Week 13 Story: King Headley's Sacrifice

 

Photo by Jim Cooke on Unsplash

Once upon a time in a land far far away, there lived a humble king of a small nation named Headleye. His family had gained the crown through marriage, and the only way that he could keep his land and title is through a son. An heir to his throne. He wanted his title to stay within his family so that his wife and all of his daughters would be cared for when he inevitably passed. 

One day, King Headleye walked to the garden and decided he would arrange a service in order to ask for a son. He prepared a sacrifice. This kingdom was not prone to sacrificing living things, the gods found no value in this. Instead the gods wanted items of meaning. They would determine a worthy sacrifice based on the weight in which it took for the people to hand it over. 

King Headleye thought long and hard about what he would give. He saw value in very little, he only cared about his family's wellbeing. He prayed to the gods and asked for guidance. 

"Gods, I have much land and much gold. None of it matters to me for I will gladly part with it. What is it you should want from me? I have not much of value, but memories and family."

The gods deliberated on this request. "Headleye, we have decided. What you will do is not sacrifice upfront. In order for you to gain a son you must allow for the ruler of all of the universe to become your son born to earth. There is a prophecy that only he can defeat true evil. Since you have asked us for a request, we will fulfill that, but we must also ask something in return. For the sacrifice."

Headleye agreed, asking that they wipe his memory of the conversation so that he would not have to carry the burden of knowledge that his son would be god incarnate. The gods promptly did so, and when Headleye returned from prayer, his wife ran up to him bringing good news.

The other gods created watchmen to care for the young boy once he was born and grew up. They needed to make sure that evil did not reach him, so they created bees. The creatures were quite impossible in how they carried themselves and flew, but they were great at listening and protecting. They had a built in defense system with a stinger. The child would be safe for the time being.

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Author's Note:

I chose to write Rama's origin story from the Rama and the Monkeys unit, but I chose to make the kingdom a bit smaller and less well known. I am recently rewatching Downton Abbey because I love that show, and I felt inspired by the concept of that. The first season's plot is the family trying to figure out where their land and life's work would go now that the father's heirs had died in the titanic. He only had daughters, so the land went down to his third cousin. I thought that this idea that the reason that the king wanted a son is to protect his daughters and wife's land and titles was something I wanted to bring to the original story. Giving the king a motive for why he so desperately needed a son, gives a motive to the character and also gives the gods a reason to come to earth. I also recently saw an episode of Dr. Who where the only sacrifice that an old god would take was one with memories and meaning behind it and I liked that aspect too.