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Old Story from my Profile |
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Once upon a time there was a little girl who was born under a cursed star. While giving birth her mother died, and so the people declared, this girl is cursed and will lead us to our deaths. The little girl’s father refused to believe the people and held her close against his chest declaring that he would always love something so precious. And so the villagers threw them out of the town, for they knew that no child born under the same star under which Pandora’s Box was opened would be able to bring happiness to anyone. She would forever be plagued by everything which existed within that tiny box.
The villagers weren’t wrong. Her father suffered for six years and then died declaring, “You are cursed, and so you will bring those around you nothing but suffering.” But the little girl had hope, and so she continued to believe that she could find happiness.
She was sent to live with distant relatives who did not know of the curse. The couple had a daughter, who was a ripe and shining maiden of great beauty. The aunt and uncle were kind to the girl, but the daughter feared the girl and avoided her because of her strangeness. The little girl tried her hardest to please her aunt and uncle but could not in the end escape the effects of the curse. She watched as the home they lived in caught fire and burned all she had come to know, leaving her alone with only her older cousin.
The little girl was eleven now and went with her cousin to the house of a minor noble whose kindness was great enough to take in two orphans of noble blood. These nobles had two sons. The elder son was renowned as a great scholar, and the younger followed the teachings of a warrior. The little girl’s cousin was devastated by her loss and was convinced that the little girl was indeed an evil being, since rumors travel quickly and death follows in the little girl’s wake. For this reason she hated and feared the little girl and whispered to her before they arrived at their new home, “You are a cursed being, you would be better off dead.”
The little girl wondered if she really could improve the lives of all the others through her death, when the younger of the two brothers reached out his hand and heart to the little girl and rekindled the hope which has been resting dormant. It is no surprise therefore that the little girl who was on the verge of womanhood fell in love.
But things are never that easy for someone under such a strong curse. The young man, whose name was Kin, fell in love with the little girl’s cousin - seeing the little girl as nothing more than a beloved child. Kin’s older brother also fell in love with the young beauty. For the first time in her life the little girl wept and she begged her cousin to love Kin in return, she wished for his happiness and feared the effects of her curse. The cousin however favored the elder brother in favor of the younger, but refused to let either go free in her own glowing sense of power over the creatures known as men.
This continued until the elder brother in a fit of jealousy challenged the younger to settle the matter once and for all. Kin was not as learned as his older brother but felt confident in his skills with a sword. The brothers fought fiercely, but when it seemed Kin would be the victor his leg was captured by a tree root and he tripped, gravely injuring himself on his own sword. The man felt ashamed as he died, because he died without honor.
Now inside every person upon whom a strong curse resides there lies a great power waiting to be touched, to pervert good intentions with bad effects. The little girl held the corpse of her beloved Kin close and for the first time reached out to this great power of her own will. “Please, please,” she begged. “Give him back to me.”
The power was only too happy to oblige in giving the little girl skills which had long sense been forbidden- for interfering with those who have already died will never bring about anything good and often brings about many things bad.
And so Kin awoke from his slumber screaming and wrapped his hands around the little girl’s neck. “Why? Why did you burn off my wings and curse me forever to hell? I will bring you there with me to suffer for eternity.”
The little girl did not struggle against his claws. “Yes,” she cried. “Bring me with you to hell, but please- please- I don’t want to be alone again.”
The corpse that was Kin felt his anger drain away looking at her face; she was, after all, a most beloved child. “You’re a fool,” he moaned while loosening his hands, “I will not keep you company- but I will see you again while you burn in hell.”
The cousin and Kin’s brother found out what the little girl had done and were outraged. They banished her from town and claimed they would kill her if she ever returned. And so the little girl disappeared, ghosting Kin’s corpse along with her.
After some time the young couple composed of Kin’s older brother and the little girl’s cousin married and gave birth to a healthy male child. The little girl, who was now a young woman, wanted more than anything to see the child. She donned a cloak and went to the child’s christening ceremony along with the other guests to give him her blessing.
Luck was not with her, and she was discovered near the child’s cradle. Her cousin started screaming fearing her child’s death. The young woman was filled with both anguish and anger, a fierce desire to share her suffering with her cousin. It was only for a moment that she yielded to her cousin’s expectations and believed herself an evil thing, but she cried out in her abject misery, “I curse you! I curse you to suffer like I have suffered and die.”
She did not mean what she said, but that hardly mattered to the curse whose only wish was to harm. And christening days are particularly powerful days when deciding a child’s future, since it is the day a child receives its name. The curse settled itself over the infant in her arms, bleaching his warm hair white and his eyes yellow like a great wolfs.
“Demon,” screamed the new mother. “You have replaced my child with a changeling, I will not rest until you and that beast are both dead. All my life you have been attempting to destroy me and everything I care about.”
The young woman trembled with both anger and fear but wrapped her arms tightly about the newly born child. The thoughts kept echoing through her head, what have I done this time? The guards surrounded the both of them and the young woman’s face went dark and she began to run with all her might. She did not rest until her feet were covered in blisters and she was in the safety of the dark dark woods where she lived.
“This time, I cannot forgive myself.” The woman cried, “I will repent with my life and take away as much of the curse as I can with my power.”
The young woman pulled out a holy cross she had been saving and placed it over the infant’s neck. “The curse is too strong for me to break fully, but I can use this to protect you from the worst of it. As long as you are wearing this cross, the worst of your bad luck will go to me, and the one who dies from the curse will not be you but me. And further, since the Christening was never completed the name chosen by your parents is unknown, so I will name you Masao in the hopes that your name at least will offer you some protection.”
The woman was afraid since she was left alone with a child in the dark and evil woods, so she went to the sleeping corpse of Kin and kneeled at his feet. “Please, awaken once again. I know well you detest me, but I beg you to protect and teach this child who was born of the woman you loved best. I do not know when I will die, and I think it would be best if he were raised under the path of the warrior since he will face many trials in his life.”
And so Kin awoke from his slumber and was alarmed to find that the little girl had become so beautiful while he was asleep. “Yes,” he said slowly, “I will love him as my nephew, but I will offer him no sympathy so that he may grow to be strong.”
 Mashimizu · Sat Dec 26, 2009 @ 10:05pm · 1 Comments |
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