“Now I will tell you a story,” said Eagle. So he began:
Perhaps you have heard of the great warrior, Entuk, who was known far and wide for his strength and power. And you must know that his name has meaning in English; it means “mucus.”
“Gross,” said Raven.
“Not gross at all,” replied Eagle. “Mucus is the stuff of life, the substance, the lubricant, the air filter of our essence.”
“That’s even more gross,” said Raven.
“Listen,” said Eagle.
Long ago, a woman felt such despair she no longer wanted to live. When the child she had carried in her womb for nine months was born, it was born without life. The woman was distraught. She had felt such love for her unborn child, a bond that was deeper than anything she had felt before. She could not live without this bond. Wailing in grief, she took herself down to the water where she intended to drown herself. As she stood at the water’s edge in her tears, a great river of snot flowed from her nose and down her face so that she could barely breathe, and she wiped that great glob of snot away with her hand and flicked it onto the beach, where it landed in a mussel shell that had washed up by the tide.
“This is actually the most disgusting story I have ever heard!” Raven exclaimed. “You’re making me lose my appetite!”
“Listen,” said Eagle.
Was it the snot? Was it the mussel shell? Was it the woman’s profound grief? That is not for us to know. But we know that great glob of snot began to move around in that shell. It began to grow. Soon it had become a small creature. A mucous baby—
“A mucous baby!” Raven exclaimed.
—And that mucous baby grew into a man. But not just any man. He grew up larger and stronger than the other warriors. It was said he had supernatural strength. This was Entuk, the mucous boy, born from the grief of his mother.
“And that, Brother Raven,” Eagle said, “is the end of the story. Thank you.”
It didn’t take Raven long to conclude that Eagle was off his rocker.
“Tell me,” said Raven. “Do you have some purpose in telling me this story? Or should I chalk it up to the random musings of a bird brain?”
Eagle smiled at Raven.
“When the warriors went into battle,” Eagle explained, “Entuk said to them, ‘Think of me and you will grow stronger.’ You see, Raven? That is the power of the Lubricant!”
“Huh,” said Raven. “Without lubricant, we would be inflexible. If we are inflexible, we cannot adapt to changing situations. If we do not adapt, we die. Okay, yes. I see. Vaguely.”
“Good,” said Eagle. “Now let’s go save the world. Be sure to think of Entuk as we go!
