Exodus Introduction

Introduction

"In order to grow your audience,
you must betray their expectations."
—Hayao Miyazaki

This is a book for warriors. This is our history as I remember it. We keep these records so that those who come after us will know what happened and how it happened. I wrote this so that those like us will understand why we ran, and will- when the time is right- remember our path to guide themselves when things seem impossible.

If you're reading this, then either you're one of us or you stole this. If you stole this book, then you better keep in mind that we will find you one day.

Good, now moving on.

This isn't my story, but I'll tell it to you anyway. Technically this is the story of how the Red Hand tribe came to be, but really it’s the story of my friend Owl and his crowning moment of awesome.

Yes, Owl. No, I am not going to use our old names. No, not even for the early parts of the story where even we still used them. If you don't like it, you can go chew red mushrooms for all I care. I'm not changing my mind.

So this story starts before everything broke, before any one of us knew what was wrong. But this story is part of an even bigger story, and it starts before I was born and before my great grandparents had landed in North America, and before Pharaohs built pyramids.

I wasn't there, but I have a piece of something that tells how it started way back when, and so I'll start with that. It's a story that our teacher taught to us and said we should remember, because it told the truth even if the facts couldn't be confirmed. And once that's done, I'll tell you all about how Owl forged us into the First Red Hand Tribe, how we burned down school, became hunted criminals and how this saved us all.

 * * *

This is a true story, do not mistake this story for fact. This story is more than real, this story is mythology and it explains a secret that needs explaining.

This story is old. It takes place a long time ago, before time was chained down like a road- when time rolled in circles. Before cities and steel, there was the tribe.

There were many members of the tribe, amongst whom were the Brave Young Man, and the Corn Lady.

The Brave Young Man was a leader to the tribe who forged ahead and saw new things and led the tribe to new places. He was strong and lean and hungry like a great hunting cat. The Corn Lady was a leader to the tribe who grew crops and delivered children and kept the tribe fed and healthy. She was strong, with roots into the land and patience beyond measure.

The Corn Lady told the tribe how much food to plant or hunt that year. The tribe needed to be careful not to grow or hunt too much, because when there was more food than needed, the tribe would grow in size because more babies could be fed with the excess food. If the tribe grew, it would need more space, and there were tribes all around that used the space that the tribe did not. And if the tribe expanded, it would anger those tribes whose territory it expanded into. Controlling the size of the tribe was a peacekeeping method of much importance.

The Brave Young Man was always out exploring and learning new things, and one day he saw a great locust swarm fly across a valley and devour all of the grasses and other food in the valley, sending the other animals running in fear. The Brave Young Man was impressed, because although the other animals fled at the approach of humans such as the Brave Young Man, they never ran too far. The flight of the animals before the locust was a flight of raw terror. The Brave Young Man had never seen animals so scared.

The Brave Young Man collected up all the tall grasses he could carry from where he stood and wrapped them with a rope. Then he went down and made a peace offering of grasses to the locust swarm and asked to talk with them. The Locust Swarm agreed to this and asked what he wished to know.

The Brave Young Man said that he was impressed with the fear that the Locust Swarm instilled in other animals and in the Size of their tribe. The Brave Young Man asked if the Locust Swarm would tell him its secret.

The Locust Swarm replied that its secret was no secret, but something every Tribe knew. The more food a tribe had, the larger it grew. The larger a tribe grew, the more it expanded and was able to expand because a larger tribe can overwhelm a smaller tribe. Even a tribe composed of creatures as small of the humble locust can spread terror and expand at will if they are willing to play the price of such expansion.

The Brave Young Man asked what the price of expansion was. The Locust answered that the price was that they would expand as long as there was more food tomorrow than yesterday, but that if they could not find more food than yesterday their numbers would fall like leaves in autumn.

The Brave Young Man said to himself that the solution was simple, if excess made a tribe larger, and larger tribes can conquer smaller tribes, then there will never be a problem finding more food today than yesterday. He will simply go to a new tribe and conquer them until he had conquered the whole of the world and there was nothing left to oppose his tribe. In this way, his tribe would always be the greatest.

The Brave Young Man thanked the locust swarm and headed home elated. He addressed the Tribe and explained how he would make the tribe greater than all others by using the secret of the Locust.

The Corn Lady stood up as he finished speaking and told him that this was foolish, that what he had not talked about was the fact that the locust swarm would inevitably eat until the grasses were gone and the locusts would starve until almost none of the locusts were left. The tribe was not like the locusts, Corn Lady argued, if the tribe tried to live this way there would be never ending war with the other tribes. The tribe would be the enemy to the whole of the world and they would risk starvation if they ever faltered in their conquest. And their only prize at the end if they actually succeeded in conquering everything was starvation when there was nothing left to conquer.

The Brave Young Man was angry. He said that the Corn Lady was a coward who feared the glory of battle and stayed at home while brave warriors protected her from harm. He laughed at the idea that the tribe could ever reach the edges of their vast seemingly endless world. Who had travelled to the edge of the world? He asked. Who could know how large it was? The Brave Young Man told the tribe that he was proposing to make them the greatest tribe in history, that they would grow until the end of time and become masters of all.

The tribe was very concerned. They could not decide which of these respected leaders was right, for surely they could not both be right. And so the tribe went back to their huts to think.

The next morning, when the tribe awoke, the corn lady was found dead in her garden. The Corn Lady was lying so that it appeared that she had stabbed a knife into her own belly. The Brave Young Man said that she must have done so rather than lose face when the tribe adopted his new idea.

Some said that the Brave Young Man had killed the Corn Lady, others said that she had killed herself in disgust or despair. The tribe discussed and eventually decided that there was no evidence the Brave Young Man was involved and that his plan should be tested to see if it would work.

The tribe began to grow more than they needed. And as predicted, their numbers increased and they were able to overwhelm their neighbouring tribes. As they took over the lands of their neighbours, they commented that the Brave Young Man seemed to be right. The tribe was now large and feared. The BRave Young Man had brought them glory and conquest. If they remembered the Corn Lady's warning about what their victory would bring, nobody in the tribe spoke of it.

And so the tribe continued to expand and conquer. And they became better and better at conquest, until- to their surprise- they had conquered nearly the whole world. And as they looked around the globe and saw that there was nothing left to conquer they became uncomfortable. Their numbers were still growing. They still had to find ways to grow more food, but there was no new places left to take. They were the masters of the world, but they were conquerors with nothing left to conquer. They had long since forgotten the warning of the Corn Lady, and the price mentioned by the Locust Swarm itself- but as they stared at the conquests they felt nervous and could not tell why.

And that is why every child born to the tribe to this day feels that something is terribly wrong, as though all the adults are lying to them about something very important.

And every child is right, but most adults have no idea that they are lying.