This was written as part of the RP on the Five Rings MUSH, Tempered Steel, in answer to a Crane, Kakita Shaji, who believed that the Emperor Presence in the lands of the Crane was like the sun making her home there.
Once there was a sparrow, who lived in the deep forests where the sun hardly shone. It had grown to a young bird in the shadows of that land, and it was skilled at avoiding the predators that hunted in the dark, yet it yearned to seek the light of the sky.
The other birds who lived in the deep woods called it foolish, and told it instead to be more beware of the owls and the stoat who had no need of light, but the little bird still yearned, but because it had lived all its life in the dark wood it did not know where to seek for the sun.
As the bird flew it saw a light through the trees, at first dim but then brighter and brighter. This, it thought, this must be the sun! It left the safety of its bushes and flew through the dark wood towards the light, and so bright was it that it was blinded, and blinded it flew into the light seeking its dreams.
The charcoal burner who's fire the sparrow threw itself into never even knew what had happened until the poor bird had perished in the flames, while all above the true sun shone on beyond the treetops.
| Celestial Heavens Are lit by the sun, on earth It is hard to see |