There was a king that liked to think he was wise and one day he gathered his three sons and told them that the most precious thing of the kingdom has been stolen and they have to find it and return it. The oldest son asked what is the precious thing and the king did not look at him. The middle son asked where they should find it and the kind did not look at him. The youngest son did not ask anything and left through the open gates of the castle. The king looked after him with a spark of hope in his eyes.

 

When all sons left the kingdom the king felt weak and after some days of suffering died. Three messengers have been sent to bring the news to the sons and each one carried a paper with the last will of the king. They reached the sons soon and gave them the will. In it it was written that the son who brings the stolen precious thing back to the kingdom would be the king. There was a direction this time: the precious should be looked for where it is not. The oldest son did not like the will because he believed that the throne was his by right and he rushed to return back and claim the throne. The middle son decided that his only chance to be a king is to find the precious. The youngest son also continued to look for it.

 

After many months the sons that were looking for the precious still had no success. They asked everywhere about all sorts of precious things, traveled throughout the whole world and did not find anything. The middle son then decided to come back to the kingdom and recognize the power of his older brother. The young son, desperate that he cannot fulfill the last will of the father he loved so much started wandering in the woods in no particular hope. This lasted for many years.

 

One day, the young son, a grown man now, riding his horse through a fresh meadow heard a sound. He turned his horse towards it and saw an old tall man with white beard who were laughing quietly at something he was looking in a bucket full with water. The son asked "Good Day, old man, what are you doing ?". The old man responded "I look at you how fine a fellow you are and what you are capable of". The son, surprised, asked again "But where do you look and what do you see"? The Old man said "I see only what you do and I look into the water of you life. If you like to find what you are looking for first you need to know yourself. If you come with me I can show you who you are. I can't help you with what you are looking for, though. The son said "I will come with you" and followed the old man, who entered the deep woods.

 

In the middle of the woods the old man stopped and showed a beam of sun light passing through the trees: "what do you see" he asked the son. The son responded "a beam of light". "Wrong, see again". The son looked again and said "I see a sea full with blue water". "Wrong, see again". The son said "I see beautiful people swimming in the sea". "Wrong, see again". The son said then "I see nothing". "Correct", mumbled the old man. "I will tell you a story which will guide you if you understand it". "There was once a doll of salt. The doll wanted to learn what exactly the sea is. So, the doll headed towards the sea for many, many days and one day, finally she reached the sea shore. She saw the beautiful colors of the waves, she felt the tenderness of the afternoon breeze and smelled the freshness of the air above the sea. Yet, the doll knew that she did not know what the sea was. Then, she stepped into the sea. She felt something strange happening but, in pursuit of its curiosity continued to step into the sea. With every step it dissolved into the sea water until only a small part of it remained above the water. "Now", said the doll, "I know what the sea is". And disappeared within it.

 

The son was amazed by the tale, thanked to the tall man and rushed further into the woods. The woods became ticker and ticker and little by little the light between the trees started to disappear. Soon a complete darkness fell. The son did not see anything and did not know where to go. Then he sat on the ground and thought "The only way to know something is to become it, this is one moral of the doll tale. Another moral is that with everything learned you loose a bit of your self. Yet another moral is that if you really want to know something you must accept that sometimes the only way to know it is to die. "Is it worth it?" asked himself the son. "Yes, I believe it is worth it. Because only when you dissolve within what you want to know you become yourself."

 

So, in order to know his way out of the darkness the son became darkness himself. He then knew what the darkness is and saw across it. Thus he managed to get out of the woods and to see the sun light again. However, the son was still darkness. And when the sun light touched him he burned in flames. After a while nothing but few ashes were left on the ground. The son did not live any more and the legacy of the old king seemed lost.

 

Then, a few years later, a beautiful princess was walking through the meadows that led to the woods and she found a nice bush with a small red rose in it. She smiled and tried to smell the rose but a torn of the rose pierced her tender skin and few drops of her blood fell on the ground. The blood soaked into the ashes of the son, who has died some time ago on the same place and suddenly a beautiful bird with gorgeous feathers and blue eyes appeared from the ground. The princess awed in surprise and asked the bird "what are you and where did you come from ?". The bird, singing said "I have been born from your love with the prince that has died here". "But I never met a prince" said the princess, "how could I love someone I never met"?. The bird said, singing again "Only from the blood of a woman that loves the man whose ashes it touches I could be born. Otherwise I cannot. Since I am here you must have loved the prince and nobody else." The princess, puzzled run into the forest. She run deeper and deeper and at one moment she could not see anything because of the darkness. Then she cried of fear and sat on the ground thinking that she would never get out of the woods. Then she heard a voice "Do not be afraid". "Who are you", asked the princess, "and where are you?". "I am the prince the bird told you about" and "I am all around you. Don't you feel me?". "But I cannot see you" said again the princess, "where are you?". "The shape of my heart is different now", whispered the voice "and not all the times you need to see in order to know but I would like to sing a song for you. The song would show you the way out of the forest". "But stop, please, show me yourself, I want to see you, I am curious and I want to learn some things about you" said impatiently the princess". The only response was a tender blow of a wind which as if opened the trees and a song led the princess out of the forest:

