Disclaimer: I don't own Deidre of the Sorrows nor do I own Avatar and it's characters. Avatar (c) Nickelodeon
A/N: Jia and Ratna are my own names for Mai's parents. Shyu is one of the Fire Sages. Wan Shi Tong is the owl/Knowlegde Spirit with his Libary. Yu Yan is from Yu Yan Archers. Bushi/Dock/Xu are the three brothers or the old man with his three hats(episode "The Painted Lady")
Me: Hi everyone! I know that it's been a long time and hope that you can forgive me my dear friends.
Everyone: Sure.
Me: Alright, thanks to the people who still want to read my story.
Azula: As if anyone did read this story –sighs- I've told you from the beginning that we're losing precious time.
Ty Lee: But it's fun!
Mai: I would describe it as boring rather as fun.
Me: Oh but Mai, you'll find this fun. You see the pairing in this fairytale is Maiko.
Mai: -grins- Indeed fun.
Zuko: So which fairytale is it then?
Ty lee: I read the suggestions and their were 'Snow White',…
Mai: I'm not that stupid to eat a poisoned apple.
Ty Lee: …, 'The Frog Prince',…
Mai: And I'm not kissing a frog!
Ty Lee: …and 'Deidre of Sorrows'.
Zuko: What's that about?
Me: It's about a beautiful girl who has to marry a king, but falls in love with a hero.
Mai: So it's dramatic, dark and with a lot of bloodshed?
Me: Yep.
Mai: Sounds fun.
Zuko: Hey where is the Avatar and his stupid friends? Why are Mai, Azula, Ty lee, slimmmeiske2 and me here all alone?
Me: Well to celebrate Book 3: Fire, this fairytale will take place in the Fire Nation with only Fire characters in, that's why. And if you want to know where they are; they are at the Beach.
Zuko: The beach? I'm leaving!
Azula: What's wrong now Zuzu?
Zuko: What's wrong? You ask what's wrong? The. Avatar. Is. At. The. Beach!
Ty lee: Oh I remember that we ravaged Chan's house their –giggles-
Me: Yeah, well if I don't disturb. Shall we start the fairytale? Here's the list:
Malcom Harper and his wife: Governor (I call him Jia) and Governor's wife (I call her Ratna)
King: Ozai
Deidre: Mai
Naoise: Zuko
Ainnle: Lu Ten
Ardan: Kuzon
Hunter: Yu Yan
Foster-mother/nurse: Ursa
Soothsayer: Wan Shi Tong
Uisnech: Roku
Fergus: Iroh
Three sons of Fergus: Dock, Xu, Bushi
Gelban: Tom-Tom
Druid: Shyu
Iroh: 'Mai of the Sorrows' is the best enjoyable with a cup Jasmine Tea à la Iroh. Enjoy!
Mai of the Sorrows
There was a man in the Fire Nation once who was called Governor Jia. The man was a right good man, and he had a goodly share of this world's goods. He had a wife called Governor's wife Ratna or just Ratna, but no family. What did Jia hear but that a soothsayer had come home to the place, and as the man was a right good man, he wished that the soothsayer might come near them. Whether it was that he was invited or that he came of himself, the soothsayer came to the house of Jia and Ratna.
"Are you doing any soothsaying?" says Jia.
"Yes, I am doing a little. Are you in need of soothsaying?" asked Wan Shi Tong, the soothsayer.
"Well, I do not mind taking soothsaying from you, if you had soothsaying for me, and you would be willing to do it."
"Well, I will do soothsaying for you. What kind of soothsaying do you want?"
"Well, the soothsaying I wanted was that you would tell me my lot or what will happen to me, if you can give me knowledge of it."
"Well, I am going out, and when I return, I will tell you."
And the soothsayer went forth out of the house and he was not long outside when he returned.
"Well," said Wan Shi Tong, "I saw in my second sight that it is on account of a daughter of yours that the greatest amount of blood shall be shed that has ever been shed in Fire since time and race began. And the three most famous heroes that ever were found will lose their heads on her account."
After a time a daughter was born to Governor Jia, he did not allow a living being to come to his house, only himself and the nurse Ursa. He asked Ursa, "Will you yourself bring up the child to keep her in hiding far away where eye will not see a sight of her nor ear hear a word about her?"
