Disclaimer: All Paramounts Trademark characters belong to them. The idea belongs to me. I promise to put their toys safely back when I'm finished. Maybe.
The legend in this story is based (very loosely, I might add!) on the Dreatime stories of the 'Arunta' people in Central Australia. It's also based on several legends I heard as child from the local Aborigional children I knew.
Kira Nerys stared out of the small window and sighed. She'd spent the day helping her father in the garden, or more to the point, Tabrin had been planting while his daughter industriously dug holes in her own tiny patch of dirt. The young child was tired after spending all day in the sun, her hunger-pinched face burnt with the days' heat. She'd wanted to go inside to the shade after only a few minutes, but she'd stayed with the man throughout the day. After all, since the Cardassians had killed her mother and dragged her older brother away to the mines, there was no one else to help him.
Tabrin sat down next to Nerys and smiled tiredly. "Thank you for helping today." His callused hand gently brushed her fringe out of her eyes. "I couldn't have done it without you."
Nerys smiled. "I like helping you papa." Her face fell and she turned back to the stars. "They shouldn't have taken Rugel away like that."
Tabrin's smile became bitter. "Missing him won't bring him home, Nerys. All we can do is pray that the Prophets are taking care of him."
"I hope so papa." Nerys picked at her thin blanket. "Do you think they'll ever leave papa?"
"They will chula, I know they will." The man looked out the window at the distant stars. "Out there, Nerys, are other people fighting them, just like we are. The Cardassians won't be able to fight us all at the same time, one day they'll have to leave us alone."
"It's too late for mama and Rugel though." The child's voice was small, and Tabrin sighed. His daughter believed her mother dead, and he had no heart to tell her the truth. She was already old beyond her years, and with every day Nerys grew closer to adulthood. The thought of what would happen then filled Tabrin with dread.
"Nerys, don't you remember the story about Wangalup?" Tabrin smiled as Nerys looked at him curiously. "No? Then settle down and I'll tell you about him."
Nerys lay back obediently and Tabrin began the tale.
"Long ago, when the Prophets had first made the Bajoran people, there was a Gurump named Wangalup. Now, Wangalup lived high in the mountains near the waterfalls that flow with the melting winter snows. He had all he could want up there near the rivers and streams. There were bugs to eat, and plenty of water to drink, and there were other animals to talk to, like Olat and Kivik came to drink at the waterholes and eat the sweet, tender grass in spring."
"But the problem was that Wangalup was a greedy Gurump, and he couldn't stop eating. And this, of course, made him very thirsty, so he had to drink lots of water. This normally wasn't a problem, because there was plenty of water in the mountains, but one year, all the water wasn't enough for Wangalup. He started drinking and didn't stop!"
"Of course, the other animals warned Wangalup that he would drink all the water in his waterhole, but Wangalup ignored them and kept drinking, and sure enough he'd soon drunk all the water in the waterhole. But Wangalup wasn't satisfied, so he went down the mountain a little to the next hole, and asked the animals there if he could drink from their hole. The animals agreed that he could have a little water, but Wangalup ignored them and soon drank all their water too!"
"Wangalup was huge by now, but he was so greedy he kept drinking. He emptied waterhole after waterhole, leaving the other animals thirsty. Soon they were begging him to stop drinking their water, but Wangalup started fighting with them for their water, and because he was so big because of all the water inside him, he always won the fight."
"Eventually, Wangalup had drunk all the water in the mountains, but he was still thirsty. Glancing around him, he saw the city of the Bajorans far away, and sniffing the air, he smelt the water in their dams and tanks. Thinking to himself, Wangalup decided to leave the mountains and go to the city and take their water too. Because he was now so big, and because he had defeated all the animals and got their water, Wangalup thought that the Bajorans would be easy to defeat. 'After all', he thought, 'they are only people, and they don't even fight! If the Olat with its sharp hooves and the Kivik with its horns can't hurt me, what could the Bajorans possibly do to me?'"
"So Wangalup went to the city, drinking all the water he found on the way. Eventually, he arrived at the city gates and shouted 'I am Wangalup, a humble but thirsty Gurump. I see you have water to spare, for you have ponds and dams that you don't even use. May I drink some of your water to quench my thirst?'"
"The Bajoran leaders thought about this for a while. They had heard rumours that a Gurump was drinking all the water it could find, but this polite Wangalup could not be the same creature, surely. Eventually, the leaders opened the gate and allowed Wangalup inside. They saw the gleam in his eyes as they showed him their ponds and dams, and the streams and pools in the monasteries, but decided he was merely happy to be able to drink."
"Wangalup thanked them for their kindness, hoped to the nearest pool, and emptied it in one gulp! Glancing around, he saw another stream and set about drinking all its water too. The Bajorans scurried around, trying to find more and more water for him, until they finally realised that he would never drink his fill. But when they asked Wangalup to leave, he laughed at them and said 'The Kivik with its horns, and the Olat with its hooves couldn't harm me. Who are you to tell me what to do?' And so Wangalup went on drinking, ignoring the Bajorans who prodded him with sticks and knives, for his skin was so tough they couldn't hurt him now."
"The Bajoran people were tired from fighting Wangalup, and they cried out to the Prophets for help and guidance. The Prophets told the people to have patience and faith, and to never give up the fight. But Wangalup just grew bigger and bigger, and drank more and more of the water. He even drank the water in the monastery pools, and splashed mud into the streams the people drank from."
"Eventually, the people had almost now water left to drink for themselves. But by now, they had learned to fight Wangalup, and the greedy Gurump was becoming afraid. So he started fighting the people, and he spent so much time fighting them that he had no time left to drink. So, little by little, Wangalup got smaller and smaller. But because he was fighting all the time, he didn't notice how small he was getting."
"One day, the people attacked Wangalup as he drank at a dam. Wangalup ignored them because his skin was so tough, but this time, the people hurt him because he was smaller than before. So this day, the peoples spears pricked at Wangalup's skin, until one of them finally pierced the skin, and suddenly all the water came rushing out and ran back into the dam."
"Wangalup realised he was shrinking and started to hop away, back to the mountains he'd come from. But the people surrounded him and stopped him. A small child picked him up and laughed at him because he was so small and couldn't scare them anymore."
"Wangalup was humiliated, and struggled free. He hid under a stone until it was dark, then hopped away. In the distance, he could hear the people celebrating his defeat in the city, and he was angry. But he was too small now to do anything about it, and he knew that he would never be able to trick the Bajorans again, for they would remember what he had done and tell their children. And they would make sure that no Gurump would ever threaten them again."
Tabrin finished the tale and smiled at his drowsy daughter. "Now, I think it's time for all good children to sleep. You've got lessons with Teacher Novam tomorrow."
Nerys roused herself slightly. "Papa, are the people in the stars nice?"
Tabrin nodded solemnly. "Yes chula, they are." The man tucked the blankets around his only daughter and turned off the nearby lantern. Glancing back, he smiled as he saw Nerys bathed in the light of the stars.
So, comments anyone? Mail me at: bilbo@dx.com.au