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History
The
Pearls of Time
Many Years ago, long before Yuri's
reign, there was a very kind boy whose name was
Taro Urashima. He lived in a small village close
to the ocean, some say it was in Hausson, some
say it was not. It doesn't matter much the
location of it, but what happened during this
time.
One day, while taking a walk along the shore,
Taro saw many naughty boys picking on a small
turtle. Feeling sorry for the turtle, Taro
intervened and saved the poor turtle from the bad
boys.
Taro said to the turtle, "Now you are fine.
Go home before it gets dark." To his
surprise the small turtle replied, "Thank
you for saving me. I will repay your kindness
some day." Then the small turtle disappeared
in to the sea.
A few moons later, while walking along the shore
as usual, Taro ran into the small turtle he'd
once saved. The turtle came up to Taro and said,
"I want to invite you over for a feast at
the Ryugu Palace. I want our Princess to meet
you, so please come with me."
The turtle gave him a strange necklace with a
Pearl on it; the turtle warned him that when the
Pearl became black he should return to surface.
Then the small turtle put Taro on his back and
took him into the sea. With some sort of a
mysterious conch the turtle gave him, he could
breathe under the water.
After a while, they saw the gate of Ryugu Palace,
which was very big and beautiful. After going
through the gate, they were greeted by many
colorful fish. With these fish, there was the
beautiful Mermaid Princess who welcomed the guest
with a smile. She said, "Thank you for
saving my little turtle. To repay your kindness,
we've prepared a wonderful dinner for you. Please
stay as long as you like. Enjoy yourself."
The dinner was wonderful. Taro tried many
delicious foods that he'd never seen before. He
also danced for a long time with the beautiful
Princess. Taro though this was the happiest time
he'd ever had. He wanted to stay as long as he
could. The Pearl soon became black, but Taro
wanted to stay longer. The Princess warned him if
he wanted to stay he wouldn't be able to wear his
pearl necklace anymore. He gave the pearl to her
to guard it for him.
For the time being, Taro was very happy, but
after a while he began to miss his family. He
told the princess that he wanted to return. She
said "We don't want you to leave, but we
have no choice. I want to give you this casket as
a souvenir. Only open it if you feel
unhappy."
He thanked the princess, and the little turtle
brought Taro back to his village. After saying
good-bye to the little turtle, Taro rushed to his
home, but couldn't find his family. Instead,
there were strangers living in his house. Taro
asked about his family. The man replied that that
family had died a long time ago, at least 100
years ago.
Taro realized that he had stayed in the Palace
for over 100 years, and he suddenly felt sad and
lonely. Taro walked along the to the shore,
feeling hopeless. Taro noticed the casket that
the princess had given him and remembered what
the princess had said, but he felt emotionless.
When Taro opened the box, black smoke poured out.
Taro felt something strange happen. The pearl had
been kept there for many years. Suddenly, Taro
had white hair and a long beard. He had aged 100
years!
It's said that Taro Urashima still lives
somewhere near the Ocean. No one really knows
where, all they know is that a true story or just
a tale, this serves to warn people about the
mysteries of the Ocean.
Like Taro, many people don't give much importance
to their pearl. Sometimes people spend so much
time on something they enjoy, they forget about
all other aspects of life. What may look great
also may has a bad side. Living a life of joy and
fun demands sacrifice, in most cases, what's
sacrificed is time...
Unfortunately we cannot gain more time than we
are supposed to, for that our most important
choices are to what to do with the time that was
given to us.
~Written by Vini~
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