This is an egyptian folktale originally told by Joan Grant and can be found in it's entirety in her book The Scarlet Fish and other stories. This version was adapted (and abridged) by Aaron McEmrys.
The Monster Who Grew
Small
Far to the south, beyond the great river, there was
a small village, where a boy lived with his uncle. The uncle was known far and wide as “The Brave One”, for he was a
mighty hunter, but the boy was called “Miobi”, which meant, basically –
“Scaredy-Cat” because he did not like to hunt, and was scared of the hungry
lions that lived outside the village.
Every day he had to go down to the river to fetch
water, and to get there he had to cross through some of the scariest jungle
around – a place full of snakes and leopards and giant spiders. And every time he went into the forest he
was so scared that he could barely breathe.
One day, just as he was crossing the very scariest
part of the forest, he heard a voice crying out for help. He wanted to run away, but the voice sounded
so frightened that he summoned up every bit of courage and ran to see if he
could help.
He found a small rabbit caught by the leg in a
tangle of creepers. Very carefully he
freed the rabbit, who was very grateful.
The rabbit said, “I was so very frightened, but now you have come and
rescued me. You must be very brave to
come alone into the forest.”
“I am not at all brave. I am called Miobi, the Frightened One – but when I heard how
frightened you were I just had to help.
I know I am too weak and scared to protect you, but if you want, I will
carry you home and make sure you are safe.”
“That will not be necessary young man – I live up
there, in the Moon, so you can’t come with me yet.
But I want to give you something to show you how grateful I am. What do you want more than anything in the
whole world?”
“Courage. I
want to be brave, like my Uncle!”
“I can’t give you courage, but I can tell you where
to find it. The road is long, and you
will have to walk it alone – but whenever you are scared and want to turn back
just look up at the Moon and remember that I am your friend and will always
watch over you.”
Miobi followed the road the Rabbit showed him and
after many days he came to a village where everyone was crying and hiding under
their beds. “What is wrong?” Miobi
asked the first person he met, “Why are you all hiding?”
“Wouldn’t you be hiding if you were about to be
eaten by a Monster?”
“A Monster?”
“Yes, a Monster. It has the head of a crocodile, the body of a hippopotamus and the
tail of a giant snake. It breathes fire
from its jaws and will soon destroy us all!
See, it lives up there in a cave on top of the dark mountain.”
Miobi gulped.
He was terrified, but he saw that the road the Moon Rabbit showed him
went right up to the very top of the mountain where the Monster lived. Miobi
looked up at the Moon, and knew what he must do. “I will go challenge the
Monster”, Miobi said quietly, almost trembling with fear.
And so he set off up the mountain on shaking legs,
sure he was about to be eaten, burned, torn apart or maybe all of the above.
Climbing the mountain took a long time, but soon he
could see the Monster in the distance.
It was even bigger than he had feared – it was very big – even for a
Monster – and it really did breathe fire –burning everything in sight.
Miobi kept climbing, but then the Monster roared a
terrible roar and Miobi was so scared that he ran right back down the trail as
quick as he could. Now the Monster
seemed even bigger than before.
“This is curious indeed” thought Miobi. “The farther
I run from the Monster, the bigger it seems, and the closer I get the smaller
it seems. I wonder what will happen if
I get very close? And so the boy closed his eyes and started running as fast as
he could up the trail so that he wouldn’t have time to start being frightened
again.
When
he finally opened his eyes Miobi couldn’t see
anything scary. The Monster was nowhere
to be seen. Then he felt something hot
on his foot. He looked down and there
was a little tiny monster blowing a tiny flame out of his tiny mouth.
The fire wasn’t very hot at all. Crocodile head? Check. Hippo body?
Check.
Snake tail? Check. It really was the Monster – but it was so small
and cute! Without a thought Miobi
picked it up and scratched its back, and the Monster made a funny sound
halfway
between a purr and the simmer of a cooking pot.
“Poor little Monster! You must be so lonely in this big old cave all by yourself. Come with me, I will be your friend.”
Miobi put the Monster right on his shoulder and
walked back down to the village with his new friend. He wasn’t afraid any more.
All the people of the village were amazed, and crowded around to see the
Monster. It woke up, yawned a small
puff of smoke and began to purr.
A little girl asked, “What is its name?”
The Monster cleared his throat and answered her
question himself. It stopped purring,
looked round to make sure everyone was listening and said:
“I have many names, but most people call me,
‘What-Might-Happen.”
Everyone thought that was a very silly name for a
Monster. But Miobi, who was on the path
to wisdom, understood, and laughed at how foolish he had been.
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