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Once there lived a Tainted Blacksmith. He had no proper name, no history to speak of, and he lived atop a large tower by the sea. He spent his days constructing powerful magical weapons which he sold to demons and other evil spirits for use in their war against the gods. This angered the gods and they held a celestial meeting to discuss what to do about this man. They decided that he must be imprisoned for his crimes and that someone would have to be sent to guard him and to prevent any escape. They sent the God of Wisdom to earth to make it so.
So the God of Wisdom appeared before the Tainted Blacksmith and cursed his body to become a stone of light. From the top of his seaside tower the light from his body shown all about in every direction warning those who drew near that the tower, as well as the jagged rocks that dotted the cliff below the tower, was there. This way the God of Wisdom created the first lighthouse. His task was still not complete as he had yet to find a guardian for the Tainted Blacksmith.
Therefore he made his way to the home of a lonely farmer. He told the farmer of the task he had for him and requested his aid in the name of the gods. The farmer was hesitant, speaking humbly to the God of Wisdom how his only skill was with a scythe, but the god dismissed his meekness and pressed him again to serve the gods. He relented and was given a new name, the Watchman. With his task completed the God of Wisdom set his new servant into the tower of the Tainted Blacksmith for all eternity and returned to the heavens.
Millennia passed and the Watchman fell into a deep depression. He was now known as the Forgotten Watchman by the locals who both feared and pitied him. After a thousand years of loneliness he begged the gods to simply let him die. His power over the imprisoned Blacksmith grew weaker as he rejected his mission more and more. Once again the gods held a meeting. It was decided that the Forgotten Watchman would be put to a test. If he pasted he would be given his heart’s desire.
The God of Wisdom returned for a second time to the Forgotten Watchman. He offered him two gifts, a scythe of unimaginable power or the power to end the starvation in the village he grew up in. He was saddened by the choices as neither mattered to him, but he choose to end the starvation. The God of Wisdom made it so each household would have plenty to eat until the death of the youngest child. Then he smiled and vanished leaving in his place a beautiful woman.
The Forgotten Watchman was thrilled to have a wife and for a time he earnestly guarded the Tainted Blacksmith. As time passed; however, he grew content and forgot the threat that loomed in the attic over his home. One evening the Tainted Watchman broke free from his curse and ravaged the land around his tower in a rage. The Forgotten Watchman froze with fear and could only watch in horror as his wife was slaughtered. Shaken from his frozen state by the appearance of a glowing red scythe in his hand he leapt onto the Tainted Blacksmith and chopped off his head.
The God of Wisdom shook his head sadly as the Forgotten Watchman stood in a mixture of the blood of his enemy and the blood of his wife. The only consolation he was able to offer his servant was mortality. With that the Forgotten Watchman left the dark tower and returned to his old farmlands to live out the rest of his days in seclusion.
- by ContactDisinfectant |
- Fiction
- | Submitted on 10/29/2008 |
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- Title: The Forgotten Watchman
- Artist: ContactDisinfectant
- Description: A story that came to mind when I was half asleep this morning trying to dodge English class. Basically about a Watchman blessed, (or cursed), by the gods to prevent an evil blacksmith from freeing himself. Kind of to the form of Greek myths, no real explanation as to why the gods did what they did, and it lacks anything the reader 'learns' by the end of the story.
- Date: 10/29/2008
- Tags: forgotten watchman myth legend dream
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