The Thorn of Tomathy

Once, a long time ago in the land of Arbaria, a royal child was born who was named Tomathy and when he was placed before the altar of the Universal goddess Shema to be blessed, a thorn appeared within the childs foot; a thorn of gold.
Ofcourse, the pain of the thorn made the child cry and his father, pleading with the goddess, asked,
"What kind of blessing is this? To place a thorn in a childs foot. Now he will remain in pain forever more and will not be able to walk".
But the goddess replied,
"As long as the thorn is lodged within Tomathy's foot he will be invulnerable and have the strength of an army in his right hand but nothing in life comes without a cost. If you do not wish him to have the power of invulnerability and strength then, by all means, take out the thorn".
And because the king did not want to rob his son of the powers granted by the thorn, he left the thorn in his sons foot.
"The child will just have learn to bear the pain and walk with a limp", he said.
And as he grew up Tomathy did learn to accept the pain although there was not a single day when he didn't dream of someone removing the thorn and he walked with a limp but there wasn't a single day when he didn't wish that he could walk and run like other boys.
One day however an evil wizard, called Dramu sent a box to the king with a Roaragh inside or, a creature with scales of flame all over its body and the Roaragh ran amok in the kings palace setting fire to everything that it touched.
Not only that, none of the kings warriors could come close to it to fight it without getting burned but his son Tomathy was invunerable to harm and so, knowing he would not be burned by the flames, he seized hold of the Roaragh and throwing it down upon its back, stabbed it in the heart with his dagger.
And when the Roaragh died, the fire that covered it died.
"I know that the thorn you walk upon is painful and gives you great sadness", said his father, "But I am glad that I didn't remove it for we could not do without your strength or your invulnerable skin".
But then, when Tomathy became a man, his father had to search for a bride for him but no princess wanted to marry a prince who was lame.
Fortunately, the king had heard of a princess who had been trapped in Amber by the evil wizard Dramu.
"Just like the pieces of amber we find that have butterflies and other creatures trapped within them so she is trapped at the centre of a giant amber gem, unable to move and yet, some how, mysteriously, alive", said his father, "And the king who is her father, King Maraf of Warrovia, has proclaimed that he will marry her to whoever can free her but she can only be released if the amber is touched by the hand of Dramu".
So Tomathy set out to get the hand of Dramu, unfortunately, Dramu lived in a castle at the eye of a constantly whirling storm and no one had ever been able to penetrate the storm to get to the castle but Dramu was certain that, because of his invulnerability, the storm would not harm him.
Unfortunately, though the storm did not harm him, each time he tried to enter it, it grabbed hold of him and, whirling him around, threw him a mile away and, though, because of his invulnerability, he did not die, he could not penetrate the storm.
But Tomathy had an idea.
He climbed up to the top of a tall mountain that overlooked the whirling storm and leapt down into the centre of it, landing on one of the battlements of the castle.
Inside the castle however, he did not find Dramu. Only a beautiful young woman called Druma who said that she was the daughter of Dramu; that he was away upon magical business and that Tomathy would have to wait for him to return.
And while Tomathy was waiting he got talking to Druma and Druma was very interested in Tomathys powers.
"It is said that you are invulnerable, great Tomathy", she asked, "Is that true?".
Tomathy said it was true and so Druma asked if she could test his invulnerability and tried to stab him through his hand with a sharp dagger but the blade of the dagger broke against his skin.
"Nothing can destroy me", he said, "Not a blade or fire or falling from a mountain top and my strength is so great that I could lift a mountain or hold back a river like a dam".
Druma said she was impressed but then she noted that Tomathy seemed to limp whereever he walked.
When she inquired why he limped, however, Tomathy said that he had been born with the limp, nothing more.
But then Druma seduced him and drugged him and, while he slept, Druma turned into her true form of Dramu, the wizard.
Dramu had been afraid of Tomathy, knowing of his invulnerability and so he had decided to change himself into Druma until he had learned Tomathys weakness.
And while Tomathy slept, Dramu inspected his foot and saw the thorn.
"How could a man who is invulnerable to my dagger blade get a tiny thorn stuck in his foot? It must be the secret of his power", he thought.
And so he tried to pull out the thorn but, however he tried, the thorn would not come out and, while he was pulling upon it, he woke up Tomathy who, seeing the wizard in his true form, seized hold of his sword and drove it through the wizards heart.
Then he cut off one of the wizards hands and left his castle and, fortunately, now that Dramu was dead the whirling storm was gone too and Tomathy went to the land of Warrovia and used the severed hand to release the Princess who was trapped in Amber, her name Auburnia and, soon afterwards, Tomathy and Auburnia were married in the temple of Shema.
And because Tomathy had a golden thorn in his foot, to show her love for him, Auburnia placed a silver thorn in her hand.
Unfortunately, the wizard Dramu had a twin Brother; a wizard called Badrog who, hearing of his brothers death wanted revenge.
And Badrog had an eye in the back of his head that could look into the past and, when he opened it, and looked at his dead brother he saw how his brother had died and the thorn in Tomathys foot.
"Now I must get that thorn from his foot", thought Badrog, "And then I will kill him"
But he needed to lure Tomathy into a trap and so he turned himself into a giant bird and while Auburnia was in the royal gardens smelling a rose, he flew down in this giant bird form and, snatching her up in his giant claws carried her off to his shape changing tower in the middle of the forest of Shandora that turned into a tree so that it looked no different to the other trees in the forest.
Then he sent a bird to Tomathy that layed an egg that hatched open and inside the egg was a message from Badrog that he had abducted Princess Auburnia and taken her to the forest of Shandora.
When Tomathy went to the forest to look for Badrogs tower, however, because it looked like a tree he couldn't find it and, after some time of searching, Tomathy got tired and made a camp in the forest on the ground.
While he was sleeping, however, Badrog turned his tower back into a tower and himself into a tiny ant and, crawling into the camp and through a hole in Tomathys boot he found the thorn in Tomathys foot and seizing it between his ant pincers pulled the thorn out.
Then, when the thorn was removed, Badrog turned back into his real form and woke Tomathy, telling him that he had removed his thorn.
"Now you are as vulnerable and weak as any ordinary human being", he said and, to prove it, he made a scratch upon Tomathys right cheek with his sword and, feeling the pain and, touching his right cheek, Tomathy realised that he was bleeding.
As this was happening however, Auburnia, hearing the commotion came to the window of her prison in the tower and looked down and saw Badrog standing over Tomathy with his sword raised about to kill him and seeing this she started to weep but as she was weeping the thorn that she had stuck in her hand out of love for her husband, turned into a sword with its hilt in her hand and, realising her good fortune, she threw it down from the tower to Tomathy who, seizing it, drove it into Badrogs heart.
Unfortunately, Badrog had two more hearts and so that alone did not kill him but, getting to his feet Tomathy fought bravely until all three hearts were pierced and then, stumbling, the wizard fell to the ground and died.
Then Tomathy and Auburnia went back to their royal palace and, there, lived happily ever after.