Young Writers Society

A/N: The "Mutts" stories do not have to be read in any particular order. They are all just set in the same world and circle around the same large-scale event, but focus on different characters and situations.

8/17/08

045 – Moon

A thousand years ago, the Mutts did not have to live in fear and hiding. They were a proud people and strong. All feared them and loved them. God looked down on them from Heaven, from his throne on the moon, and he smiled on them.

But one day, the moon was dark and God could not see as the humans grew strong and overthrew the Mutts. When the moon became bright again, God was sad to see that his favorites, the Mutts, had been reduced to little more than prey for the humans to hunt. But the humans were strong and the Mutts forgot about God in their fear. So God became angry and turned his back on the Mutts and left them to their misery.

Time passed and the Mutts remained in their suffering. They old ones remembered God and they turned their cries to his throne on the moon, but they didn’t truly believe, so their voices did not reach Heaven.

However, their motions, if not their faith, inspired a young Mutt named Kit. Kit was a strong male and his belief in God was as strong as his body. He was song of the Mutts’

Leader, Seri, and all the Mutts looked forward to the day when Kit would take over for his father and lead the Mutts into an age of prosperity and peace. Kit’s father did not believe in God, so when Kit told him that he wanted to go on a journey to Heaven, Seri laughed. He thought Kit was joking.

Kit persisted. When Seri realized that Kit was in earnest, he grew angry. He asked if Kit meant to abandon him and the Mutts, just when they needed a strong leader? But Kit pleaded and reasoned with his father and finally Seri came to see Kit’s side and gave his son his blessing.

Kit wrapped up three cakes of the moon festival, made of flour from the fungi in the caves that the Mutts hid in. They were bitter and hard, but when it eaten with the spicy stew of the moon festival, they had been a holy food to the Mutts. Kit packed these as an offering to God when he reached the throne on the moon. He put them into a cloth pack, along with a canteen of water and three dried lizards for food, laid it on his shoulder and waited for the moon to rise.

When night came and the moon shone bright and full, Kit bowed in reverence to God and began his journey. He travelled for five days, eating the lizards and drinking the water in his canteen, but leaving the moon cakes untouched. He travelled five more days and his food and water ran out. Five more days he journeyed until finally he was about to expire from hunger, so he ate a crumb from one of the moon cakes. The small morsel inflamed his appetite and so, like a beast, unknowing and uncaring about their holiness, he devoured two of the cakes. But when he came to the third cake, his hunger had slaked enough that he remembered who he was and what the cakes were for. Horrified at what he had done, he bowed and prayed for forgiveness, then carefully wrapped the single cake and replaced it in his pack.

Five more days passed before Kit, weary with hunger and footsore, reached the gates of Heaven at the top of the tallest mountain. The moon hung above the mountain and God sat in his throne on the moon’s surface. He looked down at Kit and Kit cowered and covered his face.

“You have travelled far,” God said.

“Yes, my Lord, I have. I have brought you a gift and I beg a question.”

Kit reached into his bag, careful to avert his eyes from God’s face, and held out the last moon cake. God regarded the cake.

“Why have you brought me only one cake? Did you not set out with three?”

Kit was ashamed and with a bowed head, he told God of his hunger and how he had eaten the other two cakes. God was angry and berated Kit for his foolishness.

“I know your question already,” God said to Kit. “You wish to ask for the liberation of your people. This is my answer to you: because you acted unholy and ate the two holy cakes like a beast, you and your people shall undergo a period of punishment. The humans shall continue to torment you and hunt you like beasts, for like a beast you acted.”

Kit bowed low in shame, but God had not finished speaking.

“But, because you showed great faith in travelling all the way to Heaven, and because you remembered the holiness of the last cake, I will make you this promise: your people shall be freed. You, Kit, will not live to see this freedom, for you were the one who acted unholy, but in a time long in coming, the Mutts will be a proud race, free of torment and fear.

God blessed Kit and allowed him to return to his people. He delivered God’s promises of punishment and at first, the Mutts were angry and sad. They cursed Kit for his foolishness and blamed him for their troubles. But then he told them of the promise for redemption and those who had been angry were soothed and all the Mutts’ eyes were opened in faith to God. They prayed and sang and feasted in order to make themselves strong for the coming period of tribulation. But always they had hope.