Week 6 Story: Wise, Clever, and Brave

Her journey back to the tree seemed longer each time, though she knew it to be an illusion. She had not once made it past a large stone some distance from the cemetery. If only she could get the damned creature to behave! Sighing, the Queen shouldered the corpse yet again. "Here," said the vetala. "I'll give you another story to help pass the time.”

“Do you have to?”

“…Yes.”

“Fine.”

And so, as the Queen pressed on for what might have been the tenth time or the fiftieth – she really couldn’t tell – her godforsaken burden again turned its rotting lips to her ear.

“There was once a girl named Aquarius, who, upon reaching marriageable age, declared her interest to lie in women, and particularly in a girl from a neighboring village, Libra. Aquarius’s parents sent a message to the other village, enquiring about the potential match. The messenger returned the next day bearing sorrowful news: Libra had been kidnapped by a giant. Stricken, Aquarius called for the village matriarchs, who were named Wise, Clever, and Brave after their prominent characteristics. She promised that if only Libra were saved, and consented to the marriage, her rescuer could have her dowry. The three women eagerly agreed to the deal, each thinking she could find the girl singlehandedly and take the dowry for herself. Immediately Wise, having listened to her grandmother tell tales of the forest around the fire as a child, remembered a story that gave the location of the giant’s lair. As she was telling Aquarius that her love was close-by, Clever and Brave listened, and followed the woman into the forest. Walking single-file, they spoke of what they would do with the money. Wise cared for knowledge, and wanted to start a village library to hold the stories of their ancestors. Clever cared for science and practicality, and wished to start an engineering class. Brave desired that the people of the village have more care towards their defense, and wanted to build a wall to keep out giants and the like. As the last was explaining this, Clever grabbed her by her robe, pulling her back. ‘Do you see that?’ she asked, gesturing to a raised lump of dirt. She lightly scraped it off with her foot to reveal metal. ‘Had you stepped there, it would have levered those spikes up into your face.’ The women looked further down the path to see small points sticking up, half-covered in leaves. The continued from there, watching closely for any more traps from the giant. Finally, they arrived at a cave. Clever and Wise began to sit and plan, but Brave ran straight in before they could stop her. A short time (and several howls of pain) later, she emerged, carrying Libra. The matriarchs then returned, first to Libra’s parents, and then to their own village.

Some days later, word came that Libra was, in fact, interested. Accordingly, Aquarius went to the matriarchs, and they each explained the part they played in the rescue. Wise went first, arguing that the girl could never have been found without her knowledge. Brave immediately countered that she could have simply combed the forest until the girl was found. Clever then pointed out that she was the only one to spot the trap that would have killed them all. 

Now tell me,” the goblin rasped, “who should have the dowry? Remember, if you know the answer and say nothing, you shall most certainly fall dead in this very spot.”

This time, the Queen did not hesitate. “It should be split between the three of them,” she replied. “They can start a school, with a library and engineering, with a little wall around it.”

The moment she said this, the body escaped from her shoulder and ran back to the tree. The Queen sighed again. This was starting to get old.

Author's Note: The external story here is originally about a king who has to bring the corpse inhabited by a goblin back to a monk. Every time he takes the corpse down from the tree where it hangs, the vetala (goblin) inside tells him a riddle, and he will die if he knows the answer but doesn't say it. However, every time he answers, the goblin escapes from his shoulder and goes back to the tree. As for the internal story, originally the eligible girl says she will marry either a wise, clever, or brave man. At different points, her father, brother, and mother meet men fitting these respective descriptions and say they can marry her. When they show up for the wedding, the girl has been kidnapped. The wise man figures out where she is, the clever man makes a chariot to get there, and the brave man defeats the giant. The question is who should get the girl? The King's answer is the brave man, since the other two only helped him get to the giant, who he defeated alone.

In my version, the king is a queen, and the eligible girl in the internal story already has a girl she wants to marry. I may have very loosely based the two on my girlfriend (a Libra) and myself (and Aquarius). I changed the men wanting rights to the girl to village matriarchs, wanting money for pet projects that would help the village. I also changed the chariot-building to trap-finding, because I wanted something that would work with them already in the forest and having a conversation. At the end, I had the answer be that the money should be split evenly, because I don't think any of their contributions should be ignored. Also, my image is Lexa from The 100, who I'm visualizing here as the Queen.

Image: Lexa/Queen. Source.

Bibliography: Twenty-Two Goblins translated by Arthur Ryder. Source.