The Brothers and the Cave

The Brothers and the Cave

Once there was a kingdom where everything stayed the same. The sky was always the same shade of blue, the clouds always the same snowy white. The days were filled with the same routines. People would wake, people would work, people would sleep. Every day, without fail, everything stayed the same.

The King of this kingdom, a man dark of hair and eye was, a very efficient man. Under his rule the kingdom had grown and profited. He himself was very proud of the kingdom, just the way it was. It was he who set the schedules, he who planned the work, he who set into motion so many years ago that most couldn't even remember, all those practices and disciplines and ways of thinking that kept things so very efficient, effective, and so very unchanging.

If there was one thing the king could not stand, one thing he feared most, it was change. Which is why he found it so very upsetting when the Queen, a woman light of hair and bright of eye, announced that they would have a child.

A child! The King was shocked. Why, a child would need to be fed at all hours. A child would need to be changed, and burped and bathed. A child would run and giggle and touch things in the palace and dig in the grounds. With a child, nothing would stay the same!

The King was beside himself with worry and determined to seek out someone for advice. He knew of an old woman, deep in the woods whom the people feared for her great power and knowledge. As darkness fell, the king stole out of the castle and set out to find the old woman.

Deep into the forest the king rode on one of the finest stallions in the land. Ducking under rotting branches, leaping over fallen trees, winding around large stones in the path until finally he came upon a run down little cottage in a clearing in the wood.

He knocked on the door and shortly a small, old woman with a scrunched up face and long, straggly hair answered. "Yes?" she croaked as the door swung open and the light from her fire broke into the darkness.

"I am the king of this land and I have the most difficult problem. The queen is expecting a child and...well, a child will change things. Such terrible changes, and I don't know what to do."

Now the king didn't know this but the old woman was a witch who had been waiting for ages to make her move on the kingdom. She invited him in and bade him to sit while she brewed up some tea and invited him to drink. After he had finished, she looked deeply and intently at the leaves in his cup.

"Oh my," she said. "Oh dear!" she exclaimed.

"What is it?" asked the king, "What can be done?"

"I am afraid things are far worse than you feared. For the queen does not carry one child, but two."

"Two!" cried the king, "But that will bring double the change. This is horrible indeed!"

"Not so my king. Not so at all for see, the two are not the same in every way but will grow to be very different. One child I see is filled with ideas and imaginings, visions and dreams. The other child I see is practical and efficient filled with respect for his father and his kingdom and the way things are meant to be."

The King thought about this for a moment and thought a moment more. "Perhaps...perhaps this is not so bad after-all. I am king, I can give the throne to whomever I choose. If I give the throne to the practical son, the sensible son all may not be lost."

"But, my dear king the two are twins, identical in most every way. How will you know from their birth which will bring change and which will keep things the same? Even I, with all my magic cannot tell you just now which son will grow to be which."

The king despaired even more than before. He couldn't dare take the chance that he would choose the wrong son to be king. He loved his kingdom far too much to take such a chance on a guess.

But the old witch was crafty and she knew just what could be done. "I believe I can still help you my king if you would but indulge an old lady."

"Anything, oh anything at all," and the king vowed that he would grant her every desire if she could only help him find a solution to his troubles.

"I have a daughter, so young and so fair. If you would promise to have the boy take her hand in marriage, I will tell you how you might choose between the two."

The King was desperate and vowed again, "Anything m'lady, anything you desire I will give in return for your help."

"That is what I desire and so this is what you are to do. Take your fine steed and follow the path past my home and deeper into the forest. When you have come to the end of the path and to the forest's deepest, darkest place there you will find a cave. When the boys are born you must be quick and steal them away from their mother as fast as you can. Take them and hide them deep in the cave. I will seal the entrance so that none can get in and none can get out. There they must stay until they are grown. Do not fear my King, I will take fine care of them until they have grown. Only when they have grown into the men they are meant to become will we know which shall be fit to take the throne and for my dear daughter. That one I will allow to leave while the other will remain sealed in the cave for ever."

Gripped by fear and terrified at the prospect of the entire kingdom being...different, the king agreed. He returned home and after not many days the Queen announced that it was time for the child to be born (the king had not told her that it was twins she carried). After their birthing and while the queen slept, the king himself entered the nursery and took the babes riding them deep into the forest where the path came to an end and the dark mouth of the cave awaited.

