2. "Who Dares to Mock Me?"

"Who dares to mock me?" Aurazan cried out.

The canyon answered back, softly:

"Who dares to mock me?"

The impudence of this unseen being turned Aurazan's anger to sheer rage, and he began striking the canyon walls with his mighty fists. The earth rumbled, stones shattered. Finally, sure he had succeeded in vanquishing the intruder, he laughed and yelled out:
 

"Now that you have been destroyed, my peace can return!"
 

But the voice called out, softly and mocking as ever:
 

"Now that you have been destroyed, my peace can return!"
 

At this, Aurazan became completely crazed. The enemy, he reasoned, must be buried even deeper within the rock. And so Aurazan began to smash both the walls of the canyon and the ground underneath him. The ground rumbled and split in two as he pounded at the earth with the tremendous force of an all-powerful god.
 

In the midst of this terrifying paroxysm of rage, Aurazan did not notice that he was sinking further and further into the earth. When he finally stopped, and the dust floated away in giant billowing clouds, he saw that he had dug a canyon a mile deep.
 

Down in the canyon, all was still and dark. Aurazan sighed: he had created for himself the perfect place to recover his equanimity, to forget the mocking voice forever. And then, with a tentative voice unbefitting of a god, he said quietly:
 

"Are you still there?"
 

And the canyon answered softly:
 

"Are you still there?"