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The people of the valley of Zeda Kvirike lived in complete darkness from sunset to sunrise. As soon as the sun set, the world was bathed in a black so dark you couldn’t see your hand if you held it in front of your eyes. A plague came to the valley, and the people suffered. They believed they would be able to make a cure from the flowers of White Jasmine, which bloomed at night, but they couldn’t harvest the flowers because it was too dark. They were forced to stop and do nothing but sit despairingly in the darkness. Without the flower of the Jasmine, people were getting sicker, and the plague was spreading through the once peaceful valley. The King went to the town’s Holy Chapel and prayed for three days for a way to easily harvest the flowers, and called for help to stop the plague. On the end of the third day the King had given up hope and was going to leave when an augury appeared to him.
Hope was restored to the little valley because the next child born with royal blood was destined to save his people. The King, Queen, and all the villagers were delighted, but three days before the new prince was to be born the Queen fell ill. She was dying. They believed the new prince would die too. People were losing hope and no one dared to dream of a day without sickness bearing its weight on the small valley. But the King was wiser than his people, and understood that nothing came without a price. He had prayed for salvation to his people and had gotten it, but in return he would lose the love of his life as a sacrifice. His wife gave birth to the prince and named him Teimuraz, but shortly after naming the child, the queen died. The King was so distraught that he refused to look at the baby prince, so the nurses cared for the child for three months, until Teimuraz fell ill. The nurses didn’t know what to do. They begged the King to take care of his only son, for they thought that perhaps all the child needed was to be loved by his parent, but the King would not. He despised the child. The child's birth had not stopped the plague from spreading in his valley, and his wife was dead because of him. The King went back to the church and prayed again for three days. When he was given no sign he gave up and went back home. The King grieved for a long time. However, he was unsure as to what he was grieving for. He told himself it was for the loss of his wife, but really it was for the loss of never loving and knowing his prince. With this epiphany, the King rushed to the prince’s room, and picked up the child. He held him and saw his beautiful wife in the small baby’s face. Now he understood that although he had lost his love, a new love had come to him. His heart filled with emotion, and in that moment, and forever after that, he loved his son more deeply than grass loved the first rain after summer, and more greatly than the entirety of the vast expanse of the ocean. He told the child he loved him, and watched as the child's face grew less pale. He seemed healthy again, like he had never been touched by the cool hand of death. In that moment the King was truly happy for the first time since his wife fell ill so long ago. He took his son outside into the fresh air of the evening, and together they watched the sunset. This in itself was not so remarkable, but when the last rays of sun disappeared behind the hills of the valley, the King and his prince were not left in complete darkness. A pale glow reached out from the sky, and when they looked up, to their astonishment, they saw a large gleaming sphere hanging there. It was so bright it lit the entire valley. When the other villagers saw that the night had not left them in complete darkness, they all came out to celebrate. For the first time in many long months the villagers forgot their plague and rejoiced, for now they could harvest the flowers to make the cure under the newfound brightness. A large feast was held and everyone danced late into the night. No one ever got tired because, for the first time, they could see. On that night, and for many years forward, the villagers would have a great feast. They would honour the large sphere they called moon, and honour their prince, now their king, Teimuraz, for bringing them the gift of the moon in the night. The valley was no longer struck by the plague. With the light from the moon, the people were able to harvest as many flowers as they needed, and the valley prospered. It had been many decades, and only the elders could remember a time when the children were not happy and well. Many children were born, and grew to live long lives, but the strange thing was that on the night the moon appeared no child was ever born. No one thought much of this, as it was merely a fact of life. All that was good does not last forever though, and after seventy one years under the rule of King Teimuraz, the King died. It was a peaceful death, but the village mourned greatly for the loss of their savior who brought them the moon. Although not without sorrow, life went on peacefully, and nothing seemed to change at first. Then a week after the King's death the moon started to fade. The people were afraid that without the King the moon would disappear forever. For two long weeks the villagers endlessly watched the sky in despair. They watched