The Earth Will Take Its Due

Once there lived a widow, and she had only one son. As the son grew up, he noticed that everyone had a father, but he could not call anyone his father.

"Why does everyone have a father, but I don't?" he asked his mother.

His mother replied,
"Your father has died."

"What does 'died' mean? Won't he come back to us?"

"He won't come back to us, but we will all go to where he is," said his mother. "No one can escape death."

The young man said,
"I never asked to be born, but since I am alive, I don't want to die. I will go and find a place where people do not die."

His mother pleaded with him not to go, but the son would not listen and set off to find a place where death did not exist.

He traveled across the entire land. Wherever he went, he asked,
"Is there death here?"

"Yes," they would answer.

The young man grew sad: there was no place where people did not die. One day, as he was walking through a field, he saw a stag with tall, branching antlers. The young man admired the stag's antlers and asked,
"Do you know of a place where people do not die?"

"There is no such place," said the stag, "but as long as my antlers do not reach the sky, I will not die. When they do, my death will come. If you wish, you can stay with me and live as long as I do."

"No," said the young man, "if I am to live, I want to live forever. I could have died back where I came from."

The young man continued on his journey. He crossed fields, valleys, and eventually reached the mountains. There, he saw a raven sitting on a cliff, preening itself and dropping feathers into a deep, vast gorge below.

The young man asked the raven,
"Do you know of a place where people do not die?"

"No," said the raven. "I will live until this gorge is filled with my feathers. When it is, I will die. Stay with me, and you will live as long as I do."

The young man looked into the gorge and shook his head.
"No," he said, "if I am to live, I want to live forever. I could have died back where I came from."

The young man continued on his way, traveling across the entire land until he reached the sea. He walked along the shore, unsure of where to go.

He walked for one day, then two, and saw nothing. On the third day, he noticed something glimmering in the distance. As he approached, he saw a crystal castle.

The young man circled the castle but could not find any doors. After much struggle, he noticed a small crack and realized it was the entrance. He pushed with all his strength, and the door opened.

Inside, he saw a woman of such beauty that even the sun would envy her if it saw her. The young man was captivated by her, and she, in turn, took a liking to him.

The young man asked,
"Beautiful one, I wish to escape death. Do you know of a place where people do not die?"

"There is no such place," said the woman. "Why search in vain? Stay with me."

He replied,
"I did not come here seeking you. I seek a place where death does not exist. Otherwise, I would have stayed where I came from."

The woman said,
"The earth will claim its own. You yourself will not wish to be immortal. Tell me, how old do you think I am?"

The young man looked at her: her youthful chest, her fresh cheeks the color of roses were so beautiful that he forgot all about death.

"At most, seventeen years," he said.

"No," replied the woman. "I was created on the first day of the world's creation. My name is 'Beauty,' and I will never grow old and never die. You could stay with me forever, but you will not want to—the earth will call you back."

The young man swore he would never leave her.

They began to live together. The years flew by like moments. Much changed on earth. Many died and turned to dust, many were born, and the face of the earth transformed, but the young man did not notice the passage of time. The woman remained as beautiful as ever, and he stayed just as young.

Thousands of years passed. The young man grew homesick and wanted to visit his family.

He said,
"I want to go and see my mother and relatives."

She replied,
"Not even their bones remain in the earth."

He said,
"What are you saying? It's only been three or four days since I came here. What could have happened to them?"

The woman said,
"I told you—the earth will claim its own. Very well, go, and whatever happens to you, blame yourself."

She gave him three apples and told him to eat them when he felt sorrow.

The young man bid her farewell and set off. As he walked, he saw the cliff where the raven had sat. He looked and saw that the gorge was filled with feathers, and the raven itself lay there, dried up and lifeless. Darkness filled the young man's eyes, and he wanted to turn back, but the earth would not let him; it pulled him forward.

He continued on and saw the stag in the field. Its antlers had reached the sky, and the stag was dying. The young man realized that much time had passed since he left home. He walked further and reached his homeland, but he found no relatives or acquaintances. He asked people about his mother, but no one had even heard of her.

He wandered alone, and no one recognized him. Finally, he met an old man and told him whom he was looking for.

The old man said,
"That woman, as I have heard from my grandfathers and great-grandfathers, lived long ago. But how could her son still be alive?"

Word of this man spread across the land. People spoke of him in wonder, gazing at him as if he were a marvel.

The young man wandered alone. He grew sorrowful. He came to the place where his house once stood and found only ruins overgrown with rusty moss. He remembered his mother, his childhood, and his friends, and he grew sad. He decided to eat the apples the woman from the crystal castle had given him.

He took out one apple and ate it. Instantly, a long, gray beard grew on his face. He ate the second apple, and his knees buckled, his back bent, and he fell to the ground, unable to move his arms or legs.

He called out to a passing boy,
"Come here, boy. Take an apple from my pocket and give it to me."

The boy took the apple and handed it to him. The young man bit into it and died at once.

The village buried him together.

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The Earth Will Take Its Due

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