Listen

I will tell you a story.

Come close as the winter settles in and watch the fire blaze. See the sparks fly into the sky. Watch them scatter into the night air. Hear them follow the paths to the clouds and dance with the snowflakes that live there.

There once was a knight who lived in a castle. But there was a princess to rescue, so he set out on his way. He set out on his way knowing that to fail this quest would be the end. The end of everything he had known, everything he could know. He would be banished forever. If he failed this quest he would be horseless, swordless, armorless. He would be unable to defend himself or anyone else. He would be gone forever.

The princess was locked in a castle and guarded by a dragon. The dragon sat on the tower and watched the knights come. He watched them attempt to rescue the damsel and he watched them fail. He sent them away with dishonor and watched them scour the countryside. They searched for a fresh start, a new beginning, a change of identity. They never found it. Instead they found the grass growing up around them, closing them off forever from the outer world.

The dragon watched the knight come. He sat on his tower and knew this would be the end. He filled his lungs with fire and sighed. He sighed and watched the fire sweep the knight off the drawbridge and into the moat. He sighed as the knight floundered, as he lost his sword, his armor, his horse. He sighed as the knight crawled out of the moat and made his way to the forest, where he would wander as the sun rotated in the heavens.

But the knight was not like the other banished knights. He studied. He studied the animals and watched their movements. He created a shelter for himself and he discovered the plants that brought him healing. He followed the footprints of the lynx that lived in the forest, and he followed the trail of the bird that flew in the sky. He studied the squirrel. He saw her store up nuts for the winter, and he saw the chipmunk vanish into his hole. He looked up in wonder as the reindeer entered the clearing.

He watched them graze through the grass and he studied their movements. He approached, unsure of this strange new creature. What was this animal that fed off the grass? Until now he had only seen the bear feeding off the fish, and the hawk feeding off the smaller birds. He was not made to be like them. He was made to be a defender. He was made to uphold the law and to execute judgment. He was made to rescue, not to destroy, and here was another animal refusing to destroy.

And then he saw her.


She sat upon one of the reindeer, guiding them through the clearing. Her hair fell around her, threatening to swallow her in darkness. The sun glinted through the clearing, but it couldn't touch her, instead the knight saw the dark rise around her. It gathered around her and spread out, touching the trees, and making its way into the animals' homes. It blessed them with sleep. It blessed them with refreshment. It blessed them with the hope of a new day. 

The knight stepped closer, he felt the trees move back before him, clearing the way for him to pass. They moved to the side as he approached and closed in behind him.

As he crept from tree to tree, the elf neared the edge of the clearing. The knight wanted to run out. He wanted to shout. He wanted to stop her from reaching the other side, but he moved as through water. His voice came out as a whisper, and his joints froze under the months of his searching. Searching for what he knew not.

The knight watched, helpless as the elf reached the far side of the clearing and vanished.

As her form disappeared into the green of the forest, he felt a burden lifted. He felt the weight removed from his shoulders and he staggered forward, limping across the clearing. He saw the cloven hoofprints of the reindeer, but as he reached the other side of the clearing they vanished. It was as if they had found the path only they could find, and had followed it into that other land. They had left this world behind and taken their presence to another world. They had taken their presence, and everything they had blessed would wither.

The knight kept searching.

He wandered the forests as the days turned. They turned to weeks, to months, to years, and the years collapsed into a single moment. His muscles grew weary. His bones seemed to shrink within him, and ever there was a yearning in his heart. Something was missing. He was made to be a defender, but his rights to defend had been stripped from him. His sword lay at the bottom of a moat and was covered with the fire of the dragon’s mouth. His armor rotted in the water, turning it from blue to brown, from brown to red, staining that which was meant to be clean and showing his failure forever.

The knight wandered out of the forest and into the marsh. He searched the heavens for a sign or a vision. He searched for his identity, for the sword he had lost, for the princess in the tower, for the stars. He searched for what he could not find. He searched for something lost forever. He searched without hope, he merely pushed his feet forward with the need to be doing something, anything. He wandered on into the bog. He watched the animals and looked back at the forest.

He saw the trees guarding the way back, hemming in their own inhabitants both behind and before, but he was left in the outer rim of the world, wandering father to the edge of knowledge, disappearing into the realm of the unexplored, going where the generations of failed knights had gone before him.

He continued on. He paused as he saw the white birds standing. They stood in the marsh and looked down into the water. They saw what he could not and felt what he could not. They felt the cool of the water, the sun upon their backs, the rain on their feathers. They felt when their feathers were no longer aligned and they straightened them, reaching around with their necks to find the single tweaked feather.

The knight watched them as the sun sank, nearing its place of rest. Even the sun had a place to rest, but the weary knight continued on.

He sighed as he stepped out toward the birds. They startled at the sound of the wind and rose together. With a single mind they gathered their feathers and rose into the air, they lifted like a bad dream and disappeared into the fading night.

The knight watched them go. Their emptiness filled his heart as he looked at the place they had been. The water stirred with their presence, but they were no more. They were no more.

A mist rose from the bog and he saw it take shape. It gathered as the birds had and solidified into the figure he had seen. The figure of the elf on the reindeer.

The knight stepped forward. He hesitated. He took another step.

The elf looked out into the setting sun, her hair covering her back, seeming to flow down into the water, mixing there and filling it with hope. Filling it with the darkness it never saw, and showing it a new way to live. The fish drank in the darkness and shared it. They shared it with the birds, with the humans, with the rivers they swam in. The beavers and the lynx drank in the darkness of the elf, carrying her presence through the forest they lived in. Gathering the good news of her presence and shedding it as they traversed their hidden trails. 

The knight stepped closer.

The reindeer looked up as he came on. It watched him. All the while the knight’s reflection grew in his eyes, those amber eyes held him, the only eyes to behold him. He came closer.

When the knight was close enough the reindeer reached out and touched him. It bent its head and touched his arm with his nose, the antlers passing just before his face.

The elf turned toward him.

The knight looked up into her face and saw fire in her eyes. The sun glowed out of her face, the fire licking her eyelashes before falling as rain into the pool at his feet. The gold and silver fell from her face and filled the bog, filling it to overflowing, creating there a hidden gem, the gem the rich man longed for but could not find. He could not find it for he did not search in the bog. He did not search at all. He lived content with his wealth, not knowing that this was the real wealth. The wealth chose to give itself away, but it gave itself to the poor, to the rejected, to those without hope. 

The knight felt the warmth spread through him. He felt strength entering his muscles and he felt the golden rain whisper to his heart.

The elf held out her hand, “A gift.”

The knight took it. The black cloth slipped off as he gazed into her eyes. He felt the moon and the sun trade places in the heavens. He felt the stars pass by him. He felt time flowing, a current threatening to sweep him away, but it passed by the elf. He saw time pass by, bowing to her as it came, but withholding his hand, allowing her to continue, the visitor from that other land.

He looked at the elf, but she was gone. The sun shone full in his face, the dew gathering in the fading light and lifting his heart as it wafted up to the clouds. The clouds collected it and flew back to the forest. Gold shone against the laden clouds and he watched it waft away, bringing hope to another people.

He looked once more at the gift in his hand. A sword. A second chance.