Ursa said she would, so Jia got three men, and he took them away to a large mountain, distant and far from reach, without the knowledge or notice of any one. He caused there a hillock, round and green, to be dug out of the middle, and the hole thus made to be covered carefully over so that a little company could dwell there together. This was done.
Mai and Ursa dwelt in the bothy mid the hills without the knowledge or the suspicion of any living person about them and without anything occurring, until Mai was sixteen years of age. Mai grew like the white sapling, straight and trim as the rash on the moss. She was the creature of fairest form, of loveliest aspect, and of coolest nature that existed between earth and heaven in all Fire Nation, there was nobody that looked into her face but she would blush fiery red over it.
Ursa gave Deirdre every information and skill of which she herself had knowledge and skill. There was not a blade of grass growing from root, nor a bird singing in the wood, nor a star shining from heaven but Mai had a name for it. But one thing, she did not wish her to have either part or parley with any single living man of the rest of the world.
But on a gloomy winter night, with black, scowling clouds, a hunter was wearily traveling the hills, and what happened was that he missed the trail of the hunt, and lost his course and companions. A drowsiness came upon the man as he wearily wandered over the hills, and he lay down by the side of the beautiful green knoll in which Mai lived, and he slept. The man was faint from hunger and wandering, and benumbed with cold, and a deep sleep fell upon him. When he lay down beside the green hill where Mai was, a troubled dream came to the man, and he thought that he enjoyed the warmth of a fairy broche, the fairies being inside playing music. The hunter shouted out in his dream, if there was any one in the broche, to let him in for the Avatar's sake.
Mai heard the voice and said to her Ursa: "O foster-mother Ursa, what cry is that?"
"It is nothing at all, Mai--merely the birds of the air astray and seeking each other. But let them go past to the bosky glade. There is no shelter or house for them here."
"Foster-mother Ursa, the bird asked to get inside for the sake of the Avatar of the Elements, and you yourself tell me that anything that is asked in His name we ought to do. If you will not allow the bird that is being benumbed with cold, and done to death with hunger, to be let in, I do not think much of your language or your faith. But since I give credence to your language and to your faith, which you taught me, I will myself let in the bird."
And Mai arose and drew the bolt from the leaf of the door, and she let in the hunter. She placed a seat in the place for sitting, food in the place for eating, and drink in the place for drinking for the man who came to the house.
" Oh, for this life and raiment, you man that came in, keep restraint on your tongue!" said Ursa. "It is not a great thing for you to keep your mouth shut and your tongue quiet when you get a home and shelter of a hearth on a gloomy winter's night."
"Well," said the hunter named Yu Yan, "I may do that--keep my mouth shut and my tongue quiet, since I came to the house and received hospitality from you; but by the hand of thy father and grandfather, and by your own two hands, if some other of the people of the world saw this beauteous creature you have here hid away, they would not long leave her with you, I swear."
"What men are these you refer to?" said Mai.
"Well, I will tell you, young woman," said Yu Yan.
"They are Zuko, son of Roku, and Lu Ten and Kuzon his two brothers."
"What like are these men when seen, if we were to see them?" said Mai.
"Why, the aspect and form of the men when seen are these," said Yu Yan: "they have the color of the raven on their hair, their skin like swan on the wave in whiteness, and their cheeks as the blood of the brindled red calf, and their speed and their leap are those of the salmon of the torrent and the deer of the grey mountain side. And Zuko is head and shoulders over the rest of the people of Fire."
"However they are," said Ursa, "be you off from here and take another road. And, Master of all four Elements! In good sooth and certainty, little are my thanks for yourself or for her that let you in! "
Yu Yan went away, and went straight to the palace of King Ozai. He sent word in to the king that he wished to speak to him if he pleased. The king answered the message and came out to speak to the man. "What is the reason of your journey?" said Ozai to hunter Yu Yan.
"I have only to tell you, O King," said Yu Yan, "that I saw the fairest creature that ever was born in Fire, and I came to tell you of it."
"Who is this beauty and where is she to be seen, when she was not seen before till you saw her, if you did see her?"
