The Flower Children & The Reluctant Warrior

There once was a warrior, fiercer and stronger than many but he had lost many good comrades on the battlefield and seen too many innocent people suffer because of war and so, longing to escape a life of fighting, he fled in the midst of a ferocious battle and came seeking sanctuary in the magical forest.

“Here there are no cries of suffering or sadness, only beautiful bird song. Here there is no blood spilled, only beautiful red flowers and no horrid, stench of death but only beautiful perfume in the air. Peace and sanity; life and rebirth all around”, sighed the warrior, happily.

And, after breathing in the pure air of the forest and sitting for a while besides its shimmering lake and thinking hard about life, the warrior decided that he would throw away his sword as a symbol of starting his new life.

“Nature, forgive me. I’ve hacked at the tree of life for far too long; cut away limbs and lives in anger. Now I only long to plant my feet in the ground; let birds nest in my hair and be a part of it all”, he said to the forest.

However, something had followed him from the hurly-burly battlefield; a shadow which loomed over him; a wicked demon of war shaped like a raven with a long crooked black beak.
And the war demon wasn’t willing to let the warrior change into a man of peace.

“Oh, good Kalak. Nature is a wolf. The strong devouring the weak, that is all”, said the ghostly raven, addressing the warrior whose name, I should mention, was Kalak the Bold, “You have ploughed the field of war well with your sword; sowed it with the bones of your enemies and watered it with their blood and bore a fine crop of orphans and widows tears; a harvest of misery to feed us demons. You have a talent for destruction. Do not waste it in this withering wilderness”.

And, when the Warrior tried to throw his sword in the lake, the wicked demon dove down under the waters and brought the sword back out in its beak and, when the warrior tried to bury the blade under the ground, he did so only to see the earth suddenly crack and the raven demon of war come flying out, grasping the sword in its claws.

“What weapon does one use to silence the spirit of war. How does one kill a life of killing. Some force of goodness must exist that can drive this terrible demon away from me”, thought Kalak to himself.

But then Lilly, Rose and Violet who were playing peacefully nearby, saw the man holding his sword and Rose called out to him.

“Hey you, with the sword. Go back the way you came. We want no swords or men of violence in this forest. This is a peaceful, happy place and we would have it kept that way”, she said.

And, hearing her, Kalak tried to throw away his sword again but, this time, found that its hilt was stuck fast to his hand.

“I am trying to put down the sword”, he said to them, “But it is almost as if I am cursed to carry the damned thing, for no matter what or how I try, it won’t leave me and now it has even become attached to my right hand for I can’t let go of it”.

And so Rose, fearing for their safety, her hands crackling with blue lightning was about to strike down the warrior with a thunderbolt but then Lilly, who could tell a lie just by its sound, said to her sister, “Rose, put away your thunder and lightning. This poor man is telling us the truth, I’m sure of it. His sword really is stuck to his hand”.

And so Rose told the warrior to hold up his sword above his head and then, striking its blade with the full force of her thunder, she shattered it in two and then the sword, made useless, fell free from his hand.

“I bless you, good and fair maidens, for you have just saved a man who was near to drowning”, said Kalak, both happy to be free and amazed by Roses enormous and miraculous power, “And I am glad that this peaceful place has such powerful guardians to preserve the treasure of its tranquility”.

“We’re the daughters of Clara who cares for all the animals in this forest”, explained Violet, “And we were born from the forest flowers so we feel rooted in the soil of this place and a part of life”.

“Oh, if only I could be so firmly rooted in life”, said the Warrior, “But, sadly, my roots were planted so firmly in the field of battle”.

“Then let us remove you from that poisoned place”, said Lilly, “Come home with us to our mushroom house. It’s warm, welcoming and happy enough, I think, to tame even the most hardened warriors heart”.

And Lilly, Rose and Violet then took the warrior home with them, in spite of all the wicked war demons efforts to hold him back, and Clara gave Kalak a slice of warm rhubarb pie and, being surrounded by women reminded him of being a child again, at home.

“I never did appreciate my mother quite enough”, he said, “My father was a great warrior, right hand man to the chief of our clan, and I longed only to be fierce and strong in battle like him and to make him proud but now I see a happy, peaceful home is a greater glory than anything that can be won by the sword”.

But the demon of war, peering through the window of the mushroom house, was not ready to give up his hold upon the warrior and so, flying fast over forest and vale, he sought out the enemies of Kalak; the ones whom he had helped defeat in battle and told them, “Go to the magical forest. There you will find Kalak on his own and without even a sword for protection. Hurry there now and you may have vengeance upon him”.

And mounting their horses; three fierce and angry, armoured warriors; the Chieftan Vrathad and his sons Lexev and Grathax, rode fast in the direction of the forest, their hearts blazing cold with the black fire of hatred and their thoughts fogged with bloody visions of revenge.

All the while, however, Kalak was learning more of what he had forgotten about the joys of peaceful living . Taking off his armour and laying down his shield by Clara’s fireplace, he went out into the forest with Rose, Lilly and Violet as his guides and saw the many beautiful things within it, like the great white waterfall at the east end of the forest and the grove of bright orange, fire blossom trees where the golden horned unicorns lived and the shimmering lake filled with happy, singing mermaidens and silver swans and he felt happier and more at peace than he had ever felt in the whole of his manhood.

But, just as he and the three sisters were returning to the house; they heard a fairy scream nearby and saw that its left wing had been pinned by a steel arrowhead to the trunk of a tree.

Then, looking down at his feet, Kalak saw his sword; not broken into two pieces but mended by demon hands and then the demon of war came to perch upon his shoulder and said to him, “Your enemies have come to kill you, Kalak. Vrathad, the brutal and his sons Lexev and Grathak. But you, with your marvellous skill and boundless strength, can kill them first. Pick up your sword and fight”.

But Kalak just brushed the demon from his shoulder, “If I am to die”, he said, “It is only what I deserve for I have killed many and not often for a noble cause but merely as one wolf slays another”.

Then he told Rose and Lilly and Violet to go back to the safety of their house and leave him and, turning his back upon them, he knelt and prayed to a god of peace and compassion; laying his hands, palm down upon the leaf strewn forest floor, expecting at any moment that his enemies would strike him down with a fatal blow from a sword or an axe or a spear.

But, though he waited and prayed, to his astonishment, death did not come.

Instead, he heard, from behind him, the frightened yells of his enemies, Vrathak, Lexev and Grathax as they sank helplessly into a pool of quicksand that they had accidentally stumbled upon and, seeing Kalak nearby, they called out to him, “Save us Kalak! Please! Be merciful!”.

“I shall”, said Kalak, “If you will show me mercy and forgiveness, once I have saved you. If you promise to go from this forest and leave me in peace to pursue a life of peace”.

The men now up to their necks in the mire and sinking further still were happy to make such a promise and so, when they had all nodded and sworn upon their honour and their life, Kalak gladly seized a fallen but sturdy branch from the forest floor and held it out to them to grab hold of and soon, though caked up to their necks in slime, they were standing on firm ground again
because Kalak had used his immense strength to pull them out.

Thankful to be saved from the undignified fate of drowning in quicksand, they then kept their promise and returned on their horses to their homes and, seeing this, angrily, the demon of war spat in disgust before flying away.

“I’m wasting my time here”, it shrieked, “When there’s plenty of anger and hatred I can stir up elsewhere. Wherever there is a grievance, I shall turn it into a chasm and I shall not rest until the whole world is ruined and floating in blood”.

“Finally”, said Kalak, rising to his feet, “Finally, I am free. Now I think, I want to start life anew. Be a husband and a father and raise sons so that I can teach them the value of peace and love”.