The Treasure Stone
A Tale from The Lost Scrolls of Bartimus the Bleak
By Enrique Collazo
Copyright 2013 Enrique Collazo
For Susan Elizabeth: You chose to look under the mask and as a result, you inspired a mind, enlightened a heart and completed a soul. You may have thought yourself as ordinary, but you held exactly what I needed and that is extraordinary.
On a long winding river there lived a troll. This troll was known through the land as one that never hurt a single soul. Instead, he would spend his days at the river bank collecting rocks. In time, the troll noticed that those that came to his part of the river and tried to cross would drown a slow, watery death. As the troll did not like to see such misery, he decided to build a bridge.
Now, the troll was not a master bridge builder, but he did his best. Unfortunately, the first fifteen people that tried to use the bridge fell to the river below and died a slow, watery death. So as not to make sixteen, the troll decided that he would help anyone that would come to his bridge, cross safely and soundly.
And so his days went by. He helped anyone that came to cross his bridge and in his free time he would collect his rocks. One day, he woke to find a young girl crying nearby, which was strange to the troll because no one ever came down from the bridge. Everyone that he helped across, he would invite to his home under the bridge, but they would all say, “Perhaps another day”.
The troll went to ask her why she was crying so. The young girl was very beautiful, with auburn hair and delicate skin. She wore an elegant dress the color of blue topaz, which at the moment was tear stained from her crying. He asked her what was wrong and she replied that she was alone. She was a princess and a princess cannot be seen frolicking for all to see. She needed to be proper at all times. The troll looked around and offered her his riverbank. No one ever came down from the bridge, so there would be no one to see her having fun.
From that day on, the two spent their days collecting rocks by the river bank when the troll was not helping someone across the bridge. During those times, the princess would hide under the bridge until the troll came for her. She would look at the shelves filled with rocks that they had collected. They were all polished and beautiful. She asked him one day how it was that the rocks they collected were all dirty and grimy, but the ones that were on his shelves were so beautiful.
The troll told her that every night after she went home, he would wash the rocks in the river and spend the rest of the night polishing them with an old rag he had found. The princess looked at the troll with love and awe, amazed that he would do something so special for items so marred and beaten. He told her that there is beauty in all things, one must only take the time to see.
The next day when the princess visited the troll, she presented him with a gift. It was a long red scarf that he could use on cold winter nights. The troll asked if he could use it to polish rocks, since the rag he used was almost worn out. She told him that he could use it for that too. She then took him into the bright summer sun and showed him a beautiful sight. She told him that if they placed the scarf over her sleeve and place against the sun, they could see a different color underneath. When they did as she had said, the color they produced was a magnificent shade of magenta. The troll was amazed and after they had marveled at the sight for some time, the princess took the scarf and wrapped it around the troll’s neck. From that day on, the troll wore his scarf day and night, and used it to polish his rocks as he thought of the princess in blue.
On one of the days not long after the princess’ gift, she came upon stone. It was a clear rock and appeared to be hollow. The troll called it a Treasure Stone. If one wished hard enough and for a very long time, that wish would appear in the stone. The princess loved the stone, but knew she couldn’t take it home or her father would see it. He would then know how the princess was spending her days and forbid her from coming to the troll, ever again. So the troll kept the stone on a special shelf for the princess to marvel at whenever she came.
The months passed and one day the girl came by for one last visit. She told the troll that her father was sending her to a land far away so she could learn how to be a princess. They were both sad, but the troll understood and told her that she must go. She said she would miss the troll, but promised to return soon so that they could be together again. This made the troll very happy and as a gift to the princess, he gave her the Treasure Stone. She told him to keep it safe until she returned and that way they could both make a wish and spend the rest of their days trying to fill it.
The days turned to months and the months into years. The troll continued to help those that came to his bridge and every night he would go to the river bank. He stopped looking for stones to collect and, instead, he would sit there and cry a single tear for his princess in blue, all the while holding the Treasure Stone. As for the princess, she studied all the ways of being a princess and, as time went by, she let the memory of the troll slip away.
There came the day when the princess fell in love with a handsome prince. They set a day for marriage, set about all the preparations for the day, and, tragically, the princess pushed the last memories of the troll from her heart and her soul.
On the eve of her wedding day, the princess, with her handsome prince, attended a dinner in their honor. She greeted her guests with the proper etiquette expected of a princess. During this ceremony, the princess noticed a woman of long black hair and a flowing pink dress. Around her neck was the most beautiful necklace the princess had ever seen. It was made of perfectly round stones that seemed to glow a beautiful shade of blue. The princess asked where such a beautiful necklace had come from.
The woman was more than pleased to recount the story of the necklace. She told the princess that the stones began to appear down river from the troll’s bridge, years after the princess had left for her studies. The stones were named Troll’s Tears, for the legend was that they were his tears that fell in the river. As they rolled in the river bed, they were formed into perfect orbs. These were then collected and made into various jewelry, the necklace being only of one a handful ever produced. The woman concluded by saying that the story was pure legend, of course, but the stones were very beautiful and fetched a high price for anyone seeking to buy them.
The princess asked why she had never seen them before. The woman said they stopped finding the stones about a year ago, around the time that the princess had announced her engagement. It was then that the princess remembered the troll. She went to the handsome prince and begged him to move the wedding for another day. She needed to go and see the troll, so she could keep her promise.
The handsome prince agreed and the princess left that same night. When she got to the bridge, she rushed under calling for the troll. She looked and looked, but the troll had gone. On the shelves where the troll had displayed his collection of rocks, she found a single stone and a letter. It read:
My princess in blue,
I waited and waited, but you never came. I expect princess studies are very long. I am sorry that you did not find me at your return, but my friend in black has come for me and he says that I have helped enough people across the bridge. He says it is time for me to go and rest. I will take my collection of rocks, but I leave you the Treasure Stone. I am sorry, but I filled it by accident. I would hold it as I waited for you at the river bank. I want you to keep it anyway, so that your trip here is for not. Yes, I knew you would return. You would never forget a promise. I will miss forever, my beautiful, for you were the only one that ever came to see my rocks under the bridge.
The princess looked at the stone and when she picked it up, it burst into a magnificent light of blue. She closed her eyes so the light would subside.
When she opened them, she saw that inside the Treasure Stone was a single Troll’s Tear, except that unlike the ones she had seen before, this one had a small rose inside it. A single rose, the color of blue topaz.
The princess never married the handsome prince. Instead she spent her life at the river bank near the bridge, holding tightly to her Treasure Stone. On a night at the beginning of autumn, the princess, now very old in age, went under the bridge. When she emerged, she no longer held the stone. That night she went home and slept, never to wake again.
The Troll’s Bridge still stands where the troll had built it, but without the troll’s help, no one ever dared use it again. If you happen to go to this bridge, and you happen to go under it, and you happen to look upon the shelves that once held a vast collection of rocks, you will find a single stone. If you look at it long enough, this stone will glow a hue of purple, a dark shade of magenta. This is the color made by the color blue and the color red, so keep looking and if you are lucky, you might be able to see the blue topaz rose lovingly wrapped in a red scarf.
The End