People who lived in the cemetery-Prompt: shadow

There was a war between two lands called Arios and Babios. The reason was fighting over the possession of a valuable ancient crown, which was made of precious rare stones. This crown had a guardian named Amos. He was titled as the guardian of the stone by their God called Zomas. The guardianship of the crown was passed on from generation to generation and the king of Arios and Babios could not interfere with it otherwise a natural disaster would befall on the two nations.

The crown was said to give powers to the one who is worthy of it, but neither Arios nor Babios kings were worthy to wear the ancient crown. So, Amos lived in a temple designed for guarding the crown. He had no one to talk to, no friend or wife or children. This was the destiny of a guardian: loneliness until death.

He wanted to have a company, so he escaped to the cemetery, which was positioned in the middle of the land of Arios and Babios.

People who lived in the cemetery didn’t care about the rules of Arios and Babios, they were free and they were neutral in the war between Arios and Babios. They lived in the world of ghosts. There weren’t many living there in the cemetery but few who lived there made sure to stay there and keep their place in the cemetery. They made houses and honored the dead, careful not to disturb them and stimulate their wrath.

People in the cemetery welcomed Amos, because Amos wanted freedom from his destiny. They made a room for him and they introduced him to some girls of the cemetery. There was one girl specifically that caught his eye. Her name was Fiantana, she was a widower. She was beautiful and strong. Amos proposed to her. He didn’t want to lose her.

“Finally, I have found someone who is close in understanding of the world with me and I can share the rest of my life with,” Amos thought to himself.

He gathered up his courage to ask her hand in marriage.

“Before I say yes to your proposal, I have to declare that I have one condition,” Fiantana said, her big beautiful black eyes were shining under the sky of the cemetery.

“What is the condition?” Amos asked preparing himself for what is to come.

“To never leave the cemetery, and stay here forever with us, the reason why I ask this is because I am a widower and my deceased husband left the cemetery and strange circumstances happened to him, which made him die” Fiantana said with worrying eyes, afraid Amos wouldn’t accept the condition.

When Amos saw how much she needs him by her side. He accepted to never leave the cemetery.

After this talk with Fiantana, Amos deeply thought about his decision of having come to the cemetery. It was not a safe place after all to roam freely, he surely had a beautiful company by his side, and a life of his own, but a strange energy, which followed the inhabitants of the cemetery, was something he could not dismiss.

In the meantime, the kings of Arios and Babios were worried now that there was no guardian to protect the crown, a natural disaster would come upon them. Fear engulfed them. So, they sent some soldiers to fetch Amos from the cemetery telling him that he is endangering the nations of Arios and Babios by his absence from the temple.

It was said in old books that “no harm shall be done to the guardian of the crown”, so the soldiers took care not to bring any harm to Amos. Amos refused to come with them, because he promised Fiantana to not ever leave the cemetery.

After some time passed from the escape of Amos from the temple, famine hit the nations of Arios and Babios. The kings of Arios and Babios were furious and they asked Amos to come back immediately. In the meantime, the kings of Arios and Babios decided to assign someone to guard the crown in the temple, but everyone who got there got sick and died. So, they sent a message to Amos, if he doesn’t come back, they will become allies and attack the people who lived in the cemetery. They said that they have no respect for the dead, they just care about not to die of hunger.

In the meantime Fiantana taught Amos to learn rituals to honor the dead. Based on an old story, one who offers his or her shadow to the cemetery, one wish is granted to them, and Amos asked to leave the cemetery without no harm done to him for one day. So, Amos prepared himself to go back to the temple, this time to transfer the responsibility of guarding the crown to someone else. For this, they had to give a sacrifice to the God Zomas. The sacrifice was not animal nor human nor food, it was an emotion. The emotion of love inside one’s heart.

Amos was prepared to do this sacrifice because of his love for Fiantana, but she disagreed off course, but Amos did the sacrifice and offered the emotion “love” in his heart to the God Zomas. Zomas accepted and the guardianship was transferred to a chosen person by the two nations of Arios and Babios. Famine stopped in the two lands of Arios and Babios. Finally, he left the temple, but Fiantana didn’t accept him.

“You no longer have any love to give me, I reject being with you, you lost both your shadow and the love in your heart” she said angry.

So, Amos got mad because he thought Fiantana betrayed him, and was seen chasing the shadow of himself in the darkness of the cemetery.

He sang:

“ I just want someone to love

I just want a place to belong ”

One day, as he was chasing his shadow in the cemetery, he found a grave which was named Amos Gratos, which was his exact name and last name. His findings made him realize that he doesn’t want to live life like a dead person, and he came into grips with the reality which was his life. He looked at his situation as it was.

He told the elders of the cemetery of why they made a grave for him, he is still alive!. They told him, that there was once a man named Amos Gratos who became mad because his lover died, he offered his shadow to go to the spirit world to see his lover again. Upon coming back, he came to grips with the reality of having to live without a shadow. He had to find a solution immediately otherwise he had to live like this for the rest of his life.

He searched and searched and found a magician who could find his shadow, they did a ritual together and finally he could get back the shadow and after a while he met a girl and married and lived and died in the cemetery. It was said he was the only one who got back his shadow.

“The only one?” Amos asked the elders who were explaining things to him.

It was when that the elders explained to him that all of the people who lived in the cemetery lost their shadows and they couldn’t get it back no matter how much ritual they did.

“This is no coincidence that he found the grave of Amos and it seemed that their destinies was fairly the same” Amos thought to himself.

His actions had a lesson for Amos, which was not to give up even if you feel you lost everything you have. He realized that his hopelessness in every situation made him lose something precious to him. So, he tried to find a magician to find his shadow. He succeeded, he found someone who could bring back all the shadows of people who lived in the cemetery. But, he had no love in his heart until he met Sumentana.

“let’s share the love I have for you, I gift half of the emotion “love” in my heart to you because you showed kindness to us by retrieving our shadows” Sumentana said to him. They did a ritual with the help of the magician and the magician transferred half of the emotion love from Sumentana’s heart to Amos. It was at that overwhelming moment that he forgave the betrayal and coldness of Fiantana. They shared both their love and their life together. He learned that what goes around, comes around. He received kindness and love because he shared kindness and love. After they died, the elders made statues of this couple, to showcase their eternal love for one another.

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