Enlightenment.

30


Higeoyaji waved at all of his friends and he waved at paradise for the last time.
He turned around and continued his march. He didn’t want anyone to see just how scared he really was.
Leo stayed out in the sun just long enough to watch his friend disappear into the distance. When he was sure that Higeo wouldn’t be able to see him any more he sadly turned around, took Higeo’s advice and returned into the jungle. Then all of the other animals slowly filtered back in too and the clearing was empty.
“Somehow,” Leo said, “it just doesn’t seem right to go home just yet. I think I’ll stay here for a while.” Leo crouched down, rested his head between his forelegs and looked out towards the mountain.
“Father?” asked Lukio, “Can my brother and I stay here with you too?
“Of course you can.” Answer Leo, indicating that they sit next to him.
The three lions decided to keep a vigil while all of the other animals including Mandy returned to the jungle.
Mandy approached Leo and ran his hand down his mane, not knowing what to say and walked softly away. Leo appreciated the consoling gesture but said nothing.
As Leo watched, he waited and then slowly the mountain became less and less visible and then it was gone. Now his friend Higeo was gone too.
He drew a sigh, and he was sad. But for the children’s sake he tried to keep his sadness under control. A little sadness was all right, since they too were sad. And the three remained quiet for a long time while they each tried to comprehend within their own understanding just what had happened here.

Finally Leo broke the silence. “Lune? Lukio?” asked Leo.
“Yes father.” Both cubs answered together.
“A wonderful thing has happened to us today. I have told you about my dream to bring humans and animals together in peace.”
Lune interrupted, “Yes father, we spoke about it one night on the terrace; after the fire.”
“Well children,” Leo continued, “today it really seems possible. Today you have seen a human put animal’s lives before his own. I don’t know if it has ever happened before, but certainly never in my lifetime. Remember this day children, and pass this story on to your children. No one must ever forget what Higeo has done today. But children; beware. What Higeo said to you Lune is true. I made the mistake of trusting humans too much and too soon and that cost us animals dearly. One day, a long time from now we will be able to trust them all. Sadly, for now, there are only a very few like Higeo and unfortunately there are so many more that want to persecute us, exploit us and hurt us and our home. Do not trust a human the first time you see him and do not speak to him until you are sure of him and his intentions. And never, never hurt a human other than to defend yourself or your home and then never any more than you have to. For the moment at least, we are more civilized than most of them and the moment that an animal hurts a human we become like the bad humans.”
Leo continued talking to his children about his life and life in general, so they may be better prepared for the future that awaited them. All of them stayed there talking well into the evening. Leo taught his children, and he learned a thing or two from them as well.

31


As the evening became darkness it was time to head home. Lune was still very young but Leo was delighted at his son’s growing wisdom and strength and his daughter’s courage and sweet disposition. One day they will make a fine team.

Higeoyaji had been on the trail for about an hour when he looked back and the jungle was out of sight and he knew they wouldn’t be able to see him anymore. From the point of view of the animals in the jungle the mountain had disappeared but for Higeoyaji the mountain was all too physical and his fears all too real.
It was now that he really felt his fears. All the time he was with Leo he drew strength from him. Now he was alone. It was so, so quiet. Just a light, gentle breeze and the sound of stones and rocks being crushed and moved beneath his boots as he walked.
His heart felt like it was going to burst out of his chest. Step after step all he could think about was death. “What would it be like? Higeoyaji no longer exists.” He thought. “I once was, now I am no more. Oh dear, will it hurt?”
He had forgotten about the good advice he’d given Lukio about meeting her again one day in such a beautiful place.
“Is there such a place?” His doubts began.

