The Story of The Great Denim Village

I grew up in a little place, up in the grey mountains. Covered in a dense fog, tips of trees only showing above it, we would often go unnoticed by the rest of the world. For months, sometimes years at a time, we would lie in peace, undetected. When we were detected it only meant that a solitary stranger might pass through, stay a night, and leave, never to tell the legend of us.

The Great Denim Village, we were called. Husky, sturdy ancestors built the town of great stone mined from the heavy hills. A plot of 40 houses was laid and was occupied by the largely same families since the beginning of The Great Denim Village. The people of this place were called Ye Great People, and they were great. Caring towards one another. The people of the village helped to raise the children in unison, as a community, and raise them to be Ye Great People.

The most well known product of The Great Denim Village was the granite harvested from the granite fields every spring. All year, the granite farmers and members of the village would care tenderly for the granite crops, watering them faithfully. Women and children would migrate daily to Ye Great Chapel to sing songs and prayers for the success of the granite crops (and therefore the success of Ye Great Denim Village). Come spring, the strongest workers of The Great Denim Village would pour into the fields from sunrise, and harvest the granite with their teeth. Outsiders who hear this method claim it false. Granite has a hardness of 7, and human teeth have a hardness of 5 – that’s impossible! They say.

Well they don’t know Ye Great People. Our people have evolved not only the strongest of teeth, but the ability to prevail and ignore all the shortfalls of teeth having a hardness of 5 and granite having a hardness of 7. Not to mention there have been scientific advancements to aid Ye Great People in the harvest. Cement replacement teeth were created for teeth, supplemented by specks of 24 carrot gold. The field workers get new teeth at least once a week. Though they are some of the more dentally hideous people alive, Ye Great People revere the granite workers. Children skipping around Ye Great Stream revere the workers, only speak to them with respect, and dream of following in their footsteps when they get older.

The harvests are almost always successful. In the wake of the harvest everyone celebrates in a glorious tradition, called Ye Granite Bounty. In this celebration, Ye Great People gather at the edge of the stream. The barefoot children, who have been learning to fish in Ye Great Stream, string granite to their rods and cast out. They catch Ye Sorry Fish and fill their tiny capsule bodies with freshly harvested granite, mixed with pebbles from the stream. These fish are eaten raw at Ye Great Feast. That night everyone eats jubilantly – granite pies, water n’ granite, granite flakes, and sometimes just straight granite by itself. “Granite makes us strong!” announces one of the granite workers, smiling a butchered smile, cemented teeth awkward and asymmetrical in his mouth.