Truly A "Fairy" Tale, Part 1

Once upon a time there was a knight.

This knight, who always donned his armor very seriously, had been engaged in a battle for quite some time. The casualty rate was frighteningly high, but the battle yielded great dividends. The knight felt a strong sense of purpose. He knew who he was, he knew for what ideals he fought, and he took part in the enjoyable brotherhood that could only be forged in a predicament as intense as the battlefield truly was. Although lesion-inducing and exhausting, the battle was home to the knight.

The knight, however, had also heard the voices of distant lands and peoples, all execrating the battle with their seemingly rash tongues, all spreading rumors that the war was fought in vain, over nonexistent contentions. Yet the knight's passion for the war, for its causes, and for his fellow fighters did not wane; the flame burned within his heart.

The knights who took the charge to battle were not without temptations. The knight of this tale was no exception. It was readily understood that, some distance from the battlefield, a beautiful land welcomed all who chose to abdicate their knightly ranks. Rumors of this land were as prevalent as rumors about the war itself; some claimed that it was a land of abundance, beauty, and indescribable peace. Others said that it was a land of lust, gluttony, and loneliness. Some of the knights had been there. Some of them had considered fleeing to its enticing borders. Yet all of them had chosen their places, and for the present time, the noble knights of the battlefield were content within their positions.

As time passed and the war waged on, the protagonist (or antagonist, depending on belief) knight of our tale realized that as he aged, his status would increase among the army. He also knew that he would be called to various missions and campaigns. His first reaction to these upcoming events was excitement, but he was quickly sent into a world of meditation. And as he thought, terrifying truths were made known to him. At first he feared them, for there is nothing as frightening as the truth. Slowly, however, his psyche assimilated these destructive thoughts. The knight realized that the war could be, in fact, unjust. He realized that the rumors about its causes (or the lack thereof) were substantive. And he feared, but he embraced the truth, as he believed was honorable to do. The truth, embraced in all its harmful glory, meant that the knight, as a just being, could no longer fight in the war.

So the good knight alerted his captains, overlords, and brothers in arms to his decision. Although very supportive, there was much remorse. The knight wondered what his fellow warriors were thinking. "What more could we have done?" some would ask. "What a bitter path lies ahead of him," thought others. And the knight himself didn't know what to believe. He felt alone in the world, a world which was quickly losing its defined purpose.

But the knight had his ideals, principles, and scruples intact. He decided that he would travel to the distant land of which rumors abounded. Maybe he could find the rumored happiness there. Maybe he could show others a pathway into something more correct and more beautiful than the realities of the war. So the knight slowly stripped himself of his armor, which fell upon the ground sullenly. He removed his knightly helmet with nostalgia, tears running down his face. He felt naked and exposed. The feeling was frightening and yet most wonderful. The wind running through his light tunic was both cold and freeing, and the knight bid one last good-bye to those that he loved most in the world. He was on his way to the distant land.