Sovereign

After a time, Heryshaf came across a small yard.

In the middle of it stood the most beautiful creature he had ever seen.

The bird’s enormous tail shimmered blue and green in the sunlight, covered with feathers that seemed to have eyes of their own.

Heryshaf stopped.

The bird noticed.

He had clearly been waiting for someone to.

“Hello,” said Heryshaf. “I’m Heryshaf.”

“And I’m Jonnie. Jonnie the peacock. How are you this fine day?”

“I’m great, thanks. You look unbelievable.”

“Thanks,” said Jonnie.

Heryshaf waited.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a creature like you.”

“Thanks again,” said Jonnie. “It is true I am the most attractive of all creatures, and it is also true that none can withstand my charms.”

Heryshaf blinked.

“All are impressed by my display of colour and grace. I’m very lucky. Look around this farm. Every creature here knows I am king.”

Heryshaf looked around.

A chicken was pecking at something in the dirt.

“The sheep shuffle past with their heads down,” Jonnie continued. “The dogs avert their eyes when I spread my tail. Even the old bull in the far field will not challenge me, because he has seen me stand tallest and brightest at the centre of everything.”

The old bull appeared to be asleep.

“I was born to rule this place,” said Jonnie. “My colours are my crown, my voice is my sceptre, and every hen in the yard is my subject. I need no army and no throne.”

He unfurled his tail.

“I simply unfurl, and the world falls quiet and remembers who is in charge.”

The chicken continued pecking.

“That is what it is to be truly magnificent — not merely admired, but obeyed.”

Heryshaf looked at the chicken.

Jonnie did not.

“And there is not a female on the planet I cannot seduce.”

“What? Come on. You must be kidding?”

“No, I’m not. I can seduce anyone I want.”

“Why do you believe that? There must be some females you cannot win over. Not all of them are looking for the same thing.”

“My dear sheep,” began Jonnie. “Yes, that is true.”

Heryshaf was surprised.

“But I can be whatever they want me to be. I simply ruffle the feathers that are most attractive to the girl I want at the time.”

“That’s impossible.”

“Nothing is impossible. I am simply better than anyone else at getting what I want.”

Jonnie turned slightly, and the colours of his feathers changed with the light.

“I can be anyone I want to be.”

He turned again.

“Anything they want me to be.”

Heryshaf looked at him.

“Which one is you?”

Jonnie stopped.

“What?”

“If you can be anyone you want to be, which one is actually you?”

“All of them.”

“All of them?”

“Of course.”

“Then why do you have to change?”

Jonnie’s tail rustled.

“I don’t change. I adapt.”

“What’s the difference?”

“Success.”

Heryshaf thought about that.

“Do you not feel bad about deceiving them?”

“I’m not really deceiving anyone. It’s the challenge of getting what I want that I enjoy. It makes me feel great. Knowing that I can get something others can’t.”

“And what happens after you get it?”

“I get something else.”

“And after that?”

“Something else.”

Heryshaf waited.

Jonnie frowned.

“Emotions seem to get in the way of my goal,” he said. “Compassion and achievement don’t seem to mix.”

“Perhaps you are deceiving yourself.”

“I don’t deceive myself.”

“How would you know?”

Jonnie’s feathers shifted.

“Eventually the act will wear off,” Heryshaf continued, “and others will see you as you really are.”

“You are wrong. Most of them are unaware.”

Jonnie smiled.

“I move on before they can do that.”

“You can keep on running away, but you can’t outrun yourself.”

“I’ll worry about that when I’ve got a conscience!”

“And it doesn’t matter who you hurt as you go?”

“It takes two to tango,” said Jonnie smugly.

Heryshaf turned his back on him and walked towards the other corner of the yard.

Jonnie followed.

“If you have to be manipulative to find a partner,” said Heryshaf, “you start on the wrong premise. Once you get to know each other, you might not be what she expects. Or she might not be what you expect.”

“I don’t believe there is such a thing as the perfect partner,” said Jonnie. “How many unhappy relationships do you know of, Heryshaf?”

“Plenty.”

“There you are.”

“But then again, there are a few good ones.”

“If there is such a thing as the perfect partner, how do you know who it is?”

Heryshaf hesitated.

“I suppose it’s someone you can be yourself with.”

Jonnie looked at him.

“What do you mean, ‘be yourself with’?”

This time there was no boast in the question.

Heryshaf opened his mouth.

Then closed it.

He had spent a great deal of his journey being told to know himself.

It occurred to him that this did make the question rather difficult.

“I don’t know,” he admitted.

Jonnie stared at him.

“But I think,” Heryshaf continued, “that if you have to become somebody else for them to want you, then whoever they want isn’t you.”

Jonnie looked down at his feathers.

For the first time since Heryshaf had met him, he seemed to have forgotten how magnificent they were.

Heryshaf turned to leave.

“Wait,” said Jonnie.

Heryshaf stopped.

“If you were me,” Jonnie asked, “what would you change?”

Heryshaf looked back at him.

“I wouldn’t know where to begin.”

Jonnie’s beak opened.

Heryshaf smiled.

“Neither do I.”

And he walked out of the yard.

For a little while Jonnie remained exactly where he was.

Then a hen walked past.

Jonnie saw her.

His tail opened.