The Tale of Geneardes Lake

By Fanny F. Cussoy

Once upon a time, there was a small village named Maidienst, which was located beside a huge but cursed forest of Geneardes. There was a courageous boy named Arthur living there with his silent father and his beautiful but rude mother. Arthur never got along well with his mother, especially about her restriction for Arthur to never visit the Lake of Geneardes which was in the heart of the cursed forest. Everyone in the village said that the lake was badly cursed, made the little adventurous Arthur tried to sneak visiting the forest once and encountered an unexpected fact there: he saw a flying silver carriage which was pulled by some winged horses dove into the frozen lake, carrying an unknown lady inside.
Arthur was taken away from the village by his mother for he broke her restriction that time, but Arthur's curiosity about the lake was never vanished. So by the help of his two childhood best-friends, Arthur later started another adventure to discover the true fact about the cursed Lake of Geneardes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jul 15, 2013
• ISBN: 9781304160201

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The Tale of Geneardes Lake

The Tale of Geneardes Lake

First Edition

Copyright © 2013 Fanny F. Cussoy

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-304-16020-1

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Chapter 01: The Flying Silver Carriage

At the west side of the wild forest of Geneardes, there was a village, a small one, called Maidienst - in their native language could mean 'morning dew'. There lived a boy named Arthur; his full name was too long that all his friends preferred to call him with Arthur only. He lived with his father, Astheldast Leighdenberg, a blonde, silent carpenter who preferred to spend his time carving the woods rather than involving himself with the people around him. His wife was called Meriadeth; she's beautiful but rude, with his shiny, wavy long pitch-black hair. None of the villagers knew what her full name was or where she came from since she's not a native - everyone mostly called her with 'Mrs. Meriadeth' instead of 'Mrs. Leighdenberg' -, and she's known better as an unfriendly weaver who hardly paid visits to her neighbor. Arthur was unlike his parents though - he's cheerful, charming, easily befriended with people. His golden hair and azure eyes made him stood out among the boys in his age. He's an adventurous boy too, but his huge desire to explore things had to be strictly restricted by his mother, when it came to the wild forest sitting next to their village. Yes, more than anybody else in that village, Arthur was strictly forbidden to enter the Geneardes Forest alone and above all, visiting the Geneardes Lake which was located in the heart of the forest.

All the other villagers in Maidienst knew that no one should ever got close to the lake; people said the lake was cursed, full of evil spirits, and other despicable descriptions which would make you feel eerie just by listening to them. Arthur was one of the village's children who were told of how dangerous it would be if he dared to go to that lake, but just like a boy in his age might feel, he got more of curious about the village rather than scared. His mother knew how adventurous her boy was that she often threatened Arthur that she would lock him up in his room for entirely 3 days if only he dared to break that rule. It didn't lessen his curiosity about the lake though, and he kept on trying to sneak out to that lake, even though he hadn't succeeded even once until now.

Until one day, Meriadeth had to ask 8-years-old Arthur to accompany her going into the forest to help her picking the forest berries to prepare for the upcoming winter days. She hated to do this but Astheldast's arms were hurt and Arthur was exceptionally good in differing nice berries from bad ones, so in the end she decided to take Arthur with her instead.

You have to stick to me all the time, Meriadeth warned Arthur before they stepped into the forest, If you dare sneaking away from my sight, you know what you'll get.

Arthur just sighed and unwillingly nodded - he's simply not in the mood of doing argumentations with his mother, even though he still thought that the reason behind that restriction wasn't make-sense.

This way, Meriadeth said to Arthur as they started to walk the pathways into the deeper side of the forest. And as she found Arthur walked following her with his sight going around the forest surrounding them, Meriadeth scolded, THIS way, Arthur! Look at the path you're walking at!

I know, Mom, I know! Arthur angrily replied, Why don't you just put a rope around my neck and attached it on your waist then, to make sure that I'll be stuck to you all the time?!

Watch your mouth! yelled Meriadeth, Just keep silent and follow me!

Arthur was about to yell back but his quarrelling mood wasn't that big, because at that moment all he could think about was how to get away from his mother to have a sneak-peek to the forbidden lake.

