Short story: Surrender to win
A short, silly story I quickly wrote playing around with the idea of “surrender to win.” Enjoy :)
There once was a broad valley in the middle of a land called “The Land of Gamens.” The valley was filled with plentiful vegetation, rivers, and wildlife of all sorts. Save for the valley in the middle, the rest of the land was relatively flat and decent farmland.
On each side of the valley were two peoples. One the north side were the So people, and on the south were the Yo people. The peoples generally didn’t associate or trade with each other. In fact, each were wary of the other as a result of the lack of communication between them.
Naturally, the south side of the valley saw milder winters and hotter summers than the north. In times of drought this meant that, except for the land near the valley, the south land would dry up.
One particularly bad season of drought which had continued for over a year, the Yo people of the south decided they had enough.
They decided to go up in arms against the So people of the north and take some of their land for themselves. Why should they sit in famine and drought while their northern neighbors had good land to take? The thought of trading or buying the land evidently never occurred to them.
So, soon after the Yo people gathered together at the edge of the valley and prepared for a fight. They did not know much about the people of the north, but they knew that they would need to have a strong enough army to hold any land they captured.
Now, the So people of the north were in no way a fighting people. In fact,they were quite peaceful. So, when they were attacked by the Yo people, they were completely surprised. The Yo people of the south easily captured land, much to their delight.
In response, the So people of the north gathered together and formed a small army of men to retake the land. However, they were defeated each time they tried to attack the Yo people of the south.
Finally an elderly woodcarver of the north people heard of the plight.
“In order to win this battle, we need to surrender,” the man said confidently to the general.
The general’s jaw dropped in surprise. “Surrender?!” he asked wonderingly and a bit amused.
“Yes, surrender to Yahweh our Heavenly Father,” the man replied, “You see, we’ve been trying to do this our own way. Now it is time we surrender to His ways.”
The man held a white flag out and asked to speak to the leader of the Yo people.
A leader of the Yo people was named and he stepped forward.
“Why have you come and forcefully taken part of our land?” the man asked.
The leader of the Yo people replied, “Our land is dried up, save for the valley, and we wanted some of yours to grow gardens lest we perish from the land.”
The man smiled, “Please do not take it; there is no need. You may plant gardens freely. And if that is not enough, we can trade.”
The leader of the Yo people liked this idea and they made a peace treaty, the first in their land.
And from that time the two peoples were in peace and traded, exchanges ideas, and became friends.
THE END