The Discovery
#1 of MMCXII
'...Behind my beloved waterfall, in the little room that was hidden beneath the cave, I
found it. I brushed away the dust of the years, and picked it up, holding it reverently in
my hands. I had no idea what it might be, but it was beautiful...
Many times, during the struggles that our wolf hero would come across, he would come into a cave secluded from te rest of the world, a short drive in his hover-car away from the city of Megadon where he lived. This place was to him, a den of relaxation, a way to get back to his roots. Wolves after all, lived in caves carved out of rock- why shouldn't he? In fact, if ever there was a time that his life was in danger, the wolf convinced himself that the cave was a safer place for him to be than trusting the Federation government and its police to protect him, no matter how strong they may have been. This place was one of natural beauty, a quiet, peaceful refuge from the boisterous city with its constant military parades and government speeches.
Now, our hero was very much content with his home in Megadon City, with its modern conveniences like running water, flush toilets, electricity, and an amzing variety of foods all made with the freshest ingredients. He was very much attuned to the Temples where the government of the Solar Federation performed their functions, one of which was to entertain the people of Megadon with music and television programming. But as much as he loved life in the city, sometimes the wolf just wanted to be away from the bombardment of round-the-clock mind-numbing entertainment. And so he went outside of the city, which the governement warned against and into this cave, cloistered from the rest of the world.
The soft sounds of the waterfall comforted him immeasurably but today something very different was to occur than his everyday retreats. For the wolf found a walkway behind the waterfall he had never, in all of his visits ever seen before. Since he was lucky enough to have brought a flashlight with him, he could look into the darkened passageway and he found a room which had a raised surface, like an altar or a podium- this was certainly not something that nature would have left. Someone must have built this rock altar in the cave for some special purpose. The beam of his flashlight hit something metallic and shiny, a hidden treasure in the cave. It was caked in dust, from how many years of neglect but as the wolf cleared the dust away with his paw, the word "Fender" came across along the thing's body. It was shaped somewhat like a pear with an elongated stem and on that stem were six wires. The wolf soon set about in learning what would happen if he set his paws across the silver-colored wires.
'...I learned to lay my claws across the wires, and to turn the keys to make them sound
differently. As I struck the wires with my other paws, I produced my first harmonious sounds
and soon my own music! How different it could be from the music of the Temples!'
In time, the wolf had discovered this thing was a guitar- a device seldom seen in the city of Megadon. That kind of instrument and the music one could make with it was called "detrimental to the people" many years prior, in a time the wolf wasn't even alive to see. Instead, the music of Megadon was patriotic fare provided by the government proclaiming the glory of those ancient heroes who fought for the Solar Federation in its conquest of the Outer Planets, five decades prior. This guitar truly was a magnificent and truly lucky find and he wasn't even expecting to find it at all- and to make matters better, this was not some outdated antique but something that still worked. Our lupine hero was certainly happy that he did find it. In the days since he found it, the wolf would return to the cave in private where he would advance from an untrained novice to proficient musician over the course of about one-third of a Martian solar cycle. (On Earth, that corresponds to about a year's time.)
And as he became more proficient through training and repetition in playing the guitar, his thoughts turned to making his performance on this stringed instrument public. Now, he did not have any sheet music or lyrics but in his lupine brain, he had created some beautiful music to present to the people of Megadon. The wolf's guitar, the one he found quite serendipitously on a trip to his secret cave, could express a wider range of emotions than the music already in the city. It could be as strong as the mountains outside the city or with a gentler touch could create notes that fell into the listener's ears like water sloshing in a drink. And as he played, he could aready hear the accolades coming from the Priests who served as the adminstrators who created the programming and newspaper for the city.
"Your beautiful music has advanced our culture"
"We will honor you and your family with many gifts. Your home will be made as great as one of ours."
"Welcome to the Priesthood!" he could hear them saying as he thought out loud to himself.
"Begin mass production of these guitars so that all the subjects of the Solar Federation can own these! And give this wolf a royalty for each one made!", he imagined the Megadonian governor saying as the people of Megadon and the surrounding Martian provinces all received their guitars. He would be wealthy and the sales of the guitars to Venus, Mercury, Earth, and the Earth's moon would make him wealthier still. Now the only thing that remained was a successful performance in the Temple Hall near his hometown. If only he could do this, the wolf would be honored as a hero...