The shepherd boy who became king

Copyright: Rolf Schmidt 2007

Copied with permission from www.spanglefish.com/greatreading
(See website for conditions)

The shepherd boy who became king.

Long ago there was a shepherd boy. He roamed with his goats in the desert around the village of Kilian in the kingdom of Nargh. The grazings were poor, and too many of the goats had died already that year. Unless the rains returned, starvation could be less than a year away for the boy and his family.  
Not far from the village, hidden in a ravine with steep sides, was an oasis where water welled-up from the ground. The shepherd boy, whose name was Ramon, would often take his goats there to drink. 
In the middle of the dusty parched-ness of the open plains, this was a place of lush green and cool, soft light. Ramon would lie down beside a small pool, and sleep during the hottest part of the afternoon, before leading his animals once more up the steep, treacherous path out of the ravine. 
On one of these afternoons, when Ramon had just laid himself down on the grassy bank of the pool, a water nymph suddenly appeared to him and said:
“I have come to take you from here. Will you follow me?” 
Ramon blinked his eyes and the nymph was still there. She walked -or glided- ahead. Ramon stood up and followed, not knowing why. They walked further into the ravine where the sides closed in and where it seemed to come to a dead end. But the nymph whose name was Mythra bent a young tree aside. This revealed a crack in the yellow sandstone, just large enough for a person to pass through. By now curious, and his senses aroused, Ramon forgot his flock. He followed Mythra who had already gone through the opening without a rustle or a sound. They walked through a narrow passage. The sky shone like a blue, meandering river. At last the walls ceded and they found themselves in a ravine just like the one they had left. Ramon turned his head to look back for a moment, and when he looked ahead again the nymph had disappeared. 
A short while later he was back at the pool. His goats were still there, and he wondered how it could be that he had arrived back in the same place without at any time having turned around. Perhaps it had been a dream. 
The sun was already low and it was time to leave the oasis.  
A little later, on the dusty path that led back towards the village, Ramon was overtaken by a group of horsemen. He moved aside to let them pass unhindered. When they came closer, he saw they were horsemen of the King’s army. Ramon lowered his gaze in respect as they passed in steady gallop, perhaps two dozen of them. 
Then suddenly there were trampling horse-feet on both sides of him and he felt himself being yanked off the ground by his arms with a sharp pain. Strong arms flung him sideways across the back of the horse behind the rider like a bag of rice.

They reached the army camp by sunset. Ramon felt broken. He collapsed on the ground when they finally let him slump down from the horse. Someone dragged him to a wooden trough of the kind that horses drink from, and pushed his head deep into the water. 

“Here, that will freshen you up!” 
When Ramon had gathered his senses back together, he asked: 

 “Why am I here; why did you take me?” 

The man replied: “By order of the King. The army needs more troops because there have been heavy losses in the east. Don’t worry; you will soon be one of us, and it is not such a bad life I can assure you!”

“I do worry” said Ramon. What will become of my parents and of my family’s goats?”

“I told you not to worry. Our King is gracious and just. Your parents will receive an amount of gold for allowing their son to join the noble cause of defending the Kingdom”.

“But they have no choice, have they?”

“What is ordained must be done, and who can refuse a favour to the King? My name is Gilsahd. I am the commander here, and it is my command in the King’s name that you will obey”.        

And this is how Ramon became a soldier. The first battle in which he fought was against the tribes in the east; a decisive victory for the King’s troops. 
It was apparent from the start that Ramon was no ordinary soldier. He soon gained the reputation of being brave to the point of madness, and yet mild and kind to all those around him. Even his enemies he would not harm except in a fair fight. 
By the time he had fought his third battle, he had risen through the ranks and commanded his own troop of several hundred warriors.
The Kingdom of Nargh was expanding its borders at that time by absorbing all the surrounding tribal fiefdoms. Gilsahd and Ramon became great friends.  Apart from being brave, Ramon had an innate sense of military strategy. Gilsahd’s detailed knowledge of country and terrain, when combined with Ramon’s battle plans, made for an almost invincible force. 
Thus it was no surprise that the King chose Gilsahd and Ramon to conduct his most ambitious campaigns. 
By now they were both generals and frequent visitors to the Royal Court. As the years passed, the Kingdom grew until it stretched for the sea in the west to the sea in the east, and peace and prosperity reigned between the two shores. 

