Week 12 Story: Kindness of The King

There once lived a King in a beautiful palace. The king was known for his extraordinary kindness throughout the kingdom and spanned even across the nation themselves. However, with all his kindness, he couldn't stop misfortunes from his kingdom. Dark times hit them drastically. Fruits were not blooming, crops were failing, and his subjects became unhappy. He needed to find a way to support his people with food, but he didn't know where to look.

One day, one of the fisherman noticed a large fruit, a mango, drifting down the great Ganges river. And, being hungry as the fisherman was, he took a big bite out of the mango. It was the sweetest and juiciest mango he had ever eaten! He knew the kingdom was in dark times, so he took the other half of the mango to the king.

"Wow! This is the best mango I have ever eaten! Tell me, dear fisherman, where did you find such a divine fruit?" The King asked. "It was drifting down the Ganges, the spot where I was fishing at this morning," the fisherman gladly replied. "We must find out where these fruits come from. This will surely help the people of these lands!" the King remarked.

And off they went, the king, his guards and the fisherman walked miles down the Ganges, looking for the tree that bore these awesome fruits. After a while, they noticed a beautiful mango tree, with a couple of its branches hanging off to the river. "That must be the tree where the fruit came from! The monkeys must be eating these fruits. We have to get them away!" the fisherman exclaimed.

On they went to try and scare the monkeys away from the tree. However, upon arrival, the King noticed most of the monkeys have left and a large, majestic monkey was laying on the ground in pain. He approached him. "Oh King monkey, how did you get to such a state? Your back is broken, and all your subjects are gone. Have they betrayed you?" the King asked of the Monkey King. "O no my dear King. I used my back as a bridge for my subjects to escape whatever harm that was approaching them. Surely you and your guards are here for the fruits and you would have killed us if we did not give the fruits to you. I had to sacrifice my life so that my subjects can leave." the Monkey King cried out.

Upon hearing this, the King was heartbroken. He quickly demanded his guards to stop collecting the fruits from the tree. "O Monkey King, what bravery and compassion you have for your subjects. That's what a good king should be. You've inspired me. You and the rest of the subject may keep the tree and we won't be bothering you again," the King told the Monkey King.

The King, his guards, and the fisherman came back to the village. However, within the following months, there was a huge change within the kingdom! The flowers were blossoming, the fruits were blooming, and the crops were as healthy as ever! It seemed as though the heavens rewarded the King's kindness to the Monkey King and allowed the misfortunes of the kingdom to pass. And they lived happily ever after. 

The end.

Author's Note: The story painted above was a derivation from The Monkey Bridge, by N. Inayat. In the original story, it was told from an omniscient point of view of how the monkeys were wary of the fruits getting to river, for they were scared of the people that would come after the tree once they found its amazing qualities. However, to repaint this, I depicted the story from a 3rd person point of view beginning with the kingdom, adding on the misfortunes that came about them.  I created another theme of the story, where it was the fruits of kindness that was the ultimate reward, not the bravery and sacrifice of the king in the original story.

(The Monkeys of the Mango Tree. Source: Unsplash)