story by Maia Koehler Allen 7F from our Junior Update!
Once upon a time, there was a knight. He had shining, silver armour that glittered every time the sun hit its surface. He was like most knights, who all had armour, who all had a white stallion with glistening hair that flowed with the wind, who all had swords and coats of arms with signs of nobility and courage. What made this knight worth a story, was his devastating heartbreak, which had become a topic of ridicule for many generations to come.
The knight, like all knights, went to seek affairs with fair haired princesses with rosy red lips and flowing dresses, those who handed him glory and power. If only he could dispose of the malevolent evils that barred his way… The knight searched for such a princess, alas he searched in vain, for all princesses already had knights that came on their horses and asked for their hand in marriage. Upon these refusals, often brutal on the parts of the mademoiselles’ husbands, any other man would have stuck his sword into the hard earth and sworn never to return to lands of beauty adorned with promises of love and victory. Nay! Our brave knight continued, seeking princesses captured by evil, of which he would be their savior!
He galloped on his snow white horse, through fields, and mountains, lakes, oceans, hills, forests full of fairies and gremlins and druids of olde. Finally, he reached a cave, a dark, foreboding cave that looked like the mouth of a stone giant, yawning, yawing, yawning until snap! In came the knight into the belly of the monster. Submerged in darkness, the knight fumbled for a hold, to find the cold, rocky sides of the cave so he could feel his way through the tunnel. The knight remembered the words of his master, to only come here if he was truly helpless. And he was, the knight thought bitterly as he made his way down the seemingly endless labyrinth of the cave. He held the reins of his stallion, as the path grew brighter, the walls tinted with enchanting, fluorescent green light. The light seemed to come from the crystals that glittered and shimmered, lighting the path of which the knight walked, his armour clanking, and creaking, he often slipped on the wet floors of the cave. The knight marched deeper and deeper into the depths of the cavernous tunnels, and the crystals slowly grew brighter until the walls of the cave were painted white. Every so often the cave would tremble and groan, stop, and then continue its wail. The knight finally stopped his march, the cave seemed to end in a small room, the floor was flat, the ceiling was round, covered in crystals, light green crystals, so light it was almost white. In the middle was an old hag. The hag had balding white hair and a brown face that crinkled like old paper. Large, round, blue eyes stared at the knight unblinkingly, fixing him with a toothless smile. The hag was dressed in rags, it seemed her only possessions were a cooking pot in which she stirred grey mush with a stick.
“ I have come seeking advice, wise old hag. My master, of the name Maladroit, commanded me to come to you in times of need. Indeed, there has never been such an appropriate time as the present.”
“ Ymir” Croaked the hag “ Ymir, dear, let Mummy talk to the nice man-Oh no, no, you cannot have dinner yet, my darling, You must wait for the time to come, the time will come, Ymir, poppet, you must wait.” The hag did not seem to be talking to anyone in particular, there was only her, the knight, and the horse, and neither the horse or the knight was named Ymir. The cave groaned. Rocks fell on the hag, and in the mush, the hag gave a reproachful look at the crystals above. “ Look, Ymir, you are too impatient, now dinner is spoiled because of you, unless you like having rocks, pebbles and crystals in your supper, now do you Ymir? No? Then you should have waited. No dinner for you! Now, sweetheart, let Mummy talk to the shining man.”
The cave rumbled, making more rocks crash on the hag. “No more tantrums, my love, you brought this upon yourself, you should have waited.” This seemed to anger the cave even more, a rain of rocks came onto the hag, despite the chaos, the hag smiled and beckoned the knight to sit and have dinner with her. The grey mush was surprisingly nutritious. “You must forgive Ymir, he used to be much cooler when he was just a baby. That is not surprising, since he was made of ice. Of course, after the ice was fire, and after fire was rock. He’s a bit cranky since he’s missed nap time. Tell me of why you have come.”
“Oh,” Said the knight, with a mouthful of grey mush stuffed in his mouth. “ I had cam to ge’ a printhess, but all the otha nites got them first”
The hag smiled, this time sadly, for she knew that the knight would not rest until he found a princess, and she knew that he would have to really lose hope for a princess to find him. “Mummy knows of one princess, she resides in the castle of Notyormome, guarded by a fierce and terrible dragon. Once you vanquish the dragon, you shall be awarded her hand in marriage.”
The knight was intrigued, he got up on his gleaming white stallion and cried “I shall go seek this fair princess, vanquish the terrible dragon who forced her captive, and then know her love, but first the ugly hag, how do I get to the castle of Notyormome?”
