Once Upon a Time

A Story by Manos

It's a story, a tale about the love

Once Upon a Time

Once upon a time there was a small boy who knew everything about the world and who had come to know no fear. Yet, he was always restless. It was neither death that occupied him, nor glory, nor riches. The only thing that hurt him and made him cease to speak was his ignorance. For with all the knowledge and the gifts life had given him, it had failed to grant him the knowledge of love. “That is what you will have to learn on your own,” life told him.

From that day on, he wandered the world seeking the only knowledge he lacked. He wandered for many a year without managing to find out what love is until one day he met a girl, a girl who for one year became his whole life. For that whole year he was happier than he had ever been. But he still had not learned what love is.

After a year had gone by, the girl went far away to find a prince who had a castle and a throne to share with her. The boy watched the girl leave with the setting sun and for the first time a tear rolled down his cheek.

That day he realized what love is and was more frightened than ever that he would never experience that feeling again. So, he started to wander the world again, though this time not to find out what love is, but to escape the fear and terror it caused him. The years went by and the boy became a grown man. Yet he was still afraid. He was no longer afraid of love but of his own self. He had met many women, but did not feel love for any of them. Only the memories of the girl, deeply scored in his heart, rattled his mind.

He was going mad and could bear it no more. And so, one day when he stood at a well, he realised that he did not wish to wander any longer and that whatever he did, things could not change. He entered the well so he would never again lay eyes on the things of this world. The years went by and his beard grew so long that it reached his feet. His only company all this time was the silver moon.

He had long forgotten how to think and how to love. His feelings had drained and his heart had turned to stone as he had been afraid it would when he was young.

And then one day, a beautiful lady stood above the well weeping and singing the woes of the heart. The boy, who was now an old man, felt her fiery tears fall on his head, roll down his face to the tip of his beard. His soul was warmed and he felt his heart of stone shatter into a thousand pieces. He then turned his head upward and gazed upon the lady’s vast beauty. And her song, like his mournful soul, told of a man who had abandoned her to wander the world and gain knowledge.

He had not imagined there would come a time that he would wish to come out of the well. And yet, that moment had arrived. He climbed out of the well, embraced the lady and kissed her lips, telling her that that man was a fool because he himself had all the knowledge in the world, but without love he did not have the strength to do anything but live in a well.

And they lived happily ever after.

Words of wisdom, love is the fuel of life

© 2012 Manos

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TKBickel

What a very enjoyable short story, almost in a poetic state. I would love to see you embellish it and make a longer story but sometime short and sweet is something you can’t beat. It’s your baby so let it come from the heart.
Let’s see more of your talent.