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A long, long time ago, when humans were not as easy to find and world was ruled by no-one, a simple man wished to help his family. He dreamed of nothing more, but to make everyone happy- he worked day and night and sang songs to the kids in his house. He was known as a kind, careful person, who valued happiness of others over his own.
He discovered his love for tricks and wonder as a young fellow. His family, impressed by his magic skills, encouraged him to show them to the world. At first reluctant, William left his home to seek larger crowds, to see the same happiness on faces of strangers as on his family’s. At first difficult, his journey led to him to countless houses and towns, where he shared his talents. He could not remember every single person he made happy, that’s how far he traveled.
In his pursue, he forgot about but one person- his health declining, he often forgot to eat or sleep. The day he returned home, he was weak and sick- his family worried and scared. They nursed him back to health, and asked what was he thinking, letting himself fall into such state.
“I only wished that everyone was happy”
When he was back on his legs, he spent two years with his family. Helping in the house and sharing the stories of his travel. He was happy and content, but missed the feeling of satisfaction after the show, the way people praised him and rewarded him with money and gifts. He missed being the center of attention.
Not able to get rid of his want for fame, he departed once more- his family asking him only to take care of himself. He remembered these words well.
After all, when a man like him, deserving of money and praise, can’t dine? The smallest stores and biggest halls opened in the middle of the night to serve him all he wanted. So he filled his stomach and pockets with goods, and became more hollow with each day. His suits tailored and fitted to his unusual frame, shoes made from most expensive leather.
Finally, far away from home, he ordered to destroy the forest and fields around, and build his magnificent house, bigger than the biggest family would need. He lived there alone, and his happiness became fleeting, for not gained by giving happiness but by trying to collect as much as he could for himself, hurting others in the process.
The day he died, was a happy day for the world.
The nature, hurt by his frivolous life, bound him to the land he was killed in- the wolves that ate his flesh and poppies that bloomed from his blood gained something from man who only took. When he woke up, he found that he cannot venture outside of nature, therefore never return to his house which he emptied of anything green or alive.
He stayed around trees and traveled the world again- this time with no people around, accompanied only by birds’ annoying trill and animals jumping at his sight. Nowhere could he find a companion, his own body twisted and broken. His legs bare, his brows grown with leaves and twigs, weak puny horns twisting and digging back into his head. He walked hunched, to not hit the branches, and a scowl, harsher than he ever felt rested on his face. Gray hair messed and bloodied from his horns’ betrayal, eyes dark and hateful.
Soon he was known by the travelers as spreader of disease and destruction- wherever he went, he ripped forests to make space for himself. The trail of his journey seen by anyone who entered the woods- soon filled with rainwater and flowing as rivers. He killed animals for spite, turned juice fruits poisonous and filled leafy bushes with venom that hurt to touch. He covered flowers with spikes, bend the piney trees around themselves, breaking their shapes and a disgusting stench spread from his person.
Four hundred years he traveled, until one day he found a small forest that grew on his family’s house, empty and reclaimed by nature.
The despair that awoke inside him that day scared away every animal from neighboring forests, and the ones neighboring to them- his cries full of pain making people hide where his voice echoed. William, not deserving his name, calling himself a beast, plunged into his burning agony of loneliness, of regret and reminder that he abandoned people whom he loved the most- and the fury that was created lasted for months.
He destroyed everything- the rotten wooden house, the trees, he trampled the grass, the bushes, ripped the flowers and crushed every alive part of the forest. The broken remains of once beautiful landscape laid on the ground, surrounded by empty fields. The sheer silence only made the monster pain more- reminding him of all he lost.
The night that came when there was nothing else to destroy was the darkest he has ever seen. Not able to see anything ahead or around, he sat on the broken ground and let the tears flow again.
When the darkness spoke to him, he didn’t raise his head. He listened quietly, not caring for his life, which he deemed worthless.
“Do you realize what you’re doing?”
After he had not budged from his place, his heart once again squeezing with pain, the woman's voice continued.
“You are destroying yourself. Just look.”
He raised his hands to his face but saw nothing- the shadow pouring everywhere, not leaving any space bright.
The world, entirely quiet and dark, left him nowhere to look but inside. What he saw did not surprise him, but his heart already filled with too much pain to feel more, he kept looking.
He saw his hands, rotten and covered in hard shell, almost melted on the inside, the disease traveling up to his arms. Looking like the sickness he spread across one of the trees- his hands, as the branches, looked ready to break and fall to the earth and dissipate into ground. His face twisted and happy lines gone, replaced by the marks left by his anger. His skull almost broken open by his disgusting twirled horns, the ripped skin inflicted with sickness and covered in blood.
He looked deeper and saw his chest, bones thin and cracked, the same rot flowing through his blood and eating away every organ, dripping dark blood through his weak lungs and veins.
His small, shrunken heart, untouched yet by the evil, like hiding away from the rest of his body, not daring to touch anything else around it, connected to his bloodline and pumping weakly the sick blood, stood there, the only bright part of his devastated body. He touched his chest and his thoughts raced- looking for a way to die, or to save himself? He wasn’t sure. The only thing he knew for certain, that he didn’t want for this to go on. Panicked and lost, he turned his head up and spoke into the darkness-
“-What should I do? I have done so much wrong- in both this and previous life”
“I cannot help you like you want me to- I can only stop your body from rotting away. The rest is for you to change.”
The beast with no name shuddered at the picture of his entire body dying, his mind not able to, stuck at one place forever and ensuring his suffering even more.
“Please- the traveling is my only reprieve. I need at least some way of comfort-”
The silence spread and he felt darkness grip him tightly- the rot being replaced by shadows, hard and unfeeling, strengthening his body and washing away the disease. His horns broke and fell somewhere silently, the pain in his head easing. His heart, expanding, no longer afraid of the body around it, pumping the red blood, waking him up from the lethargy. Before he could utter a word, the darkness spoke.
“I gave you all I could. It’s up to you from now on, and I will not answer your pleads- do not seek me at night or day.”
“Wait please- there are two more favors I beg of you. Please, tell me your name, and give one to me, for I lost all right to call myself the person I was.”
“Let it be known then, that Queen of Darkness and Shadows, Charlie, names you Maxwell. Farewell, and now, sleep.”
Maxwell fell into the dreamless slumber and awoke when the sun rose. Now, calm, he looked upon the destruction he brought, and with new pain in his heart he brought himself to his feet. With darkened claws, he picked the half rotten fruits and tore them down the middle- he retrieved the seeds, gathered still living branches and buried them among the wreckage. He walked to empty forests and collected all seeds, from flowers and trees and bushes, of grass and vines and water plants. Returned to his forest and replanted them all, with all care he could. The trees that grew covered in pleasant shade the born vegetation, and animals returned to the land full of blooming flowers. Leafs fallen off the trees covered Maxwell’s back and he wore them as his cape, his skin healed and a pair of antlers proudly worn like a crown. Fruit of his forest was sweet and animals happy, the passing seasons lulling woods to sleep and waking them up in spring with Maxwell sleeping along them.
His black clawed fingers reminded him of the blessing he received, thanking Charlie every night for saving him. He let his past die and accepted his old faults, calming and accepting his title as God of the Forest.