“Ah!” murmured the hag, her eyes glowed with sharp intensity, “ You shall go west down the river of memory, through the forest of regrets, up the steep hill of destiny, and to the castle of debts.”
“So I shall!” said the knight, not knowing that the words of the hag were nonsense. He set off up the cave. As soon as the knight’s silhouette disappeared into the shadows, the hag looked regretful, she stroked the walls of the cave,“ You see, Ymir, this man is like you, too impatient, and soon he too shall spoil his own dinner.”
The knight searched for a river, but he found none, he swore as he searched, looking at the unfortunately hard earthy ground. He searched for hours on end, yet no water was to be seen, just endless land that stretched as far as his eye could see. Wait, the knight thought This is no ordinary river, this is the river of memory, and where do you keep your memory? Well in your head! So the river must be above! It was strange reasoning, but he still cocked his head upwards, and to his delight, he saw a parting in the clouds; A thin, winding, river of blue sky cut through the white clouds. He took out his compass. Yes! The river directed westwards! The knight galloped, following the river of sky, to a forest where creatures wailed, “Help us!” they cried, “Help us! We shouldn’t have done that, now we are here”
The knight would never have admitted that he was scared of the lost folk that walked through the forest, screaming and crying, remembering some sort of thing they did long ago, holding tightly to it, never letting go. Not able to move forward, moving backwards and staring at the knight as he trotted past. “He is like us. He wants to be free, but he can never be free, unless he realises what he truly wants is- No, not now, too soon, too soon, he must realise on his own, on his own, he must fight through the regret on his own, but oh, we so dearly want to help him, for he is like us! Like us! Like ussss …” The eyes stared and the mouths moved, warning him of cryptic danger of which the knight knew nothing. He felt pity, “Move forwards,” He said to the creatures of the forest. “ If only it were easy!” they said solemnly. “How do you know, if you do not try it?” To these words of wisdom the knight left, and the forest grew thinner, the lost folk faded away, now the forest was something beautiful, each blade of grass, tree and flower seemed to be lightly trodden on by winged humanoids of ridiculous importance.
Sun shone through the leaves, giving the world an ethereal hue of colour. And the wind made the leaves rustle in a delightful susurration. To his relief, he finally trotted out of the forest. Now to face the hill of destiny. The hill was steep and the horse became tired with only a few steps onto the path. But the knight encouraged the horse, fed him some apples and carrots, enabling the animal to persevere through the rocky terrain. He was halfway there when Night came to laugh at him, the sounds of mockery from the stars and moon left him bare and wounded. But he fed himself some apples and carrots and he persevered. As he did so the moon and the stars and the Night grew quiet, they knew that their words could no longer hurt him, so they stopped, instead they muttered words of encouragement. Making the knight move faster and faster until they reached the end by midnight. The knight saw the castle and thought that it would be better to wait until morning, partly because he had not slept in two nights and partly because he would have better control of his helmet hair. As the horse and the knight dozed off at the foot of the castle, a girl woke up from her slumber and noticed them, gave a sigh, and decided she would deal with them tomorrow.
Dawn broke, and with her came hope. The knight bathed his luscious legolas locks in the river, put his helmet on his head, and cried out to the girl in the tower above.
“Hello, my good girl, is this the Castle of Debts? I have come to seek a princess that lies there to offer my hand in marriage and slay the hideous beast that holds her prisoner”
The girl gave a sigh. “Why do people call the castle of Notyormome that? Steve’s just a tax collector, it’s nothing personal. Also the princess does not need the dragon slayed, thank you very much. This “hideous beast” happens to have a name and to be a nice dragon who makes the most delicious flapjacks, so the princess will not be leaving.”
“Why would a princess want to live with a dragon? They are stinky grubs, they blow smoke everywhere, and they have terrible tempers?” asked the knight
“Steve is not a stinky grub! You are! I know knights, they have terrible helmet hair, bad breath in the mornings, leave their armour everywhere and make a terrible mess when cleaning their hair. Also, Steve is about the most easygoing dragon I’ve met, which is saying a lot because dragons are very optimistic beings! For the smoke, dragons only blow smoke if they want to or to defend themselves from brutes like you. And… And who wouldn’t want to live in a place like this? With the forest, the river, fresh air, the most beautiful flowers. It is simply splendid!”
The knight became irritated as he looked at the meagre cluster of daisies at his feet.“ Little girl, tell me where the princess is or else!”
“ Ooh, the itty bitty knight thinks he’s scary, well look no further, for I am the princess and the princess is me!”
“Good!” said the knight “ I shall go slay the dragon for you and rescue you.”
