15-Day Writing Challenge

Day 12: Was It Worth It?

Day 12: Retell A Legend That Someone Has Told You.

A/N: I can't remember if this is a true story or not anymore, but here we go: a legend from the ancient world of China.

Long long ago, there was an emperor. He was a powerful emperor and a good one. Day and night, he cared for his country and people, always wanting the best for them. Not a day went by when he wasn't satisfied with his work.

But there was one thing he longed for more than anything: a wife. He wanted to fall in love. So he sent his herald out to tell the entire land that he intended to find a wife. He asked that all young women be sent to his castle for evaluation.

And so they all came. Women surrounded his palace, crowded the gardens, and fell out of unexpected places, all vying for his attention.

It took days to sort through them. None of them caught his attention, either. There were many beautiful girls, but as Emperor, he was used to seeing beautiful girls.

They slowly filtered the girls out of the castle doors, the Emperor hanging his head in disappointment. Then, in the corner of his vision, he spotted a dejected young girl standing next to the statue in the nook of the throne room. He hadn't seen her yet. She didn't seem as if she were ever going to come forward. While no one was looking, he crept up and startled her from behind. Boo!

She jumped so high that she cleared the statue. At seeing her so spooked, he laughed out loud. Clutching his stomach and falling to his knees, he was so out of breath, that his face began turning purple. She saw his face darkening to that vulgar plum color and burst out laughing, too. The melancholy melted away from her face, leaving a breathtaking beauty to behold. And her laugh, oh, her laugh was intoxicating. Crystal clear and tinkling. The emperor resolved to hear it for the rest of his life.

So he married her, and for a time, they were happy. But eventually, her deep sadness settled back in, and he could no longer startle her out of it.

One night, he awoke to a sharp ripping sound. He sat up and looked to his right, where his wife was sat up, tearing her silk dress to shreds with a manic expression upon her crystalline features.

He asked her what she was doing. Why was she destroying such precious material? She looked him in the eyes and told him that the sound of the fabric ripping pleased her. 

The ruler was overjoyed. Hardly anything had made his queen happy in the past months, and now here was an opportunity! So he sent out an order to his country to send in all of their silk things.

They received many valuable silk things, from dresses to scarves and many things in between. The queen shredded all of the silk with impunity. Within a few months, it was all gone. And she fell into her deep sadness once again.

The emperor had run out of ideas. He spent days, weeks taking her to different places in his kingdom to show her the world, hoping this would help her be happy. He was distracted, and in the time he spent completely absorbed in his wife, his country fell into disrepair.

One day, he took her out to the Great Wall. While they stood there above the mortar and bricks, he was struck with an idea.

Back in those days, the Great Wall was used to keep the Mongolians from invading. If there was ever an invasion spotted, the soldiers would light a fire in the night or create smoke in the day to warn the other soldiers to prepare for an attack.

The emperor did just that. It was broad daylight, so he set up some smoke, and then the soldiers came running. They came running with hearts full of fear and surprise, and it showed on their faces in a hilariously grotesque way. At the sight of their expressions, the queen burst out laughing. Now that she was happy, the ruler waved them away, telling them it had been a joke. They left, grumbling loudly.

At night, they did it again, and the soldiers were even more angry when dismissed.

But the queen was happy, and so the emperor was happy, and together they slept on the Great Wall until sunrise.

When the dawn came, the emperor awoke to shouts coming from the other side of the wall, the enemy side. They were coming!

He quickly lit a fire for the soldiers to see. But they were sick of the emperor's antics, and they did not come. The enemy surged like a tsunami, over the wall, overtaking the two lovers, trampling them to death, and proceeded to invade the country.

A/N: I should have just rewritten The Boy Who Cried Wolf, right? So much easier. This was way too long! Anyway, I can't remember the exact details of this story, so I may have exaggerated some of the parts. Don't blame me.