The old lady was waiting, for she had heard through her mysterious ways that the time had come. After the king had placed them deep into the cave she caused a huge stone to roll across the entrance sealing it tight against the world.

As the moon rose high in the sky, the king climbed back onto his horse. "Remember your promise my king. I will see the boys cared for, in return for my daughter's hand to the son who will be king."

The king nodded and rode off. In the morning the entire palace was in an uproar at the discovery that the boys were gone. To the king's great relief the steward and nurse together declared that it had been fairies who had taken the boys in the night. There were many days of mourning but soon life in the kingdom began to return to normal for all.

For all that is, except the Queen. She continued to weep and mourn the loss of her children and was at length quite inconsolable. One morning, while she sat in the garden, still mourning her great loss the Queen of the Fairies appeared before her. She was dressed all in gold and white and her wings were the fairest, thinnest gossamer one could imagine. He voice sounded like a tiny silver bell as she spoke. "My dear queen, do not mourn so, for your boys are not gone forever."

"Of course they are and you should know for it was your folk who took them." cried the Queen.

"You have been deceived my Queen for it was not I nor my folk, but your own King under the spell of the Forest Witch and his own fear who stole the boys away. But they are safe my queen, though locked away such that even my magic cannot unseal them."

"What then are we to do? I must have my boys returned. I will find the King, rally an army, burn the forest..."

"My Queen, the king has been cursed and cannot help. An army of soldiers will not find them and burning the forest will not bring them home. Though my own magic also will not suffice to free them at once, I may be able to in time and surely I can help them even now. You my Queen must be strong and steadfast in your love for them for it shall be only upon a mother's love that my own magic can work."

With that, the Fairy Queen vanished.

As for the boys, they lived and grew in the midst of utter darkness. The ground was always hard under their feet, the walls forever sharp, and rocky and wet. Daytime and nighttime held no meaning for them only waking or sleeping. When hungry, they would find mushrooms at their hands and though without flavor, they served to sustain them. When thirsty they would follow the sound of trickling water and feel their way along until a thin stream of bitter water could be found running down the walls.

They lived and breathed in a world without color, without sun or moon or stars. They lived in a cave without people, with only themselves for company. They lived in a world without change, for sealed deep within the earth as they were, everything stayed the same.

But the two boys were very different, though if they could be seen they would look quite the same. One brother was very comfortable with the way things were and grew to enjoy the firmness of the floor and the walls, the constant assurance of food and water so close at hand. He enjoyed a world where all that was real was what could be touched and felt, tasted and smelled. It was a world that made perfect sense, a world you could count on, plan for, where every time of waking could be expected to be very much as it had always been.

The other brother was not at all comfortable with their life in the dark and damp of the cave. He was forever barking his shins against some stone, always waking tired and achy from the floor. He hated the mushrooms which were their only food and dreaded his own thirst for the bitterness of the water they had for drink. Worst of all, he hated always knowing that one time of waking would be very much the same as the one before, or the one to come. It nearly drove him mad.

Then, one day something very small happened. Something very tiny, but very, undeniably...different. One day, a tiny mouse found its way into the dark of the cave. At first it's scratching and squeaking frightened them both. For a long time neither could sleep for fear of what could possibly make such frightening sounds and where it could be and what it might do.

What neither brother knew was that the little mouse was in fact a friend of the Fairy Queen, sent by her to prepare them for what was to come. Every day as the boys slept, the mouse, who could see quite well even in the dark of the cave, would whisper into the ears of first one brother and then the next and tell them of the sights and the sounds, the smells and the tastes of the world that lay just outside their cave.

Each day upon waking the first brother would rise and complain about the awful sleep he had had with the most horrible dreams. Dreams filled with blinding colors, strange foods, odd sounds and tastes and smells.

Each day upon waking the second brother would wake and marvel at the most amazing sleep he had had with the most wonderful dreams. His dreams were filled with dazzling sunshine, beautiful rainbows, delicious feasts, songs and dance, flavors and fragrances.

One day the second brother said to the first, "I do not believe this to be our home at all."

"What kind of nonsense are you about now?" the second brother asked.

