There was, in the land of Great Heroes, a road that forked by the sea. At this fork stood an undead woman, whose life had been filled with misery. Whenever a hero came to the fork, she would cry, "So much pain, so much suffering, so much misery. Please, end my torment!" And when the hero refused, as heroes must, the woman would then demand of them to choose a path. "Left or right, but be warned: both are fraught with peril, with hardship and suffering." Each would pick one and continue on their adventure, while the woman stood and watched and weeped.
It came to pass one day that a young hero rode up to her on a horse. Again the woman demanded that he end her torment. This time, though, was different. "I will not, for you would find no surcease in death, only an endless emptiness; for only the dead can envy the living." The woman looked down to ponder this, but when she looked up to reply the hero was already far off on his Great Adventure, having chosen a path long ago.
Some time later, the hero returned, riding the other way. He saw the woman, no longer crying, and he stopped once more. "Hero," she exclaimed, "you have shown me a better way, and I thank you for it." But then she looked down once again, and continued. "But I do not understand. A woman came to me and when I demanded she choose a path, she would not. She chose neither. And there is so much pain in the world. If I have children, when they are sick they will see this face, and they will despise it. How can I go on?" The hero shook his head, and rode off.
And so the woman stayed there, demanding of heroes that they choose which fork they would pursue. "Left or right," though she would no longer ask them to end her torment.
A young girl came riding up to this undead woman. She was just beginning her journey, and so the woman asked her choice. "Both!" came the startling reply. The woman stammered for a bit, then asked, "What do you mean?" The girl shrugged and replied, "It's a reference to the Path of the Divine. Both roads lead to heaven, though there are bumps along the way." The girl looked down, embarassed by her reply, and when she looked up the woman was gone. She stared down the path and saw the woman already running. "Savannah!" the woman exclaimed. "I must see this Path of the Divine for myself!"
-David
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