Mara

A long, long time ago, when you have not been born yet, far away behind the woods, behind the mountains, there was a beautiful Kassiopus island where the Kingdom of Mara stood. It was always day, the sun was shining, and the summer never ended there. If it rained, it rained through sunshine, and the wind softly and gently rustled the leaves of trees, bringing coolness and relief.
An emerald green ocean around the island was filled with benevolent inhabitants. On that island people lived for a long time. The oldest long-lived was five hundred years old. They didn’t know about grieving and mourning, and the air was filled with fragrance of love and happiness.
Behind a mountain, away from the main roads, Targos - the Tree of Understanding grew. If ten men stood in a circle, they wouldn’t be able to encompass its trunk. Its roots went deep into the island soil, and the branches seemed to reach to the sky. Anyone who grew restless in his soul and lost the feeling of harmony, happiness and peace could come to the tree and talk. The tree didn’t give any advice, but it knew how to listen and to see the essence.
Targos asked the interlocutor questions concerning his past, present and future, asking him to answer them himself.
Sometimes the questions related to thoughts, feelings, and hidden desires; sometimes to the most ordinary things. But in any case, they were never simple for the interlocutor, and answering them honestly, the person would gradually approach the truth, getting to know oneself, the others and the world around him step by step. While chatting with Targos, that always helped with warmth, participation, understanding, the person or the animal became aware little by little when and where they made a mistake; whether they lied or were cheated by someone? Why they passed the truth by – was it wishful thinking? When and where they hurt someone? Did they kill someone's hope and faith, or perhaps, on the contrary, they eased someone's pain? If they were cowardly, why it happened? If they sacrificed something, then whom was it for? Targos found the most important issue for each one and questioned it. Responding the question, a resident of Kassiopus freed himself from lies and became happy, because, seeing his own mistakes or the evil in himself, he could reject it. All the people on that island knew that they were not perfect, so they calmly accepted the fact that in their lifetime they can repeatedly make mistakes, fall into delusions, believe and be disappointed, seek and not find, change and improve, and abandon previous ideas if they had exhausted them. They knew that their vision of the world was limited, because every one of them at least once in his life happened to be in a situation where a smart decision turned out to be stupid and wrong after some time when some additional circumstances were discovered, and someone's "stupidity" saved everybody and proved to be the most correct decision later. But it was them who had to recognize their wrong actions, to ask forgiveness of those whom they treated unjustly, and to fix something that was done wrongly.
That opportunity was written and detailed in Dara, the First book of the Kingdom, and was considered the main privilege of any person or animal on the island. To hold grudges against someone or something, not to forgive oneself or the others for something after the repentance, and to have a lingering sense of guilt after the error was corrected, was prohibited and considered the main violation of the law. A claim of any creature, whether animal or human, to pretend to be an absolute perfection and infallibility equated to a very serious crime. Nobody had that right, not even the King himself.
 A beautiful castle of rock crystal and white marble stood in the center of the island on a high hill, open to all winds. When the sun touched its walls, it would shine with all the colours of rainbow. It seemed that the winds dropped at this point, and that the sparkling castle was floating above the island. The King, the Queen, an old Sorceress and the little princess lived in the castle. None of the Kassiopus residents could say when the castle and the Kingdom appeared. Everybody thought that they had always been there. The King looked very young when he laughed, joked and danced at festivals, and he seemed very old, experienced and wise, when he took decisions, judged debates and set punishments, therefore, all found it difficult to determine how old he really was. The King was very beloved and addressed to as YOUR JUSTICE. The Queen was famous for her beauty. Her love, open-heartedness, kindness and tenderness germinated like seeds in the hearts of every inhabitant of Kassiopus. They were like a single whole with the King, and more than once the Queen’s advice helped him to make the right decisions, to soften the punishment, and to leave everybody with hope and belief. The Kingdom of Mara citizens addressed to her as YOUR GRACE. The King and the Queen had a little daughter, Princess Luminiana. She was able not only to joyfully laugh, to frolic and to be in different places of Kassiopus at the same time. Luminiana could also suddenly appear in the most challenging and difficult times for any Mara resident and illuminate the deepest corners of the human soul with the light of truth. The girl was very fond of people, flowers and animals. A white dove would always flush prior to her rapid appearance, and after her evanescence a delicate scent of tea roses lingered for a while. The Mara residents called her YOUR LIGHTNESS. The old kind Sorceress Sofiette lived in the castle, too. All the Royal House listened to her, and so did every citizen of the Kingdom of Mara. And how could it be otherwise? Indeed, over the past five hundred years, she gave three wise counsels that helped to render Gimza the Dragon harmless, when it tried to destroy the Targos tree; she helped to stop the hordes of flying ants with a steel tip in the abdomen and snapping jaws, and to neutralize the horrible Kingdom of Shadows. The kind Sorceress was addressed to as YOUR WISDOM.
