sake.
‘No, a thousand times no!’ she panted and onwards fled,
Tripping and falling and bruising her legs,
Only to rise and speed forth faster than e’er.
At long, long last she found a deep hole
In which she sprang with no second thought.
They fell for what seemed like a thousand years
And struck the floor with a bone-jarring thud.
For a long time they lay there completely stunned
On the bank of an underground stream—
A river which roared and crashed with great noise
Through miles of underground caverns.
The evil spawn of the foolish girl
Did not die, as he fell on his mother,
And was thus due to rise soon to menace the world
With the fumes of his evil soul.
Soon the stars would weep in shame
While cursing the woman Kei-Lei-Si
And the wicked Za-Ha-Rrellel.
The otherwise beautiful woman and her monstrous son,
Lived for years in the bowls of the earth.
Fish, and crabs from the muddy banks,
Were abundant enough to keep them alive,
While above ground the Kaa-U-La birds were searching
The forests and plains in vain.
On returning from a crab-hunt one day
Kei-Lei-Si saw her son sitting near the fire
Humming a happy tune to himself.
This greatly surprised her, for never before
Had he spoken a word – leave humming a tune!
‘My son!’ she breathed, her soul overflowing with joy,
‘You can talk . . . you are singing . . .’
‘Shhhhhh . . .’ he said, and Kei-Lei-Si saw
Him fixedly stare at some iron ore,
The very piece she had brought to the cave herself,
Which she used on the flints in the cavern walls
When she wished to kindle a fire.
A cold terror struck the poor woman
As her gaze came to rest on the ore;
Her whole body froze with horror and fear
As the penetrating stare of her son
Caused the ore to grow in size!
Still hypnotised she watched and saw
The ore turn soft and starting to flow.
A few heartbeats later two bright stalks grew
At the tips of which glowed small bloodred eyes,
And a hungry-looking mouth took shape
Snarling viciously at Kei-Lei-Si
With a display of razor-sharp teeth!
The woman shrieked with horror and undiluted fear
When she realised her son was in fact creating—
That the tune he was humming was an incantation—
Commanding the hitherto lifeless iron
To assume a shape and Life!
She watched spellbound as the living thing grew
And legs like those of a grasshopper took shape—
Then came pairs of dragonfly wings
And a rat-like shining metal tail, with a sting,
A crystal sting with dark green poison!
‘My son!’ cried she, ‘What . . . and how . . . and why . . .?’
‘This,’ he said, without emotion,
‘Is one of my weapons of conquest!’
‘Conquest? Conquest of what, my son?’
‘Of everything – the earth, the sun and the moon!’
Then turning to the fast-growing metal beast
And indicating his mother with a deformed limb
Snapped, ‘Seize her, and drink your fill!’
At which command the horror leapt
And pounced upon the startled woman,
Seizing her with his insect-like legs.
‘My son, my son, what have I done—
Why do you do this to me?
I am the woman who bore you, and brought you up!’
‘I know very well who and what you are—
But nobody asked you to bear me and rear me
And least of all did I.’
‘I saved you from the big birds my son;
They desperately wanted to kill you!’
‘All that I know,’ said Za-Ha-Rrellel calmly,
‘It was only the instinct of a female beast
And you were obeying a natural law.’
‘Have mercy, my son,’ cried Kei-Lei-Si.
‘What is this thing called mercy?
You are of no use to me any more.
I have now grown to full independence
And I no longer need your protection.
All I need now is nourishment for my new servant
To grow and reproduce
