The Village With The Purple Cow

A Tale from Kirkos

I: The Village

In those days, The Village was quite peaceful. The fields consistently yielded enough food for all and nothing disturbed them or their animals for quite some time. Day to day, the average villager hardly felt anything other than a sense of balance, harmony, or overall peace. Sort of like a beautiful tone reverberating through your body, shooting straight up your vertebrae and pushing you through the day.

The Village worked hard since being settled all those years ago to reach this sort of meditative state, a form of harmonizing with the rhythms of daily life. Moving in a steady and cyclical nature, all breathing together in gentle, consistent waves as if The Village itself was a single living organism.

It was a way of life that was built upon generations of good will and it flourished due to their close connection with the natural cycles of life. They harmonized with the organic rhythm of the suns and moons, seasonal change, growth and decay, and built their understanding of the world around these observations for so long that it became almost an instinct, better than instinct. But this created a blindness in the villagers, a danger hidden amongst their simple intentions and good will. An inability to truly see the threat of a disharmonious life- the type of life that so thrived outside the reach of their own footpaths and peaceful meadows. For beyond their fields, a roiling surge of appetite raged at the earth, dredging up long buried woes of the distant past. Forgotten forces which once plagued the psyche were once again unleashed. Worst of all, people in the outer lands were resonating with these forces, so much so that it was bending them out of shape. Contorting them and their surroundings into something different and bringing forth destructive new ways of living. But the villagers had no knowledge or concern for such things, for they lived in a state of simple grace and harmony with nature.

Due to their communal nature and the steady bounty of their fields, The Village often hosted tired and greedy travelers from these places, troublesome outcasts and other comers and goers. No matter the stranger, or the customs of their ways, nothing that came along could break the villagers meditative and grateful spirit. 

Through this hospitality, the villagers learned a lot about the surrounding area and the outer lands. Apparently certain places are in the early stages of further development, building things like education centers and larger complexes designed to heal the sick and injured; but within The Village the people had an overwhelming satisfaction with what they accomplished and no interest in taking these leaps. Their children were learning how to function in their own society and learning from the elders’ observations of the sky and its patterns, the patterns of nature, and the arithmetic and writing skills needed for their way of life. The villagers didn’t know it, or perhaps they did deep within, but this lack of extreme change was a key component to the life they had developed. This meditative state would be impossible to sustain if their lives differed beyond recognition from generation to generation. The pattern of similar behavior and shared beliefs over time built a strong resonance which became a sort of holding pattern, greatly influencing their development over time. In the outer lands, there was no such holding pattern, or perhaps there was a different one altogether, shaped by a dizzying inertia. 

The outer lands were advancing along a different course of development, and in turn, the people were changing along with it. Out of this strange and murky alchemical fusion, a new type of person coagulated. A new role, an evil role. Someone who would go around looking for things to organize and things to make more efficient with the sole hope of finding one so great they could ride out the rest of their life getting their share of food and land and attracting a partner to start a family with all by simply reminding people of the idea they had. It is from this spirit that all of their ideas form- not from necessity, or a desire to help the community, not from creativity, not from anything in the realm of love or compassion but instead coming from a selfish greediness, a longing for power, and pure laziness. 

These types of people travel around looking for new methods and objects, hoping to either better them or steal them to use as their own somewhere else. Always hoping to find something unique with its uniqueness unknown to the locals in the hopes that they can capitalize on it for themselves. 

II: The Entrepreneur

It was late in the cycle of the third moon when The Entrepreneur first entered The Village. He was one of these leeches that had been around town to town to no avail. Unable to even say or think something that could be misconstrued as original, insightful, or helpful. Seemingly incapable of anything unless it fell into his lap almost as if gifted from the outside, a dark outside. He stumbled on to the village out of nowhere, through no work of his own, as if ordained to by some dark destiny, or perhaps simply out of happenstance or pure dumb luck. Lacking the confidence that he could make it to the next town before sundown, The Entrepreneur set out to find a place to stay for the night. 

