Horizon - Chapter 5 - The Cursed Beauty

As he was flying into the west, Horizon looked down and saw a woman upon a hill top and, worrying that she might be lost,he flew down to rescue her but the moment he did, she ran away screaming. “Don’t come near! Don’t!”

He could not understand why she was so upset but ran after her shouting, “Don’t worry!. I won’t hurt you!”, mistakenly believing that she was afraid of him.

Horizon found her hiding inside a cave covering her face. “Do not look at me please”, said the woman, “or it will be the last thing you ever see”.

Horizon was quite shocked. “What?”,he
said,stunned, “Can your looks alone kill me?”.

“Not at all”, said the woman, “it is not that my looks can kill you but that my touch is enough to kill anyone or anything”.

Horizon found this hard to believe but reassured the woman, “Then I promise that I shall not touch you”.

“It would be impossible for you to resist”,she answered, “for you see. Though I am cursed with a touch that brings death, I am also cursed with a beauty that no person; man,woman or beast can resist” and in order to prove this she uncovered her face to a small robin which sat upon a branch and the robin flew toward her and, as
soon as it had found a perch upon her bare shoulder,dropped off, dead.

“So many people,whenever they see me are lured to their death”,wept the woman, “It is for this reason that I hide in the hills away from the world so that I may hurt no one. I have wept enough tears to row a boat upon, please go and give me no further cause to cry”.

Hearing the woman's sad story, Horizon felt terribly sorry for her and begged to know how she came to be cursed in the way that she was and how he could help to rid her of the curse.

“It was all my fault”, she said, “You see I once was terribly ugly and fat, or at least I thought so and I longed so much to love one boy in
particular but he would never look at me because I was so ugly and so I went to see a wizard and asked him to make me beautiful and he promised that he would but only on the condition that, once beautiful, I would become his wife. I agreed out of sheer desperation, never considering what I was agreeing to. However, once he had transformed me, making me beautiful, I did not want to be the wife of the old Wizard and told him so. That is when he made my beauty into a curse; saying that if he could not have me then he would make sure that no one would ever
have me and he cast a spell upon me so that just to touch me once would make anyone, or anything that lives and breathes, drop down dead.”

Horizon thought for a moment and he asked, “Is there anyone which this cruel wizard cares for or loves. For example, a relative or a friend?”.

“Yes” said the woman, “He has a son who is his apprentice. Why?”.

“All shall be revealed in time”,said Horizon, “ but we must find this wizards son and
so we will have to leave this hill side so that you can take me to him”.

The woman at first refused but Horizon persuaded her; giving her a shawl to wrap around her head so that no one would be able to see her face and then she led him, down the side of the hill, along a narrow but safe route and through the cobbled streets of a nearby village, to the house of the wizard where, through his window they could see that he was just sitting down to supper with his son.

“Good”, said Horizon,seeing the two together, “Now when I give the command”, he told the woman, “You must promise to uncover your face because only then can my plan to lift your curse work”.

The woman agreed and so Horizon broke down the door to the wizards house, with one blow of his fist,and lead the woman inside.

When the wizard saw them he was terribly angry. “How dare you intrude upon I and my son”,he bellowed.

Horizon did not answer but instead ordered the woman to take the shawl from her face and, the moment she did so, Horizon covered his eyes but the Wizard’s son saw her and was intoxicated with desire for her and longed to touch her.

“No!”,shouted the Wizard, now recognizing the girl whom he had cursed many years ago, “Don’t touch her or you will die!”,he warned his son.

But it was no good. The wizards son would not listen and so,fearing for his son's life,the
Wizard was forced to lift the curse that he had put upon the girl so that when the wizard's son touched her he did not fall down dead.

The moment that Horizon saw that the curse was lifted, he grabbed hold of the Wizard and knocked him unconcious. “A person with power as dangerous as his is much safer asleep”, he said, looking around the wizards house for something to bind and gag him with.

Luckily,however, fate had its own ropes to bind for the beautiful woman, who was once cursed was now happily embracing the Wizards son. So lonely had she been upon her mountain top that the moment that the handsome Wizard's son asked her, “Will you marry me”, the beautiful woman replied
“Yes. Gladly!”.

The wizard's son then promised Horizon that he would make sure that his Father could never hurt anyone again and so, satisfied with this promise, Horizon mounted Volvan once more and continued upon his travels.