Ragnar Storyteller

Although it is the story of one bull plodding along in a herd. A bull seeking freedom. It is the story of all men who seek INDIVIDULAISM in this politically correct world. The bull shows us the way

The Herd

"There has got to be something else," he thought to himself as he plodded along. He raised his massive muscular neck and looked to the front. Nothing there nothing except thousands of others just like him. Plodding along.
"Where are we going?" he thought. "What is happening?"
Those in front stopped and he was forced to stop. Instinctively he lowered his head to see if there was anything to eat. Nothing there, everything had been trodden flat by those who plodded on in front of him.
The ones in front began to move again, slowly. But not fast enough for several impatient ones behind him. He felt a jabbing pain from those who pushed on from the rear. He tried to turn his head and register a complaint, or better still, jab back, but there was no room. He couldn’t even turn his head fully to the side without jabbing those who plodded along with him.
Again the trek continued, to he knew not where. All day, day after day, plodding onward through the rain, the snow, and the blazing sun.
Only at night were they given the chance to rest and spread out. He knew it would be night soon. He knew not how he knew it, only that he knew it.
“Ah, here it comes,” he thought as the twilight settled down upon him and the others.
Slowly, ever so slowly the plodding stopped and the milling about began.
He stood still and waited until the others started to drift away. It always loosened up this way at night. He knew not why, he only knew that he need not plod along for any more today.
He bent his head toward the ground and walked slowly in search of some tender green things to eat. Maybe tonight there will be water and he will be able to wallow a little in its filthy wetness. Oh, it was always filthy by the time he got to it. For there were so many, many ahead of him plodding and stopping, eating and drinking. What was this all about.
No, there would be no water tonight. Last night they had water and never, or hardly ever, was there water two nights in a row.
He filled his mouth with some tender green stuff, and dropped to the ground.
“Rest. I need rest more then food,” he thought.
“And I need something else. I need...”
He could not think what it was he needed only he felt and urge to need something.
Slowly he chewed the tender green stuff until all the moisture was out of it.
“Plod and stop, eat and drink,” he thought to himself.
“Is that all there is? Is to what? What am I thinking about anyway?”
He looked around him. The others were still eating and moving. Very few had settled down for the night.
“Hah,” he thought to himself, “I wonder who else is thinking what I’m thinking, I wonder who else is even thinking. They all look so busy.”
He kept looking and thinking.
Somehow he felt he was different from all the others around him. He didn’t know why. He was no longer interested in just plodding and eating. There had to be more then this.
Everyday... start when the sun came up, plod until it went down, eat and sometimes drink.
“What’s causing this?”
The thought came into his mind and he stumbled to his feet, never before had he ever considered that there was a cause to anything.
His heart raced wildly. Something inside of him tugged to get free. He had what he needed, or thought he needed. Now for the first time, he had a valid question to ask. Something to seek out. Knowledge to garner. Wisdom to quest after.
Only the feeling he felt in his heart did not feel the same way as the feeling in his mind. He was confused, but he knew - he had a need - a need to know.
He turned and looked around. The thousands that had been walking and eating had all stopped and settled down for the night.
“Someone or something has to be causing all of this to happen,” he thought wildly to himself.
“I will find that someone or something.”
He tried to run forward, but his way was blocked by many of them who were sleeping. He turned right and left and looked behind. They had all settled down. No where to go.
His heart raced madly. For the first time in his life he had a need and he wanted desperately to fulfill it. For who knows, this need may lead to another.
With pounding heart he settled down he knew he could not go anywhere tonight. To try to seek out the cause of the plodding and the stopping. He would have to be patient until the sun came up. Then he would seek. When they were on the move again and he had some freedom, he would seek.
He would fulfill his ‘need’ which now beat fiercely inside him. He could not sleep a wink all night. He watched and waited. Waited in anticipation for the sun so he could begin his quest.
The next morning he was the first one on his feet. That night a plan had formulated within him. He knew if he were to find the cause the cause of why they plodded and stopped, plodded and stopped, he would need to do something different.
To try something different.
So he moved. Moved forward at a slightly faster pace then those around him. If he was to find out anything new then he would have to act different then the rest.