His heart pounded harder, so hard he thought he was going have a heart attack at any moment. The fear of death was taking possession of him.
He had only walked a few kilometers and he was beginning to doubt everything.
“What am I doing here?” he thought.
Higeoyaji began to think of some way to get out of this. “Yes, there must be a way. Think Higeoyaji, think.” He began to think, and then he stopped walking.
“I can find another way down, no one needs to know. I don’t have to explain any thing to Leo. Why should I die for this?” Higeoyaji turned around and took a couple of steps back down and stopped again.
“Oh God, I’m such a coward. I’m a fool. I’m a coward, coward, coward.” he yelled pounding on the rocky wall with is fist and making his knuckles bleed.
“Not so damn brave now on your own are you Higeoyaji? Not so full of bloody wisdom now are you, huh?” he began yelling at himself.
“I’m not brave! Leo’s brave! I’m nothing! I’m just shit!”
He stopped recriminating himself and sighed deeply.
“Everyone has to die sometime. Why not like this. This way is honorable. If I leave now, I’ll be a coward forever. I was always too afraid to take risks. That’s why I lost my dream. That’s why I’ll never amount to anything.” He said softly as he sat down looking down the rocky trail in the direction he had come.
He sat there, ashamed, his mind blank. While he was not walking in the direction of his destiny he was calm. He picked up a few small stones and began to throw them just few meters in front of him. Stone after stone he threw.
“There is no other way down but the coward’s way and no way to run away from this. Every one has to die some time.” He continued, beginning to summon the strength to lift his unwilling body and begin again. “I do believe there is an afterlife. I want it to be in a beautiful place like Leo’s jungle. I want Leo, Liya, Lune and Lukio to be there. I want to be there with them. If I’m going to die sometime anyway I want to die with honor.”

32


“Just for once in my life I want, no, I have to be brave.” He thought, as he began his journey towards his destiny; again.
His recriminations had given him strength. His shame at being a coward at the most crucial time in his life gave him strength, and thinking of life after death without Leo in that beautiful place gave him strength. Higeoyaji walked on.
His doubts continued as he walked, and his recriminations continued.
He became weak then strong again. Leo wasn’t here to draw strength from but he drew strength from his fear of failure.
He was afraid of what ever awaited him on this mountain but he was afraid of being a coward even more. Fear was giving him strength; anger was giving him strength.
He was beginning to win.
“This is right! This is RIGHT!” he yelled loudly.
“I am Higeoyaji, I am brave! I am brave!” “I am coming Ofukurosan, I am not afraid of what you will do!” he yelled.
Higeoyaji was, by now, so pumped up with adrenaline that he even decided to start running. “Come on, you’re going to see how brave I am. Do your best Ofukurosan, huh!” He screamed. He ran for a couple of hundred meters and stopped, he was running up hill and he was not as young or fit as he used to be.
“Or was I ever fit?” he asked himself as he stopped to catch his breath.
“Yeah, well, there’s another reason. Too damn fat.” He said, repositioning his backpack. Another self-criticism gave him strength.
“Huh! I’ve got this thing licked!”
“Yeah, I’m fat. But I’m braver than the whole bloody lot of you, shit heads!” he yelled, pointing at himself, poking himself in the chest and looking away from the mountain towards some taunting colleagues he’d known in his life.
“I’m not living that humdrum, bull shit life in suburbia boys and girls. Just look at me now; look at where I am now!
You’re going to die small, you’re going to die tiny insignificant little shits!”
Suddenly his adrenaline gave way to shame.
“How can I say such terrible things?”
“I’m sorry.” Higeoyaji apologized to thin air.
He turned around, breathed in another reconciling sigh and started to walk again.
“I am most sorry to you Ofukurosan, forgive me.” He said looking up the trail.
A few minutes later he reached a place on the high, rocky cliff trail that looked familiar.
“Hmm,” he thought, “is this? Yes it is. This where Leo and I stopped on our way down to talk and look at his jungle. Ahh, Leo, I wish I had your strength to help me.”
Higeoyaji decided to rest here for a while and look out towards Leo’s jungle.
“I hope he’s alright. I hope he’s taken my advice to stay out of the sun, just for today.”
Higeoyaji took off his backpack and took out a flask of water and some food and he permitted himself to think of what he had left behind, just for a while.
He had sat there for a quite a long time reminiscing and finally his exhaustion won and he fell asleep.

