. The villagers were quite concerned about this. They sent several elephant hunters to where the sound originated from to investigate the matter. Two days after the hunters were sent, there was still no sight of them coming back. The noise, on the other hand, was growing louder and louder. Alarmed, the villagers decided to put a barrier around the village just in case something bad might happen.

The next night started surprisingly calm with absolutely no noise. Many villagers thought the worst had passed, and went to sleep unguarded. For several hours, it would appear that they were right. As the clock struck near midnight, however, the whole village was shaken up by a thunderous noise. Before the villagers could realize what had happened, the walls around them were starting to collapse.

The villagers quickly evacuated from their homes. Unfortunately, they were greeted outside by numerous rampant elephants - which showed the defenseless villagers absolutely no mercy. Some villagers fall victims to the elephants’ indiscriminate tusks. Others were trampled to death. There were total chaos and bloodshed. Cries of fear and agony could be heard even a hundred miles away.

The next morning, the horde of ferocious elephants had already left the village; their destructive footprints, however, remained. The whole village had been totally annihilated. All the homes were destroyed, and the farmland was flattened. Odors of dead bodies consumed the air. The sun’s blazing heat added even more miseries to what had already been a grim travesty. For a village of several hundreds, only a few dozens survived. The clear victims were the children of the village. Many of them vanished in the stampede. Those survived will have to spend the rest of their lives as orphans without homes.

Mankind and Nature used to coexist peacefully. What has become of our world?

~Simon N.

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‘Dark Tales’ is a collection of 20 very short stories. Unlike my other entries, most of these stories are fictitious. A common theme in the stories is the eternal conflict between various opposing forces in our world — Man vs Man, Man vs Nature, Man vs Society, & Man vs Self.

|Fera|

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The Phais were the wealthiest clan in a mountainous region, north of the Oriental Strait. Not surprisingly, their compound was a prime target for robbers and thieves. Although the family owned many guarding dogs, the thieves had repeatedly outwitted even the most ferocious of canine.

In hope of alleviating the problem, the Phais sent hunters to nearby mountains to capture the notorious wolves that lived there. They then had the best animal trainers in the region domesticating the wolves. The results were quite good. The wolves proved to be great deterrents against thieves and even armed robbers. Additionally, they made great pets – the Phais even let the wolves freely roamed their compound.

One day, the Phais left home to conduct some business. They entrusted the care of their 2-month old infant to his wet nurse. When they returned home, they discovered the most shocking of things. Let just say the wolves had a pretty nice meal during their absence.

~Simon N.

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