Golden

In a place where the mountains are tall and the trees never see the sun, is a village. Here lived a man, old as the stars, who never left. It was his home, the forest, the village and the sad little trees that never saw daylight. He was born there and intended to stay there until his last breath. In the night, he would carefully walk out to the lake where the geese were. There was his lady; and here she had been for quite some time.

When the man was young; he was brave and strong. He was born in the small village to his young widowed mother. He was a wild child and in these days, the sun still shone over the village and fell on his bronze skin and dark hair. He would run through the village and climb the mountains and trees. Here, his heart was restless and ready to roam and see the world.

One day when the man was a young man of about 14 or so, he packed up his things (or what little he had) and told his mother that he needed to explore and his huge heart was too big for this little place. She was sad, as any other should be expected to be, but she was also afraid for his little heart, for even though he felt big, he was in fact still just a boy. So she blessed him and put around his neck a gold feather on a chain remind him that he is protected by the wings of the mighty one.

And so, the boy set out, away from the village, off into the world. He came across many different people in his travels and strange customs. While in a large town, the boy met a candle maker who decided to hire the boy for a short time. While he worked there, the boy met a beautiful girl with long dark hair that had feathers of gold tied into it. Long eyelashes and playful freckles haunted the boy whenever she was not around. She came into the shop everyday to buy a candle for her mother. The boy waited for this everyday. He would greet her and then smile. He loved her.

One day, she did not come. The boy thought nothing of it until they girl did not come at all, for nearly 10 days, she did not come. So the boy quit his job and went to look for her. He searched all over the country for her but could not find her. His heart became sad and his soul weary. He decided that he would do anything to find her and tell her of his love. One day, he wandered slowly along a road until he met an old woman. She looked at him with her cloudy eyes and asked where he had come from and what his purpose was. The boy proceeded to tell her that he had worked with a candle maker in one of the large towns and had met a girl who had disappeared and he was now desperately trying to find her. He told her about the girl’s beauty, the feathers in her hair and the freckles on her face. The woman noticed he was tired and weary and decided to strike a bargain with him. She told him that she would help him find the girl if he gave her the feathers in the girl’s hair when they had found her. The boy thought, ‘they are not mine to give’ and he loved the girl greatly so he would give his gold feather instead so that the girl could keep hers. The woman agreed and took the feather from his neck.

Suddenly the sun grew dim and shadows covered the land. The boy felt a tear in his heart as the sky went black. He had just done something awful. The old woman cried a tear and turned away. The boy was furious. All he had wanted was the girl and the woman had lied and gave him nothing in return. Rain began to fall and the boy ran as fast as he could to his village. His heart pounded and his feet hit the dirt hard as he ran. The water streamed down his face and got in his eyes. He needed to find home and ask his mother what he should do and tell her that he was sorry and had given away the gold feather. His eyes became filled with rain and tears and he could no longer see, but he continued to run. Before long he could feel water surrounding his feet and running became harder to do.

He stopped and dried his eyes and then shielded them from the rain. He was standing on the shore of a lake. In the middle of the lake there was sunlight glimmering down on a group of geese. The boy watched as they swam around in the sunlight. One of the geese had several gold feathers throughout her feathers.

The boy is old now and is a man. He found his love and has never left her. His home is in his village, and the lake, by his house. Darkness hides everything except for the lake; in the middle where the goose with golden feathers swims. He is there, watching her and hoping one day she will return to him as the girl he loved.

-Salika Miles