"Well, I did see her," said Yu Yan. "But, if I did, no man else can see her unless he get directions from me as to where she is dwelling."
"And will you direct me to where she dwells? And the reward of your directing me will be as good as the reward of your message," said King Ozai.
"Well, I will direct you, O King, although it is likely that this will not be what they want," said Yu Yan.
Ozai, King of Fire, sent for his nearest kinsmen, and he told them of his intent. Though early rose the song of the birds mid the rocky caves and the music of the birds in the grove, earlier than that did Ozai, King of Fire, arise, with his little troop of dear friends, in the delightful twilight of the fresh and gentle May; the dew was heavy on each bush and flower and stem, as they went to bring Mai forth from the green knoll where she stayed.
Many a youth was there who had a lithe leaping and lissome step when they started whose step was faint, failing, and faltering when they reached the bothy on account of the length of the way and roughness of the road. "Yonder, now, down in the bottom of the glen is the bothy where the woman dwells, but I will not go nearer than this to the old woman," said Yu Yan.
Ozai with his band of kinsfolk went down to the green knoll where Mai dwelt and he knocked at the door of the bothy. Ursa replied, "No less than a king's command and a king's army could put me out of my bothy tonight. And I should be obliged to you, were you to tell who it is that wants me to open my bothy door."
"It is I, Ozai, King of Fire." When Ursa heard who was at the door, she rose with haste and let in the king and all that could get in of his retinue.
When the king saw the woman that was before him that he had been in quest of, he thought he never saw in the course of the day nor in the dream of night a creature so fair as Mai and he gave his full heart's weight of love to her. Mai was raised on the topmost of the heroes' shoulders and she and Ursa were brought to the Court of King Ozai of Fire.
With the love that Ozai had for her, he wanted to marry Mai right off there and then, will she nil she marry him. But she said to him, "I would be obliged to you if you will give me the respite of a year and a day."
He said "I will grant you that, hard though it is, if you will give me your unfailing promise that you will marry me at the year's end." And she gave the promise. Ozai got for her a woman-teacher and merry modest maidens fair that would lie down and rise with her, that would play and speak with her. Mai was clever in maidenly duties and wifely understanding, and Ozai thought he never saw with bodily eye a creature that pleased him more.
Mai and her women companions were one day out on the hillock behind the house enjoying the scene, and drinking in the sun's heat. What did they see coming but three men a-journeying. Mai was looking at the men that were coming, and wondering at them. When the men neared them, Mai remembered the language of Yu Yan, and she said to herself that these were the three sons of Roku, and that this was Zuko, he having what was above the bend of the two shoulders above the men of Fire all.
The three brothers went past without taking any notice of them, without even glancing at the young girls on the hillock. What happened but that love for Zuko struck the heart of Mai, so that she could not but follow after him. She girded up her raiment and went after the men that went past the base of the knoll, leaving her women attendants there. Lu Ten and Kuzon had heard of the woman that Ozai, King of Fire, had with him, and they thought that, if Zuko, their brother, saw her, he would have her himself, more especially as she was not married to the King. They perceived the woman coming, and called on one another to hasten their step as they had a long distance to travel, and the dusk of night was coming on. They did so.
She cried "Zuko, son of Roku, will you leave me?"
"What piercing, shrill cry is that-the most melodious my ear ever heard, and the shrillest that ever struck my heart of all the cries I ever heard?"
"It is anything else but the wail of the wave-swans of Ozai," said his brothers.
"No! Yonder is a woman's cry of distress," said Zuko, and he swore he would not go further until he saw from whom the cry came, and Zuko turned back.
Zuko and Mai met, and Mai kissed Auko three times, and a kiss each to his brothers. With the confusion that she was in, Mai went into a crimson blaze of fire, and her color came and went as rapidly as the movement of the aspen by the streamside. Zuko thought he never saw a fairer creature, and Zuko gave Mai the love that he never gave to thing, to vision, or to creature but to herself.
Then Zuko placed Mai on the topmost height of his shoulder, and told his brothers to keep up their pace, and they kept up their pace. Zuko thought that it would not be well for him to remain in Fire on account of the way in which Ozai, King of Fire, his uncle's son, had gone against him because of the woman, though he had not married her; and he turned back to Ba Sing Se, that is, Earth Kingdom.
