Walk in My Shoes for a Mile...A Story and a Collage for LMAC #241
Achlys threw his hands up in despair.
"I will never leave this place," he lamented. "I am my father's son, his father's grandson. We have been blacksmiths in the village for as long as our family can remember. It is our destiny. We are and always will be as we have been."
His mother pondered these words. Her hair was wispy, and grey at the temples. Her face was lined, not the kind of lines one earns from sorrow, but from work and concern.
"Your destiny is not fixed, Achlys. You have choices. You can travel the public road to another village and try to make your way. People have left."
"The public road? To be kidnapped, sold to slavers? Robbed and murdered by a highwayman? That is a choice?" His mouth set in a hard, straight line. His eyes were sharp and bright with determination.
"It is your choice. Your father chose to stay here. He chose to marry, be a trustworthy tradesman, raise a family. All choices."
"His life. Not my future. There is the Boot Tree. If I go into the forest and take my chance...”
"Achlys, do not toy with the dark arts. That tree is enchanted and ordains a fortune from which one cannot turn. Once the Boot is tried, there is no going back, no undoing the deed.”
"You don't know. Nobody knows. All they have are stories. The man who tried on the shoes of an Arab, and became a heretic. The man who tried on a pair and became a knight. Perhaps I can try on a pair and give them back if I don’t like what I see.”
"An Arab? A heretic. You choose the risk of losing your soul over the earthly danger of the public road?"
"If I go down the public road, the best I can hope for is to apprentice at another craft in another village. That is, if I am not murdered or kidnapped. At least, with the Boot Tree, I have a chance of gaining a noble future. A great risk for possibly great reward."
His mother pleaded with him. To no avail. He tossed his rucksack over his shoulder.
"Goodbye, Mother. I will see you, I hope, with my new boots, my new destiny. Know that I love you, but I am a man and must make my way.”
His mother never wept. It was a weakness she did not allow herself. But in that moment a tear forced its way down her cheek.
“If you do not remember me in your new life, I will still remember you, Achlys. Perhaps someday after you have traveled a long road you will find the Boot Tree again and choose a pair that brings you home.”
“Be well, Mother. Take care of Father. I love you.”
He threw his arm around his mother and she held tight to him, until he pulled away and walked toward the forest.
She whispered, “Travel safely my son. No matter the path, may the Lord be with you.”
The forest was dark. Everyone knew the tree clung close to the edge of the forest. It remained there, always a temptation, mostly for the young, for those whose restless spirit made them incautious.
Soon the Boot Tree was before him. It was much as he imagined. There was a power to it, one that drew him near. Every manner of boot hung from the tree. Which one held his fortune? Which one would lead to tragedy, and which would lead to a glorious life?
"Tell me, Tree, what should I choose? Is it this one with a thick sole? Or this one, with the long ties? You are silent tree, or do I hear you sighing?”
Achlys sat on a rock and untied his shoes. He hung them from a limb. There they became another pair, undistinguished, without a sign that he had ever worn them. He could change his mind. Could take the shoes back and go home.
He closed his eyes, reached blindly to find a pair. He opened his eyes, sat on the rock, put his feet in the boots, and tied them.
Nothing. He felt no difference, no vision or sense of being another. He stood up. His body was gripped with a shudder. From head to toe the sensation was profound and unpleasant.
He did not feel well. He looked down at his feet. His pants had changed. They were torn. Soiled. He stretched to touch them and noticed his hand was gnarled. The flesh was raw, one of his fingers a stump.
Achlys had chosen the shoes of a leper.
He had leprosy, but he was still Achlys. He tried to untie his own shoes from the tree but they would not budge. Someone else would be a blacksmith, would sit at his mother’s hearth.
Of all the destinies he had imagined, none included this. He didn’t feel cheated. He had wanted change. That would be his future now, perpetual change as he wandered the earth with the oldest curse known to man. He would be a pariah.
He regarded the Boot Tree.
“I wonder what you did with the leper, diabolical tree. Surely you filled his wish, while at the same time damning him to an unthinkable fate.”
Achlys picked up his rucksack and trudged into the forest. There was a sound. He looked back at the Boot Tree. It seemed to wobble. From rustling trees arose an utterance, a distinct murmur. Achlys paused to listen and realized that what he heard was laughter.
The collage and story were created in response to LMAC's contest template, #241. The template image was contributed by @bookrak, and may be found in LMAC's LIL Gallery.
As soon as I saw this picture I had the idea of other lives, other people, inhabiting the boots.
I needed to lengthen the tree, so I found a picture on Pixabay that would help me do that.
As one might imagine, it took a bit of work to blend the two trees, add the boots to the new tree and then give leaf cover that was consistent for both parts.
The rest of the process was a matter of making a scene in the forest, adding light and mystery. A lot of frames in GIMP accomplished that. This was fun, a rewarding experience. I always feel a bit charged when I'm done with one of these pictures.
Please don't overlook the snake! This is an important part of the collage. Temptation, human striving--that's the heart of the story. It is a story older than leprosy, and more universal :))
Come, join in the contest. It's more than a contest. I don't compete because I'm on the jury, and yet I spend hours of creative activity preparing a collage.
This round of the contest ends on November 24. Check out the announcement blog for details.
Resources used in making my collage included not only @bookrak's LIL image, but also three pictures from Pixabay. These I credit below. Thank you to those authors.
- Forest Susanne Mielke
Pixabay
Thank you for reading my blog. Peace and health to all.
