Library: The Tale of Mak

The Tale of Mak The tale of Mak Once upon a time, or to be more exact... during the celebration of the first day of spring in the year 554, a boy was born in the small village of Ryd in the country Valla. This story is about this boy and how he came to change the way we look at the world of today. This village, Ryd, and it's location is since long forgotten. Different rumours say that it was destroyed by raiding barbarians or that it simply was washed away in the big flood of the year 603, but one of the most ridiculous theories says that it was eaten by a giant green insect. I happen to know that none of these speculations are true. The true story about what happened to this village is closely linked to the fate of the boy I mentioned earlier. But I will start the tale from the beginning. As I said earlier, on the first day of spring in the year 554 a boy was born. It was the first child that was born in Ryd this year and for such a thing to happen of the first day of spring was unheard of. It was the firstborn of Machilli, who was the daughter of the blacksmith and also the village's only woman with healing abilities. Usually when a born, or a girl for that matter, is born and this birth later ends up in a tale he is described as the most beautiful and adoring thing there ever was or will be. Well, this was not the case with this boy. He was probably the most hideous child that ever been born by a woman. To describe him to you is simply not possible but if you think that even a crossing between a pig and a troll would be considered as beautiful next to him you might get a slight idea of how ugly he actually was. It is said that his moth er even passed out from the shock of when she first saw him. His father did not want to believe that such a thing could be his offspring so he simply left his wife and was never seen again. Well, even though she hardly could stand looking at her newborn, Machilli said, after she woke up after passing out a second time from the shock, that her son was to be named Mak. In the language that was spoken in Valla, Mak meant roughly "Beauty that is unimaginable". If this was proof of a mothers love to her child, no matter what, or that she was a very sarcastic woman, I have no idea. Anyway, Machilli raised Mak by herself and since no other children wanted to play with Mak (and when they did the games they played usually meant throwing stuff at Mak and describing how ugly they thought he was) Machilli decided to get a pet for Mak. She bought the cutest puppy there ever was and brought it home to Mak. When she gave it to Mak and he saw the puppy Mak's eyes started to shine and he got a big happy smile on his face. When the dog saw Mak it's eyes widened and with a small sound of pure fear it simply died. After this Mak got quite depressed and got a habit of always wrapping his face in loincloth, he even slept with the wrapping on and didn't let anyone see his face. This had two great effects, first of all he could actually speak to people and they wouldn't run away and second, animals stopped dying every time he went outside. He started to spend long hours doing nothing more than reading his mums books about herbs and healing techniques. When Machilli had patients to take care of he often sat hidden in the closet watching her treat them. After some time Mak actually developed quite some skills within the art of healing. Sometimes when Machilli had given some herbs with sleeping effect to her patient Mak came out of the closet and actually did the things that needed to be done. Machilli was considered to be the best healer within ten days of travelling and she considered Mak to be of much higher potential. When Mak reached his early twenties he left to join the Followers of Tarmalen. After many years of devoting his life to cure diseases all over the world he got a reputation to be one of the best healers in the western realm of the world. The rumours even said that he could bring back the dead. He became a living legend. I think one part of the legend status came from the fact that almost none had seen his face and he still wore the wrapping both day and night. Well, the rumours of his outstanding healing abilities gave him the opportunities to work with noble people and even kings and queens sent for him from time to time. But this wasn't enough. One day the God of Love, that in the language Mak spoke was named Karlek, sent for all the best healers in the world. Karlek had lost his only daughter, Crush, due to war between the Gods. How it is possible for the daughter of a God to die I don't know, but she was dead all right. Bringing back mortals to life takes lots of power but bringing back an immortal was considered impossible... mostly because the immortals never died and this never had been needed. Anyway, all the famous healers from around the globe came to try to raise Crush from the dead. The one that succeeded was also promised to get the love from Crush. Karlek had the power of love to make Crush love her future husband and since she was said to be the most beautiful female ever alive they were all quite eager to be the one to marry her, even the female hea lers where interested in the marriage, so great where her beauty. All healers tried without success. Mak tried his hardest and even he failed. After a few days the first of them gave up and returned to their normal business. After a week only the most devoted ones where left trying, and after a month had passed only Mak was left. But when all the others went on with their lives, Mak stayed and tried and tried. Years passed but still no success. But then one day, Mak did the untinkable! He manage to invoke ancient powers and he managed to bring back Crush to life! Karlek was going to do as he had promissed, but he didn't have to. When Crush heard of Mak's devotion and when she spent some time with him and got to know him and realised that he was a nice fellow, she fell in love with him the natural way. Words of the coming wedding between an immortal and a mortal spread around the Realm. And the fact that it was the daughter of the God of Love only made it even more interessting. Well, all the preperations went according to plans and the wedding itself is worth a entire tale of it's own. They spoke the woves and where declared husband and wife. Everybody was happy. Now one could think that the lesson of this story was that it doesnt matter how you look. True love is so much bigger and more beautiful. But that's bullshit, and if the story ends now it wouldnt explain what happened to the village Ryd, which I promised it would, so the story countinues... Everybody was happy indeed. Mak and Crush went after wedding-party upstairs and was going to "finalize" the wedding. Upstair everything went smooth and the passion was even more magnified of the fact that Mak was playing "Best of: Barry White" on the magical musicbox they had been given by the God of music. Everythign was perfect untill Crush told Mak to remove his wrapping. The thing was even though they both loved each other, Crush hadn't seen Mak's face. And in the middle of the passion Mak was as clear headed as any male is when they are standing next to a naked women with ENORMOUS br... hmm... well... anyway... Mak made the foolish descision to remove the cloth that was hiding his face. You all remembered what happened to the puppy when Mak whas a child? Pretty much the same thing happened to Crush. Her eyes widened with fear and she died screaming in fear. When her father, the God of Love, heard that his immortal daughter died, again, he punished Mak by sending a giant red inscent to Mak's place of birth. This red inscet, which are much more dangerous then the green ones, simply swallowed the entire village. And the punishment Mak himself got is too cruel to mention, even almost 200 years later. So the real lesson with this story is: "Ugly people never win" The End

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Library: The Tale of Mak