The Red Pearls - Part 4/4

Ibn Rajab stood in the night alone, holding a cloth bag containing twenty-five glowing pearls and gloating at his success. The pearls were his. And rightfully so, for he had bought them, hadn’t he? That baron, even if his story was true, had no right to these comely pearls.

Ibn Rajab looked towards the stygian firmament and was surprised to descry a strange green bird flying towards him. It came closer and closer. It was, now he came to think of it, too ponderous for a bird and it had no beak and was covered in scales and spikes.

With a horrible realization he understood that this was the fabled dragon. Now he stood, paralyzed with terror as it came closer and closer. Then he sighed with relief as it flew past. It was not without purpose that the dragon had descended, however. Looking after it, he saw a bulging bag dangling from a long black talon.

Suddenly he felt angry. He had bought those pearls and now the dragon had embezzled them. He looked around; a man was closing a stable door. Without hesitation, he ran towards the man, shoved him aside, and rushed into the stable. Therein was a glossy, black horse. Ibn Rajab did not have any knowledge of riding, but he thought he did so he leapt on the horse, pulled its mane, and kicked its front legs. The horse reared up and Ibn Rajab slid off landing on the hard floor. Then the man entered holding a stick in preparation to beat him. Ibn Rajab picked himself up, pushed past the man and rushed out the door.

He could still see the dragon in the distance, so he began to give chase. The dragon was awfully slow due to its tremendous bulk. In addition to that, it looked fatigued. Ibn Rajab passed houses, shops, inns and finally reached the gates of the town. Two hapless guards were heaving at them, endeavouring to shut them. They were having extraordinarily little success.

“Hail friend,” called one of them, “would you mind…”

“Out of the way!” snapped Ibn Rajab and he sped past.

Now he began running in earnest. Ahead, an alp loomed. The dragon was flying towards it. Then it vanished into a cave. Ibn Rajab, after many hours, many stops, and many wishes for water finally reached the foot. Then began the long, arduous travail up the steep incline.

He investigated the first cave he reached and found it was empty. The next cave contained some invisible atoms. The next five were the same. He observed a phosphorescent golden light emerging from the eighth cave. He approached with caution and peeked around the side of the cave. The cave was tall and very wide. There was a large white ball of celestial light in the centre of the ceiling (he later discovered it was made from something called “majick”). There were piles of golden trappings: doubloons, armour, helms, shields, swords, coins, daggers, crowns, sceptres, rings, model animals and people, statues, spears, lances, helmets, cups, goblets, chalices, vessels, breastplates, and rolls and rolls of golden cloth. There was a clearing in all that glittering, shimmering, glimmering gold and in it was the green thief and an old man. On the floor near entrance was the brown cloth bag containing the pearls.

Ibn Rajab crept forward very stealthily and slowly picked the bag up; then started to back quickly out of the cave. Then the pearls clinked together. The dragon looked up. Then the old man looked up as well.

“Ah,” said the old man, “I see you’ve got my pearls. Please return them.”

Ibn Rajab was about to say no, but the dragon growled so he thought better of it. He dropped the bag and hurried out of the cave. Then was the descent and the walk back to the town and then the lengthy vigil at the gates until morning and finally the long wait for the two guards to open them. Then back to his house and then to bed.

The Red Pearl - Part 3/4

As the baron searched, he descried a figure matching the description of the jeweller. He was walking along the road and whistling. He headed toward him and stopped before him. The man looked up.

“What do you want, sir?”, he inquired.

“Is your name Ibn Rajab?”, asked the baron.

“Yes. It is”, replied Ibn Rajab.

“I believe you purchased 25 red pearls from a jeweller, said the baron, “I wonder if you could sell them to me.”

“How do you know I bought 25 pearls?”, Ibn Rajab asked suspiciously, “I will not sell them unless you tell me how you came across that information.”

“Well…I met a man…”, and the baron related his story.

“Intriguing, very intriguing”, muttered Ibn Rajab, “alright, you can have them…for only 25 gold coins. I’ll just retrieve them from my room.”

Ibn Rajab walked away and soon returned holding a sack. He handed it to the baron, who in return, gave him 25 coins.

“Thank you very much”, said the baron.

Ibn Rajab walked away. The baron returned to his waiting horse and embarked.

Then he stopped, he had forgotten to ask the pearl owner where to find him when he had retrieved the pearls.