33


Higeoyaji awoke with a jump. “Oh no, how long have I slept?” he asked himself, getting up quickly. He looked around him and it was obviously late afternoon.
“Oh, no. The biggest day of my life. Shit, I’m going to be late for my own death!” He said trying to amuse himself while hurriedly putting the backpack on again.
He began walking as fast as he could; he had to try to make up some time.
He had beaten his fear and right now all he could think of was making the rendezvous respectably and on time.
“Time?” he thought. “Ofukurosan didn’t tell me what time. She just told me to be there.”
He slowed his pace, and thought, “Well I’ll get there when I get there.”
He walked for another couple of hours and as night began to close in, Higeoyaji decided that this place was as good as any to set up camp. As he looked around himself to seek out the flattest place possible he looked behind himself and saw that the trail he had just come from had disappeared in a dense fog that was slowly rising up the trail toward him and beginning to engulf the whole area.
“Well, this looks rather strange. I’d better move on a little further, this doesn’t look good.” He said to himself.
While he walked on he noticed the fog seemed to follow him up the trail but the trail was getting too dark to continue.
“I have to stop. I can’t see a thing. He looked back at the fog. It had stopped at his feet.

“Ofukurosan must be trying to tell me something. But what? I can’t go forward and I can’t go back. What’s this mean?” he asked himself, as his fear began to flow in again.
“It’s only fog Higeo. Don’t worry.” He thought. “Yes but fog doesn’t just stop at your feet and follow you where ever you go.”
“Is this something to do with how she will end my life? No it can’t be. I haven’t returned to that place yet and I haven’t given her back the stone. Or maybe she’s angry because I fell asleep and I’m late. Maybe she’s punishing me for breaking my promise.” He said as the fear escalated.
Higeoyaji just stood there, unable to go forward into the darkness and unable to go back into the fog.
“Well, something’s got to happen soon. It’d better, or I’m going to get scared again. Do you hear that?” he screamed into the emptiness around him.
“If you don’t do something I’m going to get scared shitless; again!” He continued, yelling into the night, as he really was about to lose control of himself. “Oh Higeoyaji, such language.”
Higeoyaji remembered the voice instantly.
“Ofukurosan, you’re here?” He said, looking around into the darkness but seeing nothing. “Forgive me Big Mother. I, I, I’m just so scared.”
“You have forgotten the stone, Higeoyaji.” She said.
“No, I have it here in my backpack.” He answered, removing his pack to show her that he did indeed have it with him. He found it right at the bottom and pulled it out and held it high in the air so she could see, where ever she was.
“See, it is here.” He said.
“You have forgotten the stone, Higeoyaji.” She repeated.

34


Higeoyaji lowered the stone and began to think, “What does she mean? Oh, I know. I’m so thick sometimes.”
Higeoyaji held the stone in front of him and thought of light.
The stone slowly began to shine more and more until the trail in front of him was well bathed in bright red light. His journey could continue.
“Thank you Big Mother. I promise I won’t swear any more.” He said, not getting any reply. Higeoyaji decided that since he could now see, he would just keep walking until he arrived at the place where he had to return the stone.
“It can’t be too far away. Leo and I walked only a few hours to get to our resting-place over the jungle. Oh well, I’ll just walk and walk until I get there.”
He looked back and the fog was still following him only a few meters behind and the trail seemed long in front of him.
Another hour of walking and he could see traces of snow on the rocky walls around him and he felt the cold for the first time.
The cold chill brought back bad memories but he put them aside. He put on his cold weather clothes and continued his climb leaving the backpack behind.
As he continued climbing, with the stone held in front of him, the snow became thicker and thicker and he could really feel the cold now.
“It must be at least twenty below by now.” He thought. “It sure feels like it.”
He went on for several more hours and he was very tired from this long continuous climb. Soon, in front of him, in the reddish glow of the moonlight stone, he could see that he was arriving at his destination.
“Well, this is it, boy. This is it Higeoyaji. Oh dear.” He thought sadly.
The fog had stopped following him but did not dissipate. This was definitely the place. “Hmm, let’s see if there’s a bare rock to sit on around here. I should have brought my pack, I could’ve sat on that.” He thought, looking around and sitting down on the snow. “Oh well, I hope what ever is going to happen, happens soon.”

