PLLanet/sutras

• back to PLLanet.

Some sutras my players have discovered in the midst of their journeys.

Once there was a maiden...
...who stood atop a city.
Trees brushed her ankle, and water lapped at her toes.
A bird flew past her knee, and she slapped it from the sky.
A dog bit at her heel and she trampled it into the earth.
A lion leapt at her throat and she crushed its own with her teeth.
“Why slay me?” asked the lion as she hurled it at the morning.
She said, “To rule a place is to preserve it.”

Once there was a maiden...
...who knew a song.
It was a good song, but she didn't sing it very well.
So she wrapped her voice in a lantern and carried it on a pole.
Wherever she carried it the lantern sang and lit up all the darkness.
She walked and walked and walked, but the road just kept on going.
“How much farther?” sang the lantern.
“Forever,” she said.

Once there was a maiden...
...who was very, very hungry, but did not know how to eat.
A panther ate an owl, and she watched.
A bear ate a fish, and she listened.
“This is what I must do,” she said.
She ate the moon and ate the stars, ate the earth and drank the sun.
When she was done, she sipped her blood from a goblet and wiped her lips with her soul.
“What next?” she asked the Universe.
“Everything else,” it replied. “To know a thing is to be it.”

Once there was a maiden...
...whose shadow came to kill her.
It made no noise in the darkness.
It couldn't be seen in the night.
It really raised quite a fuss.
So she traded places with it and killed its body.
“Success,” she said, “is arbitrary.”

Once, there wasn't a maiden.