Legend of the Four Mori

Once, there was a man named Sergeant who lived on the edge of town. From the outside, he resembled every other man his age. He was of average height, average build, and he had bushy brown hair that covered his ears. He drove a truck, he owned two dogs, and he worked at a bar five days a week. For Sergeant, life was good. But Sergeant had a secret that nobody knew. A secret unknown to himself. You see, Sergeant was not born from the womb of a woman. He was created by the Forest.

It had happened like this. One day, the Forest sifted through all the elements in the trees, in the soil, and on the forest floor. She assembled a great mound of mud, a fresh heap of moss, a pile of twigs, a blanket of leaves, feathers from a bird, skin from a deer, blood of the worms, and other odds and ends from the earth. She mixed them in a cistern under a grove of trees, drew out the strange substance, and molded it into the shape of a body. She formed the torso, the appendages, a face, and whispered, “This will be my sergeant. He will bridge the world of humans and nature so we can live together in peace.” The Forest breathed into the natural earthen body. Skin grew around its exterior. Bones creaked and snapped into place. The heart in its chest started to pump blood and its lungs devoured the air. The being had come to life.

But it did not move. It sat, back propped against a tree, with its mind blank as a slate. The being could eat, breathe, and exist, but it still was not a human. The Forest knew what to do. She bellowed over the tops of the trees and beckoned her most loyal Mori. The Mori floated down in a beam of sunlight on the stem of a dandelion wing.

“My dear Mori,” the Forest smiled. “I have a task for you. I need you to live inside of this vacant body and give him a human mind. Give him energy in the morning, diligence in the day, and sleepiness at night. Grow out his hair until it gets sheared and wear his body until it becomes old. Everything you do will be known to all the humans. Everything you do will be known to him. You are a Mori, a servant of the Forest. You must impersonate everything the humans do for everyone to see—a perfect human disguise. For this reason, from today, your name will be Masquerade.” The Forest opened the human’s face and Masquerade dove inside.

Sergeant stood up and wiped the dirt from his brow. He stretched his arms, twisted his back, walked towards the town, finding balance from tree to tree. With the edge of the forest in sight, Sergeant’s eyes rolled to the back of his head, and he collapsed in a pile of leaves. The Forest breathed a sigh of dismay. Why had her human fallen down?

“Masquerade? Is everything ok?” the Forest inquired.

“Something is not right,” the Mori replied. “I am trying to act like a human for everyone to see, but the body will not respond.”

Just then, a second Mori crept up from among the gnarled roots of an old tree and spoke to the Forest with an ancient and wispy voice. “I have lived along the edge of the woods and have watched the humans since they first arrived. I watch how they speak, how they interact, what they do when they are alone. And I know what is wrong with your human. Everything he does will be known to others. Everything he does will be known to himself. But he does not have any secrets. Humans cannot live in a world without secrets, where everything is known. If you wish your human to live among the rest, he must have a place protected with things known only to him. Or else he won’t survive.”

The Forest nodded in humble agreement. “I believe what you say is true. However, the Mori already living inside the human cannot both impersonate a human for everyone to see and at the same time harvest secrets. But you, my dear Mori, are a servant of the Forest. Live inside the heart of this human and keep the things known only to him, things known to no one else. For this reason, from today, your name will be Secrets.” The Forest opened the heart of the human and allowed Secrets to go in.

Sergeant stood up, stretched his hands to the sky, arched his back, and let out a gaping yawn. His chest rose and fell with a heave of his lungs. He walked past the final collection of trees to the edge of town. The Forest gave him a gentle push and he emerged on a path in the world of humans. He looked down the trail and spotted another human coming his way. It was a girl riding a bike, parents walking a-ways behind her. The girl stopped and looked up at him. “Hello, mister.”

Sergeant, not knowing what to say, stared at her.

“You look funny.” Her lips did not move.

“What?” he replied.

“I didn’t say anything,” she said. Her lips stopped moving but he could still hear her speak. “This man is dirty and strange. He smells bad like garbage. I should go tell my mom and dad.”

“Are you talking about me?” Sergeant inquired.

The girl furrowed her eyebrows, turned, and pedaled back to her parents. As she pointed at him, he could hear what she was thinking. “That dirty man is scary and strange. Make him go away.”

Sergeant was bewildered. Should he be able to read the thoughts of another human who wasn’t moving her lips? He then began to see visions of the girl’s entire life. He saw the girl smile at her surprise birthday party. He saw her playing tag with her friends. He saw her cry when the mean girl pushed her off the swings. And he saw her lie to her mom about spilling juice on the carpet.

