The Birth & Death Of Laikan

Long ago, when the world was young and the gods still strode the land, humans were few and far between. They lived in small isolated villages, where they huddled around their fires in fear of the many monsters that roamed the dark.

One day, in one of these villages, a child was born. A girl with a face like the rising of the sun on a bright summer's morning and hair like a flood of flame. Her parents named her Helen, after the sun, and she grew up strong and tall and radiantly beautiful.

So beautiful was she that one day the Sun, in his journey across the sky, gazed down upon the earth and happened to see her as she played upon the village green. "What a beautiful girl that is!" thought the Sun to himself. He saw her again the next day, as she went to the well to draw water. Every day he looked down and saw her as she went about her life in the village. The Sun had been alone ever since his quarrel with the Moon, yet now, slowly but surely, he began to fall in love.

It so happened that one day, Helen went off to walk in the forest. It was a hot and sultry day, the kind of day where the heat hangs in the air like a heavy damp cloth. She walked until she came to a little waterfall in a peaceful, flower strewn glade. The waterfall fell into a small, clear pool, from which a babbling brook ran sparkling away to play amongst the trees. The spot was utterly idyllic, and Helen thought that it would be the ideal place at which to bathe.

Suiting her actions to her thoughts, she set down her basket and shed her gown, and slipped into the cool, clear waters of the pool. The Sun gazed down upon her, and was quite overcome by the radiant splendour of her beauty as the waves caressed her lambent ivory skin. In fact, he was so enraptured that he completely forgot to carry on flying, and so fell to earth. People panicked as the whole world was plunged into darkness in the middle of the day, but the Sun no longer cared.

As she bathed peacefully in her pool, Helen was startled to notice the forest suddenly pass from bright sunlight into abrupt and unexpected twilight. She scrambled from the pool and hastily donned her gown, and as she did so she noticed a bright light coming through the trees towards her.

"What can it be?" she thought, for it was far brighter than torchlight, and shone bright and steady with ne'er a flicker or a waver as fire is wont to do.

Soon she had her answer, as a stranger stepped into the clearing, and it lit up again as bright as day. Helen gazed in wonder at his figure. His perfect naked form glowed with light like liquid gold, and golden indeed was his skin. His hair flowed around his shoulders like molten copper, and his eyes blazed forth like shining silver stars.

"Do not fear me, Helen," he said, "for I am the Sun, and I have come down from my station in the sky only for the love of you."

Slowly, he stepped forwards and brushed her gown from her shoulders. Her skin tingled at his touch like fire itself, and gladly she lay with him upon the grass. It is said that to this very day there is a glade wherein a waterfall spills into a little pool, and on the grass beside it a bed of golden roses marks the place whereat the Sun was joined with mortal woman.

Alas, their joy was but short lived. When the Sun returned unto the sky, he was scolded beyond measure by the Moon and by the Stars, who had had to come out and keep the world alit while he was gone. They bade him look upon the chaos, strife and misery that had resulted from his unexpected absence, and he was greatly ashamed. He knew that he could never visit Helen again, not until she had passed from the mortal world into the world of spirits and could come and join him in the heavens.

Helen was distraught that she would never see her lover amore while she still lived. Yet she gained solace from the knowledge that she would be no longer alone, for she felt within her that a child had been born of their union. Her belly swelled, and grew faster than is its wont for mortal child, for this was a child of the Sun, and gods grow faster than do mere mortals. Only three months passed between the day they lay together and the day when Laikan was born unto this world. It is said that a bright star burned above his manger, and a pride of lions came to do him homage.

He grew up incredibly fast. After only one week he could walk, after one month he began to talk, and by the time he was one whole year old he stood as tall as a child of ten and could run as fast as any in the village. By the time he reached seven years of age he stood seven feet tall. He could run like the wind and swim like a fish. No creature in the forest was safe from his spear, no tree was too tall for him to climb, no rock was too heavy for him to lift.

Thus began his many adventures, of which more is told elsewhere. I am sure you have already heard of how he wrestled with a pride of lions and bent them to his will, of how he tricked the serpent into giving him its gold, of how he rode the narwhal to the island of the seven wizards and there freed the people from their tyrannous rule. He was a hero the like of whom has never been seen before or since.

