Thread by @Joannechocolat

I'm curled up in a window-seat at #Toksvigs, with a big mug of tea and some freshly-baked croissants. Anyone for #Storytime?

There is a story the bees used to tell, which makes it hard to disbelieve. #Storytime

There once was a man who had never felt love. While other young men sighed over broken hearts, he sat aloof and indifferent. #Storytime

He looked at the girls in his village, and though he could see their beauty, he could not see why a pair of dark eyes, or a coil of lustrous hair, should cause him misery or joy. #Storytime

And he secretly felt that he must be better – stronger - than his friends, because he was immune to love. #Storytime

“One day love will find you,” his mother said. “And then, take care how you deal with it. You must always look Love in the eyes, and deal with it in honesty. If you do not, you will never see the true face of Love, and will spend your life chasing reflections.” #Storytime

One day the young man was walking alone in the woods. It was spring, and the air was filled with motes of golden light. Primroses shone from the mossy path, and overhead, a canopy of the brightest green was reflected in the stream that ran through the forest. #Storytime

The young man followed the stream to a pool, where a waterfall sang its melody among a volley of birdsong. And there he saw a figure, bathing in the dark green pool, and felt his heart beat strangely. #Storytime

The figure was no-one he recognized, but its beauty was like the motes in the air, and the primroses, and the forest itself. The young man could not help himself: he reached out to touch its reflection – #Storytime

But the moment he did, the creature fled, shattering the reflection into a thousand fragments. The fragments flew into the young man’s eyes, and by the time he could see again, the beautiful creature had gone, and he was alone. #Storytime

He walked home with an aching heart, but found that the beauty of the woods no longer gave him joy. Instead, he felt a curious longing to see the creature of the pool again, and to feel the softness of its skin, to see the golden light in its eyes. #Storytime

And when he reached his home, he found that food no longer satisfied him, nor did strong drink dull the ache of the creature’s absence. #Storytime

He spent the next few days and weeks searching the woods for the creature, in vain. And finally, he realized that he was in love with a phantom that he would never see again, and his heart was filled with longing. #Storytime

Time passed, and the young man met a girl who only ever dreamed of love. Her golden eyes and soft brown skin reminded him in certain ways of the thing from the forest pool, and for a time he almost felt as if he could be happy with her. #Storytime

They married, and were at peace for a while – but never did the man forget the creature from the forest pool. He seemed to see it everywhere – in the tilt of a stranger’s head, or the way the sun shone on the plaited hair of a woman walking to market. #Storytime

He saw the fragments of his love in a thousand different places. He earned himself a reputation as a passionate lover: but he never ceased his vain pursuit of the one that had been his very first love. #Storytime

Even as an old man, his eye was always roving. And on the day he died, a thousand men and women grieved; but none of them had ever held his attention for more than a moment. #Storytime

His faithful wife wept for her husband, but her sorrow was tempered with relief. For years, she had borne her husband’s infidelities with grace, in the hope that one day he would love her. For years she had tried to find in herself the qualities he had found elsewhere. #Storytime

Now she too was old, and feared that love would never find her. She bought herself a cottage by the edge of the forest, and every day she would walk along the stream into the heart of the woods. And there, one day, she came to a pool, at the base of a waterfall. #Storytime

She sat by the side of the pool, and looked in. And there she saw a creature, looking back at her from beneath the forest-green depths of the water. It held out its arms to the woman, and smiled; and she felt her heart move strangely. #Storytime

“What are you?” she said.
“I am Love,” said the creature. “I can be all things to all men, or everything to one woman. Come to me, be one with me, and all your sorrows will be healed, for I was in pieces, and lost to myself until you came to find me.”#Storytime

The woman stepped into the pool, and walked into the water until she was completely submerged. And as she did, the widow-woman found herself mysteriously changed. #Storytime

Looking down at her body, she saw that it was once again sleek and brown; her hair, which had been white with age, was once more dark and lustrous. She realized that she had become the image of the thing in the pool, and her old heart swelled with happiness. #Storytime

“Your husband loved a thousand times,” said the creature from the pool. “But you will be loved by a thousand.” And then it smiled and swam away under the forest-green water, leaving the woman alone by the pool, listening to the waterfall. #Storytime
The end