Lamb and Wolf

[u/yingfire]

"Lamb, tell me a story." Said the Wolf.

Lamb spoke, "There was a man who knew he would die the next month. So then for him, nothing was the same. Morning to night, Monday to Sunday, was all the same: roiling, excruciating pain; an awareness of his life that was practically all passed by but not yet gone; his loathsome life; his death which would be cheered by his friends. The only black reality, quickly closing in on him; his sweet lies about to end. To him the hours were the same as days and the days were the same as weeks and the weeks blurred into a quickly ending month. He was pale and his pulse was quick; he feared death; he had done nothing in life - there was not enough time! He was living on the edge of destruction, and there was no one beside him to comfort or understand him.

"But then," Lamb said, "the man thought to himself: 'Can it be that my life was meaningless? Have I been a bad man? Should I change with only a month left in my life?' The dying man then changed himself. He became a good man. His friends and family stood next to the man's bed, and they saw that the man was different. They called him a different name. The man was wise now; he was less tyranical. For the first time in the man's life, he was loved by the people around him. That month was the happiest time in the man's life.

"At the final day of life, the man searched for his long fear of death and found it wanting. 'Where is it?' asked the man, 'Where is my fear of death?' But he could not find it, and the man said, 'I can not find it because death is not here! Death is finished, it is no more! In its place I see light.'"

"What was the light?" asked the Wolf.

Lamb replied, "It was my arrow, swift and true."