The Legend of the Water Maiden

A long, long time ago, in the place that is now Egypt, there was a village plagued by extreme drought. This drought had been going on for decades, and the town was on the brink of being destroyed. Its people prayed to their gods every day, seeking to appease them. Many temples were built, and dozens of livestock were sacrificed every year. Sadly, this was to no avail. However much they offered to their gods, nothing would change - because their gods didn't exist. 69 was the only god back then, and he solely desired misery and despair. Nevertheless, one day, a "sign from the heavens" appeared. A girl named Klepri had been born, and her parents found that she could do something no one else could - she could commune with nature.

The girl's family was revered and valued nearly as much as the people's gods. The citizens made tributes to this family, and there was finally happiness again - even if it was only for three people. Klepri's parents counted the birth of Klepri as the luckiest thing to happen to them and treated her as if she were a god herself. However, as the girl herself grew up, she started to get sick of being treated as different. She wanted to live normally without having people bow down when they were in her presence. She didn't want to be afraid whenever she set foot outside, knowing there would be a crowd cheering her name and asking for her blessing. Yes...she wished for it all to go away. To be gone, to go somewhere that the name "Klepri" didn't matter to anyone. And so it was then that the gestation of an idea appeared in Klepri's head.

When she was growing up, she'd heard of other villages and countries outside of her own. However, priestesses were the only people allowed to leave, and only for business matters. Even the inhabitants couldn't let an idol they worshipped become one with just a simple demand. Not to mention, becoming a priestess was already complicated enough. To even *qualify* for the role of priestess, Klepri would need to be able to lift a boulder, dodge several arrows, and she'd need to have an exceptionally adequate education. The priestesses also had to be beautiful, elegant, and talented. After all, they danced and sang while completing the rite of thanks every year, and having someone who couldn't accomplish either join them would anger the gods. Similarly, having someone unappealing to look at could also spark the temper of their fickle gods.

There was also another way to leave the village. Although it was simpler than becoming a priestess, the thought made Klepri uncomfortable. You see, the town had started selling its occupants to other countries for nourishment to try and at least feed the young ones. So far, they had only sold two people, and it had kept the country's tenants fed for months. The population numbered about fifty thousand or so, which meant they wouldn't be running out of supplies shortly. However, the village was starting to run out again, and they would need to sell another person soon. The picking was usually as random as grabbing a piece of paper out of a hat, but on one of the occurrences, a prisoner was selected. Klepri could persuade the people to pick one of the convicts, and then disguise as one and get the denizens to choose her.

Klepri weighed her options. Becoming a priestess would need a lot of hard work. It was nothing too hard to accomplish - and with her godly status, she could get one of the village's residents to teach her what she needed to know. This plan would take a long time to carry out, and Klepri estimated that it would take her a year or two to be able to lift an average ten-foot-tall boulder. On the other hand, becoming a prisoner would be rather quick - all she had to do was swap places with one of the prisoners and smear herself with mud so that she was unrecognizable. The locals wouldn't suspect a thing, and she would be able to make it out of the country easily - that is, if she got picked. One of the prisoners might also reveal her real identity to try and gain something out of it - which was unlikely, but possible. Since the plan to become a prisoner was dependent on whether the denizens of the village would pick her or not, she couldn't rely on it to leave the country. Making up her mind, Klepri decided to become a priestess.

And so, over the next two years, Klepri trained, learned, and practiced until she could become a priestess. The community accepted her with wide arms, and the village celebrated the arrival of the new priestess. After this event, their belief that Klepri was a gift from their gods was stronger than it was before - but this would be the strongest their idea ever became. After hearing of "God's Chosen," people flocked to the village in droves, bringing promises of trade with them. The torrid weather also eased up a bit, and the village was finally able to produce crops again - even if it was only enough for ten people to be fed. Everything was going well until a man appeared, claiming to be a herald of the gods...

First, he declared that Klepri was not the "God's Chosen." This turned the villagers against him - for a while, at least. He asserted that Klepri's ability to commune with nature was not gifted to her, but was stolen from the earth. Upon being born, the man said, Klepri had absorbed the magic power of the place she grew up and would continue to steal more from the world as she developed. Protecting and spoiling her would bring nothing but the gods' fury, and one day their village would fall, becoming one of the millions of victims of the drought.

Second, he proclaimed that even though the townspeople had been worshipping a false idol for the last sixteen years, the gods were willing to forgive them if they sacrificed Klepri and the rest of her family. If they did so, the drought would clear up immediately, and their village would prosper more than they did now. The gods, the man assured, would bring this village eternal fame and glory, and mankind would remember it for millennia to come. There would be no child that didn't know of the village.

Some of the villagers started muttering. If all they had to do was kill a single family, was it such a high price to pay? The man announced that he would return tomorrow to hear their answer to his offer, hopped on his horse, and left. After the man departed, the village erupted into chaos. It was then that the inhabitants split into two groups - the Faithful and the Faithless. The Faithful believed that Klepri and her family *were* chosen by their gods, and supported her every step of the way. The Faithless believed that Klepri was a curse, a witch who had stolen the bounty of the land for her personal use. When all was said and done, the Faithless outnumbered the Faithful. This was mainly because some had already hated Klepri and her family before the man had arrived. They didn't want to be afraid of Klepri, to fear retribution if they said something that wasn't to her taste.

The Faithful protected Klepri and her family as much as they possibly could, but soon enough they were overpowered by the Faithless and the believers were executed. Klepri was thrown in jail alongside her kin, and they were left there to rot until the Faithless decided what they wanted to do with them. It was then that Klepri's parents turned against her, having lost all their influence with the villagers. They cursed her, prayed to their gods for forgiveness, and wished that they had never given birth to the girl. By the time the villagers had determined the fate of the three, Klepri was missing chunks of her flesh. It was necessary, her parents pleaded, they'd needed to survive. However, the villagers were angry - they'd wanted to sacrifice the "witch" to their god without a single cut on her skin. Their healers could seal the minor cuts, but couldn't repair the clumps of flesh that had been bitten off. In a rage, the villagers pulled off the limbs of Klepri's parents as the girl watched. It was the last time she would hear their voices, and all they would say to her was, "I wish you hadn't been born." The villagers then dragged Klepri out of her cell and chained her to the altar where they made their offerings.

And so, the life of the Water Maiden came to an end. The magic residing within her body was released into the air, and the drought ended. The villagers cheered, and they celebrated her death. If only things had been happier for the poor girl...