Koyote and the ravens

Or vanity, jealousy and the emotional rainbow

Koyote was absolutely fabulous. His dreamy eyes and glistening purple fur would radiate in the morning sun light and became quickly the talk of the forest. He would spend his days fashioning himself accessories and eye shadows out of flowers and any other natural wonders he could get his paws on.  Seeing this fantastic creature parade around the forest with such self assurance, panache and a touch of arrogance, was such a spectacle and become the envy of many in the mountains. Many were those who thought for sure they were more splendid in a more natural kind of way.

A pair of ravens were among these jealous creatures. Their instinctual grace and jet black yet iridescent feathers which when caught in the right light was rather ravishing, were surely more beautiful than the likes of this clownish Koyote who had a flair to accessorize. One morning as Koyote trotted along his usual path checking out what the forest floor had in store for his ‘look of the day’, the pair of ravens decided to put in motion a malicious plan.
“KRAWW” said on raven.
“Good morning fabulous Koyote” said the other, “How beautiful your fur looks today!”
“Well thank you, I spent almost two hours grooming it this morning” Koyote respond with delight.
“Two hours!” Exclaimed one raven.
“That is ridiculous” added the other.
“Too bad you aren’t blessed with natural rainbow beauty like us” and they cawed in laughter.
“Umph. Yes, its true your feathers are very pretty.” Grunted Koyote “perhaps I’ll pluck them off you and adorn myself!”. Koyote had indeed always been a little jealous of the subtle color spectrum of these annoying birds.
“No you won’t!”
“Krawww” said the other realizing their plan could back fire.
“But you know what is more spectacular than our feathers Koyote?” Quickly changing the subject.
“And would undoubtedly make you queen of the forest!” the ravens said looking at each other with affirmation. They always spoke in turns and finished each other’s sentences like old twin sisters who had never been separated.
Koyote pondered on this for a minute, he felt like he had obtained all the most superb elements the mountain had to offer. But with more reflection one did come to mind and his eyes opened wide glimmering like a child in a candy store.

“Yesss KRAW!”
“That one!” Two content ravens flapped their wings.
“But its impossible!” Koyote replied with frustration, “the rainbow is impossible to catch!”
“Not impossible for a bird!”
“KRAW KRAW KRAAAAW” they both laughed
“How do you think we got our plumage?”
“We flew in it at birth!” Heckled on the other raven adding a new layer of lie.
Or was it? Koyote thought. He had seen birds fly so high that they appeared to be entering the rainbow, but could they actually touch it? The ephemeral rainbow had always disappeared when he went chasing after it.
“But how?” Asked Koyote in a very amiable way.
“That’s for you to find out!”
“Kraw  KRAW kraw!” The ravens nagged again and that was starting to get on Koyote’s nerves. He looked down snarling and snapped his teeth towards these insatiable birds, which surprised them as they fluttered to a higher branch each dropping a feather.
“But we’ll tell you a secret”
“Oh yes we will”
“We’ve heard the best place to catch it is at the top of mountain at the edge of the highest peak.” They cawed while getting comfortable on the new branch.
“You don’t say” contemplated Koyote as he starred at the feathers on the ground as in that instant he too was coming up with his own malicious plan.

The ravens were happy. They had planted the seed that would hopefully lead to Koyote’s demise and he would either go insane by never catching the rainbow or, better yet,  jump off the mountain to grab it. Everyone knew rainbows were impossible to catch but they had succeeded in shedding doubt in the mind of that dumb Koyote. They flew off cawing like wicked witches please with their malicious scheme. Koyote was also content with the outcome of this morning’s chat, as he picked up the feathers with a grin. He will build himself a set of wings to catch the rainbow’s colors, and he will do it with the feathers of those two annoying ravens.

Over the next few weeks, Koyote devised his plan to gather feathers. Every day while he pranced around the forest with his usual style and splendid demeanor, he kept an ear out for the cackling caws of the ravens. Once he knew where they were, Koyote would get into ninja mode and creep up to where they were perched. Swiftly he would snap and snarl scaring the feathers right off of them and sometimes even plucking one or two with his teeth. At first the ravens rather enjoyed this game and took advantage of it to tease him more about the ‘almost’ unattainable rainbow, hoping he will soon jump off that mountain. But as the weeks went by the raven’s plumage grew thinner and thinner, till one day they had to confront Koyote about it.

“Please stop scaring us Koyote”
“We promise to stop teasing you”
“Look at us, we are skinny and cold”
“Kaaw” a saddened raven finished.
“Oh I just need one more” said Koyote plucking one of the few remaining large feathers on the tail of the once ravishing raven. Puzzled the birds looked at each other. They had been so busy haggling him and more recently just being preoccupied with not losing more feathers, that they hadn’t realized Koyote had been picking them up.
“One more for what?”
“What are you doing with our feathers?”
“In time you shall see!” Howled Koyote as he trotted back to his studio den.

A couple of days later the time had finally come. It was a beautiful sunny day with rain clouds lurking in the distance. The perfect meteorological ingredients needed to make the perfect rainbow. Koyote set off carrying his newly made and of course absolutely fabulous pair of wings. As he climbed up the mountain, a light shower tinseled the air which pleased him even more as the perfect rainbow was near. While almost at the top, the two shivering ravens joined him.
“Our feathers!”
“Give them back!”
“No no no” laughed Koyote “as very soon I will be the most extra extravagant!”
The ravens quickly understood his plan and with vengeful evil delight for stealing their feathers, taunted him even more as they reached the top.
“Don’t do it!”
“Do it!”
“You will perish”
“You will be the most splendid”
These ravenous birds cawed, appealing to both sides of Koyote’s personality, vanity and audacity. Everyone knows that if you tell Koyote don’t do it, he will.

Koyote had finally arrived and before him was the most radiant, most colorful and thickest rainbow he had ever seen, sparkling like a magical slide. He couldn’t wait to have all that beauty all over his body. As he sat down with haste adjusting his garment and flapping his arms to test it, the ravens cawed with joy in the background. The sweet and warm wind picked up and Koyote ran. Gathering all the speed he could as he leaped off the mountain, his mouth wide open in order to surround himself both inside and outside of the beauty of this ephemeral phenomenon.

At first it was pure and immense joy for Koyote, he was literally tasting the rainbow. However it was soon replaced by fear as he flapped his wings with more and more energy and nothing was happening. He was plummeting down with great speed. In a moment of realization, where he understood his plan was about to fail in a catastrophic way, Koyote decided to do what coyotes do best and simply enjoy the moment for what it is. And it really was a spectacular one.

The ravens watched and followed him, first with glee for their plan had worked and then with great sadness for the reality of this was the death of Koyote.

Koyote hit the ground in a puff of black feathers like a dark pillow exploding, but with a blissfull smile on his face. The ravens circled above and ashamed of their actions sprouted from jealousy that had led to the death of this eccentric creature, took upon them to conjure the higher powers. As guardians of the gateway between the living and the dead, they sent Koyote’s soul up in the sky, rainbow and all, where he could dance forever on the moon. A job he did not take lightly as he danced so much that the hot energy created by Koyote’s feverish moves resulted in a moon quake. As it seeped through his paws with electricity it began to melt his internal rainbow, which in turn started to drip onto the earth. With each colorful splash a different emotion was added to the planet. Three good and three bad but all essential. Red, yellow and blue became hate, greed and manipulation, and orange, green and purple became joie de vivre, resilience and self