For most of the morning, until the sun was hung straight in the sky, he pushed forward steadily. He passed many, many of the others. He pressed forward at a cost of many jabs and arguments. It seemed the others were easily disturbed by one of their members acting differently. He avoided the bigger ones who tried to turn upon him, and stop him.
By noon the jabbing and attacks of the others had taken their toll upon him. He was exhausted and bled from a dozen wounds. He slowed down and plodded along with them. He had passed hundreds of them but still nothing different presented itself.
“What’s the use,” he thought. “ Who am I fooling? There is nothing up ahead, no cause. Maybe the others are right and this is all there is to existence.”
For several hours, he plodded along and forgot about his quest.
That night, they stopped alongside the river and he ate and drank along with the others.
The pain subsided and the food and water slowly restored his strength. Then the urge within again called for his attention. He was about to lie down and sleep, to ignore this urge when a strange sound caused him to look across the river.
Something over there moved in the darkness. But, it was gone before he could see it clearly. But see it he did. It was different from anything he had ever seen before.
The urge blossomed into a full grown desire. He vowed he would get a full nights rest and continue his quest in the morning.
The next day, he continued to press forward only this time he was very careful and selective in his movements. He tried very hard not to let anyone else notice what he was doing. Slowly and surely he pressed forward.
That night while all the others ate he continued to move ahead slowly until he ran out of room.
For two days and nights he pressed forward with one thought in his mind - to find out what lie ahead and what caused them to plod and stop, plod and stop.
Finally, on the third day, as he pressed forward, he noticed the grass beneath him was greener then he had ever seen before. The dust in the air had thinned and it was much quieter.
“I must be getting to the front,” he thought and pressed forward.
In another hour he broke free and found himself in the front rank. He slowed down and plodded along with the others, his heart beat wildly.
In front of him was miles and miles of open range as far as the eye could see.
He plodded with his head up and inhaling the new smells and exploring the new sights.
Suddenly, a creature he had never seen before raced toward them swinging a rope and shouting in a strange language.
The rope landed full upon his back and he let out a howl of pain. The creature sped by laughing and raced off toward the left.
He tried to see where it had gone, but he could not for the press in that direction was too dense. But he had seen one of them. Could it have been a God?
“Could it have been...” he started to think to himself when several other creatures raced down the line swinging their ropes. The whole mass turned slightly to the left. There was nothing he could do but turn toward the left also, for he was caught up in the middle of them.
“They control the turning” he thought. “They are the cause of our plodding and stopping, and turning.”
Another dimension had been added to his reality. Turning. He had never experienced it before, for he had always been in the middle and never seen the front rank where the control took place.
For several days, he plodded along in the front rank enjoying the new. He had fulfilled his need. Now he knew who or what it was that controlled and he was partly at ease.
Then one day he saw some mountains. Oh, he did not know they were mountains only that he had never seen anything like them before and that they held a hypnotic attraction for him.
Now he had another great need. To go to those mountains and see what was there.
So, when the creatures with the ropes came riding down the ranks trying to turn them he ran out in front. He raced toward the mountains when suddenly he felt a rope drop around his neck. He was abruptly and brutally thrown to the ground. Before he could get up another rope was tossed around his neck.
He arose and tried to turn toward the mountains, but the two creatures with the ropes were too strong fro him. Struggle as he would they slowly forced him back into the plodding mass.
Before they released him, they gave him several good smacks with the ropes, laughed and then rode away.
Once again, he found himself in the middle of the masses. But the desire to reach the mountains burned deeply within him.
He needed a plan. It was obvious to him he could not out run the creatures with the ropes. What was more obvious, for whatever reason of their own, they didn’t want him to get to the mountains.
That evening he ate and drank and rested, to preserve his strength for the morrow.
The next morning, he tried a new tactic he plodded along slower then the rest. He felt since he had found a beginning to the plodding masses, there must also be and end to them. So it was his intention to drop off slowly and find the end.
For many days he plodded slower then the rest. His body was a mass of bleeding cuts, from those behind him did not like his actions and they made him painfully aware of it.
The more he was battered, the more determined he became not to remain one of them. He had lost all interest in plodding and stopping and turning.
to be continued