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tamingthemuseTitle: The Snake Demon
Author: guardian erin
Fandom: original
Mali
Once upon a time, something happened. If it didn't, it couldn't be told.
There once was a vast kingdom which was full of many people who worked all day and earned a fair living so that no one went to sleep with an empty stomach, not even the beggars.
The king was a fair and noble man who was well liked by his people. He cherished his beautiful daughter and only child, whose mother had died during childbirth. He gave her fine dresses, special tutors and all of his love so that she was never at want. As she grew, her beauty increased each day until it seemed as if the sun and the moon combined could not match her.
Now the king had a forest so large that crossing it took days and so dense that at midday, some spot in the woods were as black as midnight.
Naturally, the king enjoyed hunting on this land, which he did nearly every day. The princess worried, of course, because she knew that there were many dangers in the woods.
To calm her, the king one day gave a handkerchief to her.
"if three drops of my blood appear on this handkerchief, that will show you I am dead."
The princess kept the handkerchief for years, watching over it each time her father went to hunt, and locking it up in a chest at any other time.
One fateful day, the king was hunting in the forest when a wicked mali, a demon in the form of a snake, attacked the king. In the castle, one drop of blood appeared on the handkerchief, and the princess wrung her hands.
The snake bit at the king, and squeezed him tight. Another drop appeared, and the princess cried. Their struggle was short, for mali have terrible tricks, and then the king was subdued. The mali slithered into the king's skin and the third drop of blood appeared on the handkerchief.
The princess was wracked with grief and was bewailing her father's death when none other than the king himself came through the door, but it was the terrible mali wearing his skin.
"Are you well father?" asked the astonished princess.
"Of course I am well!" the mali bellowed, scorning her tears.
"Three drops of blood appeared on the handkerchief," the princess reported.
"What a foolish thing to believe! Do you not see yourself that I stand before you alive and well?"
He bid her to burn the handkerchief immediately. The princess felt ashamed, but having held the gift from her father so dear for so long, she could not bear to have it destroyed. It stayed safe in her chest while she dripped blood onto a different handkerchief and surrendered that to the mali.
As soon as the handkerchief was burnt, the mali began to chuckle in such a sinister laugh the likes of which the princess had never imagined. She was taken by fear and put a question to him, and then the mali spoke and told her what it had done.
"Is there no way to save my father?" she asked.
"There was," he answered. "A single drop of his own blood on his lips would restore his soul. But the blood is burned."
The mali then treated her slavishly, forcing her to scrub the floors of the palace until her hands bled and stay awake until at every instant she nearly collapsed. Finally the mali relented for a moment, for it needed to sleep as much as anything else.
When the mali slept, however, it needed to creep out of the body to do so. The princess waited breathlessly for her chance, and finally struck the snake in the head with an axe. From the pieces sprang smaller snakes, but she killed those too, and so on until at last the wicked demon was dead. Then she retrieved the handkerchief and squeezed out a single drop of blood onto her fathers lips. He immediately opened his eyes and embraced his daughter, whose bravery had saved him and they lived happily for the rest of their lives, which lasted for many years.
Author: guardian erin
Fandom: original
Mali
Once upon a time, something happened. If it didn't, it couldn't be told.
There once was a vast kingdom which was full of many people who worked all day and earned a fair living so that no one went to sleep with an empty stomach, not even the beggars.
The king was a fair and noble man who was well liked by his people. He cherished his beautiful daughter and only child, whose mother had died during childbirth. He gave her fine dresses, special tutors and all of his love so that she was never at want. As she grew, her beauty increased each day until it seemed as if the sun and the moon combined could not match her.
Now the king had a forest so large that crossing it took days and so dense that at midday, some spot in the woods were as black as midnight.
Naturally, the king enjoyed hunting on this land, which he did nearly every day. The princess worried, of course, because she knew that there were many dangers in the woods.
To calm her, the king one day gave a handkerchief to her.
"if three drops of my blood appear on this handkerchief, that will show you I am dead."
The princess kept the handkerchief for years, watching over it each time her father went to hunt, and locking it up in a chest at any other time.
One fateful day, the king was hunting in the forest when a wicked mali, a demon in the form of a snake, attacked the king. In the castle, one drop of blood appeared on the handkerchief, and the princess wrung her hands.
The snake bit at the king, and squeezed him tight. Another drop appeared, and the princess cried. Their struggle was short, for mali have terrible tricks, and then the king was subdued. The mali slithered into the king's skin and the third drop of blood appeared on the handkerchief.
The princess was wracked with grief and was bewailing her father's death when none other than the king himself came through the door, but it was the terrible mali wearing his skin.
"Are you well father?" asked the astonished princess.
"Of course I am well!" the mali bellowed, scorning her tears.
"Three drops of blood appeared on the handkerchief," the princess reported.
"What a foolish thing to believe! Do you not see yourself that I stand before you alive and well?"
He bid her to burn the handkerchief immediately. The princess felt ashamed, but having held the gift from her father so dear for so long, she could not bear to have it destroyed. It stayed safe in her chest while she dripped blood onto a different handkerchief and surrendered that to the mali.
As soon as the handkerchief was burnt, the mali began to chuckle in such a sinister laugh the likes of which the princess had never imagined. She was taken by fear and put a question to him, and then the mali spoke and told her what it had done.
"Is there no way to save my father?" she asked.
"There was," he answered. "A single drop of his own blood on his lips would restore his soul. But the blood is burned."
The mali then treated her slavishly, forcing her to scrub the floors of the palace until her hands bled and stay awake until at every instant she nearly collapsed. Finally the mali relented for a moment, for it needed to sleep as much as anything else.
When the mali slept, however, it needed to creep out of the body to do so. The princess waited breathlessly for her chance, and finally struck the snake in the head with an axe. From the pieces sprang smaller snakes, but she killed those too, and so on until at last the wicked demon was dead. Then she retrieved the handkerchief and squeezed out a single drop of blood onto her fathers lips. He immediately opened his eyes and embraced his daughter, whose bravery had saved him and they lived happily for the rest of their lives, which lasted for many years.
