The Elephants' Tusks

Once upon a time, there was a place where worlds were in the form of giant elephants.

They all lived in lush greenery with plenty of grape vines and sugar cane plants, which they fed on. Some elephants still farmed carrots organically to eat.

On the elephants, there lived little beings and things, who did not know the vastness of the world, but they just lived and flourished, or died out, and whatever. The elephants would walk around, carrying their little occupants on their bodies. (Some elephants had little occupants that resided within their bodies.)

The elephants were not the creator of the little occupants, nor could they dictate much of what happened with their occupants, nor could they select what kind of occupants they got. Most of the little occupants were not even aware of the existence of the elephants at all.

The relationship between the elephants and their little occupants, however, was such that, for instance, if an elephant stood in the rain, floods might be caused at the area at the back of his neck. Or perhaps, if all the occupants living at the back of an elephant's neck gathered to jump at the right spot at the same time, that elephant's head might bob a bit.

*

One elephant had a nation of tiny frogs living on one of his tusks and a nation of tiny toads living on his other. The nation of frogs worshipped the great Frog God, and the nation of toads worshipped the great Toad God. In their respective god's name, they fought incessantly, trying to prove to each other the might of their gods. With their warring exchange of arrows, they often injured and burnt the elephant's trunk. And the elephant was afraid to lift the trunk too high to feed, as a result, he was hungry and weak and sickly of his occupants.

So, this world of an elephant went to ask around for a solution, and because he was a compassionate elephant, he hoped for a kind resolution.

After countless interviews with elephants whom did not even have occupants living on tusks, or had occupants of the same beliefs occupying both tusks and no experience with handling warring, or whose suggestions were not compassionate enough, he finally came across another elephant, who could rightfully empathise because he had experienced a similar problem a long time ago.

*

This second elephant had a nation of slugs living on one tusk and a nation of snails living on the other tusk. They worshipped their respective gods, but they lived peacefully with each other. They even celebrated each other's religious holidays in celebration of other's religions.

The slugs and snails used to be warring periodically. During a period of especially strong animosity, a slug prince and a snail princess fell in love with each other, and married in both gods names. The snail princess came to the slug land to profess her love for the snail god, asking for the slug's respect because to her, the Snail God made her a good person to come to the wonderful land of slugs. The slug prince went over to the Snail land and said something similiar. This appleased the people, whom accepted their marriage and eased their tension. (Appleased means a combination of pleased and appeased.)

So, the slugs celebrated the Snail God's birthday because they were happy that the Snail God was born to help many snails be better snails and not, for example, too arrogant that they had shells. The snails found the Slug God's birthday worth celebrating because the Slug God helped many slugs be better slugs, and not, for example, too arrogant just because they looked sexier.

*

Excited at the possible resolution, the frog-toad elephant was eager to stop the warring on his tusks. The frog-toad elephant proposed to join tusks with the slug-snail elephant so that the slugs and snails could pass their religion and message of peace to the frogs and toads.

When the tusks were joined, the frogs and toads ate up the slugs and snails, and occupied the tusks. In the new colonies, the frogs and toads were excited by their new land and interbred in the new settlements, and thus, ended their war, in most places.

*

The elephants, fell in love with each other while their tusks were interlocked, and when they realised the peaceful nations of the slugs and snails were wiped out, it was too late.

While they were in love, they dated and fed each other grapes and things. Then they came to think about how the slug-snail elephant could have just fed the frog-toad elephant, and there was no need to wipe out the snails and slugs after all. Their haste made waste.

Guilt stricken, the elephants broke up. They were self-reproachful for having pretended to be compassionate, but were actually not. (Although, ironically, by being guilt stricken, they were compassionate after all.)

The elephants did not realise that if they had not interlocked their tusks in the first place, they might not have fallen in love and ever thought of feeding each other food.

(sneak.)