The Koi and the Waterfall

[Zephonith Serpent Woman]

Story-Time!

With...,

One fine day, a glorious Koi carp was swimming around contentedly, grubbing around on the bottom of the pond for some crustaceans, insects and bloodworms to eat, doing exactly the same as his fellows and carrying on with the mundane things as he had always done , blissfully contented with his lot in life ~ although it was a life lived in competition with the other fish, it was kind of crowded , and they were always in danger of being caught by a blood-sucker or fisherman.

A constant feature of his living experience eventually intrigued the beautiful Koi, who, unlike his pals, always wondered if there wasn't something better in life than just the same old routine.

Especially seeing as his best friend had been snared by the net of a casting fisher-of-men just the previous morning, and, feeling lonely without his soul-mate to share special grubs and worms with; his mind wandered off, which was actually highly-unusual for a carp fish, even one with such amazingly coloured scales and feathery fins to show off with.

 There was always a cascading sound at the one end of the pond, away from the fishers-of-men and those who would cause unnecessary harm to others for their own benefit; where there was plenty of life-giving oxygen and a nice current to glide around in.

"Where does this lovely water come from?" The Koi fish asked himself that evening.

"I'm going to try and swim to the source of it, and find out for myself about this great mystery, away from any deliberate and intrusive interferences."

The next morning, the Koi decided to share his secret goal with another fish whom he had known since fingerling-hood, and trusted to a certain extent because of it. The other fish , after hearing his carefully worked-out plan, at first swam along thinking hard, and suddenly, to his horror,the one whom he had taken into his confidence flitted off and told all of the others how stupid he was to even consider such things, revealing all that was told. Well, after this betrayal of trust, our Koi fish was ridiculed, ignored blatantly, picked on and victimised for his new beliefs and aims constantly and with little in the way of mercy..

This made him even more determined to accomplish his mission, and so the next morning at first light, he decided to get it on and swim up to the place where the fresh, oxygenated and pure waters came from..

Propelling his body upwards with all of his might, the fish promptly struck his head on a sharp rock.

"Man, that was painful!" he said in a pained voice, while the "friends" around just laughed and laughed, making jokes at his expense.

The second, third, fourth and fifth times turned into a whole-day event, providing much sarcastic amusement for the others in the pond.That night, eventually having given up, totally exhausted, our Koi retired, battered, bruised and tired, his only consolation being that he knew with absolute certainty, he would succeed and realise his goals eventually, no matter about any unwelcome attacks on his integrity as a fish seemingly different from the rest.

The next day and the next, and the next came and went, and for a full three months he tried to leap up to the top in one go, in vain. Every night he gave up as the sun went down, totally spent and as ready for bed as a man having done a hard day's work.

The other fish grew bored of his antics eventually and ignored him, as he was careful to shield himself from their harmful projections and concentrate on what even to him over time seemed to be a totally pointless and fantasy chase for something which seemed to be there, but appeared at the same time not to really exist.

Then one morning, a little female fish swam up to him and said " This is just an idea, but I've been watching you every day and was considering; why don't you try to do it in small stages and not in one go? Surely, intuition must be combined with strength to make it work at all?" Quick as a flash, she turned away, just in case the others saw her talking to whom they now saw as a hopeless weirdo.

Inspired by this pep talk from another whom he didn't even really know , the Koi approached the cascading waterfall with this new vision in his mind's eye, now fully prepared and ready to go. .

A small jump to the left landed him in a smaller pool of water, where only crabs were resident. All around him, the water rushed by with much speed and force. After a while to catch his breath, the Koi steeled himself and made another leap, this time to the right, as it somehow seemed the right thing to do, as to maintain a balance. 

Success again! He almost felt like a lucky fish, and proceeded to advance steadily and with patience, even staying in a pool on the way up, overnight.

A few more strategic and well-considered moves, and guess what? He actually won, and found himself at the very apex of the waterfall, which was as high as any pyramid.

Leaping into the water which created the waterfall, the Koi swam upstream and , although he was feeling a little bruised from his epic journey still, saw some other ,fish , streamlined and with very unique colouration and patterns, very different from the other fish he was used to.

But instead of joining him, they kept a respectful distance, and he was sure he overheard one of them say, " That is something I never ever thought I would see in my lifetime"

Swimming on, he happened to glance at a smooth black rock midstream and at first passed by, not recognising himself. Turning back, he found that he was looking at "himself" in the mirror-like crystal and didn't recognise anything from yesterday at all!

Instead of the colours and form he had grown up with admiring while he was conceited, immature and as compliant as any other Koi fish in the old pond, she found herself staring at something she never realised even existed ~ a great winged Dragon of formidable appearance with shining golden scales!

Rising out of the water for the first time ever, the Dragon took to the skies, flying free and every moment , accepting with Joy that this was really true, and that she had transformed forever into a new life, free of all the problems brought on by others and the conditioning the he she was had received back in the stew pond.

After several decades had passed by (which in dragon time is but a fleeting moment), the Dragon decided to go back and re-visit the old pond.

Arriving at the top of the falls, she peered over and observed that apart from a few changes in the pecking order, nothing had changed.

Suddenly feeling a surge of pity for the others, imagining their untapped potential being harvested by the many esoterically appearing shysters and predators out there and living the lives of slaves; she realised that there was nothing she could do to interfere. Those fish wouldn't even know about Dragons, nor realise that there was actually a way out which didn't involve selling one's soul to the most convincing bidder or living in fear any more.Perhaps they would never realise their hidden and full potential and graduate from Koi to Dragon.

Sighing a huge, flaming sigh of Dragon's breath, our Golden Dragon was about to turn away, when she heard a familiar sound in the airwaves. In disbelief, she turned around and with shock and surprise, saw another just like herself but male, with silvery colours. The Dragons approached each other, trembling with pleasant surprise and anticipation at the unexpected meeting.

After some spontaneous hugging, kissing and stroking of each other's scales in greeting, the Silver Dragon spoke. "Do you know who I am?" He said.

"After I saw you go and never return, I waited and considered that it must be possible for another fish, even though female in outer appearences, to reach the source of the clear waters and join you one day at long last. I also tried to jump up many, many times in one go, until I remembered my very own advice to you and, finding balance within, advanced steadily from level to level and from pool to pool, ever climbing upwards, ever determined, until I reached this special place."

"Well let me tell you something, my dear, which you cannot ever forget ~ once you have reached the centre and become your true and actual self, the adventure only begins and never ends" ~ the Golden Dragon said. "Now let's go off and have fun together, shall we?"

"Absolutely!" He replied. And don't worry my darling sister, at least another three fish saw me leave and never come back to the pond down there. And from the look in their twinkling eyes, I knew that they would someday follow, but only in their own special ways, for not one is the same ~  and become just as we are ~ as One in Koi heaven."

The End

~

[L. Love]

This had me in tears here....such a beautiful, moving story <3

[Zephonith Serpent Woman]