A Fairytale

A Story: A Retelling

This story begins like many others before it; it begins with a "once upon a time..."

There was a basin, you see, a gold basin. It was a magic basin that could grant wishes and turn your dreams into reality. If you desired to be a singer, washing your face in the basin would give you a voice like a nightingale. If you wished to be rich, after a wash in the basin, money would find its way into your hands.
But no mortal owns this basin. It sits in a decaying attic, free for all to use. And of course, many sought this golden basin for they wanted fortune, love, talent, fish.
What people do not know is that this basin belongs rightfully to Death and that he simply misplaced it in an attic. Rumours of the basin spread as rumours usually do and soon all who were healthy enough to move went out to seek it. The was much fighting and blood shed over the right to use the basin; so much so that Death found it impossible to retrieve the basin. Death was not mean spirited. He did not want to sneak in when an opening presented itself and take back his basin because he did not want people dying for an object that was no longer there. And so he thought to himself this: "Those humans will die if they continue to fight over this basin; that much is certain. However if one should reach it, and only one, then I should be glad to let them use it before I take it back."
And so Death played a game of waiting. He watched kingdoms waste away, chivalrous  knights meet their end as lunatics, mothers and fathers, daughters and sons all perish at each other's hand, some just within reach of the basin. But Death was patient for he had more than enough time. And he would wait, and play billiards.
Now, there was a young man who was born into a family neither very wealthy nor wallowing in poverty. The only reputable name held by his family belonged to his father, who had been a brilliant warrior and captain of the Royal Guard. The young man was not a good fighter and he new he could never wield the sword as his father could.
There was a young lady, a daughter of a respectable man who had quite the handsome dowry over her head. She and the young man were set to marry when he became a great soldier like his father. The young man loved this girl dearly and trained hard so that he would one day be worthy of her hand.
However as the course of events should have it, much time passed and still the young man had no great achievements to call his own. The girl's father grew impatient and promised her to another man, a bachelor who's wealth exceeded her own.
Desperate, the young man left home on a journey to find and to use the golden basin so that he would be able to gain the skills of a mighty warrior in time to marry his beloved.
The young man travelled far. He traversed forests and fields and fought off onslaught after of onslaught of monsters. He knew not how he found the strength to fend them off but he did and his steel blade slowly become rusted with the blood of slain  monsters. Twice he lost his way and was forced to fell mighty oaks with his only sword so that he may float on the log across acrid lakes. All the while, the young man thought of his love and her smile.
Finally, he arrived at old house where the attic and the basin was. Once it had been surrounded by an ancient forest but fire and strife had exhausted the life of the land and the house now stood on barren dirt. Finally, our young hero stopped and thought he could go no further; the signs of struggle seemed still fresh and the ground was strewn with corpses. So numerous were the bodies that he could not move forward without trampling a once-living person.
The young man felt his heart drop into horror as he stood with the house and the basic before him. He saw all around him the fate of those who once, like him, carried a dream. He saw the bits of wishes and particles of dreams all wasted, all powdered into dust clinging to the remains of the dead and he turned around.
If this was what a magic basin was worth, he thought, and if so many had tried and failed before him, why then should he be the only one to succeed? It was perhaps more like that he should fall died with the next step he took and never have the chance to look upon his beloved again.
So the young man turned back. He sheathed his sword and walked back to the lake he had just crossed and getting back on his log so that he may cross it again.
Meanwhile, Death had just finished an exceedingly long game of billiards and he was suddenly alerted. He saw the young man who was just a hop and a skip away from his final prize. "There is one who has braved many dangers, risking death for the sake of a dream and yet, has turned back when the dream he seeks is right before him on account of the dead bodies?" Death thought it unusual. "What manner of man is he, a coward or a fool?" he wondered.
And just as the man pushed himself from land on his log, Death appeared before him from beneath the waters.
"Prove to me your will." Death said to him.
Stunned, the young man could only barely keep himself afloat on the log. He swallowed and his hands turned cold and he knew that he was about to die.
"I only wish to live to fight for my dream," the young man said finally, knowing that he could not escape Death. "I'm a coward, you see, and...I do not wish to die. For if I die...I'll never see her again." he added quietly. The young man crouched on his log, hanging on with stone cold hands, shivering and frightened while Death waited patiently as ever. At last, he said, "I am determined to live."
Death was puzzled. But soon, he smiled and he accepted the young man's answer.
He used magic to transport the young man right into the attic and there sat the gold basin, glittering with promises such that the young man was immediately mesmerized by it. From almost a faraway place, he heard Death say "It is yours to use once," and immediately the spell was broken to him. The young man did not do as Death said; he did not go towards the basin. Instead, he dropped to his knees and begged Death to allow him to go on from that place alive and Death complied.
The young man returned home immediately and went straight to the house of the girl and her father. Rather than getting on his knees, he stood before the man and asked to wed his daughter. Both the father and the girl were shocked at the state of the young man for he was covered in deep bruises and welts, with dirt in every crevice and ragged clothing even beggars would scorn to wear. But for the first time, the girl's father saw how tall the young man really was and how solid his frame had become. He saw the worn and dulled sword at his side and the look of sincerity in the young man's eyes, and he granted the young man's wish.

THE END