A lot of presents/gifts are given during Christmas. Hell, I should know: I work in retail. A gift can be defined as "a thing given" (Australian Oxford Dictionary). But to know what something is, you have to know what it is not. Ahh, dualism; where would humans be without you?
A bit depressing, I know, but hey, know this: Countless others before you have died, facing their mortality, as you and I are currently doing, but it didn't stop them from doing great things.
Once upon a time, there lived an old farmer with two daughters. His wife was a comely lass who was taught to cook well, listen carefully to what men ask of her and never to do anything too stupid. The farmer worked hard at the fields and felt very lucky to have such a wife. His daughters, however, were something else altogether.
The older girl was named Sky. She had an assertive personality and took what she desired.
The younger girl, by four years, was named Gaia. She liked staying grounded and lived the realities of being a poor farm girl.
Sky yearned for more. In her dreams she would be a princess adorned with big bright gems. The banquet hall would all but hush as she moved her presence from one end to the other. As quick as the dream came there would come the nightmare. Her parents would die of a disease there was no cure for, and her little sister would be separated; forced into marraige as any farmer would want for his beloved children, for the younger they are the sweeter they will taste, as
they say.
It was Gaia's duty to gather water from the well and Sky's to churn butter and milk the cows. It was monotonous, labour-intensive, but it was all they had to live by. The farmer had to work hard for somebody else just to make ends meet. His own field was small, but he found a way to manage.
A large dowry was agreed upon by a nobleman when he had once passed his small shack, when his daughters were not of age. He got out of his carraige and demanded to speak with him, the owner of the small patch of land five leagues from his own chateau, and several estates under his name.
"So you work for Lieberman? I can't imagine he pays you much."
"He pays me enough, sir. We live by what we need."
"Need," the nobleman scoffed "if we all lived by what we needed then I wouldn't have that carraige, or those pure-bred horse to pull it. What needs are compared to wants are base urges of the savage. Let him have his needs, I say." Then he sighed, as if to get a weight off his shoulders.
"Farmer, I come here today to offer you a deal."
"Sir? Why me?"
"Because you are not related by blood or ancestry to my own. Such strange things we are discovering, it's all the rage that's replacing alchemy, really. Not that you'd understand." He paced back and forth, looked the farmer up and down and measured him for all his worth. What the nobleman was after was integrity. He could barely find it in this simpleton, he thought, but maybe - just maybe...
"Farmer, I can sense you do not like my scrutiny; be truthful, now."
"N-No, sir."
"Your daughters aren't liking it either, but they just can't help themselves being curious. Bring them out to me, they're hiding over there."
The farmer hesitantly brought his daughters to the nobleman. He offered a dowry, it was accepted and the daughters became dutchess of rich estates.
The doctor hurriedly rushed into the room, which was dimly lit by small candles. What he was looking for was not clear, nor to him or anybody else at that time. Some correspondence with other doctors from an hundred wheels away brought him terrible and ineffable news. With symptoms, a diagnosis may arrive, then a treatment and then a cure.
There were no symptoms, save perhaps a little dehydration. There were no other factors that could degrade a person's healthy body that fast. It couldn't be melancholy. It was not due to chemicals. Noblemen and their mistresses only dine on the decadence that's deprived of commoners. Deliverance would not come, as ailments persisted. Rapid heart beat, shallow breathing and...eyes that told the doctor all he needed to know.
The sick patients all had one last visitor in common. He strolled in and took them gently by the hands. To some of them it was obvious. Some had fought in duels before,deadly in their fashion, and knew - they just knew.
"It's time."
It wasn't just a feeling. The smell was what gave it away and when they realised, well, their eyes could just tell you.
"Gaia, how are you?"
"What do you think? You, fool!" She didn't know who she was talking to and she grew more indignant the longer her bedfellow stayed. "It's getting harder to breathe and I'm as weak as a wilting plant."
"You have it easier than others. Some are tortured. Some are struck down in their prime. Others fade away into a forgotten memory."
"What is your point?" Gaia curtly responded.
"My point is that your life is determined by me."
"And who are you?"
"Really? I say, Sky was more of an optimist when I visited her-"
"Wait! You know my sister?"
"I knew her, if that's what you mean."
Gaia did not like being toyed with and demanded of her visitor an immediate explanation.
It was the same sigh that was given to all the stubborn people, believe me, some people just accept.
"I will
offer you a
gift. It is yours to take. People have died for it. They have sacrificed for it. And will forever inventing ways to forestall it. But one thing people will never do is give it away like a small treat. It is fragile and easy to break. In the end, it is mine to take."
"Do not riddle me!" It cost her effort to say the words with authority. "What gift do you speak of?"
"The gift of death."
