myth for lantern hakea

The old man left everyone he had ever known. He knew it was time to go to the mountains where a voice was singing to him, where the edge of the story waited like a door. All he thought to himself while he walked though the low-lying shrubs away from his loved ones to whom he had given almost all of his soul was that he didn’t know if he would ever hear a story again and this broke his heart more than anything else.

When he got to the mountain he sat. and a snake appeared. The snake is the one who was here at the beginning and who will write the end with her body. It came down to him like a ray of light in the dark clouds and circled the man.

“I know you". She said and tears came to the man’s eyes because he knew her too. “And I will eat you.” She continued. Her eyes her so dark they flashed and her scales rippled.

“Maybe.” The man replied, surprising himself with his own bravery. But he had very little of his soul left, so fear had fallen somewhere around his toes. So the snake tightened around him. His ribs were bound and he could barely sip enough air in to breathe.

The serpent’s lips peeled back to produce the most stunning folds, perfect as the crease between the land and the sky. Her hollow teeth descended and he knew this was the last vision many saw. But he saw something else in that moment. A strange thing glowing from behind the teeth. He couldn’t make it out and was overcome with curiosity, his fear - again - being somewhere else. So with a nearly deific gusto he parodied the snake. He curled his lips back and showed his teeth and she became confused, loosening, only slightly, her grip, enough for him to reach inside her mouth and grasp at the thing that came off so easily it was nearly a gift. Then the man fell to earth.

When he woke he felt a shadow over him and he believed the serpent was still there towering, waiting for him to wake to witness his own death, but no. The being was still, nearly transformed into a plant. At his feet was a boomerang. Inspecting the plant he saw the scales were still there, they were alert and full of life. The teeth were still sharp.

He felt a burning sensation on his forehead. An ember was there. The last bit of his soul was ready. He wrote a story into the boomerang and threw it towards the ones he loved where the wind read and whispered the carved story over their heads.

The scales parted, and the man entered the lantern hakea.