He decided to return to the place wherein he had met the man. When he arrived, he found the man leaning against a tree waiting for him.

Dismounting he handed the sack to the man who wordlessly took it and peered inside.

The man looked up and his visage was irate as he said, “you tricked me, you wanted to steal my money!”

He hurled the sack on the ground and stormed away.

The baron picked up the sack and saw therein 25 round pebbles.

To be continued ...

 

The Red Pearl - Part 2/4

The man travelled for numerous days, searching for another person who would retrieve his pearls.

On one lonesome road he met a richly dressed man riding a horse, who introduced himself as Baron Charlamagne, a man of great renown. Upon observing his glum countenance, the baron inquired to the reason of his morose expression. The man responded with his tale of loss.

“I suppose these pearls are valuable to you”, mused the baron, “I will retrieve them…for a price, of course.” So elated was the man, that he consented readily and handed the baron some money to purchase the pearls.

After he received the name of the town where the pearls had been lost, the baron turned, and rode in the direction of the town.

He reached it at noon and entered the gates. He disembarked from his horse and tied it to a pole and entered the jewellers [he expected the knight had sold the pearls here].

Walking to the counter he announced “I wish to purchase some pearls” [he did not mention the fact that the pearls he wanted were red because it would sound suspicious].

The jeweller reached behind the counter and pulled up eleven velvet filled boxes containing pearls of various hues. They appeared quite unauthentic to the barons experienced eyes.

“All my pearls”, he declared, “all genuine”.

There was not a red one among them. The baron sighed; he had expected that, but it had complicated matters.

“How is business?” asked the baron.

“Sufficient, sufficient”, replied the other, “only yesterday an odd fellow bought twenty-five pearls. Said his name was Ibn Rajab of Egypt. He wore a long white robe and a turban. He is a travel writer”.

“Where is he staying?” asked the baron.

“He inquired about an inn to stay”, answered the jeweller, “I directed him to The Golden Crown inn near my place… So, what do you want to buy?”

“I’ll have this rather large argent pearl”, was the reply.

Then the baron exited the shop and looked up and down the street for The Golden Crown inn.

The Red Pearl - Part 1/4

There once lived a knight during the 1400s, whose name was Sir William, and this is one incident in his life:

One day Sir William was walking along a busy road, when he felt a tap on his shoulder. Turning around, he observed a very eccentric looking man. He was noticeably short, with a lengthy grey beard. He was dight in a garment resembling a monk’s habit, however it was purple and covered in argent stars. He wore a hat following the same description as the habit and dragged a cloth sack in one hand.

“Good morning”, he said, “I hope you are well.”

“What do you want?” inquired the knight. It was humiliating for a vainglorious man like himself to be seen talking to this inferior individual.

“I want a holiday”, he explained, “and I want you to keep this sack for me. It contains 25 pearls coloured red. They contain magic which I can only activate. I will pay you for keeping them for me. I will be here, on this very spot, for you to return these pearls.

The knight was at first reluctant, but at the mention of money he brightened.

“Alright”, he said, “I will look after the pearls.”

The man gave the sack to the knight and then he melted into the crowd.

The knight walked with the crowd, thinking, “If I was to sell these pearls, I would surely receive a greater profit then if I was to wait for that man to return.” Reaching a decision, he turned left and walked into the jewellers.

“I wish to sell these pearls”, he said, shaking the sack, “they are filled with magic.”

“Ha-ha”, laughed the jeweller, “filled with magic, eh? But let us look at them before making judgments”.

The knight emptied the sack, and 25 pearls fell on the counter. They were all red.

The jeweller peered at them suspiciously, “They must be counterfeit!”, exclaimed the jeweller, “I have never, in all my years, seen red pearls. But I will buy them because they appear sophisticated. I will pay a bar of gold, weighing 1 kilogram”.

One month later, the knight met the man whose pearls the knight had sold. “So”, the man said, “Can I have my pearls back?”

“Ah, said the knight, well…

“Do you mean to tell me”, the man roared, “that you sold my pearls?!”

“Well…yes”, mumbled the knight.

“How much did you get?” asked the man.

“One bar of gold weighing one kilogram”, replied the knight.

“I would have paid 4 times that amount,” the man replied, and walked away, leaving the knight, feeling ashamed, behind him.