Psychedelic Purple #17: The Three Swords (Uncategorized)

[ilthit]

Name: The Three Swords

Story: Uncategorized
Colors: Psychedelic Purple #17 (we all want to change the world)
Supplies and Styles: graffiti (poetry challenge: follow him out of grace)
Word Count: 1030
Rating: general
Warnings: Growing up and changing your dreams. Yeah I guess that's a warning.
Summary: Three brothers go out looking for adventure.
Note: Another story I made up on the fly for my kid at bedtime. He provided the title.
 
Once upon a time, there was a great armory that hosted wonderful weapons of every kind. But as time passed by, all the weapons were sold or given to the king's men, and since there was peace in the land, no-one bothered to make any new ones, and so the armory's stores began to dwindle, until there were only three identical swords left.

And so the decision was made to close down the armory, and turn it into a bookshop.

Just as the workers were taking out all the empty shelves of displays, three young brothers peeked into the armory and saw the three swords. "What is going to happen to those?" they asked the old armory manager.

"Nothing," said the armory manager. "Nobody wants them."

"We want them," said the brothers. "We are going to go have adventures with them."

So the armory manager gave the brothers the swords for free.

The brothers set off together with their swords the very next day to look for adventure. But after one day of working, they came upon a lovely farm with rolling hills of corn all around. The first brother said, "I am tired of walking. Who needs adventure? I will become a farmer instead." So he went up to the farm and got himself hired as a farmhand, and hung his sword up on a hook.

The other two said good-bye to their brother and carried on travelling another day. At the end of the day, they came upon a busy harbour town, with fishing boats coming in and out all day and the sailors singing merry songs as they hauled up their sails. The second brother saw this and said, "I am tired of walking. Who needs adventure? I will become a fisher instead." So he signed up on a fishing boat, and hung his sword up on a hook in the galley.

The remaining brother said good-bye to him, and carried on alone.

The following day, he found himself trekking up a mountain slope towards a great yawning cave up ahead, and as he did, a dragon slithered out of the cave and stared him down with fiery eyes. The brother raised his sword. "I was looking for adventure," he said to the dragon, "and it looks like I found it. I'll fight you!"

In the meanwhile, the first and second brothers excelled at their chosen professions. The first brother advanced from farmhand to farmer, and married, and had many children and fertile fields. Every year he went to visit the fisher brother, who did not marry, but was a well-respected person in the city, and still went out almost every day with his boat to check his nets and traps.

One day, the first brother said to the second, "We haven't seen or heard from our third brother in all these years. We should go looking for him, so I can invite him to meet all his nieces and nephews." And so they agreed. They picked up the swords that had grown dusty hanging on their hooks this whole time, kitted out for adventure, and went in the direction they had seen their brother leave all those years ago.

They came upon the mountain, and the cave where the dragon lived, and addressed the dragon as he huffed imperiously down at them. "Mr Dragon, sir, I wonder if you have seen anyone come by here who had a sword just like this?" And they showed the dragon their swords.

"A young man did come by many years ago with a sword like that," said the dragon. "We sparred, and neither of us could win over the other, so we decided to call it a draw, and the young man went on his way to look for more adventure." And the dragon pointed the brothers the way the young warrior had gone.

Down that road, the brothers came upon a city, and went up to the magistrate of the city to inquire whether anyone had seen a man carrying a sword like theirs.

"Oh yes," said the magistrate. "He came by years ago. Back then we had a lot of trouble wth brigands and ruffians breaking into people's homes, and he said he would fight them for us. And the young man and the brigands fought and fought, and neither could win over the other, so in the end they decided to call it a draw, and the brigands promised not to make trouble anymore so long as the city found them other things to do."

The magistrate then pointed the brothers in the direction the young hero had gone.

Down the road from the city, they followed a river through the woods until they came upon more fields, and then a beautiful lake that the river ran into. Here, there were mermaids playing on the shoals, and they waved hello as the brothers approached. They greeted them politely, then asked them if they had seen their brother.

"Yes, we know a man who has a sword like that," said the mermaids. "He came by some years ago and took care of a shark who had been swimming up into our lake and chasing us mermaids around. But although neither he or the shark could become victorious, and the shark chose to swim away, after they were done fighting, the hero said: I am tired of fighting. I think I will become a miller instead."

And the mermaids then pointed upriver at a lovely mill that was turning in the rivers flow, grinding the wheat from the fields.

The brothers sheathed their swords and went up to the mill, and knocked on the door, and who would answer but their long-lost brother!

Then they all hugged and laughed, and the miller invited the farmer and the fisher in, and hung their swords on the wall next to their brother's sword, and the three of them ate and drank and exchanged tales of their adventures all night.

Because, even though the farmer and the sailor had never taken their swords into battle, they had had many adventures too, but those are for telling some other time.

The end.