Aha! And I have just the tale for him! Everyone, come, listen! It is no great secret now that the Order of the White Lotus lives on, and that I sometimes tag along with them, heh heh... So today I am going to tell you an old White Lotus legend, the Tale of the Blooming Lotus Garden.
There was once a gorgeous Garden of lotus flowers. It stretched from east to west, and encompassed the north pole and the south. Never before had such a Garden been seen!
But these were no ordinary lotuses. No, not ordinary at all. They were each different from one another. And nearly all of them were closed like a newborn bud, with only a few petals opened to the light of the world.
Some lotuses opened two petals to the world. These lotuses were friendly and kind, though maybe a bit forgetful, ha ha.
Some lotuses opened only one petal. These were not so kind, and sometimes they were simply mean to the other lotuses. Sometimes.
There were a few lotuses that opened no petals at all to the light around them, but those little buds did not do very much.
And then there were some lotuses who opened three petals! Those were the wisest, the noblest, and the most kind of all the lotuses in the Garden. Almost all the leaders of the lotuses throughout the Garden were three-petal lotuses. Three was the greatest number of petals that a lotus could bear.
Life was peaceul in the Garden. Peaceful enough, anyway, heh. The two-petal lotuses had fun with one another. They went to plays and markets, and parties. The one-petal lotuses tried to cheat or cut corners or even burgle, and sometimes they got away with it. The no-petal lotuses merely lounged or rioted, depending on their mood at the time, ha ha! And the three-petal lotuses did their best to be the finest little lotuses that they could be. The three-petal lotuses strove to follow every law, every rule, every honorable guideline and every worthy ideal, at least the ones that they knew. They tried to make the most out of their lives in the Garden. Of course, sometimes this meant that the three-petal lotuses could be a bit rigid, heh heh, but that was quite worth it in order to live the best way they could. Three was the greatest number of petals that a lotus could bear.
But sometimes in the Garden, a strange lotus would turn up that opened four petals to the light of the world. The other lotuses did not know quite what to make of these four-petal lotuses. They could see that a four-petal lotus was somewhat like a three-petal lotus, yet not quite alike. But since a four-petal lotus was just about as different from a three-petal lotus as a two-petal lotus was, most of the lotuses decided that these odd four-petal lotuses must simply be another sort of two-petal lotus. Yes, that was it. After all, what else could a four-petal lotus be? Because three was the greatest number of petals that a lotus could bear.
Now there were a great many four-petal lotuses among the wisest leaders of the lotuses, but they nearly always dressed themselves like three-petal lotuses. They knew that the other lotuses preferred three-petal lotuses, and they did not want to cause unhelpful difficulties. Three was always the greatest number of petals that a lotus could bear.
But sometimes the Gardeners would plant other lotuses in the Garden. Sometimes they would plant a lotus that bore five petals to the world! Sometimes they would plant a lotus that bore six petals, or even seven petals! These lotuses were very strange to the other lotuses, very strange indeed! They were not like the three-petal lotuses at all. And that could mean only one thing: If they were so unlike the three-petal lotuses, then that must mean that they bore very, very few petals indeed, because they were so far from the three-petal lotuses, and three was the greatest number of petals that a lotus could bear. Therefore these strange five-petal and seven-petal lotuses must actually have very, very few petals. Three was the greatest number of petals that a lotus could bear.
The five-petal lotuses, and the six-petal lotuses, and the seven-petal lotuses each tried to explain to the other lotuses that they were not contemptible, but that in fact they had more petals than a three-petal lotus! But the other lotuses all shook their heads, replying that if there ever were a lotus with more petals than three, then obviously such a lotus would simply look like a really BIG three-petal lotus. Obviously. Because three was the greatest number of petals that a lotus could bear.
The one-petal lotuses, and the two-petal lotuses, and the three-petal lotuses were not very kind to the five-, six-, and seven-petal lotuses. Not very kind at all. They insisted that any lotus that bore a number of petals so different from three must be a very low number of petals, because three was the most any lotus could have. This meant that, because the five-, six-, and seven-petal lotuses clearly had so fewer petals, they must be very bad lotuses indeed.
The other lotuses punished the five-petal lotuses, and the six-petal lotuses, and the seven-petal lotuses. They told cruel stories about them. They passed along reckless rumors about them. They tried to put them in prison, and sometimes they even killed the five-, six-, and seven-petal lotuses.
Why is Longshot looking at me like that? It's a little scary... Don't you like this story?
Smellerbee says that Longshot did not want to hear a story anyway. He was looking at me because he wanted help cleaning the dining area. Clearly, she just does not understand Longshot. Oh, well. The legend has a very happy ending, but perhaps I must save that for another time.
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