The Vanishing Villagers

Once upon a time there was a small village on the edge of a deep, dark forest. In that village, there was a boy on the threshold of manhood who was unruly and caused problems for almost everyone else. The boy was selfish and wanted to be treated like a man, but everyone in the village could see that he was not ready.
One evening at twilight the boy was sitting on the edge of the dark forest, a common test of bravery among the children of the village, when a frightening creature emerged and approached him. "I am an imp in the service of the Great Gark," the creature said, "and I have come to grant your every wish. My lord has heard your whispers into the dark of the night and the Great Gark knows that your people do not appreciate your potential."
The boy was frightened by the imp's appearance, but the creature's words touched something deep and black in the boy's heart. "Very well," the boy said. "If you are to give me my every wish, then I wish to be rid of the blacksmith. He refused me apprenticeship and told the village elders I was not ready to be treated like a man."
The imp bowed and vanished into the forest. The next morning, when the boy awoke, a crowd had gathered in the village around the smithy. When the boy went to see what had happened, he discovered that the blacksmith had vanished in the night, and tiny footprints were left in the mud all around the house.
That day, the boy went to see the village baker. The baker was young and pretty and the boy fancied her. However, she would not be wooed by him and the boy left angry, his advances spurned. When the imp came to him again that night, the boy said, "If the baker will not allow me to court her, then no one will be allowed to! I wish to be rid of her." The imp bowed, and disappeared.
The next morning, the people of the village gathered around the baker's house, and again all that remained were dozens of tiny footprints - no sign of the baker herself.
This time, there were some people in the village who remembered seeing the boy courting the baker, and recalled his disagreements with the blacksmith. "The boy has something to do with this," they said and began to question him on his involvement. Frightened, the boy fled back to his home and locked himself in, refusing to let even his parents inside. The villagers banged on the door and demanded he come out and face them, but the boy would not relent.
Night fell, and the villagers drifted back to their homes. The imp appeared to the boy again, this time in his own home, and asked what the boy wished for. "The people of the village have turned against me," he said, "And I cannot face them. I wish the villagers would trouble me no more!" The imp bowed and disappeared.
When the boy awoke the next morning, there was no crowd outside. In fact, when he emerged from his home, he found that there were no villagers either. The entire community was empty and the ground was covered with imp tracks. In this way, the boy found himself free of the villagers' accusations.
At first the boy was pleased that he had no one to reject him and no one to answer to. But as the days passed, the boy became lonely. Eventually, he realized that he needed the company of his people and he hoped for a chance to take back his wish. But the imp never appeared to him again. So the boy prepared for a long journey and then set off into the dark forest, seeking out the realm of the Great Gark, where he hoped he might find out what happened to the vanishing villagers.
Category:Story