by Alan Jackson

The clouds shivered across the moon, which sat in the sky like a watchful grandfather. Raven surveyed the world below him and was sad. The People believed that Raven, the greatest of all thieves and tricksters, had stolen the moon from the gods at the very beginning of this world. The gods were said to be angry about it still, and so every month there was a tug-of-war between Raven and the gods who try and pull it back into their world.

In the beginning, the night sky had been lit only by the light of the stars. In the darkness only the beasts of the forest roamed, man did not yet walk on the earth and there was no moon in the sky. Until one day Raven had been going along in the forest when he spied a beautiful nymph bathing naked in a stream. He was greatly attracted to her so, as was his way, the great trickster turned himself into a salmon and swam between her thighs and impregnated her. What Raven did not know was that this nymph was the forest goddess Gyhldeptis; daughter of Ta'xet the god of death. Almost immediately Gyhldeptis gave birth to Raven as a black-haired boy child. Ta'xet was a doting grandfather and spoilt Raven on every possible occasion.

As Raven grew to manhood Ta'xet gave him many gifts, but there was one bound chest that always remained closed in Raven's presence. Over the years Raven's curiosity about this chest and its contents grew and grew every day, until one night he could contain himself no longer. Raven crept into Ta'xet's house, prised apart the bindings and broke open the chest. Inside he found the glorious silver moon that Ta'xet was keeping all for himself. While Raven was admiring the moon, Ta'xet awoke and was angry and threatened to kill him. Raven snatched at the moon and turning into his real form flew high up into the sky, where Ta'xet couldn't catch him. The People say that it was a fine trick of Raven's to leave the moon up in the sky to mock Ta'xet every month.

Some say that Raven's finest trick of all was to finally release men into the world. For his own amusement, he released them one day from a clamshell into a turquoise rock pool. Raven laughed at their antics, as they tried to have sex with each other and then fell upon one another in violence. Raven thought mankind were extremely diverting. But, Raven was also to find that men were almost as fine tricksters as himself. Raven showed men how to feed themselves and brought them berries and salmon. In return, ungrateful men cut down Raven's forests, killed the salmon, the otters, and poisoned the rivers. Their violent natures made them turn tribe against tribe in unending war and destruction.

Finally, in the watery silver moonlight of the gods Raven sat on a high branch of the highest tree, on top of the highest hill, and watched in dismay at the absurdity of the life all around him. His obsidian eye saw all of the tricks that men played one upon the other. If they knew that Raven watched, and was deeply sorrowed by what he sees, the People would quake. His soul was made weary by the greed, the hate, and the pain that he felt through his claws on his branch.

Raven pondered. Maybe, this month, he will let the moon go? Make his peace with Ta'xet, and end this world?

Let it just slip away.

End