It was time for Chessa to descend upon the realm of mortals for yet another story.
This time her 'student' for this lesson was not a youngling, but an adolescent lion, meant one day to be kind of some pride or another. She'd layed down ant the lion layed down with her, and she began her tale;
"Long ago in Mongolia, there lived a king who was very vain. More than anything else, he loved to stare at his reflection in the mirror. But one day, he saw something that really puzzled him: there was a gray hair on his head!
Alarmed, he sent for his Royal Advisor.
"I have mouse hair in my mane!" he said.
"Nonsense", said the Advisor. "You just have gray hair, as many people do when they get older. You will be seeing more and more of it whenever you look in your mirror."
The King didn't like this at all. So he decided that the only thing to do was to stop looking in his mirror. Furthermore, he decided that mirrors were a big problem, so he decreed that all mirrors be destroyed, throughout his land. And the next day, there was the sound of mirrors breaking everywhere.
After that, the King forgot about the gray hair for a time. But then one day he saw an elder lion in the pride, a lion who was maybe 100 years old, with masses of gray streaking a once jet-black mane.,Then the King was upset, because he knew that getting rid of mirrors wasn't enough to prevent him from seeing gray hair. He also had to get rid of the older pride members so they would not remind him that he was getting older himself.
So he banned all the elders from his land. His problem had been solved...or so he thought. There was one young lioness in his land who did not want her grandfather to leave. So she devised a plan. She hid her grandfather in a cave, and gave him a regular supply of food and drink.
But shortly after, a very, very windy storm came. And it wrecked the land - even the King's magnificent den! It and the precious belongings he'd kept were scattered! Of course his advisors searched and scoured the land for the King's items, and they were all found ... except for his most prized possession-a golden pitcher.
The King was very angry. He went out and searched the land himself. And he found the pitcher! It had been in one of his lakes. So advisor after advisor dived into the water...and came up empty-handed. " I dived down to the very bottom, but your pitcher wasn't there!" they exclaimed. The King decided that this was nonsense. And he went after it himself.
The King swam down. And down. And down. And down. And farther still. And just as he was about to run out of breath...he grabbed the pitcher! ...Or tried to. But it dissolved! So he hurried back to the surface.
Obviously, there was some very powerful magic at work here. They could see the pitcher very clearly at the bottom of the lake. So why couldn't anyone get it? Nobody knew, but the King did know he had to get it back -- -that pitcher was very valuable, and had been in his family for many generations. So the King made a new decree.
"Whoever shall bring me my golden pitcher from the bottom of the lake shall have anything that he-or she-wishes", he proclaimed.
The young Lioness heard about this, and was very excited. It was a great opportunity to have her grandfather leave the cave and live in peace once again-if only she could get the pitcher!
She went back to the cave and told her grandfather. He thought about it for a moment, then smiled and told her his plan.
She returned to the King and said, "Come with me to the lake, and I will get the pitcher for you."
The King scoffed to think that such a young lioness would try to do what all his wise men had failed to do, but he thought it might be entertaining to watch, so he went along with her.
But when they got to the lake, she did not dive into the water. Instead, she began climbing a tree. And that's where she found the pitcher-everyone else had seen only its reflection in the water.
The King was delighted. "What wish do you wish to have granted?" he asked her.
"I wish to have all the elders come back and live with us", she answered.
The King knew that he was beaten, so he granted her request. And from that day on, he learned to see things as they really are, instead of putting so much stock in appearances. And he lived to be a very wise old King indeed, with lots of gray hair in his mane!"
Chessa concluded her story with a smile.
The young king-to-be seemed a little puzzled, "So~ the moral of the story is to accept yourself? or something like that?"
Chessa gave a soft chuckle, "If that is what you took away from it, then yes."
With that, she stood, and the two exchanged farewells. With that, Chessa ascended to the skies and returned to the realm of the gods.
