Faith in the Valley

There weren’t always dragons in the valley. They once ruled the highest mountaintops. They soared freely through the skies and nested comfortably in their mountaintop lairs. Up close sightings of these majestic creatures in the valley were unheard of. Sadly, those days ended when a most vile sorceress, Gruzelda, changed all of our lives forever. She wielded the most powerful black magic any of us had ever witnessed before. She cast a spell, born from the depths of this evil darkness, banishing all of the dragons from atop the mountains to the valleys down below. They were powerless against her wickedness. We all were. Little did we know it, but banishing the dragons to the valley was merely the beginning of Gruzelda’s villainous tirade. Things vastly got worse than any of us could have ever imagined in a million years.

Gruzelda promptly took control over all of our gold and resources, claiming them as her very own. Now, we were starving and penniless, forced to struggle for our very existence amongst the enormous, flying beasts that had been disgruntledly displaced here in the valley. Gruzelda thoroughly enjoyed peering down from upon high to witness the misery that was now all of our existence. She cackled maniacally as she relished in the fruits of her demented labor.

Powerless to overcome this cold hearted sorceress ourselves, all we had left was the hopes and prayers we sent up to the heavens, begging them to send us a savior who possessed a magical ability worthy of overcoming Gruzelda’s wickedness. Many moons passed and our prayers had yet to be answered or seemingly even acknowledged at that. Then, after one long day’s work in the fields, as many of the villagers were huddled around a blazing bonfire that evening, two weary travelers exited the heavily wooded forest and slowly began to approach the crackling fire we surrounded.

Cautiously, we examined the two strangers now standing before us. There was one man, who looked to be in his forties. He had a thick, coarse, brown beard and appeared to have a strong, sturdy, muscular build. He looked upon us with kind, sparkling, crystal blue eyes that stood out amongst his burly, brown facial hair. He stated that his name was Soloman. His traveling companion was a tiny eight year old girl who went by the name of Faith. Although she was small in stature and build, Faith seemed to possess the air of an old soul. Faith proclaimed that it was her destiny to restore peace and order to the valley. We all silently looked upon the child in awe. How could this innocent, waifish, young girl be a match for such a powerful, vile sorceress such as Gruzelda? Neither fire breathing dragons, nor the toughest grown men in our village were able to gain the upper hand in this situation, so what was it that she could possibly claim to offer us?

As Faith started to speak, we listened quietly and intently. Her emerald green eyes shined like gems as she began to share her tale with us. Faith explained how she was born with an intuitive “knowing” that she was destined to overcome some sort of evil in this world. Not only was she named Faith, but she was well aware of the fact that in order to fulfill this destiny, she would have to keep the faith in her own intuition to do so. Thus, one day finally arrived when she felt that she must begin to journey far from her home towards the valley that lain at the base of the foothills of the mountains. She wasn’t sure exactly why, but she knew deep in her gut that she mustn’t ignore this intuitive guidance. Faith took a deep breath as she stopped talking. Although we were still baffled by the young girl’s explanation, somehow, she had begun to instill hope among the villagers once more. Unsure of how this situation would ultimately pan out, the villagers could sense that Faith was truly on to something. It seemed as though this young child had, in fact, been destined to restore faith in the valley.