The White Shark

Part I

      And so it was the evening. The sun had submerged beneath the horizon, leaving a faint orange glow that was slowly receding. Dinner was extravagant as usual, but after everyone retired to their beds, my trusty servant came with my nightly dish after dinner. Not even he knew what lay under the cover, and I’m sure he has wondered what it is. I would not dare take the cover off the dish until I and only I was present at the table. Underneath the cover was a white serpent. Eating it gave me the power to hear what the animals in my domain had to say about events that would transpire. This is how I knew everything that happened and I seldom leave my castle.

       One day, I awoke to my beautiful queen in a catastrophic distress. She had lost her most beautiful ring, and we felt that this was due to an act of theft. So I put suspicion onto my servant, who, until this point, I thought to be someone I could trust very well. I brought him before me and threatened to extinguish the little light of life that he has if he does not return this most precious ring to my eternal bride. He declared his innocence unto me, however it was in vain, and I dismissed him with nothing more to say.

       Off the scoundrel went to wherever it was he hid that ring. And so I waited and waited and waited, until finally, my servant proved his innocence to me, showing me how a duck had appeared to have eaten the ring. Because of his honesty, I allowed him to ask any favor he wanted. I allowed him to sit anywhere he’d like in the court. But he refused, and decided that he wanted a small amount of money and a horse to travel the world, something he had sought to do for a long time, he said. I granted his request and bid him an ephemeral farewell, welcoming him back any time he chose to return. He rode off over the hills and disappeared into the distance.

*****

Part II

The Other King

I have never seen the city so ecstatic for such an event. Parades in the past were somewhat exciting, but this…this was different. My lovely daughter, princess of this great city, was to be wed by a man brave enough to complete one very difficult task, but if a man does not succeed, then he shall forfeit his life. A number of men have already tried, and greatly failed — yet this one young fellow  he stood before me. He declared himself as a participant, for it seems he forgot the hardships to come in order to acquire his bride.
And so I led him out to sea for the task. I had a gold ring to throw into the water, and he was to retrieve it from the bottom of the ocean. But if he came up, even for air, without the ring, he was to perish amid the waves. For a bit, the man just stood at the shore, as if he realized the mistake he made. Everyone grieved for the fellow, but I had a wide grin on my face. Another failure, I thought. After a while, all the people, including I, left, expecting for him to never return.

However, not long after I had bid him what I perceived to be an eternal farewell, he came forth to me with the gold ring I had let go. I was astonished. How could he have done it?

My daughter was bewildered as well, but upon finding out they weren’t of the same age, she made the young fellow do another difficult task, a decision I most definitely supported.

She went into her garden and poured ten sacks of seeds all over the grass, then proceeded to tell the fellow to gather each grain by morning, and to not let a single one stay in the ground.

Morning came, and my daughter and I returned to the man. There he stood, with all ten sacks full as they once were, not a single grain left wanting. Our jaws were dropped. This was simply impossible. There had to have been some kind of witchcraft. We could burn him at the stake. Still, my daughter refused to accept this task, and made him perform yet another one. She said, “Although he has performed both tasks, he shall not be my husband until he had brought me an apple from the Tree of Life.”

I was pleased to see his face of perplexion, knowing that the apple was practically unattainable. It would take him years upon years to even figure out where it lay in the world.

The young fellow went off over the hills on the horizon where we could not see him anymore.  It had to have been this time that we would never see him again, that somehow we would learn of his death trudging around the earth in search for the Tree of Life.

Many months have passed when on one of my times of leisure, I was overlooking the city and the outskirts of the walls, the hills in the distance. I do not know if it was my imagination, but I could start to make out a tiny figure rising from the horizon. Could it be? I froze and focused my pupils on what appeared to be the young fellow triumphantly marching his way to the entrance of my city.  

From here I could see a gold glimmer in his hand. The Apple! I was completely aghast. This young fellow definitely proved his love for my daughter. He had completed every task to exact perfection.

He brought it to the princess, who had no excuses left to make, and then they cut the Apple of Life in two and ate it together. The love in her eyes for him was evident, and I too smiled to see my daughter jovial. And they lived happily ever after.