"I believe that we are somehow prisoner here. I don't quite know what it is, but I feel as though we were made for something...different."

"You are speaking out of your dreams again, dear brother. There is nothing different. There is no other place for us to be and so we cannot possibly be prisoners as that would require us to be kept apart something else. I cannot see anything else, cannot touch it or taste it or smell it. Therefore it only makes sense that there is nothing else but this."

"Oh but there is something else my brother. You forget about our friend the mouse. He was not here always always, so must have come from someplace outside. And the dreams which you scoff at, if this is all there is, where do these ideas of sight and sound and color come from? They cannot come from ourselves, we have only known the shadows and the echoes of this place. Therefore it only makes sense that there is something else other than this. And further, the second brother continued, I believe our little friend knows this for though I cannot see him I swear that I have woken to his quiet whispers in my ear."

"On this, my brother we can agree for I too have woken to his infernal squeaking in my ear. Perhaps you are right that he is the source of both our dreams. If that is the case we must find him and kill him."

But the second brother could not let that happen and from that time onward he allowed the little mouse to hide perched on his shoulder. There the mouse stayed and continued to whisper in the boy's ear but the first brother the mouse stayed clear of and never again disturbed his dreams so that the first brother thought he had finally chased the little demon off.

Time continued to pass, though I do not know if it was a short time or a long time. It may have been three days, it may have been three years of waking and sleeping, eating and drinking. Until one day a low rumble woke both brothers from their sleep.

"The time is coming." The second brother said. "I have dreamed about a time of rumbling and crashing, a time of bursting forth and of light."

The first brother scoffed, "Again with your dreams. Fancies of sleep and imagination. I can feel the floor of our home and hear the cracking deep in the stone. I can feel water pooling around us and all of this tells me that something is indeed about to happen." His voice was rising in fear as the weight of his own words rested on him, "The rocks below are heaving, the spring that quenches our thirst will burst and we will either be crushed or drowned or both!"

"Calm yourself my brother," said the second. "It will not be the end. My friend the mouse has assured me that there is a whole world outside. A world of vast space, and light, of tall trees and enormous mountains, a world of cakes and roasts, a place of life and of love."

"You and your demon!" the first cried out. "You are a fool to believe his treachery."

"Not treachery but truth. The heaving and gushing are but the gateway to a new kind of living. Do not be afraid my brother." Rocks had begun to fall from the ceiling and a sound of gathering waters could be heard roaring from someplace deep below.

"It is the end of us!" Wailed the first.

"It is our beginning!" Shouted the second.

Then the waters let go from beneath the earth and the ceiling began to fall in around them. The room filled and the two were lost from each other. The first brother tried to cling with all his might to a large stone in the wall and was never seen again. The second opened wide his arms and allowed himself to be swept away.

For a brief moment he felt fear as the waters pressed him firmly against the stone that had sealed them in for all of these years. Before it could get it's dreadful claws sunk too deep, the stone let go and the boy, now a man was carried out into the light.

Now it just so happened that the old witch had determined that this day would be ripe for deciding which boy was to be released and which would stay trapped forever. She herself was just coming to the end of the path where the cave lay, when the stone let go. Down and down the path she was washed by such a torrent of water as has never been seen. In the end, it was the very stone she had sealed the cave with, that sealed her own fate. She was crushed, quite completely under it's weight.

The second brother found himself washed onto the step of the witch's cottage, the first home he had seen outside of the cave. He entered in the hopes of finding something warm to wear and maybe a bite to eat when he caught sight of a little mouse, his little mouse, sitting on a trapdoor in the floor and waving his paws quite frantically. He opened the door and found, locked in the room beneath, the most beautiful girl anyone had ever seen.

She explained how she had been stolen away from her mother, the Fairy Queen as a baby, how the witch had held her prisoner for these many years and how she had planned to steal her youth and her beauty and marry a certain prince whose father she had tricked.

The brother helped her up and out of her prison and held his hand out to hers. "I have dreamed of being a prince and the king of a most glorious land. Today all my dreams have come true and I beg you, fair lady, to be my queen."

She clasped his hand with great joy and the two stepped out of the witch's cottage and into a kingdom that was bright, and green and full of life. A kingdom that would never be the same again.