None of Kassiopus residents, not even the King and the Queen, knew that it had been several weeks that Sofiette was trying to solve a terrible problem that threatened the island. The Targos tree that had stood on Kassiopuss since the beginning of time and thanks to which serenity and harmony reigned on the island, began to die. Sofiette could not find the cause. She tried all existing spells, read all the books from the vast Royal Court library about trees and pests, on soil erosion and soil inhabitants. She learned everything about the structure of the Earth and the Earth's crust, the influence of celestial bodies on the growth of plants and animals. She investigated the relationship of trace elements and the entire periodic Table of elements. She examined the effect of magnetic storms and air currents. However, there was no apparent cause. In the end, she had to admit that the tree was right. Targos said that it would die, and it was predestined from above. Sofiette understand that that could only mean one thing: the Underworld of Shadows would appear under the kingdom and gradually gain force, and then it would begin to fight with each resident of Mara one-to-one, because for every inhabitant there will be his own shadow, i.e. his personal enemy. Moreover, it would be a terrible enemy: an exact copy of himself with all imperfections that he hadn’t overcome, claims to superiority and power; an evil and ruthless shadow, with huge ambition and resentment towards the whole world. That meant the end of the Kingdom of Happiness and Love. Sofiette could not accept that and continued to suffer from horrible thoughts considering all possible options of salvation in her head.
Once upon a time they already managed to overcome the Kingdom of Shadows. But on that occasion Targos helped them all. The tree stood in the way and locked it, thus becoming the key, and taking upon itself a very hard mission: Targos let only one shadow pass through, namely, the shadow of the person who came to the tree with problems. The shadow and the person gradually became acquainted with each other under the supervision of Targos. And as soon as a resident of Mara was aware of his shortcomings and wanted to correct them, his shadow disappeared forever. If for any reason, the person didn’t reach that awareness, then the shadow remained until the next visit. If the person was on his way to understanding, the shadow became weak and sick, but if he was searching for flaws in the others but not in himself, then shadow grew bigger than of him, and would become angry and aggressive. Then Targos would lock it as deeply as possible. However, the citizens of the Kingdom of Mara rarely persisted in their misconceptions thanks to Luminiana’s light of the truth, Queen’s love and kindness and Sofiette’s wisdom. If it happened, it was on very few occasions.
The last huge shadow came to Targos five hundred years ago. Its owner was a little boy who could not get rid of the envy towards his friend. The friend had a smart flying bicycle with three speeds and the ability to think and talk. True, he did not have parents: they died during the invasion of the flying ants. Targos, having tried everything possible, sent the envious kid to the king YOUR JUSTICE. The king gave the boy an even better bike, but took away his parents. They left with an important mission far away from the Kingdom for ten years. After a while, the boy realized that possession of even the most precious thing cannot compare with love, kindness, understanding, participation, care and help, that is, all that his father and mother used to give him, and that his friend, whom he envied, didn’t have. The shadow disappeared, and the boys became true friends. The Queen YOUR GRACE told the King about that and asked him to reduce the duration of the punishment. When the parents returned, they brought their son special spectacles that allowed to see the depths of the Earth and distant planets. If one looked at ordinary objects that were nearby, then one could see the atoms of which they were made and electrons moving in their orbits. No one on the island had such spectacles. But Clodius, the boy, gave them to his friend who studied astronomy and dreamed of such spectacles. His parents did not object, as they saw their son changed for the better during their absence.
Targos helped everyone. There was not a single person or animal on the island that did not come to it for advice, help and sympathy at least once in its life. They also came with joy, love, hope and even requests. But Targos only listened and asked questions to which the person or creature himself had to find the answer. Even Luminiana, the King, the Queen, and even Sofiette came to him regularly. Nobody wanted to grow his own shadow of shortcomings, grudges, frustrations, under the Kingdom, but all wanted to be happy.
Sofiette was going over possible salvation options again and again. She was sitting with drooping shoulders and black circles under his eyes caused by heavy thoughts and bitter truth that she suddenly realized almost simultaneously with a white dove’s flush. Luminiana appeared before her in a white, iridescent rainbow dress, sprinkled with flowers, a wreath of red roses with large thorns on her head and a small donkey that she held by a rein.... Sofiette took her decision... There are battles that one can win only by losing...
Sofiette only needed an hour to tell the Royal House of the misfortune that had befallen, the terrible consequences of the death of Targos, the loss of the world of goodness, love and justice, of shattered souls of people and animals, and of the only possibility of salvation that she envisioned in the light of truth. Before its death, the Targos tree would bloom with beautiful marble-white flowers with a delicate fragrance that would spread throughout the island. After one day there would be seeds that had to be gathered, all up to the last one, and handed out to people. Anyone who wanted to be saved would have to swallow a seed. Once the tree ceases to bloom and bear fruit, it would die, and the entire kingdom would disappear with it. YOUR JUSTICE, YOUR GRACE, YOUR LIGHTNESS and YOUR WISDOM would remain prisoners of the shadows. Anyone who swallowed a seed would go to sleep for one thousand years, and when he would wake up, he wouldn’t remember the island and everything that happened to him before. But the Targos tree would live inside of him. And if a person would wish so, then the tree would also serve him just like on the island, guiding him to the light of truth, justice, love and wisdom which the person himself would have to find in his soul and free them from the maze of the Shadows.
One thousand years has passed... At the place where Kassiopus island used to be, there is now the Sea of Hope. It washes the land where people, plants and animals appeared again.
Do you hear the soft voice of Targos? Do you know what to look for? Will you find what you looking are for?
It depends on you!
                        Marina Luch 08.00