Sergeant was startled, scared, and overcome with confusion. He dove back through the tree line and ran as fast as he could into the heart of the forest where he once again collapsed.

The Forest looked at him and shook her head. “What is the matter? What have I done wrong? Why can’t my sergeant exist like a human?”

As the Forest let out a sigh of regret, a third Mori drifted down from a tree like a fallen leaf and spoke through the breeze. “You have created a marvelous being to live in the world in the world of humans. But he is not fit to interact with others. You have given him a mind to know and be known. You have erected a place in his heart to store secrets. But you have not protected him from the secrets of others. Just by looking into the eyes of a human, he can hear their voice, explore their mind, and know everything there is to know. This is not the way of the humans—if they were to know all things, they would not survive. You must make your human blind to the meandering voices and secrets the others’ minds.”

“I do believe what you say is true. You are a Mori, a servant of the Forest. Live inside this human and prevent him from knowing the mind of other humans so that he may survive. For this reason, from today, your name is Blind.” The Forest opened the human’s mind and Blind slipped inside.

The Forest felt good about what she had done and helped Sergeant to his feet. “There, there,” she said. “You can see the world around you and the world can see you. You can keep secrets to yourself. And I have stopped you from seeing the secrets of everyone else. Now, live a happy life and bridge the world of humans with mine.”

Sergeant smiled and walked into the town at dawn the following day. He greeted the people passing by, stopped to look in all the store windows, bought a bottle of golden mead, a fresh baguette, and a basket with blackberries, honey, and brie. He went for a walk and spent the afternoon in the park. As sunset commenced, he got to his feet. He looked to the left. He looked to the right. He walked once more along the perimeter of the town, stepped back into the forest, and collapsed.

The Forest felt like she could weep. “Why has my sergeant collapsed? Haven’t I done everything needed to create a human?”

Just then, as the moon rose high in the sky and cast a shadow through the trees, a fourth and final Mori emerged. It floated beyond the pale light toward the Forest and took her by the hand. “You have truly done an amazing job creating this human being. But there is still one thing he lacks. I live in the shadow, in a place where light may never reach. Even when the light comes and the shadow disappears, it does not die. It simply moves somewhere else and patiently waits for the light to go away. If you wish to make this human complete, you must give him a shadow. It must be tightly sealed within his craw, the deepest place where forgotten thoughts can live undisturbed, hidden to everyone, even to him. Without this hidden place to store inexpressible traumas and pleasures, fears and desires, there is no way a human can truly believe there is more to life beyond what they already know.

The Forest breathed a sigh of relief. “I believe what you say is true. This is why my human collapsed. He did not have unknown fears and desires directing him where to go. My dear Mori, three already live inside. Masquerade makes all things known to him and makes him known to everyone else. Secrets protects the knowledge he wishes to keep hidden from everyone else. Blind prevents him from peering into the minds of others. You are a Mori, a servant of the Forest. Live inside this human and carve out a grove deep in his craw to hold all thoughts unknown—unknown to others and unknown to him. For this reason, from today, your name is Shadow.” The Forest opened the human’s craw and Shadow crept inside.

Sergeant slowly blinked his eyes as the Forest helped him to his feet. He looked at himself, a young man of average height and average build, with bushy brown hair covering his ears, his outward Masquerade. He thought for a minute about his desires, ambitions, embarrassments, and fears protected from everyone else, his Secrets. He stepped into town and observed other people. He could not hear the voices in their minds or know what they were thinking. But he did ask questions. He made assumptions. He deduced a great many things about the people he met. Nevertheless, to all the inner voices, he was completely Blind. And of course, Sergeant formed habits, acted on impulses, made decisions based on strange inclinations as he became a part of the town. There were so many things he wanted to do. He wanted to open his own bar. He wanted to go to school. He wanted to move in with the person he loved. He wanted to learn how to ski. But he couldn’t quite say why any of this was the case—his driving desires, urges, fears, remained hidden within his Shadow.

The Forest, with the help of four Mori, created a perfect human being from the earth and was proud. You could say the Forest succeeded too well. Sergeant was created so much like a human, he forgot he was born of the forest. It was a truth that would remain hidden deeper than the deepest unknown buried in the base of his craw. And though Sergeant forgot the place from where he had come, the Forest did not mind. She watched over him until his death, and she was pleased with all she had done.