as their moon faded into darkness. On the fifteenth day after the King’s death, the sun set and once again the valley was left in complete and utter darkness. The villagers were distraught; they didn’t know what to do, but alas morning came again and they had no choice but to continue working in what little time they had before the flowers died in the light. The next day, when the sun set, a small sliver of light could be seen far in the east. The villagers rejoiced for they thought their moon was coming back to them. But the villagers lived on edge because the moon would gradually disappear, before it would slowly reappear. Eventually the villager got used to the constant change of the moon, but they still feared it would someday disappear for good. It was the night of the Moon Festival, the first one the village had since their King died. On this night the moon was suddenly full and bright, as it had been when it had first showed itself to them many years before. But this year was different than all the rest. On this night a baby girl was born. Her family rejoiced, and when they brought her outside to enjoy the festival and the greatness of the moon, a bright spot appeared in the sky. It shone brightly in the north, like a miniature version of the moon. The villagers were surprised. They didn’t know what to make of the strange new light that now accompanied the moon in the dark velvet night, but they were pleased nonetheless. Along with the moon they also celebrated the new spot of light which they came to call the North Star. After the North Star appeared, every time a child was born another spot of light shone brightly in the sky. The villagers called these spots of lights stars. In only a few years the sky was full of them. Now even when the moon disappears, the stars still shine brightly overhead. Never again did the villagers live in fear of the darkness, and the sickness that the darkness brought. A modern interpretation of Prince Escalus' monologue (from Romeo and Juliet) by Caleb Krick6/3/2018 Click here to view: The Prince of Bel-vereIn the mountains lived a ram who bragged about his abilities. He had the strongest horns and the best stature of all the rams, and made sure all others were aware of this. He mocked them for their inferiority, and fought them to take over their land, leaving them beaten down and with nothing. One day, however, as he stalked around the mountain grasses in the territory he’d claimed, he bent to graze and knocked his horns against a rock with such force that they cracked. As easily as he’d become strong, he was now weak. Where his impressive horns had been, were now stumps. Upon discovering this, the others found he could no longer defend his territory or stand against them in battle. The ram begged and pleaded with them for help, for he soon had nothing. But the other rams turned away in disdain.
There once lived a fox who grew fond of the daisies that sprouted in the fields outside of his den. Every spring he would look upon them with great admiration, and would long for their presence in the colder winter months. One day in late spring, the fox thought to himself, “I shall go out today and pick all the daisies I can see, and bring them to my den, so I can admire their beauty in the winter months.” So the next day he went out and gathered all the daisies in the field and placed them in a vase in his den. Over the winter the daisies slowly wilted, until they were so shriveled that they were unrecognizable. The fox awaited the spring to see the next bloom of daisies, but found that there were none. His foolish decision to pick the daisies had left none to seed.
In the early days of spring, two lonely animals decided to settle in a new forest, neither knowing the plans of the other. Both of these animals, Fox and Raccoon, were outcasts in their previous communities. Everyone assumed that Raccoon was a criminal, and that Fox was sneaky. Later in the day, in a small clearing, Fox and Raccoon ran into each other for the first time. As their eyes met, they both both froze and ran away in terror. As they were sprinting in opposite directions, the Raccoon thought, “Wow, I’m sure happy I got away from that Fox. He is too sneaky to be trusted!” And Fox thought, “Wow, I’m sure happy I get away from that raccoon. He could have robbed me!”
Moral: Do not judge on appearances. There was a congregation of beetles in the rainforest plagued by spider attacks, causing them to lose one or two of their number each day. Population dwindling, they merged with other colonies to maintain growth as fast as the spiders whittled down their numbers. The older and wiser beetles were content with this cycle, but the younger beetles weren’t satisfied with the constant loss of life. They sent a messenger, in secret, to the King of the Forest. They explained their plight to him, and the King decreed: “Let there be no more spiders in the forest.” The messenger, pleased with his mission, began his journey home. However, when he climbed over the log obstructing his view of his colony, he saw utter destruction: beetle carcasses gripped in the maws of enormous horseflies. With no spider to catch and eat the flies, their population exploded, and in search of new food, they had wandered into the beetle colony.
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