Author - John Stevens

The breeze rattled the old shack.  It had holes in its roof from where fierce blizzards had torn off the wooden tiles that had kept the shack together.  There were none of the unusually bright stars in the sky tonight it was all cloudy and dark and scary to the little infant known as Jack.  He was only new to the world, but knew a lot of things in this world.  “Grandfather”, Jack asked in a brave voice, “could you tell me a story I don’t have nightmares tonight?  The clouds and wind are scaring me tonight.”

“Alright son”, he replied in a wheezy sort of voice.  “I’ll tell you a story but you have to promise not to ask any questions about this one”. 

“Yes, anything to hear one of your travels.”

The old and frail man took a deep breath which calmed him down so he could remember.  “The year 2034 was a year when travellers travelled from all over the world to come and visit a young lady.  This lady could transform into any shape that she wanted and lure any young man foolish enough to fall in love with her over a cliff. 

Every year she would travel the skies into a sort of eagle shape and people would cry out when they saw her and sing praises to her for good crops and good luck when they harvest the fields. 

This year she decided to travel with the other men but in the shape of a well built up man, thin, but very strong.  She decided that she would show them the way to her place for they were lost, but everything comes at a price. 

She decided to take them through a series of tests to see if they’d risk their lives for her.  She pretended to stumble over a cliff and only the younger man saved her from changing and revealing herself to them.  The younger man had black hair and a whitish sort of face with a strong grip with a touch of destiny about him.  The other man was doomed to die on this trip she could feel it in her bones.  They were almost there when the older man fell down into a swamp.  He started screaming and yelling when the younger man jumped in with one end of a rope tied around his waist and the other end tied around a post.  The had seemed to move with inhuman speed as he tied it around himself and jumped into the swamp to save his teacher from certain death.  The swamp sucked them both down with a great slurping sound.  “Grab the rope” yelled the younger man with a powerful pull he started to get out of the swamp.  The lady glanced down at them and spoke in a soft but chilling voice said sadly, “ If you try to save him your life will be thrown away, I’m not strong enough to pull you both out I am merely a bird where you are a man where destiny surrounds him as fills him and shows him where to go in times of trouble.  Do not throw your heart away which can save a thousand innocent children and women for a man who treats you badly.”

“Then you are a coward who doesn’t believe in humanity, you are vile and disgusting and have no care for life I will save this man if it means I have to put my life to the test”.

“ He passed the test” she thought in her mind.  “Good then now grab onto the rope for your life.”

She possessed an amazing strength as she pulled them both free.  “ I thought you said you were as weak as a bird?” he asked quizzically. 

“I am but that doesn’t mean I am weak, some birds are incredibly strong in human form.”  And at that instant the strong form of a man transformed into a mighty bird of prey.  “I will not take you to my palace but I will let you ask me one question and I will answer.”  The man little older than the boy said to the eagle, “I… I have no desires for anything in this world except to be a perfect warrior and I don’t know how to become that.   Will you tell me how to become the perfect warrior?”

“You already are the perfect warrior, so what if you can’t wield a sword yet you will one day though, but you are the perfect warrior because you respect others and you would sacrifice your life for a man that treated you badly that is what a true warrior needs.  Now go to the bealest shores and go on a boat called the mytefyer and travel as a cabin boy at the end of the voyage you will know what to do”.  So the youth travelled eastward to the bealest shored and got on the boat. 

“What happened next grandfather?”

“That’s another story for another time boy, now it’s time to go to sleep.”

“Yes grandfather.”

“Night Jack” but he was already asleep.

“Good memories eh?”

There was an eagle on the window sill and gave a sharp squawk.