The night was cold, the stars where innumerable and, strangely, the moon was full and bright. “That’s strange, there was no moon at all on the way up.” He thought. “The moon was in crescent last night in the jungle, but here it’s full.”
Higeoyaji sat waiting for what seemed an eternity in the cold frozen silence.
Not even a breeze. Just silence. It was so quite, that now he could hear his heart pounding in his chest.
“Hmm, maybe I’m already dead. Maybe this empty silence is all there is.” He thought as he began to panic.
“Higeoyaji.”
A voice sounded around him but it wasn’t Ofukurosan.
“Higeoyaji.” The voice repeated.
“I am here.”
Higeoyaji stood up and looked everywhere around him and squinted to see someone in the shadows but there was no one.

35


“Welcome, Higeoyaji. We knew you would come. This place is a place of light and peace. This place is a “way point, a connection” between your world and ours.” Said the voice. He could not define whether the voice was male or female but it was sweet, soothing, gentle and kind yet with power and authority. And as well as sounding all around him it also appeared to come from some where within him.
As soon as the voice spoke, Higeoyaji’s fear melted away as did the cold. He stood dry and warm and calm but not knowing where to look. “Who are you?” he asked.
“We are the ones who were and the ones who will be.”
He still tried to see who ever was talking to him. “Where are you?”
“We are in the snow beneath your feet. We are in the rocks of the mountain around you. We are in the air that you breathe. We are in the sky above you. We are in the deepest oceans and in the widest rivers. We are in Leo’s jungle, we are in Leo, and we are in you. We have brought you here to allow you to make some choices regarding your destiny and to give you some much needed enlightenment.”
Higeoyaji was so completely focussed on his own death that he didn’t see that he was being given options. “Ofukurosan told me that I must return the stone to this place and forfeit my life. I am here. Please do what you must do, quickly.”
“You seem to be in hurry to die, Higeoyaji.”
“No. I’m not. I don’t want to die. I was afraid of what would happen here as I walked along the trail but I am not afraid anymore, well, maybe just a little.” He answered.
“Well let us talk a while first.” Said the voice. "First of all we would like to show you something.”
Higeoyaji felt a little faint for a moment then recovered. In his mind he began to see images and voices of his life from the day he was born.
He was being shown an unbroken chain of events, from his birth, into his childhood, into his adolescence and into his adult hood, events that linked together towards an intersecting line. He saw decisions he had made, he saw and heard all the hurt full things that people had said to him over the years. He saw the people that he had hurt and then regretted. He saw his failures and his successes. He saw how some people in his life, stronger than he, maneuvered him to doing things he didn’t want to do. He saw his broken dream and how he regretted his inaction to make his dream a reality. He saw a moment of bravery when he rescued a child from a burning house and spent weeks recovering from his burns. Image after image as his heart and mind and soul traveled between joy and sadness and anger.
Then the images arrived at the institute six years ago, and his meeting with Dr.Plus who wanted him to look for Mount Moon. Then the images took him to the plains and the jungles where he searched for the mountain.
Then his first encounter with Hamegg.
The jungle.
Lune.
The Purpura.
The mountain.
The moonstones.
Leo.

36


Lamune’s death.
Leo attacking Hamegg even while he was shooting at him.
The Mountain.
The cold.
The moment when he decided to give up.
Leo’s attempt at suicide for his sake.
Ofukurosan. The stone.
The jungle.
Leo. Happiness in the jungle.
The return to the mountain.
The fight with his own fear and himself.
Here and now.
The images stopped and Higeoyaji found himself on his knees crying uncontrollably. He slowly realized that he was back in the world of the present and began to collect himself again, then stood up wiping his face and eyes.
He was expecting the voice to speak to him again when he felt faint for a moment just like before. “Oh no, not again.” He thought.

