The Colonists and the King

There once were colonialists who travelled to a far away land. When they arrived they asked, in their own language, to be taken to the king of the land where they had arrived. They spoke a strange language and the people did not understand so they took them to the shaman…

The shaman was a magical person, and he could learn the languages of birds, beasts or any tribe of man. He quickly deduced the language of these colonists and told them he would take them to his king…

But he did not go to a palace, mansion or castle as the invaders expected. He took them instead to the forest where they saw a man sitting almost as if in a trance, looking straight through them. Curiously, he was not the same color as the invaders, nor the natives. They had never seen skin like he had. It was almost as if this king was green from sitting in the forest so long! The shaman, however, told them that it was the reverse; that the forest was green from the man!

The invaders interrogated him, first directly and with cordiality but the king did not reply. He just stared right through them! They grew frustrated – their cordial introductions turned to rage and demanding – and they threatened to decapitate him if he did not respond.

But this king of the shaman’s people did not reply to their demands. As they erupted in anger, and lashed out at him with their swords, it happened that he was no longer in the space which they had lunged towards. The king tapped them on the back of their shoulders. As they turned around he gave them a huge smile. With each subsequent attempt to attack him, it seemed that the king would either move so quickly that it looked as though he had dematerialized, or he actually had dematerialized. This is what the colonists asserted…

“Which is it!?!” They demanded of the shaman. “Is he some sort of magician like you, able to manipulate things, or does he just possess uncanny speed!?! Is this why you regard him as your king?”

“It is neither,” the shaman replied. “He is actually in both places. He cannot be cut with any objects, nor killed. He simply stopped allowing you to see him in the place where you attacked him, and now he is showing you that he was also behind you all along.”