“Once upon a time, there was a man who ventured to find the virtues of life. He loo-” Able, the middle aged housemaid was cut off by a child with flowing tendrils of golden hair, who kept placing her chubby toddler fingers over the words, blocking them from view. The woman sighed tiredly, but smiled soon after.
“My child, how am I supposed to read your bedtime story when your fat little sausages keep dirtying the books!” She kindly protested to the little girls mischief. Wearily, the maid lifted up the hand that was covering the text, moving them close to her lips, where she gave them a peck. The little girl squealed in delight and smiled.
“He looked far and wide,” Able continued on with hints of tonal change so the young one would stay interested, “ till he stumbled upon an ancient temple where the Gods lay dormant. Inside the temple, the man found scrolls with ancient text that was foreign to the young man. Yet he read and read, hoping he would figure out the meaning of it knowing they might hold the answers to his questions. After many nights and days of failing to decode the scriptures, he drew impatient and was about to give up. However, on the last night he was going to spend in the temple, a loud reptilian screech came reverberating through the temple walls. The man feared for his life for he thought a great and terrible monster had been unleashed because of his failure to decrypt the text. Fortunately, the sound soon dissipated, but as he was leaving the temple he noticed a new room at revealed itself. Upon exploring, he was dumbfounded! The text had been decoded right there for him on a scroll that was placed upon a pedestal in the center of the room. He bowed and blessed the temple for its help. After that he stayed for years on end, and after each year, a new room would reveal itself with new scrolls. ”
The maid turned the page, and her eye's trailed to the the young girls’ own eyes that was beginning to fight heavy eyelids. Despite the evident boredom and sleepiness of the young one, she pressed on.
“One night, a bandit group came to the temple in hopes to rob it of its jewels and gold, but the man had valiantly protected the temple. He risked his life to make sure the temple remained undisturbed by thieving men. At first the Gods had been unsure that revealing their secret to him was a wise idea, but after witnessing all the mans sacrifices to them, the Gods realized that he was worthy of knowing and having what they had. They sent down a translucent, glowing, green serpent in the next year when a new room was revealed, but the room had been empty. Not noticing the snake that was hidden in the cracks of the walls, the man grew worried and frantically searched the room. While he searched, the serpent bit the Man.”
The little girl reeled back from the book when the next page revealed a snake, jaws bared and ready to bite. The maid stroked the girls hair with her free hand to calm her down, but continued.
“After being bitten, the man fainted. When he woke up, the serpent was gone and in place was a young, beautiful woman, with green, glowing locks of hair.”
The next page was brighter and more colorful, which pleased the little girl who decided to inch back closer to the book.
“She told the man that she appreciated the man's efforts to keep the God’s temple safe and then proceeded to tell him how she was their messenger and that he had been chosen by them for a special task. The man started to believe he had died, but when the woman told him that the bite he received gave him the magic of the gods, he began to trust, but mostly hope that he was still alive. He was tasked to find disciples worthy to learn the gift of the Gods and every year he was to bring three, worthy men or women, young or old, back to the temple where they would be given powers by the bite of the magical serpent.”
The maid closed the book when she saw the young girl had drifted off to sleep. Her long lashes shadowing her eyelids that held eyes so blue and bright, it blinded any who looked too long at them. Although Able mainly stopped because the child was asleep, she also had not wanted to continue reading. The rest of the book was filled with the gross, darkened evils of all the God’s disciples filling with greed and rage who would turn on mankind. She always used to stop at this page when the child had been an infant, she wasn't about to stop that now that she was a toddler. Able patted the young girls head, tenderly scooped her up, and held her close. She brought her glossy lips, just inches away from the young girls ear and whispered, “Sleep tight, Young Princess.”
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