The Fate of the Species with Neither Feather nor Fur
-Shauna M. Doll
In the time before time, in the land of every place and no place, the pristine, snow-kissed tips of mountain peaks ruled the skyline. Flatlands and prairies spread out so wide and so vast that it was impossible to decipher the end of the Earth and the beginning of the heavens. Meadows were lush with wild tangles of bluebells and lavender and the jungles were thick with grandfather trees and carpets of rich moss. The air was crisp and sweet and the sky was the azure blue of deepest summer. Rolling emerald hills; unbound visceral wilderness; and infinite natural beauty dominated the landscape.
In the time before time, the land was populated by a majestic diversity of bird and beast. The seas were abound with marine species so radiant they twinkled in the sun. Secret rodents burrowed deep below the meadow grasses. Mysterious creatures dwelled within the deepest reaches of the sea. Idiosyncratic insects, amphibians, and reptiles prowled proudly over the Earth and enigmatic beings lurked in the dark shadows of crooks and caves.
However, there existed one species, odd, and out of place. Equipped with neither feather nor fur, its delicate skin flamed red, cracked and bled in times of cold and puckered with burning blisters in the heat. It grew neither claw nor fang to defend itself from predators. It was without the ability to fly, to climb, or to camouflage to escape pursuit. It was endowed with neither speed nor agility. It was without keen eye or nose, and its hearing was dull. It was incapable of great strength and endurance. This odd and out of place species existed only to toil in its inadequacies. Upon seeing this, Mother Nature took pity on the wretched souls and bestowed upon them the gift of cleverness.
Ah, how the species rejoiced in gratitude! They stripped, for warmth, hide from such noble beasts as the buffalo, feasted on their hearty meat and chiseled tools from their bones. They wasted nothing. They took shelter in caves and thick canopies. They gathered roots and berries to satisfy their hunger. They discovered fire and celebrated life by its light even on the darkest of evenings. They created song, dance and legend. Mother Nature was pleased with the progress of the species and continued to bestow upon them gifts of temperate weather and prosperity.
However as the species—whose name remains unspoken by nature for fear of its greedy wrath—grew, so too did its sense of thoughtless curiosity. The members began to separate and vie for power and land. They began to hunt wastefully and mindlessly, forgetting the gracious sacrifice made by beast in order to satisfy hunger. They developed distaste for moving with seasons as birds do, and began to settle. And their numbers continued to grow.
No longer satisfied with the bounty of nature, the species began to alter wild landscapes. They hunted brother species to extinction. They cut jagged scars into the land to transport water and charred the Earth to create fertility for growing. They constructed dams and dykes. They extracted stone from mountain sides to construct idols and palaces. They waged wars and thrived on violence. They became obsessed with elitism and wealth. And their numbers grew.
In attempting to support their masses the species erred and transformed the most lush and fertile fields into arid wastelands. They began to spread across the Earth, infiltrating its most remote and tranquil corners. They became obsessed with notions of technology and progress. They constructed sprawling cities and paved winding roads. They built banks and supermarkets. They began to value individual advancement over cooperative existence. They discovered the sooty prosperity to be gained by coal and the wealth to be found within deposits of ore. They learned of the rich oil of the whale and later stumbled upon the thick, black, life blood of the Earth’s crust. They burnt it all, creating energy, to sustain their lives, to sustain their progress. And their numbers grew still.
Still dissatisfied with their achievements, the species began experimenting. They joined together elements Mother Nature had never intended to combine. They invented indestructible plastics and massively destructive weapons. They created chemicals strong enough to burn through skin and generate sickness. They developed medicines to prolong life, for they deeply feared death and dying, but only distributed them to those who had the wealth to render them worthy. They began to engineer seeds and mass manufacture their food. They invented a method by which to duplicate life and genetically engineer babies. And their numbers continued to swell.
The Earth was toxically transforming, polluted by apathetic, individualistic ambition. Mother Nature could feel her skin becoming sallow. Her once golden hair was thinning and dank. Her hands were gnarled, her cheeks gaunt, her teeth yellowing. Her hip bones jutted out awkwardly like razor blades and her once sweet voice was becoming gruff and harsh. Her youthful gait had become a hunched shuffle. And her laugh, formerly the sigh of a gentle summer breeze, was the hacking cough of an axe against a one hundred year old tree. She sat in the blistering heat of volcanic rock and raged against herself for having not created a natural predator for the endlessly clever species. She berated herself for having granted cleverness as opposed to wisdom. She fumed at the irreversible destruction that surrounded her.
She shrieked furious winds across the flatlands and bellowed raging cascades of snow from mountain peaks. She wrung her hands and churned the sea into massive waves. She bellowed deafening thunderclaps and stomped her feet until the earth quaked underneath them. Then she collapsed. And as she lay shuddering to breathe, she could not muster a pure tear to weep for her paradise lost. Instead a single oily streak oozed from her pained eye and a cloud of soot coughed from between her grey lips. And then… she began to cackle. A maniacal laughter that spread from the deepest reaches of the ocean to the very pinnacle of the sky. For she realized that the greatest predator of a man is man and eventually that which sustains him will destroy him. And with that Mother Nature fell asleep and dreamed of the morning when the odd species with neither feather nor fur met with this same realization.
