| I wrote this story for Tierney, for her birthday, but she's read it now, so I'm sharing it with the rest of the world. It's a little...strange.
Long ago, or perhaps not so very long, in a country so
far distant that one must cross seven seas to reach it, there lived a very
wise, very old king, whose beard was as white as the snow on the mountains. He
ruled over a wide land, a good land of laughing streams and rushing rivers,
steep hills and wide valleys, abundant pasture and fruitful fields. He ruled
well, and his subjects loved him; even his enemies did not trouble him.
He lived in a castle made of gray stone, with soaring
turrets and thick walls. It was set on a hill in the middle of his country. And
he had two possessions for which he was famed, the one, a white jewel of such
brilliance that when the light struck it, it could not be looked upon, and
which, in the night, still shone as if lit by a fire inside, and men called it
the Star of Irealis. The second was his daughter, a young woman of such beauty
and grace that she far surpassed all her peers, and she had many suitors.
To every suitor her father said the same thing, that they
must bring him a second star like the Star of Irealis, and that they must also
tell him what the significance of the stars was. At these words many of them
were immediately discouraged, and said the king asked a thing which was
impossible. Some indeed set out to find it, but after weeks or months of
wandering they gave up as well.
One day, nearly a year after the last suitor had left in
despair, another young prince showed up on the king’s drawbridge. He and his
horse were covered with dust, but though they were obviously weary, there was
still a spring in the young man’s step as he approached the king and knelt
before him.
The king bid him rise, and asked him what his purpose
was.
“I wish to seek after a second star, and find it’s
meaning, and also , if I succeed, to have your daughter’s hand in marriage,” he
answered.
The king was pleased with the prince’s words, for by his
speech it seemed as if, at long last, a man stood before him who might fulfill
the quest. So that night and the next day the king bade him rest, and he showed
him the Star of Irealis, that he might know it’s likeness. Upon seeing it the
prince exclaimed, “Surely a stone like this must be well guarded, or yet hidden
deep in the earth!”
The king smiled, a little sadly.
“My son,” he said, “This treasure will not be found under
lock and key. It is fee to all who wish to find it.”
“Than why have not many claimed it before?” the prince
asked.
“Few truly desire it,” the old man answered, sighing
deeply. “Many give up in their search for it, or look in the wrong places.
Others become distracted from their search, while some are satisfied with
counterfeits which are worse than trinkets in comparison.”
“How did you find it?” the prince asked, for he was
somehow quite certain that the king had found this
jewel,.
A small smile began to form at the corners of the king’s
sad face. “By looking for it,” he answered. “By asking questions. You are well begun." "Where should I look for it?"
askin
The king’s eyes had begun to twinkle. “In a high place,”
he said. “Now, that is all the questions you may ask of me now. Tomorrow you
must begin your search.”
That night the prince lay awake for many hours. ‘What
is high?’ he wondered to himself. ‘A tree? A tower? The mast of a ship?
The clouds? The mountains, the sky itself? Can one reach the sky and pluck down
a star?’
At last he decided to look on the mountains, and as the
sun broke the horizon it found him already awake and riding West toward the
highest mountain he knew of, where he was determined to climb to the peak in
search of the jewel.
It took him a week and a day to reach the mountain, and
along the way he met many people and spoke to them about the jewel. A few knew
tales which said there were still such stars to be found, but some said they were
in caves, some said they were well guarded, some that they rained from the sky,
and only one made mention of the mountains. But he persevered in his chosen
path, mostly because of what the king had said; he was the only one with a
star.
The climb up the chosen mountain was hard. Many times the
prince had to dismount his horse because the ascent was so hard and finally,
about half way up, he had to leave the animal behind, hoping that there were no
cougar or bear in the nearby vicinity. Already the air grew cold, so he took
all the warmest things he could find. Beside that, he took only his sword and
what food he could carry.
As the sky turned to night he began to stumble. Twice he
lost his footing, taking nasty falls, before he decided he ought to stop for
the night, or else he would break his neck. As he sat shivering against a moss
covered rock, he began to wonder if his search was worth the trouble. He was
cold and sore, and had nothing to lead him except the king’s assurance that the
jewel was in a high place- and fifty other conflicting reports. All this bother
could very well be for nothing. And then he remembered the king’s words: “Many
give up...others are distracted.” Wryly he mused to himself that a path like
this would lend itself to giving up, or distraction, but he decided to maintain
his course.
The next afternoon, after a day of tiresome, but steady
climbing, he was nearing the peak of the mountain. He heard a voice calling to
him. It sounded like a woman’s voice, and, turning toward it, he saw an old
woman, coming out of a hollow in the rock.
“Come here, come here!” she cried. “Come here!”
