Legend of the River of Red Stones

A long time ago when the world was still young, the River of Red Stones ran through the territory of some ancient people. The river at that time had white stones instead of red. These river people lived at peace with both men and nature. Since it was against their laws to fight, these people were guarded by the most mighty band of knights that this world had ever seen. Peace went on for years, but darkness was creeping back out of the shadows. A malicious king looked at his own land and saw nothing but ruin, humans crawling in the dirt like dogs and poverty. Anger clouded his mind. He looked over at other kingdoms and saw the people by the River of Red Stones. He grew jealouse of their peace and plenty. He decided to make the people of the river join his empire or die.

He rallied his troops. They attacked the settlement in the early hours of dawn. The knights who guarded the people were caught by surprise. The king's army showed them no mercy, killing every last one. The people of the river were led to the king in chains. 

He spoke that if they joined his empire he would let them live under his rule. But if they refused he would kill every last man, woman and child. The people took council with each other for a time. At last they decided their fate. The oldest man in the village stood up to the king and said:

"We have took council togethor and decided that we would rather live happy in death than live unhappy in life,". No sooner had the words left the man's mouth , did the king seize his sword and slice the man's head off. He ordered his troops to throw the bodies in the river after he killed them.

It was a long bloody night. There were no screams though. No cries for mercy or tears of fear. The people of the river knew that they would see each other soon even if death took them. They did not fear death because they had no fear of what came after.

When the morning came the river was red with blood and full of bodies. The king stared at the river. The cloud of anger in his mind cleared. He suddenly realized what he had done. In desperation to escape grief he ordered his soldiers to remove the bodies from the river and give them a proper buriel. After the soldiers had done this deed the king cast himself into the blood filled river and drowned.

It was weeks before the blood disappeared from the river. When time finally allowed it, the once white stones where now stained a maroon color. The color will stay with the stones forevor until the end of time as a reminder of what the king had done. Since then the river has been know as the River of Red Stons.

Author's Note

The River of Red Stones is not a real place. I made it up after going to this on stream by my house that has a bunch of red stones in it. I gave the stream a name and a story to go behind it.

Reviews

[Laura Lynn]

There are a lot of responses I could have to this story merely scientific, but it does sounds like a legend and it has that going for it. The stuff that legends are made of