This time he saw a huge white Lion, like Leo but not Leo. The lion was running at full speed and Higeoyaji could see that he was being shot at. Bullet after bullet and spear after spear missing him as he ran from side to side, then trap after trap being set off as he ran over them but none of them made contact with him. He ran and ran past every obstacle put there to kill him. Finally he reached what he had risked his life for.
A white lioness, trapped in a cage, had obviously been used as bait to trap him.
The white lion roared in anger and some of the natives that were there among the hunters ran terrified of the angry spirit of the white lion.
He stood still for a moment to think of how to get her out, but that was just long enough. One deadly shot ended the white lion’s life.
“No, Panja! Oh Panja. Panja!”
“I love you Eliza….name our son….Leo.”
The death of the father.
A harbor. A ship. The white lioness, still in a cage.
On the ocean.
A white lion cub is born. Leo? Yes Leo.
A happy time as mother and son enjoy life for a short while.
Storm coming.
The mother pleads with her cub to leave the ship.
“No, mother! No, not without you!”
The mother continues to plead and then becomes angry.
Leo tries desperately to think of some way to help his mother but can’t.
Too little. Helpless.
“No, no way. Just no way to help you mother.”
“Go my little white lion. Please go.”
“Mother!”

37


Higeoyaji experienced the grief and pain of both of them and he just couldn’t stand it. The terror, the pain, the sorrow and Leo’s guilt at being unable to save his mother. Such pain. Oh, such pain. Oh how it hurts.
The little animal jumps into the sea.
The ship is lost from sight, Leo cries, “Good bye, Mother. Oh Mother.”
The storm comes and the cub is struggling against the unmerciful tempest.
Such strength, where does it come from?
Such a little animal with such a powerful spirit.
For days the struggle continues.
Land.
Safe.
Higeoyaji’s emotions level off.
Leo’s human family, love, affection, learning.
Yearning for home. Yearning for his jungle.
Journey to the Jungle.
Adventures.
Liya.
The bad times come. “Oh God. It’s awful.”
Terror. Horror. So much suffering.
So much lost.
Nothing gained.
Blood and death.
Savage betrayal.
Leo’s guilt. Leo’s lost dream. The sadness. “How can he stand it?”
Things are quiet for a time and life returns to normal.
Liya. The cubs. Oh such joy now. Leo runs happily. Such happiness.
Hamegg.
The fire. “A good human, he saves Lune.”
The Purpura.
Liya.
Death of Liya. Grief beyond control.
“The good human, he takes away the Purpura.”
The animals are saved.
Gratitude, but overwhelming sadness.
The mountain.
The moonstones.
“Death of my human friend’s partner.”
“The bad human with the gun.”
“Can’t see. Shooting. Must stop him.”
The mountain.
The blindness.
“My human friend has given up. I must help him. No hope for me. I couldn’t help my mother but I can help him.”
“Oh no, the knife fell. I didn’t succeed. I have failed.”
“My new human friend wants to help me down the mountain. Why?”

38


The mountain.
“I am Leo.” “I am Higeoyaji, but you can call me Higeo.”
The cold. Near death. “There is nothing to forgive my friend. Good bye Higeo.”
The moonstone. “With Ofukurosan’s help. Higeo will save us both.”
The jungle.
Home.
“I can see.”
“I have my dream back, thank you Higeo.”
“Higeo, you can’t go. Please, don’t leave me.”
“Emptiness in my heart again. Higeo is gone.”

Higeoyaji gently came back to the present finding himself laying on his back with both arms stretched right out beside him and felt a strong pain in his chest.
“My heart must have been racing. What an experience. I understand now the nature of Leo’s pain.” He said, again wiping the tears from his eyes. But making no attempt to stand up. Leo’s life images and experiences had drained Higeoyaji and he realized that compared to Leo’s life, his own life had been a mid afternoon stroll in the park.
“Such, pain, such guilt and such sorrow. So much weight for one mortal to carry.
I understand now. Why did you do that to me?” he asked. Still lying on his back.
The voice answered.
“Your destiny is not here, Higeoyaji. Your destiny, if you choose, is in Leo’s jungle with him and with his son and with the sons of his son.”
The voice continued, “We showed you your life and Leo’s life to illustrate the unbroken connection of events that lead to you and Leo meeting. Everything that has happened to you and Leo since the time you were both born is part of a plan that was initiated long, long ago. We showed you his life so you would understand the nature of Leo’s being. Who he is and what he is.
There was once a time when all worlds were one, including the world of animals and humans. There was no fear, no death, and no sadness. Humans and animals could speak much as they do in Leo’s jungle.
Then a very long time ago the forces of good and evil fell out of balance and came inevitably into conflict. The animal world and the human world were only two of many that were torn apart.
It was then that the dream began of reuniting the human world and the animal world again. At that time forces even stronger than we are defined rules that even the forces of good and evil have to obey. The task of reunification of all of the other worlds was given to others. Ours is to reunify animals and humans and we must work within the limitations of the rules that were set down. Everyone in your world has a part to play, with or without their knowledge. Some on behalf of good and some on behalf of evil.”
Higeoyaji lay on the snow open mouthed at what the voice was telling him. “Could this be the meaning of life?”
The voice continued. “Sometimes it is necessary to allow pain and sorrow, or give happiness and joy. These things are only done because we work within the rules that govern what we can and can not do. Although sometimes we are allowed some liberties as long as those liberties do not affect the final outcome.

