The Beast of the World

There was a time, long ago, when the earth was hot and the lands were one that a great beast flew over the world and terrorized the people.



The beast was so large that a single tooth could snap a tree.  He was so powerful he could dived mountains with a slash of is tail.  His large scales, which were as wide as a man is tall, shined like metal in the light of the sky and were impenetrable.  His breath burned villages and forests and he delighted in watching the humans live in fear of him.  All who saw him would fall to their knees and offer anything to spare their lives.



Soon, people began to whisper,



“How can we rid ourselves of this awful thing?  Surely there must be someone who has the power to stop this terrible creature!”



The people of the world cried and prayed.  God heard them and took mercy on them.  One day, a simple boy was born to an poor old couple that lived on a farm on the outskirts of a small village.



There was nothing remarkable to see about this child.  He gurgled and fussed like any other baby, and when he grew, he did not have a commanding stature or a voice that could inspire the masses.



All one needed to know was that the boy was a good obedient son.



When his parents were too old and sick to take care of the land, the task fell entirely on him and he completed it without complaint.



A day came when the beast made his way to the small farm’s village.  The townsfolk tried to flee and many were slain, broiled by the creature’s rage.



The beast ordered the people in a voice that roared across the world,



“Bring me the first child of every couple to gobble down.  Then, I will move on and spare your miserable lives.”



Well the elderly couple heard this and thought quickly.  They could not afford to lose such a good son and worker.  Therefore, on the night the villagers began feeding their first child to beast, the old couple sent their son away with an oil lamp with only the little fuel they could afford, a rusted sword that had seen no foe meaner than a fox, and some rolls of bread wrapped in a simple white cloth.



They kissed him and blessed him.  As soon as the beast was distracted, they sent him off to the forest and told him,



“Do not return until it is safe.”



He gave them his promise that he would obey.



While the son hid in the forest, he sat upon a large stone.  It was so large it could be worthy of a king’s throne.  He began to think of his family and the beast, and fear struck his heart.  Who was to say the beast would keep his promise and not eat everyone?  For it was in the beast’s power and mercy was not the beast’s nature.



But he had given his parents a promise to not return until it was safe, so we wept miserably and prayed.



The summer breeze had been playing with the tree tops when she heard the boy’s cries.  She was so touched she took pity on him.  She carried his sorrowful prayers to her sister, the moon.



The moon sister looked at the young man.  She saw immediately that he had a good and kind heart, so she decided she would help him.



She alighted down to earth in all her splendor.  Her beauty was unmatched in the night with her long white robes and silver hair and eyes that shone so blue.



“Why do you cry?” she called sweetly to the son.



The boy barely glanced at her, he was so wrought with grief, when he answered. 



“Sweet lady,” he said through his tears, “I have my promise that I would not return home until the danger had passed.  But I fear that when I do return, there will be no one left.  If only I had the ability to stop the beast, I would do so.”

The moon sister was impressed by his courage and humility.  She hushed him gently and said,



“If I give you the ability to stop this Beast, will you give me a single one of his shining scales?”



The young man agreed.



“Very well,” the moon sister said.



“When you approach the Beast, call out to your parents, ‘Father, Mother, I have kept my promise and returned when the danger has passed.’  That way, you will keep your word to them.”



She withdrew a matchstick from a glittering pouch and gave it to him.  “This belongs to my Father, the Sun.  He gave me these so I can light my way across the night sky.  When the Beast sees you, strike this match and light your oil lamp.  It will blind him.”



Then she broke off a strand of her long silver hair and this too she gave the boy. 



“Sharpen your blade with my strand of hair until it glitters like the stars and can cut the stone beneath you.”



Finally, she withdrew a white, silk handkerchief and added it to her gifts.



“Wrap your food in this and do not open it unless the Beast eats you.  If you open it before that moment, everyone in the village will perish.”



The son thanked her without question, and set to work on sharpening his sword as soon as she returned to her travel across sky.  Had he been an educated man, the boy would have questioned the moon’s orders, for they were indeed strange, and lost her favor.  However, he was raised to be a simple farm boy, obedient to the letter.



Days passed and he continued to work tirelessly on the sword.  Soon, the villagers began to question the elderly couple, “Where is your son, the simple farm boy?  You must do as we have done and feed him to the Beast of the World, else he’ll destroy us all!”



It was that night that the rusted blade, sharpened by a single silver hair, began to glitter like the stars.  He tested the blade against the stone.  In a single slash, the large stone throne divided smooth and clean like a hot knife through butter.



The boy carefully sheathe the sword and picked up his oil lamp and sack of food and made his return to the village.



Meanwhile, the villagers had grown furious with his parents, for they discovered that the old couple had saved their son while the villagers sacrificed theirs.  Jealous and angry, they pulled the couple before the Beast and offered them as first children.



The boy arrived just in time. 



He called to his parents as the moon sister had instructed, “Father, Mother, I have kept my promise and returned when the danger has passed.”



The villagers turned and saw that it was indeed the boy they knew, but he looked different now.  Less simple perhaps?  The crowd parted to let him pass.



The Beast turned a curious eye to the boy.  What human dare say “the danger has passed” while in the presence of the Beast of the World?



As soon as he saw the boy, he readied his fiery breath.  But swift as can be, the boy struck the Moon Sister’s match, given to her by her Father the Sun, and lit his little oil lamp.



The Beast was blinded.



So shocked he was that he chocked on his own fire.  He cried out in rage and cursed the boy.  He thrashed his great body to and fro, causing the earth to shake.



The young man approached carefully, slashing with his sword at the beast’s hard scales.  Like the stone, the scales were cut and the Beast cried in pain.



Furious, the Beast turned to where he could smell the boy and gobbled him down in a single gulp.



“Aha!” The Beast shouted with greedy revenge.  “What can your tricks do you now that you are inside me?”



The boy heard the Beast and called back while inside his belly.  “One more trick then, if you are truly curious Great Beast!”



He opened the white, silk scarf of food a heavenly host fully armored and riding atop blazing horses sprang forth from the rolls.



The angels of justice set to the beast in all their righteous glory with such a ferocity one could ever dream.  Now the boy understood why the Moon Sister had warned him not to release them sooner, for surely they would have slain the unjust villagers as well.



While they fought the Beast from within, the Beast wailed in pain.  The villagers outside wondered what could have gone wrong with the evil creature.  The boy climbed free and cut is way through the Beast’s clenched teeth.  By the time he was out, the Beast fell dead to the ground.



All the villagers were amazed and humbled.  When news spread that the Beast of the World had been slain from the inside, the people of the world crowned him king.



But the boy, in all his riches and greatness as a king has, never became proud.  He remembered his promise to the Moon Sister and gave her a scale from the Beast just as he had promised.



In return, she blessed him with a long and happy reign.



And how do we know this story is true?  Every month, in honor of the boy king, the Moon Sister crosses the night sky in darkness, guiding herself with only the light of the stars reflected on the Beast’s mirror-like scale, much too faint for us to see here on earth.