26 The Third Day Part 2 (1/2)
Leo crept along the side of the the wall. He descended a spiral staircase with stone steps and torches hanging every seven steps in intervals. Markings lined the walls. The markings were black; they seemed to be made of sludge, but Leo thought it was dried blood.
The markings formed pictures, and as Leo descended he first saw a painting of figures worshipping a giant demon. He then saw a picture of what seemed to him a large serpent with great feathery wings and short limbs being killed. He remembered a story his mother would tell him before he fell asleep. He remembered the large castle, and the stone walls he lived inside of, and he traced his way back to the room where at the age of six, his mother would say, ”Leo.”
He would answer, ”Mother.”
”What do I have for you today?”
”A story about Fairies.”
”Once,” his mother said, ”There was a kingdom in the sky. Up, above the plains. High above the seven mountains. A kingdom of fairies lived in harmony.”
He remembered his mother's sweet smile. He remembered how she paused with her smile in the middle of the story.
Little Leo would say, ”Don't end it there!”
She continued, ”One day, a little boy with curly blue hair like yours wept beside his mother's sick bed and said, 'Oh! If only I could fine the great fairies of legend. Then I could wish for her health to return.'”
”Why was she sick?”
”She had the plague.”
”What's a plague?”
(Leo was recalling the first time he heard the story.)
”Plagues kill; they kill millions.”
”Why?”
”Because they're plagues,” his mother said, ”And if you keep asking questions, I'll stop, and you'lll have to wait until tomorrow night for the end of the story.”
”No! I'll be quiet!”
She smiled and continued the story:
”But then a small fairy heard his plea for help and took pity on him, for he and the mother were poor and could not afford a doctor.
So the fairy said, 'Cimb the highest mountain of The Seven Mountains--Mount Titan, and you may make a offer to the supreme fairy.'
The boy said, 'How will I know it's the great fairy?'
The little fairy said, 'You will know by the great white, feathery wings and scaly body and short limbs. Now go, and do not, I repeat, do not make a deal with any other large fairy resembling it, for they have black wings, and they will only grant you death.'
'There are other large fairies?' the boy exclaimed.