The village residents were a kind and welcoming people so it wasn’t long before The Entrepreneur found a local man named Ret Ivni who offered to put him up at his place for the night. They didn’t get to talk much beyond that. Words were sparse and steps came quickly on the way to Ret’s home. He was determined to get back in time for dinner with his wife. 

They arrived at Ret’s home which could be described as small, modest, and homely. Although it wasn’t a large dwelling, the warmth and love within the home was great enough to fill a coliseum. It was the perfect home, and when they arrived, they found that Ret’s wife, Indiri, had already prepared dinner. E noticed Indiri was pregnant and immediately tried to think of anything he could sell her or any made up advice he could utter in hopes of gaining something in return but as usual, nothing came to his mind. He let out a charming “congratulations”. 

As they sat to eat there was nothing particularly out of the ordinary. It was a hearty meal consisting of fire roasted veal with fresh veggies from the garden. The dinner was shared by welcoming hosts and The Entrepreneur felt exceedingly comfortable. He sat at the table with the couple, his hunger quenched- but never satisfied. There was nothing out of the ordinary about any of the contents of the meal until they reached the end. 

III: The Drink

As they finished the meal, Ret went to the kitchen, got a pitcher, and poured each of them about a quarter cup of a thick purple liquid. The couple drank it satisfactorily. The Entrepreneur looked cautiously at the cup then looked back at the couple, feeling perplexed. He had never seen anything quite like this strange drink. 

After a moment he feared that he may come off as rude if he didn’t drink it, so begrudgingly and with much internal dismay, he reached for his cup and downed his share of the purple concoction. He could feel as the liquid passed all the way down his esophagus, eventually splashing into his stomach before working its way through the rest of his body. He was overcome with a feeling of total calm, but a clear calm, a focussed calm, soon followed by an unstoppable sleepiness. 

Ret eventually showed E to the guest area which was cluttered but cozy, before returning to his room for the night. The Entrepreneur laid in bed cataloging the events of the day. His eyelids grew heavy and he slipped off into a deep and dreamless sleep.

E woke up with a readiness for the day he hadn’t felt in quite some time, or maybe ever. It washed over him and enveloped his whole being. As he sat there with nothing to do, this readiness and eagerness transitioned into an anxiety riddled pacing of the room until he finally took a pill he had gotten from the health center a few towns ago. It erased this feeling, erased his natural state and brought him back down to where he wanted to be, or at least where he had trained his mind to want to be. He wasn’t sure if he liked what this purple liquid did to him, but he knew it was powerful, and he knew it shattered the mundane feeling he developed from traveling around for years with no home, no goals, no friends, no true community, always just striving towards some invisible end that would provide him some luxurious sanctuary of laziness. He longed for that laziness. 

He began to think this could be it, that invisible end, that great find that he could sell to other villages and cities, or even better, he thought, that people he hired could sell- because all that will soon be beneath him. He gathered his things together and tidied the mess that his anxiety stirred up earlier that morning before heading out to find Ret. The Entrepreneur had a desperate longing to pertain as much info as he could about the strange and powerful drink.

He located Ret a few structures down, where he was dutifully measuring this purple liquid into portions. The Entrepreneur saw that Ret had several large barrels, which he assumed contained more. He watched as Ret poured quantities of the drink into smooth wooden vases. His curiosity was growing stronger by the second. Finally Ret seemed to reach a stopping point and The Entrepreneur had his moment. He eagerly sprung at the opportunity, asking Ret to show him exactly what he was doing and teach him all that he could about the drink. 

Ret was excited at the opportunity to share the details of his daily life with an interested outsider. It wasn’t often that he met people who took such an interest in The Apicorg. Everyone he knew practically took it for granted. It was always a consistent part of daily life for the villagers, evergreen, as much a daily ritual as eating or breathing. He informed E that to truly find out what he wanted to know would require a bit of a hike. The Entrepreneur was perplexed but agreed. He had already come a long way to get here, and wasn’t much for exerting energy that didn’t immediately benefit him in some financial capacity. But his eagerness to learn about the strange drink outweighed his lazy mathematics, so he capitulated and they returned to Ret’s home to prepare. 

