null Pevo - The Most Amazing Story of King Fantis I.

It was alarming how he neglected his manifold interests, such as art and literature. He was no longer able to satisfy that natural desire for exercise which Elephants usually have. This led to him putting on more and more weight around his trunk. And that considerably affected his smart, dynamic animal appearance! He almost looked portly, and he felt like his crown: pale, invisible and burned-out!

Thus spoke the king: “Send out the royal messengers, for I want my subjects to assemble in the palace square the day after tomorrow. I shall announce a most important message.”

When the day and the hour had come, the king stepped up to his people:

“Dear citizens of Tuskany! From this day on, your world will change, because my life will be different, too. I no longer feel the calling to be your king and I am no longer able to control your fate. I am much too tired, and my heart grows heavier every day. A long time ago, I lost my Crown Shine, and my royal wisdom has become a vortex which devours all reason. Oh woe, woe, my faithful subjects. You have a pathetic king, and I’m telling you: the beautiful Land of Pink Elephants and its inhabitants deserve better. My private physician, Samuel Franklin Similibus, thinks I suffer from a syndrome which I must take very seriously. Therefore I will leave my palace today and embark on a quest: the quest for my lost Crown Shine.”

But the people muttered with discontent. They were unhappy, indignant even, and did not want to let King Fantis I go. They shouted, “No, no, no... noo-hooo! You are our king, and we need you! Just look at us, we are only ordinary people, plain blue-collar Elephants, and we never attended Trunk University.”

But King Fantis I would not budge, and he said in a friendly but vigorous voice, “Elephants male and female! You all have it in you to provide for yourselves.

“ From now on, let everyone be the king of their own kingdom!”

With this, he set out on the long journey through his kingdom.

After bidding farewell to his people with such heavy heart, King Fantis I travelled through the country for three days and three nights without a moment's rest, until he arrived at a small hut nestled against a massive tree. King Fantis I was dead tired. He lay down under the tree and immediately fell in a deep, restful sleep. He slept for a long time, and he had a most peculiar dream.

He dreamed that he was asleep, and he dreamed that he was dreaming in that sleep. Still in his dream, he knew that this dream was nothing but a dream, and that he would wake up. Still dreaming, he saw many Elephants waiting for him on the other side of the dream, and he saw himself standing in front of the masses. Then he woke up. Still dazed, he opened his eyes and beheld a strange elephantine creature sitting in the tree and looking down at him.

Being a king, he was not used to people looking down at him, and when he had composed himself, he wanted to chide this cheeky fellow. But he did not get around to any chiding, for the queer fellow’s stern voice sounded from above: “How dare you sleep under my tree?”

“Uhm... ah... uhm... I'm the king, and I can do whatever I want, and wherever I want. Do you hear me?” King Fantis I replied.

“Hahahaha…” The tree-dweller, who had been so stern just a moment ago, burst out in a long and hearty laugh. Then he said, “It seems to me that there’s a court jester sitting under my tree. And my dear Mr… tee-hee-hee… king : he who knows what is worth doing and what should wisely be left alone shall be happy. But you, my dear… tee-hee-hee… king , you live in confusion and dwell in uncertainty about the one and fear of the other.”

“You’re a right smarty-trunks, are you,” said King Fantis I. “And tell me, why do you have such a bright Crown Shine, even though it is I who is the king of Tuskany?” There the voice from above rang out, “Oh, His Majesty is a smart one, and very inquisitive. Relax, slouch your trunk, I can help you quench your thirst for knowledge and enlightenment. But before that, pray tell me what you dreamed under my tree here.”

The king was startled and wondered how this elephant-brain up in the tree knew all he knew. But he complied dutifully and recounted his entire dream.

The sage nodded his head two or three times, and then—after a pause—for a third time, and said, “All your dream is telling me is that your life will change profoundly. It will change as thoroughly and completely as if you entered a different world, as if you had slept for a hundred years and now woke up under this tree.”

The good King Fantis was appropriately amazed by this dream interpretation. But Smarty-Trunks continued, “My dear King Fantis, so you left your court to be king of your own kingdom. That is good, for he who denies and neglects his innermost being day in, year out, will lose the shine around his head. That’s just the way it is in the Land of Pink Elephants, as I was able to personally observe from my vantage point in this tree over many long years, perched on my favourite branch. Only children still have this wonderful Crown Shine. The grownups have bent and betrayed and forgotten their dreams too many times. With every time, the shine grew a little paler, until it became so pale that nobody was able to see it any longer, not even the grownups themselves.”

Then the king asked, “But you, my wise Smarty-Trunks! Your crown is shining so brightly through the branchwood. Why does yours shine and not mine?”

“ I climbed this tree without thinking about how to get down. That is the reason. And now, my dear King Fantis, enter your kingdom—and do not think about how to come back.”

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