As usual it wasn't easy because Meriadeth had her eyes on Arthur almost all the time - she frequently yelled at him just because Arthur got his sight on a small, blue-winged butterfly flying near him instead of the berries he had to look for, and it really made Arthur felt upset. He really wanted to just run away from his angry mother and found the path toward the lake, but since he knew it would just worsen everything, he tried to hold himself from that and looked for the right timing to sneak away.

Two hours passed inside the forest, and finally Arthur could see a chance to get away from Meriadeth, when he noticed that his mother was attracted to a bunch of white-flowered bushes there, that she lost her sight of him for a while - a thing she rarely did every time they got into the forest together. Those white flowers looked so appealing for Meriadeth somehow, and as she started to look for the right flowers to pick from the bushes, Arthur found his way to sneak out from her sight.

Arthur could feel his heartbeat got a lot faster as he silently sneaked away from his mother - he couldn't stop uttering a prayer in whisper for his mother to keep looking at those bushed and didn't notice him walking away. And after some thrilling moment, Arthur finally could get himself totally lost from his mother's sight, and once he couldn't see his mother anymore, he immediately made a run, searching for the pathways which could possibly bring him to the cursed lake.

Arthur never got himself so deep into the forest actually, he just came here a very few times when Meriadeth had nobody else to accompany her, and he never had enough chances to explore the forest deeper. Having his time totally free to run around across the forest like this made Arthur felt enthusiastic, and though he had no idea about how he's going to find the lake, Arthur just followed his instinct when he picked which paths to go through. He spent several minutes until he could see a brighter light in the end of the pathways he's taking, going through the trees' leaves hanging far above him. It made Arthur's heartbeat got even faster, that he fastened his pace to reach the end of the pathways as soon as he could possibly do.

And just like what he expected, once he reached the end of the pathway, Arthur could see a vast mirror-like surface spread on the ground in front of him, with many trees standing tall surrounding it. Arthur just needed a second to tell himself that it's the lake he's looking for, and seeing how it actually looked like right in front of his eyes like this made him felt more of excited rather than scared. The lake didn't look like a cursed lake at all: it was very beautiful - Arthur never saw a lake or river that beautiful before - but together with the fascination it gave Arthur, there's also a strange, mystical feeling Arthur felt about the scenery in front of him.

The lake's surface was frozen, entirely frozen, and it seemed to hide an indescribable anguish underneath that thin ice. That strange feeling attracted Arthur to take some steps closer toward the lake, to take a peep on what he could see beneath the ice, but before he could reach the lake's edge, suddenly there was a hard, storm-like wind blowing from the sky above. It made Arthur felt so frightened right away, and as he tried to look up to the sky, through the hard wind, Arthur took some rushing steps behind and hid himself behind one big trunk of trees then. The hard wind continued to blow as Arthur took a closer look to what happened in the sky with his eyes got narrowed, but they immediately got widened once Arthur could see something coming from the sky. With the background of the orange sun, Arthur could see a carriage flew down from the sky. That silver-shimmered carriage was pulled by eight white-winged horses, which all looked like being made from ice. Those horses then flew down toward the center of the lake's frozen surface, and once the winged horse at the front touched the surface with its front right foot, Arthur did think that it would slip its steps and the carriage would crash onto the thin ice. But unlike what he imagined it to be, from the spot the horse touched the lake's surface, brightly blinding radiant came out, which made Arthur couldn't really see what happened to the horses and the carriage afterwards. Arthur kept trying to take a look on what happened though, and he got totally speechless to see that rather than slipping its steps and crashing the whole troops together with the carriage onto the lake's frozen surface, that winged horse could dive into the lake instead, through the thin ice without breaking it. It's like the horses were sucked into the lake by that bright radiant, and as Arthur attached his sight on that unbelievable scenery in front of him, he could see that the carriage apparently had someone sitting inside it - a lady.

Arthur didn't see how the lady looked like very clearly, but he could tell that the lady was so beautiful and she had a huge white scarf covering her wavy hair. She looked so weak and seemed to be dying somehow, and right before the carriage went through the thin ice and disappeared into the frozen lake, that lady turned her head to Arthur and for one flashing second, their eyes met. That lady's eyes looked as cold as ice but also helpless in the same time, and before Arthur could understand why that lady seemed to be soaked deeply in grief through the way she looked at him, the carriage got swallowed by the radiant and disappeared into the lake then.

