--He weeps. Even now, after all this time, he weeps for her. Sometimes his grief is gentle; just a slight dampness about the face, a drizzle in the morning that melts away and is forgotten by noon. But at other times the tears fall, huge and uncontrollable and devastating; floods that will not stop, raging and howling with ferocious power.
--She has been lost to him for so long now that a lesser lover might have dried their eyes and gone away. A lesser lover would have said being apart was the way it had to be. But he is no mere man. His love does not diminish. He yearns and he will always yearn; his longing is his bittersweet torture and it will go on.
--She is the only one. And besides, his tears touch her. They move her, of course, creating an exquisite ache deep within, but they also actually touch her...the wet drops sliding into her hollows and hills as they fall, delving onto her face which she used to press against him when it all began.
--When it began...The beginning. Yes.
--In the dark beginning there was nothing but inky darkness and beautiful embrace. Two lovers so lost in each other's arms that they held all the light in the universe between them. The magical blackness made them a single eternal being - no his, no hers, just bodies made of elements breathing as one.
--Their clinch was a passionate one, and soon they were joined by children: sons who they held tight within their loving arms. The boys were playful and cheeky, clever and inventive. Rai and Kanta could not help but take pride in them. They were happy and their love multiplied and grew stronger.
--Their cubs also grew, as cubs do. They were becoming fine young foxes and this added to their parents' bliss. Could it have been more perfect? Rai and Kanta smiled, engulfed in warm contentment. They fitted each other so well.
--All of a sudden, their cubs began to wriggle and squirm. They began to murmur and grumble.
--The cubs had pushed him away. Was there a kinder way to say it? Another way to describe what happened? Alas, no. Pushed. It was the truth - and it was terrible. Why would want to Rai leave? He did not seek such a thing. Kanta was everything: the enfolding lover, the nurturing source of all things good. He couldn't be away from her. He couldn't bear it.
--But the boys had set their faces. This is no way to live, they said. It was Tane who did it in the end. Oh, they all had to go, their green-fingered son had somehow frown as tall as a tree and just as strong and pushed Rai away. Actually pushed, his back straining, his legs shaking at the effort. Rai had considered, but how could he crush his own son? Instead, he went away. But he didn't go quietly. Rai the lover would have fought him to the death and then take on his siblings. But Rai the father knew this would break Kanta's heart in two different ways, and that is a pain no one should have to bear.
--And so the lovers were ripped apart; weeping, convulsing, crumbling. Raw and torn and bleeding. The universe itself shuddered and moaned. The stars blinked in horror. For a terrible moment time stood still...and Kanta couldn't watch him go. If she had to, she would have turned to dust. Over the years, the cubs had learned to honor and respect their father but still insists he stays away. But Rai does not believe he and Kanta will be parted forever. He always hopes for a reunion. Sometimes - when their cubs are distracted - he approaches as near as he dares and briefly enfolds her with his warmth. But after one last heavy downpour from Rai, the cubs, after learning what is was like to have a love of their own, brought Rai back to Kanta. And for these everlasting moments, two long-parted lovers feel finally whole again.
--Inspired by The Story of Ranginui and Papatuanuku told by the Maori's art and carvings in New Zealand.
