From a slave to a master chapter # 65 - The homeless kingdom, Part III
A Fairy tale
Time or space would not suffice to fully describe the adventurous wanderings of old Karnol in the cave creatures’ world. His sudden appearance in their life unrecognizably changed the structure of the walls and the various entrances of the cave and it seemed that its numerous bifurcations altered themselves with every word or act that Karnol performed. Everything was so confusing, chaotic, without order or meaning that any shred of hope left not only the beloved Karnol but also all those who were standing outside the cave and closely watched with longing eyes the circular moves he made.
They accompanied him wherever he was going, cheering up for his successes and crying over the disappointment in his life. Although they have wanted with all their might to help him, to stop him from taking fruitless paths, from making the same mistakes time and again, to refresh his memory of lessons he had already learned – they could not. The misty curtain blocked any sign or hint from reaching Karnol and their shouts, no matter how loudly they were, forcefully repulsed from the cave’s walls.
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Poor Karnol, from the moment he entered the cave he was born again into a huge void. He forgot his waiting friends outside, he blanked out the life-saving mission for its sake he had taken that journey in the first place, and both the world outside the cave and the faraway kingdom waned along with the smoky firebrand that surrounded him. Although he didn’t know where he is heading or where did he come from, an evasive feeling that something was missing in his life did nest within his heart. He felt that there is a man or an object that would cause him to feel much better once he would place his hands on them. Although he could not grasp in his mind what was the thing that continuously was bothering and troubling his sleep he hoped that the passing days and his restless dreams would eventually reveal the answer.
But his hopes were proven false.
Karnol became a nomad and the passing years have only intensified that feeling of lack. No matter how much he had prayed for help the only response he received was a blurry echo reflected back off the cave’s walls. The pure-hearted prince was desperate yet never had he allowed himself to lose hope and contradictory to any reason or logic he kept exploring each rock and every crevice within that huge cave. He sought every curve of the road, marking the places he had visited and navigated his way under low ceilings and rickety stony poles.
Once in a while, he came across a brook that revived his body and soul with pure water and provided him with the necessary doses of energy that he needed to continue on his journey. Each time, when he bent down to drink he saw his reflecting image in the crystal clear water staring back at him. But Karnol could not recognize that image. He felt that the old gloomy man, whose cheeks were sloping, was not him but a foreign grief-stricken version of someone he once knew. Only the innocent and shy gaze from his dark eyes served as a remnant of Karnol the hero, beloved by his people and their savior.
Twice a day used Karnol to deliver a special prayer during which he was strengthening all his psychic muscles and recruiting every shred of desire and will that he had as a symbol of his intent. It was not a wordy prayer but emotionally abundant one which was loaded with the suffering and the anguish that he had brought with him from the world of the battles and from the many years of explorations inside the cave.
He conducted a ritual that he alone had invented in which he situated himself in one of the cave’s corners, made sure that he would not be bothered by animals or other creatures, cleaned the loose damp soil, placed on it the headkerchief that queen Valentina had given him eons ago, and with a slight bending forward, until his knees slenderly touched the ground he gathered the palms of his hands together. Then, with a confident voice he called out loud:
“Oh, the great omnipotent spirit who lives through and within me,
He repeated those same words six times and then became silent, transforming his body to an extremely attentive listening device.
In this manner, Karnol managed to maintain normality amidst the craziness that surrounded him. He exercised that ritual for months and years indulging himself each time in the same effect: the spirit of the cave waited until Karnol fell asleep and then it would send its fairy emissaries that would circle around his resting body, slightly fluttering over the trains of his clothes, protruding his hairs and sending caresses and relieves to the weary warrior.
Karnol could not know but his friends and beloved who continued to follow his journeys and who never deserted their guarding around the mysterious stone cave, carried their own prayers to the spirit of the cave and asked her to deliver to their dear Karnol, their own emissary, a message of encouragement and hope. Hundreds of thousands of worn out warriors raised their voices time and again with loud cries and deep grieves over their dearest Karnol and the frightening lonely journeys that he has gone through. So much so, that the cave spirit could not remain apathetic for long and it sent her fairies to deliver those messages of comfort.
Years passed and Karnol continued his wanderings and prayers. He came to be an expert in the cave’s nature and controlled all its twists and turns until not a single piece of land remained unvisited by his feet.
One morning, after he had finished the usual prayer and was about to rise up he heard a silent yet sharp voice carried in the air towards him.
Surprised and curious, tired yet invigorated by a new spirit, packed Karnol his few belongings and followed the soft voice. He had to be an extremely quiet and deliberate listener to be able to hear the elusive and almost soundless voice. Karnol had to exercise the supreme patience that he has developed over the years since there were moments in which the voice was unheard and only Karnol's mighty will power guided him to remain put, carefully tracing the sound that was still echoing in his head.
