War Hold Legend

Magic

Without mirrors in the cabin, he began to forget about his deformities. His life in prison was comfortable, if not limiting. He began to write books on the subject of attractiveness, speaking about how little it matters, and how people should look beyond the skin to the heart of a man. He wrote and wrote, for it was all he had to do.

One fateful day there came a knock on the door. “It is locked!” he cried out.

“Oh that is no matter,” came the reply, and a second later the door opened and there stood a cloaked figure.

The voice was genderless, and continued to address the poor, ugly man, “I hear you are the ugliest thing in the land.”

“Yes, that I am. And I am proud to be ugly,” he responded with a bit of haughtiness in his tone.

The dark shadow under the hood seemed to smile, and the cloaked figure drew a mirror from its recesses. “Here, look into this.”

The man gazed, and the years of solitude without a mirror evaporated, and he was on the side of the lake again, crying in pain. He brought his hand up to hit himself, but the cloaked figure grabbed his wrist. “None of that. I have a proposition for you. You are the ugliest man in the world, and I am in need of a manikin to practice my skills on. I can fix you, and make you the most beautiful man in all the world, and there are no side-effects.”

“Do I need to pay?” the ugly man inquired.

“No, you do not,” the man replied.

“Well, I have nothing to lose!” he cried with joy. “Fix me, immediately!” The black shadow smiled, and set to work, playing with his features as if they were putty.

A few moments later, the magic was complete, and before him stood a gorgeous man, as gorgeous as had ever walked the land. Holding out the mirror again, the once-ugly man gazed into his reflection and was without words. Before he had time to find them, the black shadow was gone, leaving neither a trace nor a reflection.