The Happy Elf

Once upon a time, there was a young Elven boy who was joyfully basking in the sun atop a giant white lily petal when suddenly his mind began to question, "Just what is it that I should do with my life?" He thought about all the time that he had spent gleefully frolicking through the untamed fields of wildflowers and skipping stones across the pristine waters of the babbling brook near his home. He reminisced about that one time when he stumbled upon a luscious raspberry bush after finding a hidden rabbit trail through the briar patch and then meticulously plucked off each drupelet of each berry and fed them all one by one to tadpoles in the lily pond. He remembered once spending almost the whole night counting the stars in the sky only to be unable to recall the number when he awoke groggy the next morning; he also remembered trying again the next night only to lose track of his count when a stray cloud in the shape of grey squirrel roamed by. The memories all filled him with a sense of warmth that made it so that he could not help but smile, but still he wondered if his life should be something more. His mind raced and raced as the question kept echoing inside his head and ringing in his ears. A flash of heat and a coughing fit overtook him as he experienced a brief moment of panic before reclaiming his breath with a gasp and regaining his cool composure. Distraught, the boy returned home and sought some advice.

The young elf went to his parents to ask what he should do with his life, to which they simply replied, "Whatever makes you happy." He turned to his mother and asked what he should be when he grows up, to which she replied, "Whatever you want to be." He turned to his father and asked what would make him proud, to which he replied, "I already am."

The boy knew that his parents words came from a place of love, but something inside him still was not quite satisfied. Everything they said was so obvious and so simple, yet so vague that he thought for sure that there had to be more to it than just that. What he had wished for was a sense of direction, but now he somehow seemed more lost than ever. before He began to ponder about how others found their purpose and surmised that tat the core of all ambitions here were one ofthree things; to create something magnificent, to be the best there ever was, or to own everything in the whole world. Such grand goals seemed so simple if he could just give them everything he had, and so the young elf decided that he would whoose one and see it through to its logical conclusion.

At first he decided that he would make something magnficent, and so the young elf became an artist. Filled with determination, he practiced from dawn til dusk every day. He used up every last bit of art supplies in his hometown so he needed to purchase an entire wagon full from the city and he worked so hard that he reduced his hands to mere calloused lumps so he required the aid of a passing archbishop to heal them; afterward, he went right back to drawing without delay. Even as an apprentice he captured the beauty of the natural world around him in ink, paint, and dye so perfectly that it brought his master to tears, and as his skill progressed, he created beauty beyond what the world had ever known. Still a child, he became the most renowned artist of time, but one quiet afternoon as he was painting a field of wild lavender, he realized that he would be happier frolicking in the field rather than painting it, and so he set down his brush and never once painted again. The elf boy spent the remainder of that day making a lavender floral crown and a cup of herbal tea. He decided that from that day on he would move onto the next ambition and try instead to be the greatest there ever was instead of merely the greatest artist.

In order to become the greatest, the growing elf dedicated himself entirely to achieving perfection of body and mind through intense study and training. Through sheer force of will he became the top student of his local school and was moved to a higher placement for his academic excellence. He moved from one university to the next, surpassing all expectations and finally graduating top of his class in the prestigious Imperial Academy while also holding multiple records in the sport of archery. Nobody who knew him would deny that he was the greatest being that they had ever met, but still, all their words, all their trophies, and all their diplomas and accolades seemed to be somehow hollow. They made him feel warm, but not as warm as he would be lying bare backed on a black sand beach and listening to the waves gently rolling along the shore. Dissatisfied, the grown elf thought then about how he might come to own all there was.

As it so happened, the elf was as skilled in the art of politics as he was everything else, and it was not long before he had the royal court in his favor. Distraught by the turn of events, the reigning Elven king made arrangements to abdicate his throne. During the coronation ceremony, the old king removed his electrum crown and held it before the sun on high and then placed it majestically upon the forthcoming king's head, but as the elf felt the weight of the crown bearing down on him, and felt the stiff and cold silver and gold against his soft skin, he suddenly recalled the warm fragrance of the crown he had made of lavender and wildflowers and immediately realized that that was the crown he would much prefer to have. The crowned king elf then thanked the former king before removing the crown and returning it to the head of its erstwhile bearer once more before heading off on his merry way. The reestablished king and the whole royal court looked on in bewilderment as the elf skipped and whistled all the way back to the giant white lily he had been sunbathing upon as a young boy. There he napped and dreamed of the simple things that made him smile the most, and he and his family had never been happier.