IV: The Cow 

They left some time in the mid morning/early afternoon, immediately headed for the tree line at the western edge of The Village. Upon reaching it, they ventured deep into the forest. Ret seemed to be letting trees that he recognized guide his path, until they hit a rather worn trail. They followed it for about 2 or 3 miles until it abruptly ended. Once again they seemed to be back to following trees. E was starting to grow uneasy. He hated all of this walking, hiking all over the place in some forsaken woods. Not to mention he didn’t even like the woods. E never cared much for trees. He didn’t see what was so great about them, he never had any use for a tree. 

Eventually, after roughly twenty more minutes of this meandering, they hit a clearing where there were about two dozen animals of all different types grazing. The sight was as peaceful as anyone could imagine, the type of peace that can’t be achieved through thought or imagination- only by being a part of something real, something raw, brimming with harmony and grace. Feeling as though he walked all this way for simple beauty, The Entrepreneur grew frustrated. He held it in, like he far too often did, not wanting to damage his relationship with Ret in any way until he figured this drink out. He needed to figure out what was going on with this drink. It could be his ticket out, his one great idea that he coasts off of for the rest of his life. It could take him right to that secluded life of leisure and luxury that he so badly needed.

Ret began to lovingly interact with the animals and show his gratitude to them for being a part of The Village. All of this only built up the frustration in E, who felt as though his time was being wasted. Finally, he looked up and saw Ret approaching a purple cow. E had never seen anything quite like it before. Of course he knew of cows, but never any purple ones. Suddenly, everything came together. The frustration he had built up, into a deafening and awful crescendo of rage, seemed to recede. It was not released or dealt with in any way but it did slowly go sullenly to the back of his mind after this realization, effectively dulling the emotion and freeing him to act in a more calculated way. 

The Entrepreneur approached slowly, mimicking Ret’s motions with the animals. He looked at Ret, then the cow, then back to Ret, who gave him a nod indicating that this is where the drink came from. E could tell from Ret’s movements and demeanor since entering the clearing that he was trying to move carefully, as to not to make noise, so they both just stood there silently. 

Ret shined, washed over with joy and gratitude. It was a level of satisfaction and content that E was incapable of, but which he attempted to copy for the sake of not seeming as soulless as he really was. The two of them proceeded to make the hike home without uttering a single word to each other. One of them having nothing to say and soaking up all the time spent with the animals, the other dying to talk about it but feeling as though words may be out of place.

Upon returning to the village E asked if there was anywhere that they kept records about the history of the town, the origins of the cow, or how the drink is made. Ret told him that there was indeed such a place, and there he would be able to find out about the cow, how they interact with it and the place it holds in the village- as well as the main recipe for the drink. However, Ret cautioned, the origins of the cow are only known by the farmer that looks after the animals and he will neither reveal them nor talk much about it, or anything else for that matter. Although a solitary type, the farmer could be described as the sweetest and most innocent hermit you’ve ever met. He was a quiet man locked away in the woods with none of the typical brash and harsh stereotypes that go along with that. 

Ret dropped off E at a hut that sort of functioned as a knowledge center for the village, complete with a sort of library and archive. He explained how to get back to his house before leaving him there. E took this time to write out everything he could about the cow and to learn as much as he could about The Village. He planned to use this knowledge to come up with a pitch that would convince the town to allow him to produce the drink in larger quantities and upon doing so, distribute it to other towns, villages, cities, and any other place that might buy it up. 

He decided the drink may not be for him, or at least he did not want to be met with the feeling that he experienced that morning. No, he needed to remain his soulless vile self, at least until he made some sort of deal with this village, so he purposefully waited until well after dinner time to return to Ret’s home. Upon arriving, E went right to sleep with all that he had written out wrapped in his arms and all the scheming and planning he conjured up resting in his mind.

V: The Pitch 

The Entrepreneur woke up the next morning having hardly slept and asked Ret to gather as many people from the village as possible. He had something he wanted to propose to them. Ret hesitantly did so, feeling as though he was being told not to by one part of his conscience and prodded to do so by another. He wasn’t sure he could really trust E, but he didn’t have a solid reason why not to. After all, in his experience people usually rose to the occasion once given the benefit of the doubt. He decided he would assist E with his request.

