King of the Hill (part 2)

Read King of the Hill Part 1 here.

Postmodernity grew weary of keeping Modernity in her periopheral vision. It was too painful for her to watch what looked like a perpetual exercise in futility. She changed her name to Pomo and walked on.

Modernity was mad, fuming mad, but deep down he was mad because he was hurt, though he would never admit that it hurt. He felt abandoned in his most difficult struggle and hated how others kept referrning to him as, "Mod," a name he would never have taken for himself. He knew how to handle others trying to take away "his" hill, but he never pondered the hill itself would become his adversary

Pomo found lots of hills and valleys on her journey. She felt like she was walking through a story book. Some of the hills had their own kings ruling their own little fiefdoms, but there were some hills with no king. And then she realized with a self-congratulating feeling of enlightenment - "no one rules the valleys, only the hills."

Pomo had a plan. She would find a valley and rule it - humbly of course, with no tyraany like those terrible kings. No, she would be a delicate Queen of the Valley. The valley itself would be a symbol of how power flows - the most important people on the bottom, supporting all the others rather than on the top keeping everyone else in their places.

She found the perfect valley, beautiful and lush, thick with every living thing. She named it Paradise for that is what it seemed to to. On the distant hills to either side, she saw those poor and hapless kings fighting for their lives, for their hills, trying desperately to keep things as they had always been. Sometimes she felt sad for these kings, but sometimes she laughed. Other times she felt bitter as she had many friends who had been knocked down and hurt by such kings.

Meanwhile, Mod was in trouble. He'd gotten stuck hip deep in a mudslide that stripped away about a third of his hill. From the waist up he could move, but from the waist down, the mud packed in so tightly that he couldn't budge. His hill had finally turned on him completely.

"Help! Help! Somebody! Anybody!" Yelled Mod. But no one came. In fact, some of those he had beaten began to beat on him. There wasn't much life left in Mod until...