Thursday, October 11, 2007

They can't all be winners...but can any?

Up in mountains, north of Kazakstan, there lay a peculiar little town. Nestled in a hot mountain oasis between peaks, a strange people with blue skin walked the paths of their little city. They were afflicted with a rare form of skin cancer, which led to the blue hue of their skin. It was up in those mountains where the Kazakh people had sent them to die, but they had formed their own community. There, they lived, and using the land, survived for many generations. They spent their time very secluded, never coming into contact with the outside at all, until one fateful day in the early fall.
A stranger wandered from the nearby town of Brittley way up into the mountains, over the first peak and into the little village. The boy was called Nasib, and he had wandered far looking for his long lost sister.
Sadly, no one in the village had seen a girl with pink cheeks who could have been Nasib’s sister, and the little boy started to leave.
“Don’t let him go,” shouted a voice, “for his pure blood has the power to cure us all.”
Nasib started to run, and was quickly pursued by two large men. He made it all the way to the top of the hill before they managed to catch up with him. They tackled Nasib and brought him to their village leader. The leader of the village was a wrinkly, blue, scrotum-faced man who glared at Nasib as if he was horrible criminal.
“Tie him down,” yelled the leader through his floppy blue cheeks as he approached Nasib. He licked his lips as he engulfed the little boy’s face with his mouth. “Now I can cure the village,” he said as he swallowed. “We will never die from sickness again!”
Nasib’s face landed with a “sploosh!” in the village elder’s stomach. It smelled like sour, rotten swill. Then he dissolved, and the leader was cured.
Unfortunately, no one else in the village was cured, for they where out of Nasib. For they had misunderstood the lore of old, and the leader was outcast from the village for misleading them.
Back in Nasib’s village, though, the people began to worry about the boy and his sister. That is, until the faceless Nasib wandered back into the town. At first, nobody could tell who the strange, faceless man was supposed to be, or what he wanted.
When the figure knocked open the door of Nasib’s home, then hugged his mother, its identity became apparent. The poor women was horrified at the fate of her child, but knew she could never abandon him. She turned to his father and said, “How could someone do this? He’s only a child”
He turned to her, “Something must be done.”
That night, Mr. Nasib senior assembled an angry mob that he inspired to anger with his embittered slander of the blue-faces.
Meanwhile, all was not quiet in the blue-face town, which by the way is named Jarman. Nasib’s sister, as it turned out, had wandered near their village, and Nasib’s sister was a murderous baby monster-woman. Within moments of coming upon the village, she had killed nearly half of the already-close-to-death blue folks. The other half of the village quickly rallied, and tied down Nasib’s sister. They survived, but now only half the village remained, and an angry mob from the next town was on its way. The blue-faces quickly grabbed all the weapons they could. They formed their own army and marched out to meet the normal people.
Because the blues were terminally ill, they were easily trampled and slaughtered by those from Nasib’s village. Thus, blue skin cancer was cured for all time.
Nasib grew up and became an expert mask-maker, and had the greatest range of expressions of any mask-maker. He became known far and wide, and became very rich.
Nobody remembered about Nasib’s sister, her parents didn't care about her so she remained trapped in the blue cancer village. She died of blue skin cancer and the sun bleached her bones.

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