The Little Being

Once upon a time, in a place that is further than you thought, there lived a little being who was not exactly loved or appreciated by all around them. 

Silvia Hartmann reads "The Little Being"

The Little Being

The little being was small, and furry; a sort of a greyish brown colour, and because its fur was mostly wet, it didn't look particularly nice. It had a tail but that too looked stringy and ratty, and you might say that its brown eyes looked shifty, but that was only because it was usually unsure of itself, and afraid, and didn't know what to do with itself most of the time.

The little being didn't have a home, or a warm hearth to snuggle up in front of and go to sleep, cosy and toasty warm when the cold autumn storms howled outside. Instead, it shivered in doorways, tried to find nooks and crannies in old walls and under bridges, and its life really wasn't very nice at all.

The little being didn't even have a name, because names are something given to you by someone else; it didn't know that it needed a name, either, as it wasn't given to thinking about anything very much. It was too busy scurrying around, trying to find some food, escaping from other, bigger creatures that would do it harm or wanted it to go away.

This was not a good life, as you can imagine, and the little being grew ever more sad and ever more lonely, only it never knew this was so, busy with the daily scurrying as it was.

It did notice, however, that the scurrying was becoming harder, that it would be more tired more often, and that simple things such as scrambling up a wall or dodging stomping feet of greater beings took a lot more attention and effort with each passing day.

The day, it came, when the little being lost concentration for a moment and it was there that a big stomping foot from a much greater creature came crashing down, right down on the little being's ratty tail … and …

OUCH!!! cried the little being, the first sound it had made perhaps forever, and its clear cry was heard by all for quite some way, and all the greater beings stopped for just a moment, including the one that had unknowingly trod on the little being's tail.

From its enormous height, the greater being looked down and its enormous head came down from the clouds until its eyes were as big as wagon wheels, and its mouth the size of an enormous cave opened and it spoke to the little being, which was all frozen in shock, in pain and most of all, in fear.

The little being didn't understand that it was being spoken to; there was a sound so low it felt like mountain thunder, and a wind went with it that made the little being shudder to the core; but it could not move, could not scurry away, and the next thing that happened was that an enormous shovel came down from the heavens and lifted up the little being, warm it was and soft, and raised it high, high up, higher than it had ever been before in all its little life. For a short moment, the little being could see things from up here it had never seen before, then all went black …

When the little being awoke, it found itself somewhere that was soft, and warm, and golden.

There was a gentle scent in the air of something that might be delicious, and the little being's tummy rumbled in response. It looked around, scared and confused, and wished it had something to drink; and as it wished that, it became aware of a small dish, next to the soft thing it was lying on, and that dish held the finest, purest, cleanest water the little being had ever tasted in its entire life.

The little being drank and drank until the small dish was empty and the last drop had been licked up, and that made it feel better.

It started to look around.

The little being seemed to be inside something that had walls all around, smooth they were and curiously invisible, as though you could see through them to the other side of whatever lay beyond.

Inside these walls, it was still, no cold drafts of any kind, and that was very pleasant to our little being. On the floor, there was a soft thing where it had been sleeping, the empty dish of water, and one more thing, which was an odd shaped object on the other side.

As the little being carefully crept closer, it realised that the scent in the air that had made its tummy rumble came from this odd shaped thing. It was very hungry but it was also afraid; so it first licked it from as far away as possible, stretching right out and only the very very tippiest tip of its tiny tongue made contact …

What a taste explosion! What a sensation!

The little being was like struck by lightning, so astonished, so amazed – it had never known such food could exist, and it couldn't believe it, it tasted the strangely shaped object many more times, receiving a fresh bolt of pleasure each and every time afresh, until it finally couldn't help itself and started to take big, big bites, each one more delicious than the one before.

The little being ate and ate and ate, until it could eat no more; it was so full, it could hardly creep across to the soft thing, crawl upon it, and fell asleep right away from the exertion.

And so it was that every time the little being would awake, there was new and more fresh water; and every time the little being would awake, there was yet another unknown kind of wonderfood in the corner, and all the time, it was warm, and dry, and golden all around, and there was no fear at all, of anyone or anything.

The little being didn't know this, but as time went on in gentle waves, at first it healed; and then, it grew.

The little being's fur became thicker and took on a lustrous golden shine, and that was how the little being started to realise that it was changing. It could not see itself, apart from a reflection in the walls it didn't know was of itself, but it could see its own tail, and that was no longer ratty at all. It was bushy, luxurious fur, soft and strong at the same time – the little being became fascinated by its beautiful tail and started grooming it, enjoying the sensations this produced, and that was what it would do once it was strong enough to not fall asleep right away after every delicious meal.

Not long after, the little being became aware of its own hands as well; and that was a big breakthrough as it began to wonder what more there was to discover about its own self. It found its feet, and then its little hands found its face, its nose, its ears – the little being was fascinated!

It discovered that its hands could pick up a corner of the soft thing and pull it out of place; that it could lie on its back and push the water dish with its little feet; and one unknowable day, the little being discovered its own reflection in the water dish when it was full, and that created so much fun and investigation!

The next breakthrough came when the little being connected its own reflection in the water dish with the softer reflections of itself on the transparent walls, and it learned to wave at itself and know that this was itself and not another.

One day, the little being, which was quite a bit bigger by now and golden all over, was dancing with its own reflection when its attention was caught by something that wasn't itself. There was something moving on the other side of the invisible walls!

Was there … someone else …?

The little being became very still that day, and watched carefully, trying to look through its own reflection to understand what, if anything, was going on outside the walls, and on that very day, in fact at that very moment, the greater being who had brought the little being home and had cared for it all this time, noticed that stillness, and came to look directly through the glass at why the little being just sat there, still and intent, not asleep at all.

The little being saw those enormous portals and it remembered – it was looking at a greater being, in fact, the one greater being who had caused the pain, and at the same time, the end of the world as it had been.

The little being felt something like it had never felt before; it had to rise from its crouching position and stand up to its full height, using its little hands to stabilise itself against the invisible wall, and as it raised its head, it looked beyond the wall and there was the greater being which had taken care of it.

The little being understood many things in that moment, and so did the greater being.

The greater being placed some objects on the inside and the outside of the safe space, so that the little being could climb in and out at will.

And that was the beginning of a great friendship, a great love between the little being and the greater being.

They would learn about each other and find ways to entertain each other and bring joy to each other. Later, there would be meetings with other beings of all types and all kinds, and those were friendly, and interesting, and always widened everyone's horizons.

The little being continued to grow and learn new things, and it remained a wonder not just to the one great being who had been lucky enough to have such a friend, but to all manner of greater beings, including those greater beings to whom this greater being was a little being!

And what would the little being grow up to be in the end?

Well, this we cannot know for the story as its written ends right here, and it is said that the little being and the greater being lived happily, ever after – of course they did!

But some have said, although this wasn't written then, that the little being would grow up to become a greater being, and it might well have gone out of its way to help other little beings, so they wouldn't have wet, ratty tails all the time any longer and discover along the way who they were truly meant to be.

Silvia Hartmann
2024

Discussing The Little Being - Messages, Themes & Call For Action