It was during one of their visits to the Royal Court that Ramon and Gilsahd both fell in love with the King’s eldest daughter, Princess Leila. And this was where their friendship broke. One night they met outside the palace on a clearing in the forest to settle the matter in an honest fight, as was the custom. The two were almost equal in strength, but in the end  Ramon won the fight and held Gilsahd pinned to the ground. 

“The custom is that I must now kill you” Ramon had said. 

“Then kill me.  Or are you weak, my friend?” 

“Perhaps I am weak and perhaps I am wrong, but what will become of the Kingdom without our combined strengths; your knowledge and my sense of strategy?” 

“Then what do you propose instead?”. 

“I shall let you live to serve the King beside me, and you shall no longer seek the favours of Princess Leila. But neither of us must ever tell a living soul about our duel this night”. 

Thus it was agreed and they shook hands as if they were still friends. 

Soon after that, Ramon asked the King for Princess Leila’s hand. The King showed little hesitation in granting his permission. He liked Ramon’s fairness and honesty. Besides being brave and handsome, Ramon was one of the best-loved men in the whole country. What better man could he wish for his beautiful princess?   
It was a fairytale wedding with no extravagance spared; a week-long feast attended by thousands. The whole Kingdom looked like a sea of flowers by day.  A myriad lights dispelled the darkness of night time, when there was singing and dancing until the sun rose once again.  

Not long after the Royal Wedding, just when life began to settle back to normal, two tragic events reduced the Kingdom to a state of bitter grief. 
First the King died unexpectedly. He collapsed during a banquet and complained of stomach cramps. They took him to his chambers and summoned the Royal Physician, but next morning he had died; some said of poisoning but no evidence was ever found. 
Then a messenger arrived from the northern border with even more grievous news. The King’s only son, the Crown Prince, had been killed; accidentally shot in the back in the heat of battle with an arrow from one of his own men. 
There were no other male successors to the throne. By law, the kingship now transferred through the King’s eldest daughter Leila, who became Queen, to Ramon who was duly crowned as the new King of Nargh at the young age of 33.  

Being the King suited Ramon very well. With his natural sense of strategy, he enjoyed the intricate games of diplomacy and intrigue around the Royal Court. He was also a wise and fair-minded King, just like his predecessor had been.

The marriage between King Ramon and Queen Leila was a happy one, and the Kingdom prospered likewise.  
Nargh’s  boundaries and international standing were secure. Its traders brought goods from the furthest and most exotic places on Earth. It was a true fairytale Kingdom for a long time. 
The only matter of concern was that the royal couple did not have any children. This meant that the succession to the throne was uncertain. But few people worried about this as long as the Kingdom prospered.  

Change did not come until the King and the Queen were both quite old. Ramon was not as sharp anymore in noticing the subtle signs in people that speak of inner disloyalty. His trustworthy band of ministers and officials grew old like himself. Some died and some went away. And what about those who replaced them? Was Ramon’s judgement failing or was there a conspiracy? There were rumours in the streets and in the corridors of the palace. It was whispered that Ramon was not the rightful King of Nargh. The old King’s death and the death of the Crown Prince had both raised suspicion at the time, and who had had the most to gain by these events?  

This is where Gilsahd enters the story once more. He and Ramon had not seen each other after that fateful night of their duel.  Gilsahd had moved to a remote place among the high mountains in the North. There he had married a merchant’s daughter who had born him a son. 
After Ramon became King, Gilsahd served him well for a good many years, and Ramon never breathed a word to anyone about the night of the duel. Gilsahd however, in one very drunken night, told his wife what had happened.  In the morning he did not even remember telling her, but she remembered and she said nothing. 
Years later when their son -who was called Tirnafon-  was old enough to become a warrior himself, his mother called him over by the fire one night. It was then that she told him about the duel, and how a mere shepherd boy had become King instead of his father Gilsahd who had descended from a long line of famous warriors. 