The hard wind stopped immediately and the radiant was gone, once that carriage got disappeared from Arthur's eyes. The lake looked just like the way it was before, when Arthur first found it a few moments ago, and the silence came back filling the air around him, together with feelings of disbelief and amazed. For a moment Arthur didn't know what he just saw - he couldn't tell whether it was a dream or not - and he's about to get out from his hideaway to take a closer look on the frozen lake when he could hear a thundering voice calling out his name.

Arthur! – It's Meriadeth voice, and Arthur could tell from her voice that she's getting extremely mad at that moment. It made Arthur got scary right away - his mother never sounded that angry before - but in the same time, somehow he still wanted to be there. He's torn between his thought to run toward the lake to take a look underneath the thin ice and the thought of immediately looked for his way back to his mother, and before he could decide which one he would choose, Arthur got surprised as he found his mother stood behind him already.

...What were you doing here? Meriadeth asked with her deep voice, showing how much she got annoyed and mad to find Arthur broke the rule and visited the lake alone.

Arthur just looked at his mother and somehow he lost his voice to nowhere that he couldn't say anything to reply her, and before he could get it back, Meriadeth grabbed his hand and immediately dragged him rudely away from the lake, as she yelled, I've told you not to get near to this cursed lake!

Meriadeth got extremely mad and she looked so frightening that way, and she didn't care when Arthur begged her to let his hands go, because her grip was so firm and it hurt his hands a lot.

It hurts, Mom! Arthur begged, Let me go, please! It hurts!

But Meriadeth didn't listen and kept dragging him in such a harsh way, even when they got out from the forest and arrived in the village. The other villagers threw a curious and sympathetic look on Arthur as he continued to beg his mother to let him go but his mother ignored him, and as she got Arthur into their house, Meriadeth threw him to the floor and yelled, How many times have I told you to stay away from that lake, huh?!

Arthur just groaned painfully as his left arm felt terribly hurt when it bumped on the floor just now, and before he could say anything back, Meriadeth surprisingly slapped him as she yelled again, Why couldn't you obey what I said, you naughty boy!

Arthur cried for his mother to stop hurting him but Meriadeth continued to curse and swear toward him, until she then pulled him to get up and dragged him into his own room. Again Meriadeth threw Arthur to the floor once she got him into the room, and after she slammed the door closed and locked it, she shouted, Don't you dare to get out from your room before I permit you to! I'll make everything worse if you do that!

Little Arthur continued to helplessly beg his mother to let him out but she ignored it, and though actually Astheldast was there too, witnessing his son got locked up and cried out for help like that, he ended up doing nothing but just threw an empty sight to Arthur's room's door, before he got back to his work carving on a stack of wooden plates.

Chapter 02: Meeting Old Friends

Six years have passed since the day when Arthur got caught visiting the forbidden lake by his mother, and since that day too, Meriadeth took Arthur and Astheldast moved out from Maidienst, to another town far from the forest. Arthur was so against that decision but he was too little to fight back that time that he ended up following his parents moved to this busy, boring town. Nothing was interesting here, except that it's close to the land's capital more than any other town throughout the land, but that fact wasn't appealing at all for an adventurous boy like Arthur. He has grown up into a rebelious boy under the strict pressure from his mother, but no matter how much he tried to fight back against his mother's ridiculous rules - it's ridiculous for him, at least - he always ended up being the one who's lost. Astheldast was being such a blunt, blind father who didn't do anything even though his wife and his son were quarrelling almost everyday - he always found his works more interesting than anything else somehow. It made Arthur always felt upset to his surroundings - he frequently tried to run away but his mother could always find him and drag him back to that hell.

But Arthur never really gave up trying to escape anyway, that one day, when he was ordered by Meriadeth to trade his father's carvings for some gold or food at the busy market of the town, Arthur arranged a plan of running away once again. Meriadeth always told him to go to the market first before she then went there too some time after him, and Arthur had a plan