“ No, I want to stay, Steve is making breakfast tacos and waffles and I do not want to miss it. And don’t you dare kill Steve, He is equivalent to a sugary cinnamon roll and he should never die, not if I’m still alive on this earth”
“ Do you love the dragon?” exclaimed the knight with disgust. “I am far more handsome and you chose a scaly idiot over me?”
“ I would choose a cow over you anyday. And you misunderstand me, Steve is married.”
“To whom?”
“Bob, the Chinese dragon.”
“So then what do you do?”
“I am the housemaid, I organise the treasure and jewellery and clean the house.”
“ Manual labour? A princess should not do so for a dragon, she should do so for a knight, and let the servants do the rest”
“ Well, of course you won’t understand, all you want to do is get a princess so you can have castles and servants and all sort of precious metals under your belt.”
At this answer the knight became angry . “I need to have a princess and you will love me whether you want to or not.” He climbed the tower and pulled the princess onto his muscly back. The princess screamed “Let go of me! LET GO OF ME! YOU FOUL IDIOT, DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND!! STEEEVEEE!!!!”
To this, a towering blue dragon burst out of the castle, his wings creating mini tornadoes as he flew. It was obvious that he was in the middle of cooking, since he smelt of spices and baked batter (as well as wearing an apron that said KISS THE CHEF in pink cursive). Another dragon surged from the castle, with red scales and flowing gold whiskers. Contrary to his husband, Bob the Chinese dragon moved in a snake-like motion across the sky.
“Now, what do we have here? Another knight I see? Oh well, sorry for this.” exclaimed Steve, he separated the knight from the princess, gently helped the girl climb back in her castle, and put the knight back on his horse. “Off you go,” said the giant of a dragon as he pushed the horse forward, “Have a nice trip back home! But do come for Taco Tuesday!”
Shoot, thought the knight, Steve really is nice. As he neared the forest he came to a stop and climbed off his horse. The knight, now truly dispirited, thought long and hard about what he had done, a deep ocean of regret opened in his heart, for he was truly not a mean character. In truth, he did not care for precious metals or servants waiting on hand and foot for him. All he wanted was love, something that all of his friends, family, and all the people around him had. All but him.
“Oh! I should not have done that! I suppose everyone was right! I really am a foolish knight. I will go home with nothing. No princess will ever love me, for my temper got the better of me. I sought love, but now I suppose I will never have it. I should join my companions and become one of the lost folks. I do not possess anything of importance.”
Just at this moment, Sun took pity on this poor knight, rejected for only wanting something he should have waited for. The knight looked upwards to see the sun’s warm glow. “You are not going home with nothing!” Sun said “You are going home with lessons learned. With the river of sky, you learnt to look somewhere unexpected. And that is valuable, my friend, far more valuable than you realise. With the forest, you told the lost folk something good for them, and in turn, it gave you insight, wisdom. And that is valuable, my friend, far more valuable than you realise. As for the hill, it taught you to persevere, even in the face of mockery. And that is valuable, my friend, far more valuable than you realise. And the castle of Notyormome- “It taught me to give up on my dreams, that I should have just listened to others and not tried to get more than I should have.” cut in the knight.
“No, it is a good thing, to chase after your dreams, to have ambition, but you should also be content with what you have. What you have is always something worth fighting for, if you look at it in the right light. So the logical thing to do is wait, wait for the right moment and then fight for it. That is what the castle taught you, and that is valuable, my friend, far more valuable than you realise. So I advise you to go home, teach others what you have learnt, and wait, you will know when the right person has come. And you will fight for them. Because you love them.”
The knight did not completely understand the words of Sun, not until he was older. But he did as he was told. He trained other knights, teaching them the things he learnt. He learnt much more, over the course of his life, for he had many more adventures than the one I am telling you. He waited, and as he waited he grew older, and as he grew older, he was wiser. He had apologised to the princess, and now was invited to the castle every Tuesday for Tacos, since Steve really was a good cook. The knight became good friends with the princess and her dragons. He was content. He had found love, but not the kind he dreamt of when he was younger. The knights he had raised as sons loved him. The dragons and the princess loved him. Ymir the giant of rock, looked forward to his visits and loved him. So he was happy. Older and older he grew over the years. Experience helped his reputation as a wise old man and so he would help knights like him for generations to come. Until, when he was too old and frail, he drew his last breath, and learnt another thing, something that only comes after you meet Death.
THE END!
Here is a story with a moral, it is neither an old nor new story, something that you should neither overthink nor think too little of. It was written for the entertainment of the author, any connection with any acquaintances or outside world problems is purely coincidental.
The Update 