Yet one of his many deeds of heroism was to prove his downfall. For there was in the land a sorceress of great power, and this sorceress had a giant as her lover. One day upon the road, this giant had the misfortune to meet with Laikan on his travels. They quarrelled, some say over a handkerchief, others say over a bird's egg, but whatever the true reason for it, the giant was slain.

When she heard of this, the sorceress waxed wroth and wept for sorrow. So many tears she cried that they became a torrent, and washed the village that lay at the foot of her mountain clean away. Then and there, she vowed to have her revenge upon the one who had slain her lover.

Thirteen long years she laboured. She gathered the bitterness of man's heart, and the greed of the wyrm's maw, and the spite of the scorpion's tongue, and the anger of the wasp's sting, and the deceitfulness of the forked tongue of the serpent, and all else that is black and foul and venomous, and she distilled these things into a great black cauldron which boiled above a fire fed by broken dreams. For thirteen more years the potion brewed and bubbled, until it was a poison so potent that merely the smallest drop would have been enough to slay Leviathan himself.

And the sorceress gathered it all together, and used her black arts to fashion this vile liquid into the form of an apple. Not the black and twisted apple that you might expect, but a perfect young apple that looked as though it had been but freshly plucked this very minute from a ripe spring orchard, round and golden and positively glowing with health. She took this apple, and she wrapped it in a perfect white handkerchief, and down she sped from her mountain to search for Laikan wherever he might be.

While she travelled, she worked her arts also upon herself. For during her long labours, she had become so tainted by the poison that she brewed that she was as black and twisted without as was the heart that burnt so bitterly within her breast. So she incanted many spells of illusion and deceit, until anyone looking upon her saw not the dark and wizened hag she truly was, but instead a fair young maiden, revelling joyously in spring's first blush of fairest beauty.

In this deceitful guise, the sorceress travelled on. At every place she stopped, she heard tales of Laikan, of his heroism, his bravery, his strength and his beauty. But with every tale of glory she heard, her heart grew yet more bitter with hatred, and the apple grew ever heavier in her hand. Until finally, she caught up with him as he lay resting by the roadside after having driven off a band of ogres which had been preying upon the folks thereabouts with their banditry.

"Why, somebody so fair can only be the mighty Laikan of whom I have heard so much at every stop," she said, "and for such a hero, what can be more fitting than a fresh and juicy apple from my orchard. Just the thing to fill your stomach after a lengthy battle. Here, take it with my pleasure, for your beauty!"

Laikan was tired from his journeying and combat, and smitten by the illusion of her loveliness. Without stopping to think, he accepted the apple from her with a smile and took a bite. Immediately his jaw froze rigid. His face darkened, as when a storm cloud passes before the sun. Dropping to his knees, he had just the strength remaining to cry out "Father!...", and then he died. So virulent was the poison, it even ate away his flesh and bones, until there was nothing left but a dark and twisted shadow upon the grass and a wisp of greasy black smoke that blew away upon the wind.

Yet the sorceress did not have time to gloat upon her victory. For at the apple's core was a worm, and when Laikan bit into the apple it was freed to feed upon the apple that was left and grew into a mighty serpent. This serpent was black and foul, like the brew that gave birth to it, and where its venom fell upon the earth the soil hissed and steamed. It saw its mother standing there laughing, and like any newborn child it felt itself drawn unto her dark and bitter breast. Raising itself to strike, it leapt forwards and sank its fangs deep into her treacherous heart. Thus she too met her fate.

As for the serpent, it is not known what became of it. It is said that it burrowed down into the roots of the mountains, and that it waits there still, growing ever greater in size and more bitter in its venom.

As for the Sun, when he saw his only mortal child slain he hid his face in sorrow. For three whole days the earth endured a night without end, as he lay shivering in his grief beyond the western border of the world. Eventually, the Moon came to him and comforted him, and she convinced him to return to his rightful place within the sky.

"For see," she said, "without you the flowers shall wither and die, and the people shall hide within their homes for fear of the night, and the things of the dark shall rule the earth."

So at last the Sun was persuaded to return. But to this day he will not look upon the place whereat his son was slain, and so the lands around lie wrapt in eternal darkness for evermore.