The Curious Case of Jack Kingson
The next story was originally written in Vashsonneke and later translated to English by Itamar Tenn.
MODERN TALES FROM TAN-JES: KING'S SONG WATERS, by V. Boonej and Y. Admerl
A long time ago, but not too long ago, two young travelers came to Ioun Village of Tan-Jes Island. They were both white skinned men and both wore very strange clothes. One was raven haired, eyes the color of planet Earth's sky and very thin, while the other had hair the color of classic wheat, eyes the color of a leaf and was slightly stronger built.
The two travelers came at a time of great despair; an illness was spreading among the children of the village, making then cough and painting their faces the color of Earth's red roses.
When told of this misfortunate state the two travelers went to the hospital and began making the children better; while the leaf eyed man made their bodies heal with medicine, the raven haired man made them smile and laugh with silly stories.
It was soon recognized that the two travelers were tinged with sadness, and that even as the raven haired man was far wiser, he acted as a madman, while the leaf eyed man was more responsible and polite.
After seven days all the children who caught the illness were healthy again and brought back to their homes with bizarre tales slipping off of their tongues. The raven haired man told the leaf eyed man it was time to leave, so the leaf eyed man had left the doctors and nurses of the hospital the recipe to the medicine and instructions in case the illness would come back in the future and the two travelers wouldn't be there at the time.
As the two travelers were about to leave the hospital, the cry of a newborn was heard by the leaf eyed man who immediately ran and searched for its source. He had found the child who had already stopped crying as a nurse was feeding the red haired and green eyed infant boy olive milk from a bottle.
It was soon told by the nurse to the two travelers that the infant lost his parents before they could name him. As he watched upon the infant boy, the leaf eyed man started crying and asked to be left alone as he went out of the room.
The nurse asked the raven haired man of the reason for the leaf eyed man tears. He told her that they came to Vashson by mistake and were headed to Earth to look for a man named 'Jack' so he would help them find the wife and newborn child of the leaf eyed man and go to war against the people who took them away.
Upon hearing this, she told him of an old man who lived near the woods who told her of a tool hidden there that was used for protection but was actually made for battle that might be of assistance to them.
The raven haired man thanked her and before going out of the room asked her if she had any children. She told him that she didn't, so he suggested she'd adopt the infant boy and went to look for the leaf eyed man before she could respond.
When the raven haired man found the leaf eyed man, he didn't waste any time and told him of the tale told to him by the nurse. The two travelers then left the village hurriedly and went to a little house far from the village and near to the woods.
The two travelers knocked on the door. A few seconds later, it opened to reveal a man of graying hairs and upright back. They said hello and told him they were sent by the nurse and he invited them in to sit in the living room while he brings water.
When all were seated he introduced himself and asked them what they came to him for. They in turn introduced themselves and asked him of the tool of protection made for battle. He told them it was not just one tool, but armor and a sword hidden in the frozen waters of a well in the nearby woods. They asked him to take them there and he agreed. Before leaving the house he took a long rope with him.
Upon reaching the well, he asked them how they were going to get the armor and sword out of it. The raven haired man pointed to his leaf eyed companion and said he was the one to get them out of the well as the armor and sword were his. The leaf eyed man asked him how was that possible. The raven haired man said he could feel the ground beneath their feet as out of the universe, a place where items involved in erased events were eventually found.
The two travelers decided it was best for this mission that the leaf eyed man go down the well alone. The raven haired man and the old man then tied a loop around the leaf eyed man's waist and held the rope as he climbed down the well.
On top of the ground, the rope stopped sliding into the well. After several minutes of silence, a faint melody was heard from inside the well, and as time grew longer, the sounds grew stronger and stronger until the two men left at the top of the ground barely could not clutch their ears. Fortunately for them, the sounds began to weaken until they faded completely.
There was a tug at the rope, so they started pulling the leaf eyed man up from the well to the ground. When he reached the entrance of the well, he grabbed at the top with one hand and threw clothes on the ground with the other. Afterwards he hauled himself up and climbed up and out of the well.
After the raven haired man collected all of the clothes and the old man all of his rope, they took a look at the leaf eyed man and saw he was wearing a foreign armor with a long red cloak and a strange looking sword.
The two travelers thanked the old man and said their goodbyes. The old man in return said his goodbyes as well and wished them good luck on their quest.
A week had gone by after the two travelers left, and the villagers thought it would be best to name the forest King's Song Waters as a reminder of the miracles done the week before. Another week had gone by before the old man and the nurse had put the sign, which was made by all of the village's children, in front of the forest.