Stupefied by the presence of another human on the
mountain, and an elderly woman with a red shawl at that, he went to her. She
stood beaming up at him. “
“You have come for the white stone!” she exclaimed. She
seemed very excited as she continued, “Not many make it this far. Come in, come
in! I am the keeper of the white stone, and I will show you what you seek!”The
prince hesitated, and she seized his hand, pulling him toward an opening in the
rock. “Come with me, and I will show you the white stone!”
So he followed her, for she seemed a harmless old woman,
though her grip was strong, and he kept his free hand by his sword, for he had
heard too many tales of the underworld not to have some qualms about this
descent into the earth, and a warning began to sound in his head, that he was
no longer going towards the high places.
The tunnels were dark and winding, but she pulled him
without a pause until they reached a chamber, and there, on a table, surrounded
by six candles, was a round white rock that glistened faintly in the light.
“Behold!” she cried, “The White Stone!”
‘Some are satisfied with counterfeits, worse than
trinkets.’ The words flashed into his mind, and he wrenched his hand from
the woman’s grasp.
“It is a lie!” he exclaimed. “It is not what I seek! I
shall leave.”
She laughed. “Do you think it will be so easy?” As she
spoke six large hairy shapes, he could not tell if they were men or beasts,
pulled away from the wall and into the candlelight. They began to close their
circle in on him. The prince drew his sword and bolted toward the door, cutting
down one of the creatures as he fled.
“Even if you leave this room, you will never find your
way!” Shrill words followed by ringing laughter and snarls pushed him through
the entrance. He was swift on his feet, but he stumbled often. A beast caught
him by the cloak, but he dispatched it and ran on.. Then the tunnel split. He
remembered no intersections,, though the way in had been serpentine. He should
have known which way to go, but he could not think- he would have sworn there
were no branchings on the way in. He must have not have noticed. His thoughts
ran on, desperately fast. The laughter grew louder, clearer. It was closer, and
footsteps, or was it paw steps? Echoed through the tunnel. He could not dream
what that evil woman’s plans for him were, but it seemed he would soon find out.
In desperation he cried aloud, “Oh, Lord, give me wisdom! Show me the way!” and
before his plea had faded a light shone in front of him and to the right. He
sprang for it., even as he felt hot, putrid breath upon his neck. A sound of
rage came from behind him- the prey was gone.
The light moved as fast as he could run uphill, and in a
few minutes the hideous sounds were left behind him, and he had come out into
the fading daylight. He ran several hundred feet more, then turned and faced
downhill towards the place he had come from. He was trembling, and gasping for
air, but he was safe.
With a prayer of thanks he resheathed his sword and made
his way on. The moon was full that night so that even as the sun diminished
the moonlight showed him his path across the glittering snow. He kept looking
back. He did not know where he was going, only that he must reach the top of
the mountain. He wondered what light it was that had guided him out of his
earlier danger.
Some hours later he reached the summit of the mountain,
and there, to his delight, on a little table made of stone, on little cushion
made of velvet, and so bright that it almost blinded him to look at it, was a stone that seemed to be a star because of the glory
of its shining. He advanced toward it, hesitant, and as he came nearer he found
that he could look at it still, and that it was exactly like the Star of
Irealis. He reached out to touch it.
“Welcome.” The woman’s voice was soft, but on hearing it
he almost jumped out of his skin, and his hand went to the hilt of his sword.
She came to him from behind the table and laid her hand on his arm, gently.
Then he was that although she too was old, as the first woman, that she was not
the same.
“Welcome,” she said again. “You seek the stone.”
“Yes,” he choked out. For he was awed by her, and yet he
felt he loved here, though she might have been a thousand years old.
“What does it mean to you, this stone?” she asked.
The quest, a marriage, adventure, curiosity...somehow
every reason seemed diminished in the light of that stone, a light that
reflected on the woman’s white hair, on the snowy ground, and radiated into the
icy air.
“I, I,” he stammered. “want it because- for itself-
because it is a beautiful thing. It was a gift to me in my need, and now...”
“Slowly,” she said. “What is the meaning of this stone?”
He was nearly ready to pull his hair out. “It means my
life! Without it I would have died already and how shall I live without it any
longer?”
“You speak truth,” she said. “It is the Jewel of Wisdom,
without which your life will be as nothing. It was for wisdom that you called
in your need, and you were sent wisdom to light your way. And now, having
diligently sought it, you shall be given wisdom. It is a most precious
possession, and it’s value cannot be diminished. Use it well.”
She placed the shining jewel in his hands, and when he
looked up again, she was gone.
He made his way back down the mountain, and to the king’s
castle, and on the way he had many adventures, some more harrowing than others,
but all the way he was guided by wisdom and kept from harm, so that at long
last he stood before the old, snowy bearded king once again. There he showed
him the star, and told him its meaning, so that the king was well pleased, and
gave him his daughter as wife, and when the king died the kingdom passed to him
and his descendants, and they ruled it well.
THE END
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