Now that's my kinda collage! Love it! And the story isn't bad either:)
Thank you! It's so challenging for me to make these collages...which is why it is satisfying.
awesome story and a good lesson, too. I think I will choose to be happy with what I am now. (maybe a little travelling too..) :)
Thank you! Yes, travel by all means, and aspire. To aspire is to be human :)
😉
Not everyone can create such a beautiful picture. A beautiful result has been achieved by combining many pictures.
Thank you, @djbravo
Now that's a nice story, reminds me of that Japanese which went fight with talibans back in the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, he felt dead doing office everyday that he rather do there and risk his life... Makes sense with that story too... And nice tree!
Thank you very much, @davideownzall. It's gratifying to get positive feedback on my story.
Hope you have a great Monday.
Thanks, you too!
Great story!!! I was floored when I realized that the boots are exchanged, that someone else would become the blacksmith. There would have been lots and lots of boot tree supplicants with worse lives than the blacksmith's, and a good chance he would put on the boots of one of these. A terrible choice! Yet he is curiously not unhappy about it.
I can see all the work that goes into these posts. Thank you so much for doing it. This one will stay with me for a very long time.
I did overlook the snake. Thanks for bringing my attention to it.
🌺
Thank you very much🌺
Feels really good to get positive feedback. It did take a lot of effort. I even spend time finding the right name for the character. But a blog doesn't always effect people the way we hope it will.
Achlys is not angry. He took a chance and lost. He knew it was a risk. He'll deal with the life the lies ahead and make the best of it. Maybe one day he'll return to the tree and it will give him a second chance. His mother hints at that possibility.
I was thinking when I wrote this of all the people who had to leave their homes in order for me (and likely you) to be born in this country. Our were adventurers. They left the known and took a chance on the unknown. Human beings have done this throughout time, haven't they?
Thank you for your kindness in writing such an expansive response. I was having a hard time today, with other stuff. Then I read your comment. It made a difference.
Thanks @owasco.♥️
If we don't want to be slaves, yes indeed. We need to do this now, to be adventurous, to reject the known like runaway slaves. I'm trying. But my daughters keep wondering if I am a victim of old lady scams!
Thank you for your compliment!
This is really nice.
Wow, @owasco. You could not know how much I relate to this man's experience.
When he says a whole system told him he was dumb...that was me! For whatever reason, I couldn't learn. The decision was unanimous--family and school. I was dumb. In the third grade (he talks about the third grade!) I did a turnaround. Sometime midyear a light went on. I could read. As a matter of fact, I read every book in the classroom. By the end of the year I was at the top of the class and the whole dumb thing was history. But that will always be a part of me. That's what made me a great teacher. There were no dumb kids in my class.
Thank you for the video. I love this man. :)
Well, this is a really terrible story. At first glance, it reminded me of Adam, although it's not the same.
Thank you for sharing.
Sorry it displeased you @seckorama. Is it any worse than Prometheus? Or Icarus? Or, for that matter, Adam? Punishment for going beyond, for challenging the limits, the given, the established.
Not all stories are feel-good. Most life stories are not.
It's not that I didn't like it. I just mentioned that it was terrible. A few days ago, I watched a documentary about the island of Spinalonga, where the last leper colony was located. That was sad, too.
I've done a lot of research on leprosy. It's kind of odd, but the disease has such symbolic significance. Of course today we call it Hansen's disease and it's treatable. Still, there is a terrible stigma attached. That stigma is very useful in a story.
!INDEED
It is a wonderful collage, backed up by an equally wonderful story about the consequences of choice, @agmoore.
The collage looks like a cover of an exciting tales book and so fits the story perfectly. And there's an excellent moral in this story, like in the old folk tales. Very well told. 👍
🤗
🌞
Thank you very much, @quantumg. I'm lucky that I'm able to lose myself in making a collage. It tells a story, as you explain in your comment.
Yeah, choice. Never know how that works out.
🌷
Wonderful.
I really liked the story 👏
Decisions are a key word in life. Achlys had to accept the fate that was dealt to him like a gambler, learning the lesson the hard way and accepting that fate is often unpredictable.
Greetings 👋
Thank you very much, @anibal-aa. I think the story might be a little dark for some readers, but darkness is a part of life. Can't always have rainbows and flowers :)
I enjoyed doing this. It's nice that some people appreciated it.
An extraordinary collage and story, a young man's desire to find his own path ends in a forest with a boot tree, accompanied by a snake symbolising his thirst for knowledge and courage, as well as intrigue.
Thank you! It is most relaxing for me to create a collage and then to let my imagination come up with a story. The two really did go hand in hand. I didn't add the snake to the collage until I'd written the story, then I realized I needed something to symbolize temptation.
I appreciate your comment, @teukuadam.
Did you start by writing stories and then putting together collages? I am very interested in how people make collages and use their imagination. It is a lesson for me, and I like things that are symbolic.
I've always been comfortable writing. I never tried my hand at collage until @shaka started this community. My art skills are nil, but he encouraged me no matter how crude my effort. Eventually, the collage responded to my intention. The story is always fun for me to write.
Ah, I see. I finally realise that meaning is more important than a visually stunning but meaningless image. Even now, when I see simple, raw illustrations, I wonder how they could think that way.
You wrote a story that teaches a great lesson. Achlys chose his fate without knowing it could be so terrible, and yet he accepted it. I enjoyed reading it, as well as the collage that inspired you. Making it requires a lot of creativity.
Maybe I'll be inspired to make one myself.
Best regards, @agmoore
I do hope you try your hand. While there are wonderful artists who make collages for this community, I'm not one of them! Several years ago when I started making collages everything was so awkward. I'm still not an artist but at least I can usually make a collage that says what I intend.
Join in the fun. I'd love to see you here :)
Thank you for encouraging me. I'll give it a try. 🌷