He reached the side of Serpent's Pass and made his habitation there. He could kill the salmon of the torrent from out his own door, and the deer of the grey gorge from out his window. Zuko and Mai and Lu Ten and Kuzon dwelt in a tower, and they were happy so long a time as they were there.
By this time the end of the period came at which Mai had to marry Ozai, King of Fire. Ozai made up his mind to take Mai away by the sword whether she was married to Zuko or not. So he prepared a great and gleeful feast. He sent word far and wide through Fire all to his kinspeople to come to the feast. Ozai thought to himself that Zuko would not come though he should bid him; and the scheme that arose in his mind was to send for his brother, Iroh, and to send him on an embassy to Naois. He did so; and Ozai said to Iroh, "Tell Zuko, son of Roku, that I am setting forth a great and gleeful feast to my friends and kinspeople throughout the wide extent of Fire all, and that I shall not have rest by day nor sleep by night if he and Lu Ten and Kuzon be not partakers of the feast."
Iroh and his three sons went on their journey, and reached the tower where Zuko was dwelling by the side of Serpent's Pass. The sons of Roku gave a cordial kindly welcome to Iroh and his three sons, and asked of him the news of Fire.
"The best news that I have for you," said the hardy hero, "is that Ozai, King of Fire, is setting forth a great sumptuous feast to his friends and kinspeople throughout the wide extent of Fire all, and he has vowed by the earth beneath him, by the high heaven above him, and by the sun that wends to the west, that he will have no rest by day nor sleep by night if the sons of Roku, the sons of his own father's brother, will not come back to the land of their home, and to the feast likewise, and he has sent us on embassy to invite you."
"We will go with you," said Zuko.
"We will," said Lu Ten and Kuzon.
But Mai did not wish to go with Iroh, and she tried every prayer to turn Zuko from going with him-she said:
"I saw a vision, Zuko, and do you interpret it to me," said Mai--then she sang:
"O Zuko, son of Roku, hear
What was shown in a dream to me.
There came three white doves out of the South
Flying over the sea,
And drops of honey were in their mouth
From the hive of the honey-bee.
O Zuko, son of Roku, hear,
What was shown in a dream to me.
I saw three grey hawks out of the south
Come flying over the sea,
And the red, red drops they bare in their mouth
They were dearer than life to me."
Said Zuko:--
"It is nought but the fear of woman's heart,
And a dream of the night, Mai."
"The day that Ozai sent the invitation to his feast will be unlucky for us if we don't go, O Mai."
"You will go there," said Iroh; "and if Ozai show kindness to you, show ye kindness to him; and if he will display wrath towards you display ye wrath towards him, and I and my three sons will be with you."
"We will," said Dock. "We will," said Xu. "We will," said Bushi.
"I have three sons, and they are three heroes, and in any harm or danger that may befall you, they will be with you, and I myself will be along with them." And Iroh gave his vow and his word in presence of his arms that, in any harm or danger that came in the way of the sons of Roku, he and his three sons would not leave head on live body in Fire, despite sword or helmet, spear or shield, blade or mail, be they ever so good.
Mai was unwilling to leave Ba Sing Se, but she went with Zuko. Mai wept tears in showers and she sang:
"Dear is the land, the land over there,
Ba Sing Se, city of walls and secrets;
Bitter to my heart is leaving thee,
But I go away with Zuko."
Iroh did not stop till he got the sons of Roku away with him, despite the suspicion of Mai.
"The coracle was put to sea,
The sail was hoisted to it;
And the second morrow they arrived
On the white shores of Fire."
As soon as the sons of Roku landed in Fire, Iroh sent word to Ozai, king of Fire, that the men whom he wanted were come, and let him now show kindness to them.
"Well," said Ozai, "I did not expect that the sons of Roku would come, though I sent for them, and I am not quite ready to receive them. But there is a house down yonder where I keep strangers, and let them go down to it today, and my house will be ready for them tomorrow."
But he that was up in the palace felt it long that he was not getting word as to how matters were going on for those down in the house of the strangers. "Go you, Tom-Tom, son of New Ozai's King, go you down and bring me information as to whether her former hue and complexion are on Mai. If they be, I will take her out with edge of blade and point of sword, and if not, let Zuko, son of Roku, have her for himself," said Ozai.