And so, surreptitiously and with measured steps, Karnol followed the promising voice. They passed at all the places that he already knew so well, only now they looked seventh fold more dangerous; they crossed valleys that became canyons; they came down steep mountains and climbed sloppy hills that Karnol, who had to assemble every pinch of strength that he still had in order to grab the crumbling ground, was several times very close to fall down to a sure death.
Often, when poor Karnol weakened and his soaring legs could not carry him any longer, the voice would come out from its shady and whispering hideout to loudly and explicitly toughen Karnol’s spirit. Each time such a thing occurred a deafening silence prevailed in the spacious territories of the cave and no sound but a roaring distant moan was heard for many long minutes. It was not the groan of the friendly cave voice but of one of the devilish beasts that had been wounded by Karnol throughout the years during his battles to survive. It seemed that now those creatures had felt that their bitter enemy is near the end of his journey and hence wished to redeem their honor.
This way, through great outer struggles and burdensome inner conflicts, with extreme courage and determination, continued Karnol to listen to the mysterious voice until it sounded its last words and took leave of him for good.
Karnol found himself standing at the threshold of a deep and wide abyss whose bottom part was unseen due to the blackness that was curtailing it. At the other side, opposite of him, spotted old Karnol the entrance of another cave, much smaller, whose corners were glittering in golden light.
As much as he looked around for a ladder or some kind of staircase that could be used to cross that frightening abyss over to the other side, Karnol only stumbled upon few wooden logs which could not be used for building a stable bridge thanks to their hollow condition. Suddenly, though, he espied a silver patch of color looking down at him from the cave’s ceiling. “Did I see well, was this a human face?” he doubted.
But it was no time for questions or doubts as beasts, which traced Karnol’s smell, were fast approaching him. The face signaled him to move forward. Amazingly, and before Karnol could ponder that signal, many more faces appeared next to the silver one, all marking the same thing: move forward, dear Karnol.
“Forward to where?” Karnol desperately asked. The beasts would soon be here and he was not sure he could conduct another battle. But the faces were persistent. Forward; forward!.
“But can’t you see, if I make one more step forward I would fall down and die?!” Karnol was close to tears.
Strangely enough, he felt now lonelier than ever before. The faces didn’t understand what he has been through and could not deliver real help. Karnol was sure that his mind was eluding him once more, now that he was on the verge of dying.
But little did he know that the faces were real and belonged to his friends and loved ones, led by Nasi, who only now when Karnol was close to finding the way back, were allowed by the cave’s spirit to directly communicate with him.
Finally they could help their hero
At last, they could grant the lonely and weary Karnol, whose memory remained opaque, the directions he so needed.
And Karnol did not fail them. He was wise enough not to doubt what escaped his mind.
“Could the faces, from their vantage point up there, see something that I miss?” he asked himself.
The faces were friendly, warm and loving so much so that for the first time in a very long time Karnol felt among friends, that he was not so lonely anymore. He stretched out his right foot and groped here and there to find out if something lies there that his eyes might have missed. He took his shoe off and reached out with his fingers, hoping to feel something through the flesh, But no matter what he did it was to no avail. His feet dropped down signaling the wide open chasm below him.
“Do not fear, Trust yourself”. Karnol startled. He now could also hear the faces’ voices speaking to him from far away.
The sound was shockingly familiar and Karnol decided he would wait no longer. He will do it. He will follow the face’s direction, no matter what happens and even if it might cost him in his life. He looked down once more towards the blackness beneath him, then raised his head and gave a quick glance straight at the golden light on the horizon. A slight wind began to blow and Karnol took a deep inhale. He waited one more second, quieted his mind, then closed his eyes and leaped forward. The right leg stretched onward in the thin air and the left leg along with the rest of his body came right after it.
Credit: Coryintheabyss
For a very long moment, the time stood still. Heavy silence dominated the cave’s atmosphere. Karnol was pulled upward, feeling serene and peaceful. He hovered for a moment, feeling suspended in the air as if a concealed power was holding him, then abruptly landed on a wide trail paved with befittingly chiseled granite stones.
Momentarily he lost balance but then steadied himself and immediately began running on top of the stone bridge towards the opposite side. In the background, he heard the revelries and the cheers from the faces above who were goading him to move forward. Soon enough he reached the circular entrance and with a slight jump passed over the low edge and entered the second cave.
