Yantin20

"You are quite inquisitive little one, my name is Dragonsoro and I come from the kingdom of Acarnius, you may have not heard of it".

"Acarnius? As in the magical kingdom where mystical creatures lives?".

With a surprised look Dragonsoro asked her; " You have heard about Acarnius? How?".

"My father. He had this story book where he told me about Acarnius and all its magical creatures, I thought it was a fairytale. How is this possible?".

"I thought no human should know about Acarnius?". Wilran asked.

"They shouldn't". Soro replied and looked her at intently.

Join me to explore this short story, it is one of the stories in MOONLIGHT TALES that is particularly geared for teens and adults.

MOONLIGHT TALES

Days later, the old king died and Ajebor was crowned the new king. The people were happy and thought he would be better than the previous king.

Ajebor ruled his people with an iron fist. And one of his flaw was greediness. He demanded that all house pay tribute to him every week with the best farm produce they had. He seemed to have inherited the previous king bad habits.

Ajebor spent and spent his money lavishly. He had no regard for wealth as he continued to host parties after parties and even at that his subjects suffer and wallow in pains and poverty.One day, Ajebor had a thought; " Hm, I have been spending a lot and my money might get finished anytime soon and if that happens the people will have a reason to usurp me from the throne. No! That cannot happen".

"How can I remain rich forever?... Ah!!! The tree, yes, why didn't I think about it. I can have the magical tree all for myself and no one in all the kingdoms will be as rich as me".

"YES!! I will take the tree for myself". Immediately he thought of this, he ordered five of his guards to go the forest and uproot the tree. He made a map for them to follow.

The guards followed the map and got toHe stealthily clicked the top of the tallest tree and sang a spooky song from there:

The guards immediately got scared when they heard the voice , they had heard stories of evil beings and spirits living in the forest and now they can hear the voice"My King, that forest is evil, that tree is possessed. It has a mind of it's own and it can speak, we couldn't get it back my king". One of the guards spoke.

"Nonsense! You are weaklings , leave my sight at once!". King Ajebor bellowed and dismissed them.

"I plucked a leaf from the tree and had no problem, maybe they didn't even get to the tree before running away, I must send my strongest men".

King Ajebor sent ten of his strongest guards and asked them to go and uprootthe tree.

The guards went and when they got there they began uprooting. Tortise waited for a while then he sang the song again, but this time a little louder:

The guards all ran away in fear of being eaten by evil spirits, they ran to the king and told him of the evil lurking in the forest. The king still refuse to belief and decided to go by himself.

This time he took his personal guards that numbered to twenty and they all marchedThe leaf granted him the power and he climbed the tree again. He knew that hunter wouldn't stop until he got what he came for. So he waited patiently for them.

At last, they came led by the ming personally. The king and the guards went forward and began uprooting.

"Let it rain!!".He said softly and began singing with the loudest voice he could muster:

~~ Ta! Water leaf,~~ Ta! Water leaf,

The effect of the singing voice and the blood rain made even the king to shiver and run away in fear. The king ran sooo fast that he got to the palace before the guards.

He was scared and defeated. Days past by and the hunter lost his wealth, he was kicked out of the kingdom by the people.

The people searched for a wealthy king but found none among the humans.

Having lived near the tree, tortise became the healer of the Jungle. He used the tree's power to heal both animals and humans.This made the humans realise that they had been searching for the wrong king.

A king is supposed to be determined not by their wealth but by their courage and compassion, a king can be anyone either rich or poor, tall or short, human or animal.

The humans then decided to invite the animals back into the kingdom and they made Aram, the tortise their king.

The kingdom lived in harmony and prosperity, with humans and animals living side by side.

○○○○○THE END○○○○○

Story 1: The Greedy King