The Wishing Candle

Prologue: The Origin of the Wishing Candle

In 1342, England and France were fighting a ravenous war.  England was losing and there was extravagant bloodshed and lives lost.  Hope was flickering away like a lantern on a faraway carriage, riding off to the distance, never to be seen again.

          Then it happened.  Captain Moritcai Alistair of the English Calvary took refuge in the L’espoir Ravine under a bridge with a single lantern hanging below it.  Wanting to warm his hands and heart from the bitter cold, Morticai removed the candle from the lantern.

          Once his hands were semi-warmed, he began to sing a song from his childhood.  It was the song sung by his mother when he had nightmares.  It is a song of peace and hope.  When his voice hit the candle, he was hoping that the war would end peacefully, and that all of the lost soldiers would come back to life.  As he hoped and wished more passionately, the more passionately he sang.  When he was finished with the song, the candle’s flame grew brighter, then, it blew out.  When the smoke settled, there was silence all around him, then, in the distance, where there had once been the sound of fighting, he heard cheering.

          Morticai looked up and down the ravine that was once littered with the dead soldiers, now; it was empty except for him.  So, being as cautious as he possibly could, he clambered out of the ravine and walked stealthily to the edge of the clearing where the battle where there had once been a bloody battle brewing, but that entire Morticai saw, was the soldiers of both sides, helping up the wounded and patting each other on the back.  In the middle of the field stood the generals of both sides.

          Someone had set up a table and they were both signing a peace treaty and a piece of parchment stating that France and England would, from that war on, be allies.  Both men shook hands, and then began moving out their troops as if nothing had happened between the two armies.

           Along the edge of the clearing, Morticai spotted his second in command of the cavalry.  Morticai, in determination to find some answers, walked over to him.  At the time, Morticai’s second in command was Lieutenant Gregory Roth.

          “Captain.” Gregory said, straightening his back and saluting his captain.

          “At ease, Lieutenant. Gregory, would you mind informing me as to what exactly happened to the battle here?”

          Gregory slouched back down and lowered his saluting hand.

          “I don’t know sir.  One minute, we’re killing the enemy, then the next, we forgot why we were fighting the French and we didn’t feel like fighting anymore.”

          “Everyone just stopped fighting?”

          “That’s right sir.”

          “And the war is done?  Who’s the victor?”

          “No victor, sir, we were all in agreement.  The war was a draw.”

          “What of the dead, where are they?”

          “That’s the thing, sir.  They aren’t dead anymore, every single corpse in our open, mass grave, just walked out, with no explanation.”

          “Then we shall ride into England along-side them.” Then, to a passing foot soldier,” Malcolm, go fetch two horses for myself and Gregory here.”

          At dawn the next day, the English army and cavalry entered their fair city of London with their full army intact.  It took Morticai about an hour to make it through the crowd to his wife and young son.

          Morticai’s wife, Elena Alistair, had tears streaming down her cheeks.  His little boy, Joseph Alistair, had his arms wide open when he saw Morticai.  Morticai lifted his son up and hugged his wife and thanked god that he had lived through to war to see his family again.

          It took Morticai one year to realize that the candle mixed with his singing and his wish had ended the war.  For you see, Morticai and his descendants all must learn the song he sang that fateful night.  All of his descendants are gifted with the power to make the wishing candle wok the best, but if another person sings to the candle, any song sung to a candle made by Morticai’s descendants, they receive one small wish.

This is the Origin of the Wishing Candle