Miss Mole’s Husband

This story begins long ago, in a deep mountain valley. It was no ordinary valley. There was a wide peaceful river flowing through the middle, and a gigantic red sandstone statue towering above it. It was an ancient statue of Buddha.

His motionless eyes looked down on the fragrant woods around him and his stone ears listened to the river’s merry bubbling. In this valley, just under the loamy ground and safely hidden in the shadow of the statue, lived Mr and Mrs Mole.

Mr Mole was happy as a clam, because his family had just welcomed a new member – a beautiful baby girl. Mr Mole looked at his daughter and knew right then and there that she was the most beautiful mole girl in the whole world. He decided that he would find the mightiest husband for her once she grew up. She couldn’t marry anyone else because she was so special.

But who was the mightiest in the world? Mr Mole spent years looking for an answer to that question. He asked every neighbour and every stranger who passed by his house. He even paid a visit to the Mole King himself. In the end, the moles all agreed that the blue sky was the mightiest of all things. After all, it was so big it covered the entire Earth!

And so Mr Mole set out on a long journey, all of the way up to the skies. Up there in the infinite blue he could hear the chirping of birds and see the entire world down below him. Mr Mole bowed politely and said: “Oh magnificent sky, you are the mightiest of all. I would like to offer you my daughter as a bride.”

But the sky declined his offer politely. “Oh no,…