39


On your way up the mountain to be here, you were not fighting your own fears.
They were fears given to you by the forces of evil in an attempt to prevent you from being here. If there were no rules to work by they could simply have arranged for a huge boulder to fall on your head.
You were very close to the truth when you told Leo your story about the first man to dream of flight.”
Higeoyaji was about to ask how they knew that. But he quickly realized the irrelevancy of that question.
“The dream of reunification will indeed be fulfilled one day. But there is still a long way to go. If you choose to continue to be part of it, you and Leo will be the instruments of the beginning of that fulfillment. There will be many good and happy times for you and the white lions but many sad and terrible times as well.
The forces of good and evil are approaching convergence.
In terms of how you understand time that is still a long way away but it is coming.
You and Leo will not see it in your present life but you will both see it in the next. The final stage of reunification will not be conducted in this existence but in the next and both of you as well as many others will participate in that great event.” continued the voice.
“So, you wanted me to come here to tell me all of this.” Said Higeoyaji.
“Not only for that reason Higeoyaji.” Answered the voice. “You were set aside a long time ago. Long before your birth.
But even though you were chosen, you are still able to decide which way you want to go.
We knew you would make the choices you made.
The choice to stay with Leo and save him instead of saving yourself.
The choice to forfeit your life to save him and the choice to keep your word to return here and die. We are infinite, there is nothing we do not know of the past or present or future.
We knew you would not fail. But we had to work within the rules and allow you to make your own choice, with your own heart and from your own mouth without any interference from us. Now we ask you to make another choice.
Once again you are free to return to your own life or you can stay with Leo? It’s that simple, Higeoyaji. But before you answer, you must know that if you decide to become a direct part of the plan for reunification you will become a target for the forces of evil just as Leo has been. Your life will not always be easy as those forces try to turn you away. What do you decide Higeoyaji? ”
“Leo told me he loved me. I told him that I love him. He is my friend. I am his.
I want, with all of my heart to be with him and the animals and do what I can to help them for as long as I live.” answered Higeoyaji.
“Well done. Go now. Begin your new life,” said the voice.
“But there is still a problem.” Said Higeoyaji.
The voice answered back, “Yes Higeoyaji, soon after you return to the jungle you must return to report your findings to the appropriate people and the deaths of the expedition team. But do not worry all will go well. For you are not alone. There are others.
There will be no further search for the moonstones.

40


Now remember that you too must work within certain rules.
The white lion is and always will be, the absolute ruler of his domain.
Even you must obey. You must never interfere with his decisions. You may advise but never interfere. Help him as much as possible and be there for him. He will draw wisdom from you and you from him. Your spirits are much closer than you realize. Help him and help the animals. Go Higeoyaji, for his sake, for your sake and for the sake of the dream, Leo is well again.”

The voice was quiet and the night was quiet again. The area had returned to the stillness before the voice appeared.
Higeoyaji was still quite warm and comfortable lying on the snow and he stayed there for a while just soaking in his experience.
He had gone from a condemned man with no future. To a free man with a bright and wonderful future in Leo’s jungle with his dearest friend.
Then from the moonlight shadows Ofukurosan appeared. “Come Higeoyaji I will take you home.” She said.
Higeoyaji stood up and offered Ofukurosan the moonlight stone.
“I release you from your promise, Higeoyaji. Keep the stone. Keep it in a safe place. You may have need of it again one day.” She said, while indicating to him that he should climb onto her massive trunk and onto her warm furry back.




Part 7