In a valley serene and sumptuous laden with luxuriantly growing pastures and forests wide, known to its many inhabitants as the Valley of Words, atop a large palm tree there lay a female hudhud bird. She was most perplexed. She blinked. Having done so, she blinked again but she remained perplexed. She had only just dreamt of a word that that she had not heard before, which was, of course, most unheard of in the Valley of Words. The sun rose and delivered warmth and light unto this particular district that the hudhud bird called home. Ordinarily, at this time of day she would stretch her wings, clean her feathers, and avail herself to her favourite morning time food in the area. But she was perplexed. She decided that this matter ought be investigated with great diligence.
And so, she solemnly descended the lettered ladder leading to the bottom of the palm tree that had been growing there since a few seasons ago. The occasional approximant and consonant gently strode towards the ground, awaiting the coming of the rain, such that they would grow into colourful vocabulary. Having alighted, she wondered which of her friends she ought consult with concerning the word that he had heard. She was hungry, so she idly foraged and gathered a small number of sour semicolons and parenthesis petals. Perhaps it is yet too early to bother whomever it should be with such great matters, she thought to herself and decided to wander for a bit. As she did so, she remembered that she was perplexed. She breathed in the refreshingly cool morning air. Miniscule drops of cuneiform dew sat on the leaves of the berry bushes she had sampled her breakfast from, occasionally spelling out antediluvian Babylonian obscenities. Past the berry bushes lay the Very Wordy Waterfall, who was still asleep, for it had endulged in an extended nocturnal conversation with itself the night before. The hudhud bird usually appreciated its company, its chattiness notwithstanding, but felt that, owing to its often overly conventional disposition, it would surely not prove of much help in this matter. Who could possibly have heard of her word? As she wandered without aim, she greeted the alphabet ants, assiduously carrying discarded diacritics and excessive exclamation marks hither and thither, but they were too busy to notice her. Radiant rays of sunlight illuminated the glade she was now stood in. Bountiful question mark birds began to sing their enchanting songs, chanting questions forever unanswered. She raised her voice and addressed the Great Alférez of the alphabet ants with reverence due saying: "Yâ Ayyuhâ l-Fârisu n-Nimâl!" and brought unto him her concern and the source of her perplexity. And as soon as she had done so, all the alphabet ants suddenly stood still and the Great Alférez of the alphabet ants resoundingly declared unto her that he had not once heard of any such word, not in any of the four corners of the world.
She went towards the spider forest, anticipated by delicate, silken webs of syllables of often mystifying prosodical patterns and curious signs that she did not recognise but assumed to be Paleohispanic. She liked the spiders and was friends with them, or at least most of them, for some of them had turned reclusive and academical, preferring the company of obscure ancient Omotic languages, connecting the distant with the remote. The morning sunlight dimmed and grew dull the deeper she ventured into the spider forest and she grew attuned to the calming sounds the spiders produced around her. She ventured further towards the Great Šâh-e-Bozorg, the king of the spider forest, to whose aid she had come on numerous occasions. Surely, she thought to herself, he must have heard of this perplexing word and I may come to find rest. As she stood afore the great king, she addressed him with reverence due saying: "Yâ Ayyuhâ l-Mâliku l-ʕaẓīm!" and brought unto him her concern and the source of her perplexity. And as soon as she had done so, all the nearby spiders suddenly stood still and the Great Šâh-e-Bozorg, the king of the spider forest resoundingly declared unto her that he had not once heard of any such word, not in any of the four corners of the world. She sighed.
She bid the great king and all of her spider friends farewell and departed towards the steppes of the Learned Lion Labânum. Long and arduous was the trail that led there and by the time she arrived, the midday sun stood high and desolate, leaving not a single cloud in the sky. By now, she was thirsty and tired, but she persevered nonetheless. She reached the Seven Soundless Spires, of which it was said that every once in a while, the ineffable twists and turns of fate and fortune would grant upon the unsuspecting traveller that should pass by them the gift of infinite hearing, by which their very hearts would witness all that is sound that had ever been uttered or produced in an instant and experience bliss and felicity. She paid them no mind. She reached the Seven Steles of Wisdom, where all that was wisdom and all that sublime had been meticulously recorded by the disciples of the Learned Lion Labânum. She paid them no mind. Instead, she continued towards the Rocky Promontory, where he was sat and meditated on being and nothingness, occasionally uttering cryptic phrases that would then be recorded by his disciples. She addressed him with reverence due saying: "Yâ Ayyuhâ l-Layṯu l-Ḥakīm!" and brought unto him her concern and the source of her perplexity. And as soon as she had done so, all his disciples suddenly stood still and the Learned Lion Labânum roared and then resoundingly declared unto her that he had not once heard of any such word, not in any of the four corners of the world.
She sat and ate together with the disciples of the Learned Lion Labânum, who furnished her with delicious pastries of pronouns adorned with ornate orthography, rare word salad, and surprisingly nourishing stuffed vowels. Afterwards, they sat by the fire together and joyously recounted the many strange events that had transpired in the steppes, endulging in captivatingly coloured liquors of fermented phonemes that cast a smile upon the lips and perfumed the mouth. As the night bid the day farewell, she bid them farewell as well fondly yet with naught of regret, for her indefatigable will to resolve the conundrum she had chanced upon had but grown and she was resolved to seek past the very boundaries of the land, should she have to do so.
She left towards the four corners of the world without aim anew. She walked and she walked, into the distance ahead, she walked and she walked, and further and further, she walked and she walked, until nowhere she was. Time seemed to lose meaning. She had no notion of where she was and even the moonlight became scant, as she wrote her will upon the path of her footsteps. There was no more any light nor did she perceive a singular sound. Perfect darkness and all-encompassing silence surrounded her. And when her determination almost began to wane, suddenly the darkness gave way to light and the silence gave way to monumentally large words written, drawn, and pronounced upon the canvas she was now stood upon. She stopped and looked upon the words and was immediately filled with a sense of awe and delight, for she had neither seen nor heard a great many of them! The burden of what her quest had demanded of her turned light and she forgot why she had come here in the first place. She cheerfully jumped from word to word, excitedly singing them into a song and her face grew radiant. But as she did so, she remembered the word that she had heard of that was unheard of to all and the reason she had come here to begin with. Past the paragraph she was presently stood in, there lay a fading boundary, like the fraying edges of a page. She calmed herself down and decided to pass past the boundary, steadfast in her resolve to find her word.
She ceased to exist.
