Tale 85- The Ghostly Bird

 The Traveler arrived in a beautiful set of gardens, though decorated by snow due to how cold it had gotten. She spied a lone beekeeper amongst the expanse of white, a man trying to ensure the bees were all safe in their boxes and brushing snow away from them to try and keep them warm. Though unafraid of the creatures, the Traveler kept her distance, getting the familiar sensation. Fifteen more…it felt as if the shackles were loosening with every step she took, the girl feeling a new sense of optimism amid her tired and pained thoughts. She still was struggling to sleep, being plagued by questions concerning Sarafelle, her ghost, and how she failed to honour her promise, but also remembering she still had to apologize to her brothers and was so close to her goal, so she couldn’t give up yet. Stepping forward, the beekeeper noticed her presence, before a beautiful bird suddenly flew in front of him, surprising him. And yet under the hood, she could see a smile on his face, making her slightly curious. He turned toward her, telling her the tale of ‘the Ghostly Bird.’

‘Once, there was a man who dearly loved his wife, providing for her since they first courted, and the two lived happily together in a large house by the sea. They had everything they could ever ask for, bright and intelligent children, many friends and good relationships, and jobs which challenged them and yet allowed them to reap the reward. But it all came crashing down when one tragic day, the man’s wife became ill. As illness began to consume her, she was left unable to walk or even speak to him some days, and grew sicker with every passing hour. The man employed the best doctors and nurses he could find, even sending abroad for the best medical advice, but nothing could cure his wife, and one dark night she fell asleep in his arms and never awoke again. The man was so distraught that he sent his children to live with his sister and committed himself to a sanatorium, in order to try and heal from the grief that consumed his every thought. And after two weeks of begging and praying for a miracle to uplift him, a beautiful bird appeared at his window. Though he’d never seen such a creature before, there was something incredibly familiar about her, and he found himself uplifted more and more each time she visited him. Eventually, it came to him- his wife had been reincarnated as a bird, and this was her way of telling him she was both safe and happy, and that it was okay for life to continue on now.’

The man finished his tale, the Traveler writing it down, before she sighed and stared at the bird now perched on his arm. Something told him that she, too, had suffered recent loss, so he hoped with all his heart that fate would be kind and send her a sign in the same way it did for him. The Traveler took what little comfort she could in the tale, wondering what Sarafelle could be reincarnated as. Regardless, it gave her hope to know that there was a chance she could still be visited, and that life could someday continue, but first she had to finish her task and break her shackles. Clinging to her resolve, she bid them goodbye.