Tom-Tom, the cheering and charming son of New Ozai's King, went down to the place of the strangers, where the sons of Roku and Mai were staying. He looked in through the bicker-hole on the door-leaf. Now she that he gazed upon used to go into a crimson blaze of blushes when any one looked at her. Zuko looked at Mai and knew that some one was looking at her from the back of the door-leaf. He seized one of the dice on the table before him and fired it through the bicker-hole, and knocked the eye out of Tom-Tom the Cheerful and Charming, right through the back of his head. Tom-Tom returned back to the palace of King Ozai.
"You were cheerful, charming, going away, but you are cheerless, charmless, returning. What has happened to you, Tom-Tom? But have you seen her, and are Mai's hue and complexion as before?" said Ozai.
"Well, I have seen Deirdre, and I saw her also truly, and while I was looking at her through the bicker-hole on the door, Zuko, son of Roku, knocked out my eye with one of the dice in his hand. But of a truth and verity, although he put out even my eye, it were my desire still to remain looking at her with the other eye, were it not for the hurry you told me to be in," said Tom-Tom.
"That is true," said Ozai; "let three hundred brave heroes go down to the abode of the strangers, and let them bring hither to me Mai, and kill the rest."
Ozai ordered three hundred active heroes to go down to the abode of the strangers and to take Mai up with them and kill the rest. "The pursuit is coming," said Mai.
Yes, but I will myself go out and stop the pursuit," said Zuko.
"It is not you, but we that will go," said Dock, Xu, and Bushi; "it is to us that our father entrusted your defence from harm and danger when he himself left for home." And the gallant youths, full noble, full manly, full handsome, with beauteous white locks, went forth girt with battle arms fit for fierce fight and clothed with combat dress for fierce contest fit, which was burnished, bright, brilliant, bladed, blazing, on which were many pictures of beasts and birds and creeping things, lions and lithe-limbed tigers, brown eagle and harrying hawk and adder fierce; and the young heroes laid low three-thirds of the company.
Ozai came out in haste and cried with wrath: "Who is there on the floor of fight, slaughtering my men?"
"We, the three sons of Iroh."
"Well," said King Ozai, "I will give a free bridge to your grandfather, a free bridge to your father, and a free bridge each to you three brothers, if you come over to my side tonight."
"Well, Ozai, we will not accept that offer from you nor thank you for it. Greater by far do we prefer to go home to our father and tell the deeds of heroism we have done, than accept anything on these terms from you. Zuko, son of Roku, and Lu Ten and Kuzon are as nearly related to yourself as they are to us, though you are so keen to shed their blood, and you would shed our blood also, Ozai," said Dock.
And the noble, manly, handsome youths with beauteous, white locks returned inside. "We are now," said they, "going home to tell our father that you are now safe from the hands of the king."
And the youths all fresh and tall and lithe and beautiful, went home to their father to tell that the sons of Roku were safe. This happened at the parting of the day and night in the morning twilight time, and Zuko said they must go away, leave that house, and return to Ba Sing Se.
Zuko and Mai, Lu Ten and Kuzon started to return to Ba Sing Se. Word came to the king that the company he was in pursuit of were gone. The king then sent for Shyu Fire Sage, the best magician he had, and he spoke to him as follows:--"Much wealth have I expended on you, Shyu Fire Sage, to give schooling and learning and magic mystery to you, if these people get away from me today without care, without consideration or regard for me, without chance of overtaking them, and without power to stop them."
"Well, I will stop them," said Shyu, "until the company you send in pursuit return." And Shyu placed a wood before them through which no man could go, but the sons of Roku marched through the wood without halt or hesitation, and Mai held on to Zuko's hand.
"What is the good of that? That will not do yet," said Ozai. "They are off without bending of their feet or stopping of their step, without heed or respect to me, and I am without power to keep up to them or opportunity to turn them back this night."
"I will try another plan on them," said Shyu Fire Sage; and he placed before them a grey sea instead of a green plain. The three heroes stripped and tied their clothes behind their heads, and Zuko placed Mai on the top of his shoulder.