 

And if I told you that I loved you
You'd maybe think there's something wrong
I'm not a man of too many faces
The mask I wear is one

 

But that's not the shape of my heart

The princess reached the river outside the forest and saw a bucket full with water left on the shore. She run next to it and looked into the water. A feeling like no other shook her body. "It is his soul" she heard a voice. "What", the princess turned and saw an old tall man, "whose soul I have seen into?". "The soul of the prince", said the the old man. "When you look into a soul it is a strange feeling that grabs you. You do not understand it but it happens." "Who are you ?", asked the princess. "I am the one who plays with the souls of people", responded the man. "Why do you play with the soul of the prince?", asked the princess. "Because he wanted to know", said the old man. "But tell me, did you kill the prince so that you can play with your soul?" asked the princes and something pushed her lungs up so she could hardly breathe. "No, I just collected what is mine", said the man. "But why, why, do you collect his soul?" "Because his soul only was interesting to play with, the others were not striving to know anything and so were useless", the old man said.

 

The princess fell sad and start crying. "Please, tell me more about the prince", she asked the man. "When he whispered in the forest his voice seem so known and so close". "I will tell you", agreed the man. "He once got lost in the woods and he thought he wanted to get out of the woods" but then he saw through the darkness and he saw you, lost in the same forest. He saw that you would not get out and the only way of this not to happen was to have a friend in the forest who would help you when the time comes. "And" asked the princess, "what happened?". "The prince became darkness himself and this is how he lost his soul, she became mine in the moment he lost the last drop of light in his life". "But how can it be" the princess asked, "If you do a good thing or for a good cause you still must have light in you soul". "It is true", the old man said, "but it is so weak and so small that cannot resist to the dark. And so, with the prince we had a deal: I will make him darkness and he will give me himself by being darkness". "And the prince did this just to save me" asked in disbelief the princess, "how could it be, the prince never met me, how could he love me or even be my friend?". "There is another thing that you must know", the old man stretched his hand towards the forest, "he was the last of the three sons of a king who lost all precious in his kingdom" and the last one that was trying to find the thing that his father lost". "What was the precious thing that the king lost?" asked the princes. "The king lost the love and there was no love in his kingdom. He did not tell his sons that it was the love that they had to find because they would have never found it. You only find what you do not know. The prince did not know that he was looking for love but when he found it he recognized it. And because it was love he found he did what had to, he saved his love and lost his soul". "But he knew that he would lose his soul, he knew that he would not fulfill his fathers legacy", whispered the princess. "He did", confirmed the man. The princess felt weak and sat on the ground. She now recognized what seemed to be bothering her breathing. The princess remembered that she loved the prince. "How could I have loved him" when I have just learned about him?" asked she quietly. "You love him now so you loved him always", said the old man, "the love is not to come and not to go, it is there and you just find it" he said. "You said that there is still a drop of light in him, can I save him?" the princess felt a small tear to crawl down her face. "You have already saved him" said the old man, "Do you remember the small rose in the bush, this is the light that has left from him". "No, no" cried the princess, "I do not want him as a rose, I do not want my blood around him, I want him back, just the way I have loved him". "I would lie if I say that I am sorry", smiled the old man "but that cannot be done. Only one of you could live and be happy and he had his choice. If you do not live a happy life his death would have been in vane." "But how, how could I be happy when he is not with me", the princess said in tears. "You must find out how", the old man looked towards the forest, "and this is the best part of my play, he would be watching through the trees. Because he is darkness, he can watch through the trees". Then the old tall man disappeared.

 

The princess stayed day after day at the same place, looking through tears towards the forest. Every day she was seeing less and less and one day, when she woke up the forest was gone and there was just the bright blue sky there. The princess looked around and asked herself "But what I am doing here". She did not know but there was nothing to stay there for so she went home. And ever since some travelers tell stories for a bird singing in a forest that is not possible to be seen but the words remain

I keep every tear like an ocean
For every day that my fortune
Kept me from being with you

I'm simply a coin in your fountain
Lost like the seconds I'm counting
Till I am closer to you

I carry your joy in my footsteps
Making my way to your harbor
Don't need to go any farther
You are my sun and my moon

I would do anything gladly
Only to see you again . . .