The Volcano King and the Shadow-Stitching Needle: Vol. 1

A fabric depicting the legend of the hero Tao'uru, deeply loved by the children of Natlan.

This is part of the story of the Volcano King's struggles with the peoples of the various tribes.

If one were to tell it from the beginning, the storyteller would have to stay by the bonfire for a full seventeen days and nights—and later the children would sink into sleep under the overlong words, and no one would ever hear the most splendid part of the ending.

So we skip the earlier parts... at least those not so crucial to the listener.

Let us speak of the Volcano King's shadow, and the story of the "Shadow-Stitching Needle" hanging on the Sulfurous Veins:

This story took place in the age when the great beasts had hidden their forms from this land, and empty Great Volcano of Tollan was occupied by the pitch-black Volcano King.

Great Volcano of Tollan was once the dwelling of a once-great dragon—that need not be said—but after the dragon fled from the fire, their dwelling was seized by the cunning Volcano King.

No one now knows what the Volcano King looked like, but the elders of the tribes who saw it say it was a huge monster, black and purple in stripes, body like a salamander. In ancient times some also confused salamanders with dragons, but today everyone knows a salamander is only a salamander.

In short, the Volcano King tyrannized Natlan's lands and did countless evil deeds. It bathed in the springs of the sea within the earth and made the "People of the Springs" choked with smoke; it blew spark-bearing wind toward the tribe of the "Scions of the Canopy." At its worst, it swallowed the whole "Collective of Plenty"—had the Tatankasaurus and the warriors not together, while it slept at night, broken open its belly and escaped, things would have become quite troublesome.

In sum, the Volcano King did every evil and made the peoples of Natlan's tribes suffer without end.

And on this day, lying in the volcano, looking at its own pitch-black body, it again conceived a wicked idea.

"Under the volcano is far too dark—darker even than a deep night without moonlight. Even I cannot see my own body."

"I hear that in the east, in the canyon of the 'Children of Echoes,' there are countless gems. If I could swallow all those bright shiny stones, then even in the blackest place my belly would glitter like a midsummer night's starry sky."

Having spoken, it turned over and decided to do just that.

But the Volcano King was so huge it did not even notice that these words were overheard by a tiny flying squirrel.

The tiny flying squirrel hurriedly told a flying phlogiston honeybug; the honeybug flew high and told a long-necked horned rhino munching leaves; the rhino told its closest friend, a Qucusaurus—and this Qucusaurus was the dragon partner of Elder Tao'uru of the "Children of Echoes."

Thus Elder Tao'uru learned from his partner that the Volcano King was coming to seize the gems.

For the "Children of Echoes" this was truly a terrible time, for the tribe's strongest warrior, chieftain Songata, and his partner had followed the hero Tenoch to the far-western islands to stop the steps of the pitch-black giant beast, and could not fight the Volcano King.

So Tao'uru and the warriors who guarded the tribe sought help from the tribe's "Wayob." Everyone in the tribe knows the "Wayob" is the symbol of all wisdom and great souls.

Under the "Wayob"'s revelation, Tao'uru thought of a way to oppose the Volcano King; so he and the warriors prepared, determined to make the Volcano King suffer a loss.

The Volcano King made the volcano belch thick smoke and hid itself in the smoke's shadow, grandly approaching the canyon of the "Children of Echoes."

When it reached the Sulfurous Veins, it found a small tribal person standing there, as if waiting long for it. That tribal person was Tao'uru. Tao'uru said, "Volcano King, O Volcano King, we long ago heard news of your setting out. We long thought your majestic form should be adorned by our finest gems. So in a specially crafted stone chamber we have placed all the gems."

The Volcano King thought: how do these little people know I came to snatch all the gems?

But it was the great Volcano King, so it did not mind, and happily followed Tao'uru to the front of the stone chamber—yet seeing that chamber left the Volcano King full of doubt.

For the chamber's door was only human-sized, far too small for a huge black salamander.

"Is this the stone chamber you prepared?" The Volcano King snorted unhappy hot breath from its nose. "How is this King to enter?"

"Alas, mainly we prepared too hastily. We are only little people and cannot open a palace to hold your great body—but you may fully put your hand in; the gems are within." Tao'uru said.

"But I cannot see at all what is inside. Crafty little people, you dare ply your tricks before the Volcano King—surely there is a mechanism inside to harm my arm..."

"Please do not worry on that score," Tao'uru said. "I will enter the stone chamber first; only then will you put your hand in. Thus if there truly is a trap that harms you, it will necessarily kill me first. Our tribe loves gems and clings to life; we would never make such a sacrifice."

That was true, the Volcano King thought—the little tribal people always treasure their lives; otherwise they would not, before its arrival, already prepare to offer the gems.

So Tao'uru entered the stone chamber holding a golden whistle, and the Volcano King put its arm in as well.

Inside was indeed heaped with gems. Tao'uru poured gems and ore into the Volcano King's hand, and the fist it clenched grew larger and larger—even larger than the stone chamber's door!

At that very moment!

Tao'uru blew the golden whistle.

The tribal warriors ambushed beside the chamber prayed, letting the "Wayob"'s power appear. The Wayob of the Children of Echoes borrowed from the people of the tribe four sewing needles—three short, one long—and blew them toward the Volcano King.

Those four sewing needles in the air drank the blood-and-flesh power of the "Wayob" and the tribal people, grew with the wind, and became four huge phlogiston nail-pillars.

Only then did the Volcano King know it had been tricked, and cursed in its heart that the tribal people were truly treacherous—yet the hand stuffed with gems could no longer open, and could not be drawn from the stone chamber at all.

One! Two! Three!

Three smaller stone pillars nailed its pitch-black arm dead to the Sulfurous Veins.

Before the last and longest pillar fell, the Volcano King gritted its teeth, broke off its own arm, and fled for its life.

The pitch-black arm, like a shadow, was nailed into the earth—this is why the crystal pillars of the Sulfurous Veins are called the "Shadow-Stitching Needles."

And the longest and greatest of those "Shadow-Stitching Needles" did not fully fall, because before that the Volcano King had already broken its arm and fled. Yet so long as that greatest "Shadow-Stitching Needle" still hangs on the Sulfurous Veins, the Volcano King dares not approach the "Children of Echoes" by a single step.

And this is the story of the Volcano King and the "Shadow-Stitching Needles."

As for Tao'uru who dared serve as bait—the stone chamber's exit was blocked by the Volcano King's hand; how did he escape?

Surely he had mastered some remarkable skill—after all, after this there are still many legends about Tao'uru.