Once upon a time there was a very handsome young man with a winning complexion and uncertain origin.
One day this young man appeared at the edge of a very unhappy village which recently had suffered through a terrible storm which had devastated many homes and livelihoods.
The young man promptly surveyed the situation and asked to be taken to the village elders.
The village elders took a liking to the young man immediately and their affection for him grew all the stronger after he said: "O village elders ask not where I come from or what I am, but where would you all like to go--and your wish will be granted!"
Despite their age and wisdom the elders were delighted at this response and so desperate to keep the villagers from perhaps slitting their throats in the night that they immediately decided to withdraw from their positions of power and elect this bright young man temporary King of the Village.
Once all had seen and heard the young man, a giant tumult of approval went through the entire village. And he was made King.
After a short while the young man now made King would appear at strange times doing strange, uncommon things in the village. In the beginning the villagers thought that this was a part of the young man's 'special powers' of healing and that all would be well if they just let well enough alone. And so they did.
However after a time people began to take notice that many new laws had been passed by they knew not who and they knew not when and that new folk had come to settle in the village to enforce them.
Rumors began. Some villagers said that the new folk had forced them to do things that seemed strange but was for the future good of their village and other villages, most of whom they had never heard of before.
As strangeness began to pile upon weirdness and began to form an atmosphere of unease over the village, people began to ask "Where is our King and what has he done?"
Yet no one had seen the young man turned King up close for some time.
And when they searched they no longer could find him, but only a picture of him as he was when he first came to the village.
People started to be afraid.
The ravages of the storm had not been fixed and there was a warning of even greater storms ahead. One, very distant village, was rumored to be preparing for the greatest storm of all: an abrupt and devastating war.
Yet most people chose for a time to ignore all this chicken talk: after all the elders had trusted this young man to get rid of all their past accumulated problems and wasted efforts.
So, for a time, the houses continued to lay barren and the mills were silent and the people spoke in ever hushed whispers as more laws and more enforcers of laws came from they knew not when and they knew not from whence.
Generations passed and the elders were all dead and even the villagers who had first welcomed the young man, even the tiniest, had all long since died.
Now, the village looked much poorer and neglected than it had in the past: at least as it was depicted by pictures that were ever harder to come by---but all present woe and doubt was soon to be forgotten because tomorrow as it had been celebrated ever since would be the King's day--or more precisely the Coming of the King--the most important and most celebrated day in village history.
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