In latter years, Gilsahd was in command of the King’s army in the north, where tensions were increasing between Nargh and its northerly neighbours. The battles were fierce and Tirnafon proved himself worthy in his father’s footsteps. When Gilsahd’s strength began to fade with old age, King Ramon gave the command of the northern army to young, brave Tirnafon.    
Not long after that, Ramon received the news of Gilsahd’s death. That was the year the rumours started.  
At the same time, the Kingdom of Nargh that had known peace and stability for so many years, began to slide into a state of unease. The hierarchy of officials that had always done the King’s will with loyalty, had become greedy and corrupt.    
Sedition was stirring every province, and rumours of insurgence were widespread. The rumours were confirmed when travellers from the North reported that Tirnafon was massing an army against the King. 

The next year, Tirnafon’s troops marched on the Capital.  The King’s troops mounted a brave defence, but they were outnumbered and weakened by disloyalty to the King within their own ranks. When Tirnafon’s men broke through the gates and ransacked the Palace, Queen Leila was killed in the turmoil. Having lost his wife and his kingdom, Ramon escaped from the palace by a secret tunnel. Then he wandered into the desert wearing the clothes of a poor man to avoid recognition. 
Two days later, he approached the village of Kilian where he had lived all those years ago as a shepherd boy. He had hoped to find shelter there, perhaps in the house of someone he knew and who was still loyal to him. But before he could enter the village, a troop of Tirnafon’s soldiers caught up with him. Their commander, who had once visited the Court, recognised Ramon’s face straight away as that of the deposed King.    
Ramon ran for his life and the soldiers followed. Before long, he had reached the path that led down to the ravine with the oasis where he once used to rest with his goats. He ran past the pool and followed the path that weaved between the trees. When he came to the end of the ravine, having nowhere else to go, he pushed-aside the young tree that hid the passage through which the nymph had taken him. At that moment an arrow struck him in the back and mortally wounded him. With his life draining away, he staggered blindly through the narrow passage. When the walls opened-out, just like the first time, the ravine lay before him just like he had left it; even though at no point had he turned around. 
However, there was no sign of the soldiers and the oasis was at peace in the heat of the afternoon. By the side of the pool, the wounded King finally collapsed and died face-down on the grass in the filtered sunlight. 

When Ramon woke, he was a young man again. He looked at his hands and saw the young skin without wrinkles. 
His life as a warrior, his marriage to Leila, the rise and fall of his Kingdom, even his death here by this very same pool; it had all been just a dream. 
And yet his memories seemed as clear as if he was the old King himself; they were the memories of a whole lifetime. But the memories were fading already, like tracks in a dust storm.   
The sun was low. Ramon yawned and stretched. It was time to lead his goats out of the ravine.
 Then suddenly there was a ripple in the water. When he looked, a water nymph was floating above the surface of the pool. 

“I am Mythra, who took you away” the gentle creature said. 

Ramon remained silent while he gathered his thoughts. Then he asked: 

“Dear Mythra, you took me away and gave me the life of a king, but now you have taken it all away and it was nothing but a dream. Here I am; a poor shepherd boy whose whole family will starve to death before the year is out if the rains do not return. I ask you, is this justice?”  

Mythra replied “Dear Ramon, what you have received is far more than justice. I gave you the life of a king and it was a whole, fulfilled life. It was just as real as this life you have now. In reality all of life is maya, a dream, and the real-ness of one life over another is only an illusion. But I gave you the life of a king not to make you happy or unhappy; not to do you any justice or injustice. I give it to you out of love, so that you may see and become great in spirit, no matter whether you are a poor shepherd or a mighty king. So lead your goats out of here. Tell your family not to worry. The rains will return this year and bring sweet abundance to all of you”. 

After saying this, the water nymph vanished, and the pool was without a ripple as if she had never been there.   

Later that night, when Ramon had joined his family around the fire, his father said: “Did you hear about the Zihu family’s boy? Nafar I think is his name. The soldiers took him on the road this afternoon. They carried him away on a horse. His mother is desperate with grief, but I suppose at least they will now get a piece of gold from the King, so they may survive the draught”. 

“Don’t worry” said Ramon. All those gathered round the fire suddenly looked up and listened. “Nafar may well be King of Nargh one day, and I know for a fact that the rains will bring sweet abundance to all of us this year”.