Lesson, Lesson! Part III
Part two is here.
As for the three lads in the castle, August, October, and November, nothing was going well. The wait for an audience with the king was ten months long, and the only jobs they could procure were as stable-hands. But even with such disgusting work and so long to wait, the three saw it through. Upon the day of their audience with the king, however, they were mollified to learn that he had left the castle to negotiate with the neighboring kingdom, and that all appointments had been cancelled for the next three months. So, after nearly a year of muck-ridden labor, the three forlorn lads headed home, towards the clearing in which they had played as children.
After eleven months of being apart, the twelve were reunited in the clearing. Everyone had much to tell about their travels and the things they?d seen and learned, but no one had brought with them one single thing.
January and March told of how they had saved and saved, only to be robbed by bandits on the way to the very shop in which they worked, the very shop in which they would buy their master?s most elegant coffin, and on the very day they were to buy it, no less.
February, April, and May told of how they looked far to the southern end of the river, but to no avail. They complained of how they had run out of fish to catch, and how they had had to survive from only fruits and berries for many months.
June, July, and September told of how they looked throughout the mountains to find the perfect final resting place for their mother, but found nothing but imperfection everywhere they looked. They were sure that a suitable place could be found atop the mountains? many peaks, but time was not limitless, and so they had returned with no useful information.
August, October, and November told of the castle and its beautiful visitors from far-off kingdoms, but only mentioned their jobs as lowly stable-hands when questioned. They then told of the king?s fickle comings and goings, and muttered that he probably wouldn?t have been much help anyway.
All this time December had been sitting very still and listening very patiently and carefully, as the youngest in large groups of children often do. When finally it was her turn to speak, she did so without malice or contempt for her siblings? lack of findings.
December told of her encounter with the speaking tree, and its brother, Oak, and how she must return and claim its trunk. She said it was good, strong wood from the forest their mother loved, and that it would make a fitting and beautiful coffin under the craftsmanship that January and March had learned at their trade.
December then told of her encounter with the speaking fish whom she had saved, and of the stone behind the waterfall, smooth and perfect for their mother?s marker, and also easily workable by the hands of January and March.
And with that the other eleven all began to hurriedly ask December what it was they should go about doing next, and, feeling pride at for the first time being a leader among them, she spoke again, just as carefully and patiently as she had listened.
?Then we shall set out at once,? she said to the other eleven. ?I will lead all of you to the oak which has given itself to my hand or the hands I guide, and leave February, April, May, July, and September to gently fell it and begin bringing the wood back here. I will then lead January, March, June, August, October, and November to the stone behind the waterfall, where we shall pull it out and bring it also back here.?
And so the children set out again, and in a week?s time they had all returned to the clearing and January and March began working on the stone and the wood. In three weeks, with help from all their siblings, they had finished, and the stone gleamed beautifully in both sunlight and moonlight, and the sturdy coffin was fit for a king. Whereupon the children rushed back to the house and bid Kalison come to the clearing and look upon what they had done.
?What a beautiful stone!? he exclaimed as he gazed at the engraved rock taken from behind the waterfall. ?How it shimmers in the light like a fish?s scales! And what a handsome coffin!? he said as looked at the oak which had been cut and made into the casket for Sheridan. ?How proud and sturdy it looks, yet soft and inviting! You have done magnificently, my children!?
Whereupon eleven of his offspring, all save December, began to speak and once, all talking of trees and fish which could speak, and all praising solely December for the wonderful items. Kalison turned his gaze to his youngest child and daughter, December, who was listening carefully and patiently.
?Come child; be not afraid,? he said to her. ?You have done well, and your mother would have been very, very pleased. She loved to walk through the forest and along the riverbank in her youth, and I know she would want nothing more than to be buried in this coffin, and have this headstone mark her final resting place. But what of my last request? Where shall she be buried??
?Why, here in the clearing!? replied a smiling December. ?We all loved to come here with her when we were children; surely it was a place that she too loved.?
?Indeed it was, my child. Indeed it was,? answered back a now-smiling Kalison.
And so it came to pass that Sheridan was laid to rest in the oak coffin and buried within the sacred ground of the clearing, the shimmering headstone there to mark her place for all time, and it never grew worn or tarnished. A few years from then two oak trees sprouted, one on each side of the stone, and grew and grew throughout the years. And each day December would visit the grave on her way into and out of the forest, which she kept watch of and protected until her final day, the day when her husband sent their children out on a search? But that?s another story for another day.
The End.
Zaben has 31 days