The Boy Who...(Repost)

Prompt: Can't get words out. 

There once were two boys who lived in a village not too far from a bustling city. This village was essential to that city because the people there made everything required for the quality of life, especially for the castle. This was not an ordinary town, but they would never let you think otherwise. These two boys lived separate lives, but the tininess of the village caused them to cross paths from time to time.

          Isra was a curious, talkative young boy with an unlimited imagination. He would tell his tales with the most outlandish characters. Then there was Gates, who almost never said a word and no one knew his first name. Then again in this village this was nothing but a passing thought. There never was two boys more different from each other.

          One time too many the villagers heard Isra’s tales. It started out the month before, he began to tell tales about the young prince of their neighboring city. Tales of him showing up in unusual places, doing dangerous things, and of harmful plots against their village. At first, it was just stories of going into an unusual shop that the prince would never be found in. Then it turned into him visiting a cave where it was rumored of a bear who could change their form at will into a human. Finally, it ended up with a story just like this:

“I was just in the woods yesterday, just wandering…maybe…maybe I got lost. Anyway, I saw the prince! He looked very different from any other time I had seen him, harsher, maybe a bit sinister. So I followed him of course. He waited in a deserted meadow for quite a while, when these… people showed up. I hid behind the tree because they were the people from the old wandering tribes. The ones who have settled nearby, close enough for us to feel unsettled. I couldn’t hear anything, but I think they plan to take over our village. When they left, they changed into these terrifying coyotes!”

          He told this story first to his parents and then to anyone else who would hear. At first people were worried, afraid of an attack that may or may not be coming, and so they prepared. Then his story began to change, the coyotes become eight foot tall beasts that leave craters as footprints behind. Then the prince would become one of those monsters, their leader he said. The people became annoyed by his story telling, yet he still continued to tell his story.

          One day, Gates was with the other villagers listening to another version of the story. When the prince himself, strolled into their village. He greeted each person with kindness and the villagers would not hear what Isra was saying, and nor did they believe him.

So Gates himself went up to Isra and told him to, “Be Silent!” It was quietly stated almost monotone and then Gates disappeared. For Isra, suddenly it was as though he could not speak. He could open his mouth, but none of the words were coming out, all of them just stuck on the tip of his tongue. From that day forth, Gates showed up wherever Isra was, to make sure not a word was said. This however did not stop Isra from exploring the woods. Where again he saw the coyotes coming nearer and nearer to their town, but he could not warn anybody. Even if he could speak, they would not listen to him, but that did not stop him from trying to warn them.

Before they stopped believing him, the town had created a barrier, so the ‘beasts’ could not get in. So one stormy day, they awoke to the sounds of a something beating against this barrier. Then a bit later, the prince himself wandered back into town, but when asked about the sound he said he had not seen anything. Still the sound grew louder, and an ever curious Isra searched for an answer. Standing hidden at the edge of the barrier, he saw the coyotes and their people trying to break down the barriers.

He rushed back to town and when he came across the villagers, still he could not get his words out. He saw Gates near the center of town, but a few feet away from him. The prince spent his time laughing with his people. When it was time for him to leave, he left the barrier open, and laughed his whole way home…….