The Awakening

It was night. The sky was pitch black besides the rock of light that was suspended in midair. “AAAAARROOOOOOOO!” A stout, hairy animal turned to an open field in which this strange sound was emanating from. We will call this hairy animal Grok. Upon scanning the open field, Grok noticed a four-legged animal with a tail, and a snout. This four-legged animal seemed to be yelling at the yellowish light coming from the sky. Grok cocked his head slightly to the left in confusion. He knelt down, arched his head to the sky, and copied the four-legged animal. “AAARRROOOOO” Grok shouted. He seemed to be more focused on imitating the sound rather than inspecting the light coming from the sky. “ughhhh, Ahhh.” Grok’s mate screamed from behind him. Grok’s mate had a similar appearance, but she was shorter than him, had a little less hair, and had the obvious parts the opposite sex should have. Her name was Grak. Grak lay nestled in a bed of long sinewy leaves that Grok had created for her. She writhed in pain, and screamed in agony, for she was in the process of giving birth to their offspring. Grok turned away from the four-legged animal and hobbled over to Grak. He knelt down and offered Grak some water from a hollowed coconut. He smacked his lips at Grak and with his strong, burly hand he stroked her long mane. Hours passed, and by the time the sun was peeking over the horizon Grak was asleep, and Grok was holding his newborn offspring.

His offspring was male, and for this reason Grok teemed with excitement, though Grok noticed some obvious differences between himself and his son. His son was born with minimal hair, and his face hardly resembled the shape of his parents. His son’s face seemed sleeker and his nose was flatter. Although Grok noticed these differences, he loved his son all the same. “Grakoo” he whispered to his son. The name stuck.

Years passed and the differences between Grakoo and his parents became all the more apparent. Grakoo’s intelligence was unrivaled. By the time Grakoo turned five years of age he was combining sounds he learned from his parents to create new names for things he saw in the world. His parents seemed to refer to other animals by the sounds the other animals created. This never really made much sense to Grakoo. He contemplated an imaginary situation where he was attacked by the four-legged animal that his parents simply called “Aroo”. What if an animal such as an “Aroo” attacked him while his parents were not by his side? Would they come running if he shouted “AROO” or would they think he was simply trying to imitate the four-legged animal? After realizing the impact that names could have,  Grakoo started naming everything in sight. One memorable instance happened when his father took him out hunting. The pair saw a pack of four-legged animals about a mile away across a spacious field.  “Arooo.” Grok said and pointed at the pack. Grakoo shook his head in denial. He pointed his finger at his father. “Grok” he said. He then pointed at himself and said “Grakoo”. He shifted his finger towards the pack and said “Wolf”. Grok, who was deeply surprised, tried repeating this, “Wuh-of.” They smiled at each other and continued on their quest for dinner.

The sky was dark, but the rock of light was full on this particular night. The family sat huddled around a dwindling fire-pit. They ate well that night, thus they were full of food and joy. Grok and Grak smiled as they held each other. They were examining their prodigious son grow in size and intelligence every day. At the moment, Grakoo seemed to be in his own world. He drummed his hands on a hollowed out tree stump and made vocal noises to go along with it. “AROOOOOO!” Grakoo stopped making noise. The family turned to the open field that this sound reverberated from. The family watched as a group of twenty wolves paced across the field and came to a stop directly under the rock of light. The pack sat down and arched their heads to the light. “AROOOOO!” they bellowed. Grak and Grok instantly sprang up from their seats and copied the pack. “AROOOOOO!” They yelled in unison with the pack. Grakoo, eyes wide with wonder, sat behind his parents as they mimicked the pack. Although the pack of wolves were interesting and it brought Grakoo joy to behold them, he could not understand why his parents thought the pack of animals was more interesting than what the pack itself was interested in.  Grakoo smiled to himself as if he had just heard a joke that only he understood. He leaned back and laid his head on the soft Earth. The rock of light glimmered in his eyes. He reached out his hand towards the sky and pretended like he was holding the glowing orb between two of his fingers. He giggled and said “Moon.”

THE END