On a day, that I started like no other, I received a list of people that I needed to take and was on my way. When I came across one of the last names on the list there, I had a bit of time that I could use to see how the man lived his life. This man whom I would find out to be quite evil was posing as a monk named Patience. He was very manipulative and was always looking for ways to better himself. With the help of my friend Time, I went back to see previous days in his life and saw that he had robbed an old widow of all her rubies to be used in his next heist. He wrapped the stolen rubies in fruit and gave them to an honorable king, King Victor. He knew King Victor would find the hidden rubies after he'd given him a few gifts. The king would want to repay him as a sign of respect. He knew he would have to give a few to the king because the king would give them to others first and then later find out about the rubies. When the king found out and wanted to repay him, he told the king to meet him by the fig tree in the cemetery.
Patience knew King Victor would do what he asked but did not expect there to be anyone that would tell the king of his plan.
As soon as the king arrived at the fig tree, Patience told him to go to the sissoo tree and grab the body hanging from the branches and bring it back to him. The king did just that, but it was not as easy as expected.
See, the body was actually a goblin that would only go with the king if he could truthfully not know the answer of the riddles. The goblin told King Victor that he knew when he was lying and if he lied about not knowing the answer his head would explode!
By the twenty-second riddle the king was stumped. To be honest, I was also stumped by the riddle but the goblin would not even tell me the answer! The goblin called the riddle, "Father and Son, Daughter and Mother."
Since we have the time, let me see if you can figure out the riddle.
A king, his wife and daughter were on the run after being overthrown. They were walking on the edge of the forest when they came across a village. They had heard of rumors of all the robbers and villains that lived in the village so the king told the women to stay back while he investigated. Not long after he left them, but not out of their view, some bandits came and stole all his treasures and killed him. The women ran into the forest terrified and wanting to escape. They ended up stopping by a small pond to collect their thoughts and figure out what to do. Meanwhile, there was a widowed father and son not too far from the women. These men saw the footsteps of the ladies and the father told the son that he could have either lady he wanted. The son said he wanted the one with the smaller feet. When the men finally found the women, it turned out that the mother was the one with the smaller feet. The son married the mother and the father married the daughter. Now the riddle was, once the ladies have kids, what will the kids be to each other?
Since the king was so determined to fulfill the monk's wishes, the goblin let him in on a little secret. The monk was trying to sacrifice him to become the king of the fairies. The goblin said that the monk would tell him to "fall flat on the ground before this master magician in an attitude of reverence." When the monk did this the king was supposed to say that he did not know how to do that and to show him. When the monk showed the king how to do it, the king would then cut off his head.
The king did so, and I took that evil monk's spirit to where it belonged.
Author's note: This story originates from the Twenty-Two Goblins. The story is told by the goblin's point of view (and a third person). The king ends up answering 21 of the 22 riddles asked by the goblin. The story starts out with a monk giving the king fruits with gems inside and once the king finds out, he asks what the monk wants. The monk wants him to bring him a dead body to be part of a sacrifice so that the monk can become the king of the Fairies. It is unclear in the story if the monk knows if the goblin is in the body when the king tries to get it but I think he does. Most likely, the monk knew about the goblin but did not know that the goblin would cause problems. After the king killed the monk, Shiva appeared with other gods and told the king that he can be the king of the fairies and that everything he says will come true. All I did to change the story was changing the reference of who is telling the story and I took out all the other riddles that king got right to stay within word count. I also added the character of death to connect all my stories.
Bibliography: The Stories in Twenty-Two Goblins are Arthur Ryder's translation of the Sanskrit Vetālapañcaviṃśati . The Story I used comes from the Twenty-Two Goblins unit.