Shira (2) - Bara searches the dark forest

Remember Shira and the story of Bild's quest for happiness?  Here is the second chapter in the story, which is about Bara, his brother.......

Bara's search

Meanwhile, Bara had been racing through the forest. Not for him the wild open spaces that Bild needed for this race!  Bara had the eyes of a hawk and the ability to weave and skim though the trees and along the paths faster than anyone.  He searched out with his keen sight a faint pathway, where few had walked before, and boldly he took it, spurring Tamba onwards and onwards to run faster and faster.

 
Bara kept his eyes fixed upon the darkest places in the forest, for he knew that somewhere in the hidden depth of the forest was the place where Shira lived.  If such a wonderful white horse with a golden mane were to be out there in the open, then surely the whole world would already know him and be able to see him! No. Bara knew with his keen mind and sharp eyes of deepest blue that only the keenest eyes and sharpest wit would be able to locate this secret hiding place where Shira would be found.
 
In his secret heart Bara was a proud man, and was fiercely jealous of his brother’s enormous strength.   To win the race he had to believe that his eyes were the keenest and his mind the sharpest, and he worked hard to use his eyes to read the signs of Shira’s passing and use his wits to deduce where he may be hiding.  His only thought was that secret place.  

More tales for the journey: The Jewel (the illusion of power)

The jewel

In a small town a long way away from here, there lived a chicken farmer with a secret.  Every day he went to look after his chickens and count how many eggs had been laid and how many little chicks had hatched out of the eggs.  When he saw the little yellow chickens he was pleased, because he knew they would grow into strong healthy chickens and one day they would lay eggs for him

Sometimes he took some eggs and some chickens to the market, for if he did not he would have far too many.  He loved to walk around his farm and observe the chicks and chickens stepping and pecking around him.  He loved his chickens, but he was unwilling to send any of them away, for he knew in his secret heart that one day one of the eggs would hatch and inside there would be a jewel of great price, and that this jewel would make him the most powerful man in the world.

So every time an egg was laid he carefully scrutinised it, trying to guess what was in there.  Every time he went to market he worried that he had given away the jewel, and so he found all kinds of secret ways of making sure that the jewel was not in the eggs he sold.