The Glass Boy

Once, a long time ago in a land far away, a queen gave birth to a boy that was made of polished glass and the boy was so delicate that his parents had to wrap him in cotton wool and place him in a cot filled with feathers to stop him from breaking.

His mother thought he was the most beautiful child in the whole world but his father was not so happy,

“A king needs a son who is strong; a strong warrior who can fight to protect his kingdom”, he said, “How can a boy of glass fight? The smallest blow would shatter him to pieces”.

Still, the king consoled himself with the fact that his kingdom was not at war and that there was still a chance that his wife would bear other sons.

Then, however, when the boy was twelve years old, the kingdom was invaded by an army of living shadow led by an evil skeletal witchqueen called Shadowenna who had conjured them from out of an iron cauldron filled with blood.

Over the land they marched, baring swords, spears, axes and maces within their shadow hands; burning and pillaging and destroying; slaughtering any living thing that stood in their path.

The legions of the king faced them time and time again but because the witch’s warriors were made of shadow, ordinary weapons could not kill them and so, time and time again, the kings armies were defeated and slaughtered like herds of sheep until, eventually, only the king and his personal regiment of one thousand men were left to stand against them.

Putting on his armour for battle, the king kissed his wife and his son goodbye, saying,

“I may not return but I must face this evil for it is the only hope our kingdom has left”.

And the king fought bravely, as did all of the men in his regiment but it was like fighting against an army of immortals for each time one of the kings soldiers cut down a shadow warrior, it simply sprang back up again and continued to fight.

“Give up, you fool”, shrieked the evil Queen, Shadowenna as she crossed swords with the king, “You cannot ever hope to defeat us; all you can do is delay us but our dark victory is inevitable”.

But then, just as she was saying these words, something like a white hot pillar of fire struck the evil queen burning her to ashes and then, looking round about, the king saw it striking her shadow warriors as well destroying them all as easily as the rising sun destroys the night.

Then, turning round to see where the light was coming from, to his astonishment, the king saw that it was his son or rather The Sun shining through his sons glass body as he stood on the battlefield that was destroying the army of shadows.

When the last of the shadow warriors was slain, the king humbly sank to his knees before his son.

“Forgive me”, he said, “I was wrong. You are a good son, a great son and I am proud of you”.

And when the Glass boy grew up he did become king and though he did not fight often in battles, he was a good and wise ruler which is just as important as being strong; he married a princess made of paper who wrapping herself around him bore him two children; a girl of silver and a boy of gold and they lived happily ever after.