Stink Bug - Sweet Water Geocoin

To be discovered

2013

The Shield Carriers

The universe used to be bright, but long before any of us were born, it fell into darkness. The night sky then was ablaze with bridges and tunnels and ships that allowed travel to other worlds. There were many creatures that have now faded from our sight and the very air was filled with music and voices. None today remember those times and only a few scraps of myths remain.

Without warning there arose an angel who called himself “The Opposer”. At first he seemed harmless, until he gained for himself the power to remove beautiful things from creation. The fall into darkness was swift. He gestured to the bridges between the worlds and their wispy streamers of light faded from sight never to glow again, leaving humanity stranded. He gestured again and the winged helpers first darkened into silhouettes and then into nothing. Many tried to stop him, but he had amassed a powerful army who somehow believed that what he was doing was in some way right. Again and again he darkened the brilliance of the world. The people cried out for help and the angels who still believed in light answered by forming an army; their leader was named Michael.

The Opposer and Michael fought their battle in the now empty voids between the stars. Where once there had been islands, castle, and fields there was now only darkness. It was all gone from sight, touch, and hearing. The Opposer was gaining the upper hand; his armies were driving backs the angels of light. Michael swung his sword with such speed, fury, and precision, that it became a lethal blur, but still the Opposer was faster and more lethal. Then he reach out his hand and by some cunning shattered Michael’s shield. Every angel, both the followers of light and the followers of darkness, gasped to see Michael without his shield. There was a pause in the fighting because even those who wanted to extinguish the light felt that this was too great a sin.

Although, much had already been lost, The forces of light rallied to restore Michael’s shield. The dragons, in desperation, began tearing off their scales and roared out “use these to make a new shield”. The need was great and some of them bled to death in their rush to give Michael their scales for protection. As they were doing this, The Opposer gestured and the dragons faded into darkness, never to be seen again. The pile of bloody scales remained, however, and then those with the greatest skill for crafting stepped forward. The raccoons had the finest hands in all of creation and no one would be able to restore the shield as well as them. They labored in haste to shape the scales into a gleaming shield so that the dragons’ sacrifice would not be in vain. Other creatures encircled the raccoons to prevent them from being darkened. These creatures paid. The Brownies and the Tree Women were darkened and lost. As each faded from sight someone else took their place. The Opposer was swifter than the protectors so that the raccoons were struck. They did not fade completely but their cunning left them. Where once their hands had been able to create, now the raccoons just dumbly pressed their hands against the not quite complete shield. More and more was being lost and it became apparent to all that the shield must be delivered to Michael at once, finished or not.

Many souls tried to carry the shield, but they were all struck down. The fairies, the sprites, the phoenixes, and countless others were all lost. The stinkbugs stepped up and offered to carry the shield, but everyone knew that they were silly and foolish, so they were pushed aside.

Every soul has a purpose given to them by God and the bugs were God’s carriers of very small messages. Each bug carried a different message to be conveyed to humanity, but the message of the stinkbug was so obvious that everyone already knew it. The stinkbugs were felt to be inconsequential and redundant. So as they always were, they were pushed aside. Many other souls tried to carry the shield to Michael, but each one failed and was extinguished from the universe.

The stink bugs stepped forward a second time and were again rejected. When at length, they stepped forward a third time, the unicorn spoke up and said, “I will help them”. No one knows now and no one knew then why she offered to help them, but few were left to argue with her. She touched her horn to the shield and then she touched her horn to the backs of the stink bugs for this was her purpose. On each bug’s back a talisman appeared. They were too small to carry the shield, but if they could reach Michael, with even one talisman, the shield would appear in his hand. A short time later, the unicorn was struck and she faded.

The stink bugs flew toward the battle. Their purpose in the universe was to carry a message and even though it did not relate to the task at hand, they repeated it over and over again. They cried out their silly obvious message, their message that was so plain that it would be impossible for anyone to forget it or to not know it intimately. They cried it out as though it was a battle cry and they flew into the maelstrom.

They were slaughtered, but their numbers were beyond counting so they continued on. Their message gave them strength to fly into the face of inevitable destruction.

Michael despaired for he could see that his sword was beginning to corrode. His angels’ wings were in tatters and their mantles were in flames. Soon all would be lost to the darkness. He heard a tiny voice in his ear and felt a little bug land on his shoulder. The Opposer heard the voice too and saw the silly little creature. If the bug had not been so close to Michael, it would have been cast into darkness. Still, its voice went silent and none of the stinkbugs ever spoke again. Michel did not need any distractions, so he reached up to brush the bug from his shoulder. The moment his hand came in contact with the bug, a shield appeared in Michael’s hand. He felt his strength return for even though the shield was not finished, it was the finest that had ever been made. Michel surged forward and grabbed the Opposer by the shoulders and dragged him out of the universe. The battle was ended.

When Michael was again in heaven, his mind became clearer and he could see what had been lost. For every beautiful thing which remained in the universe, five things had been made dark. The bridges were lost, the castles and islands were lost, the unicorns and dragons were lost. They could no longer be felt, seen, or heard. It would be possible to walk right through the dark things and not even know that they were there. The animals were now all silent and could no longer give council or aid to humanity. Their voices were gone. As he thought about lost voices he remembered the final moment of the battle as the stink bug had flown toward him. They had said their message over and over to make themselves brave, their silly obvious message that no one would ever forget because it was as plain as light. Michael breathed in and his breath caught in his throat, because now that his mind was clear, he could see that humanity would forget that message. They would still have the words, but without the bugs’ voices, the message would seem to be untrue. Humans would say the words to each other, but they would not believe them.

The memory of the battle filled Michael’s visions and he relived the final moments. He could see the stink bugs flying toward him and their tiny voices saying their message that was meant to be whispered in every human’s ear over and over again. Each one of them was crying out “Your life is vital to God’s plan!”

Michael put his head in his hands and wept. The legends say that the earth went around the sun ten thousand times before he stopped.