At once Karnol stood still. Everything was so different here. Sunshine penetrated through the ceiling and caressed the numerous colorful birds who were flying inside the sphere; the cave was large enough to consist of many small lakes which were saturated by cascades and surrounded by beautiful rugs of dense grass. In spite of its size, the cave felt like home; like a place Karnol could live in forever. The emotions that feast within him at those first moments in the cave evoked something old-new from within; an identity that he thought was lost forever. So intense was the event.
And Karnol burst in crying.
Tears poured down his face, falling on his bare hands, then on the ground below as if uniting the weeping human and the living nature. A few minutes later he felt an urge to keep moving so he crossed the cave, looking and touching its side walls which turned transparent with each step he took. An image looked up to him from one of the ponds but it was not his but of an elegant man, wearing royal gown set with sparkling diamonds.
Karnol suspiciously halted. “What is going on here?” he asked out loud. “Is all this just an illusion that my mind created? Am I dead?" Now he was panicked.
The image was strange all right but its smile did look familiar. A mechanic sound was heard from the end of the cave and Karnol hesitantly approached to check the pond there. He looked closely down into the smooth and still water but this time didn’t see the same image of the noble knight but a different vision that spurred within him supreme joy and happiness. For that image was no other than his own mother, Queen Valentina, whose one short loving look at her lost son restored his full memory.
Valentina’s reflection stretched its hands from inside the pond towards Karnol wishing to embrace him close to her. Karnol, on his end, reached to grasp his mother’s fingertips. As soon as they touched, rays of crimson light passed from Valentina to his body, reviving his elderly bones and spreading all over the cave’s sphere. He remembered everything; the life in his parent’s kingdom, his brother Nasi and their pioneering voyage to the thick forest, through the wall of fire and into the world beyond; he remembered the prolonged wars and the mission he took on himself for the sake of the entire population. Each new memory sprouted new young organs in his body while Valentina’s reflection became bigger and larger until Valentina herself, in a final stretching effort came out of the water and stood in flesh and blood next to the amazed Karnol. The cave’s walls tumbled down one after the other and masses of people flowed in to touch Karnol, to hug him, to wipe his tears and to wash the remained bruises off his body.
At last Karnol saw a familiar figure running in his direction. "Nasi", he cried, and they both fell in each other's arms. A few minuted passed before either one could say a word. Then Karnol felt that he had to pour out his heart since only Nasi could really understand the disasters he had went through.
"You have no idea, brother, how terrible it was there in the cave", he began. "The loneliness, the physical pains...It was all so awful..awful!", karnol sighed.
Nasi listened and his eyes became moist.
"And what about the beasts?", Nasi then softly asked Karnol. He was now wearing a strange smile that Karnol could not decipher its cause. Is Nasi nervous? he thought.
"Yes, of course. The beasts were the worst part", Karnol admitted, "But how do you know that?".
Nasi stared at his brother trying to figure out the best way to tell him. He decided to be direct and plain rather than going around the bush.
"There were no beasts, Karnol", he whispered and immediately continued after Karnol's face expressed confusion and anger. "No, I am not suggesting you were imagining the whole thing. I am just saying that it all was an illusion. You see, all along we were able to mold and use the cave's spirit to our needs and purposes; so it was us who created the beasts; we created the loneliness; we caused the suffering, brother!". His words definitely left their impression. Karnol was now even more confused.
"But...but...but why? what for?", he asked. Yet, even before he finished his question he knew the reason.
He was on a mission. The loneliness pushed him to seek resolution, to go forward. The beasts forced him to take certain routes and avoid others. The sufferings only prepared him for the new great adventures that await him in the Kingdom. Everything now seemed perfectly logical and in place.
Everything but one little thing. Karnol turned and faced his mom.
"Where am I? What is this place?" he candidly asked.
"You are at home, dear", Valentina replied and Karnol could swear that he had never seen his mother looking so peaceful and content.
"Home? I don't remember that home looked like this. It doesn't feel like home either. It's so...it's so...", Karnol was looking for the word that would describe the world outside the cave.
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Valentina took Karnol's hand in hers. She looked deep in his eyes. "You are thinking too much, dear. Don't try to define the indefinable. You and your brother did extremely well, you have no idea how well indeed", now she was silently weeping. "when I say 'you are home' I am talking about the Kingdom".
They all felt that the known history was rewritten at those moments. Years and eons in the future people will talk about that unprecedented moment in which the realities collided.
The journey of Nasi and Karnol aimed to save the dying kingdom.
Through the exploration of new worlds and unknown territories where man has never gone before, succeeded Karnol to pull the home-world into vigorous new and endlessly abundant dominions that would secure the further evolution of all life in the days to come. The Queen and the King who knew about their son’s destiny hoped that the endeavor would be proved worthwhile.
And indeed it did.
T H E ...E N D
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