After gathering everyone that could be reached, E began to make a speech. He started out talking about how beautiful The Village and its people were and how much he had enjoyed his time there, making sure to work in as much flattery as he could to help him win the villagers over. After sharing his experience among the villagers, he went on to propose his grand vision of how The Village could be improved to make everyone’s life easier and increase their quality of life. He spoke of farming equipment he’s seen in other places, new methods of storage and production, as well as institutions of learning, expansive health centers, and more robust methods of transportation. 

As he began to transition to his plan to make these things happen, a man wandered out of the woods looking lost and confused- muttering to himself. It was the farmer. No one had ever seen the farmer in this state. Immediately a group of the villagers went to his aid. He was muttering about a dream he had, a dream of being trapped in a room and poked and prodded and forced to work for some sort of faceless individual. He was raving mad and exclaiming that one day they’d all be hooked up with no one in control. The villagers were beginning to grow uneasy. 

E immediately rushed over and gave The Farmer one of his pills, much to the disliking of many of the villagers. But it did level out the farmer, and he used this to further proclaim these healing techniques are exactly the kind of thing he was talking about bringing to the town.

E then began the second part of his sales pitch proclaiming that everything he had mentioned could be accomplished if the town simply let him sell the drink produced by the cow. The villagers were immediately opposed. Simply hearing what was suggested reignited whatever had come over the farmer earlier, this time joined by an intensified level of hysterical yelling and screaming. It was a mess of sound, but the coherent thoughts that broke through were clear. He was adamant that they could not let this happen, but the strength of the pill soon outweighed the strength of his will and he slowly sputtered out. The villagers began to pick up discussion amongst themselves. 

Ret, feeling compelled by something outside of himself, or perhaps somewhere buried deep within, some misplaced empathy or similar such feeling, stood in for E- defending him and urging the people to let him give it a shot. Without knowing why, he continued to urge his fellow villagers to be open minded, to not shut themselves off to new ideas just because they conflict with their customs and habits. New ideas that could potentially bring them into a new era. Ideas that could help cure disease and end wasteful despair. Ret, still unsure of why he was doing so, asked the villagers to reconsider The Entrepreneur’s position, to hear him out and see what he could provide. After much moaning and scattered discussions amongst themselves, the villagers begrudgingly agreed- not without some notable detractors. 

VI: The Aftermath 

E began taking small amounts of the drink to nearby places day after day and returning with things like farming equipment, medicine, and building materials. Eventually he had everyone convinced this was good for them. Then he used the materials to build a sort of production facility, where they could begin producing the drink as quickly as possible. To do this he needed to bring in more and more villagers, having them stop doing what they normally do to help The Village function, and putting them to work in the facility to keep up with production demands. 

Many of the village functions like local food production and childcare declined rapidly, as the villagers traded time spent tending to their own crops or children for time at the production plant. No one really seemed to notice the changes. The kids adapt to a changing way of life. No one noticed the lack of bounty come harvest time, or the crops decaying in the fields, withering away on the vine, because E brought in all of this artificial food from the cities in the outer lands. Not to mention he just financed and built a brand new child care center, so the children should be better cared for than ever. 

Things kept growing at a rapid pace until one day in the name of efficiency he brought the cow to live in the production facility. Production skyrocketed, which enabled sales to go up exponentially. However, none of the villagers have been able to see or interact with the cow from that point forward, but again no one seems to really notice. With all the changes going on around them, it’s almost impossible to notice one aspect individually. Everything blends together into one spiraling kaleidoscope of past and present events and experiences. It washes over like a never ending tidal wave, a deluge of moments and sensory information, each one replacing the last. 

Ret, having been a part of making this happen has become a manager of sorts at the facility, where he is slowly becoming a zombie of his former self. He finds himself going through the same mundane and spiritless routine- day after day after day after day. Meanwhile, E hasn’t been to The Village for some time and there appear to be no signs of him returning. He has accomplished what he wanted to accomplish and now, with a great reputation as a businessman, he’s off to other small towns with money from outside investors doing more of the same…