"They stretched their sides to the stream,
And sea and land were to them the same,
The rough grey ocean was the same
As meadow-land green and plain".
"Though that be good, O Shyu, it will not make the heroes return," said Ozai; "they are gone without regard for me, and without honour to me, and without power on my part to pursue them or to force them to return this night."
"We shall try another method on them, since yon one did not stop them," said Shyu Fire Sage. And Shyu froze the grey ridged sea into hard rocky knobs, the sharpness of sword being on the one edge and the poison power of adders on the other. Then Kuzon cried that he was getting tired, and nearly giving over. "Come you, Kuzon, and sit on my right shoulder," said Zuko. Kuzon came and sat on Zuko's shoulder. Kuzon was long in this posture when he died; but though he was dead Zuko would not let him go. Lu Ten then cried out that he was getting faint and nigh-well giving up. When Zuko heard his prayer, he gave forth the piercing sigh of death, and asked Lu Ten to lay hold of him and he would bring him to land.
Lu Ten was not long when the weakness of death came on him and his hold failed. Zuko looked round, and when he saw his two well-beloved brothers dead, he cared not whether he lived or died, and he gave forth the bitter sigh of death and his heart burst.
"They are gone," said Shyu Fire Sage to King Ozai, "and Ihave done what you desired me. The sons of Roku are dead and they will trouble you no more; and you have your wife hale and whole to yourself."
"Blessings for that upon you and may the good results accrue to me, Shyu. I count it no loss what I spent in the schooling and teaching of you. Now dry up the flood, and let me see if I can behold Mai," said Ozai. And Shyu Fire Sage dried up the flood from the plain and the three sons of Roku were lying together dead, without breath of life, side by side on the green meadow plain and Mai bending above showering down her tears.
Then Mai said this lament: "Fair one, loved one, flower of beauty; beloved upright and strong; beloved noble and modest warrior. Fair one, gold-eyed, beloved of thy wife; lovely to me at the trysting-place came thy clear voice through the woods of the Fire Nation. I cannot eat or smile henceforth. Break not today, my heart: soon enough shall I lie within my grave. Strong are the waves of sorrow, but stronger is sorrow's self, Ozai."
The people then gathered round the heroes' bodies and asked Ozai what was to be done with the bodies. The order that he gave was that they should dig a pit and put the three brothers in it side by side.
Mai kept sitting on the brink of the grave, constantly asking the gravediggers to dig the pit wide and free. When the bodies of the brothers were put in the grave, Mai said:--
"Come over hither, Zuko, my love,
Let Kuzon close to Lu Ten lie;
If the dead had any sense to feel.
Ye would have made a place for Mai."
But it seems that there was no place for Mai in their grave, and she got sadder everyday that flew by. One day when she was riding in a wagon, she flung herself out onto a rock and was killed. The newly wed wife of Ozai, King of Fire spread the word of Mai's commited suicide and asked to mourn for Mai's death. Until the day of today in the Fire Nation, the tale of Mai was still known and they called her these days 'Mai of the Sorrows'.
-------------------------
Mai: That was fun.
Azula: Yeah right, totally waste of time.
Zuko: What do you mean? You didn't even played in this.
Azula: No, but someone has to accompany the Author.
Everyone: -takes a look at Me-
Me: -bandaged- Mpmp
Azula: Sure girl –smirks-
Ty lee: Wait a second, who did Ozai marry at the end?
Me: -freed- I don't know, Ursa? Anyway review, request pairing/fairytale please.
Ty lee: Here's the list of the still has to be done:
Fairytales:
Cap O' rushes
Chinese Cinderella
Valissa the beautiful(I didn't find it yet)
The most beautiful girl in Ireland(Isn't this the same story as Deidre of the Sorrows?)
Midsummer night's dreams
Snow White
St Joseph of the forest
Rumpelstiltskin
Snow White and Rose Red
The Juniper Tale
Pairings:
Topshot
General Fai
Longerbee
Kataang(again)
Zutara(again)
Jetzula
Note: This isn't the right order.
Deidre of the Sorrows is for Mad-Hatter-LCarol
Maiko is for sleepydragon001, 13515, "Person", scarlet and Mad-Hatter-LCarol