Myth continued

This is the fourth part of a five day post.  If you haven't read the first one take the time to go back and read it.  It will make more sense that way.

4

In the breeze it will sway and carry the fragrant scent on the air like dancing happiness.  It is the smell of charm and luck. But it is subtle, it won’t overwhelm.  It tickles and teases the periphery of smell and awareness.  It is there but will fade with any attempt to single it out.  It joins in with every other smell and enhances them and made them complete.

For all the beauty of smell the plant holds it is nothing amazing to be seen.  It tries to be plain and not be noticed.  It is the face in a crowd that is seen and never remembered, the face that is almost forgotten even while looking at it.  And while it is plain it is everywhere in the high plain and low mountain.  It hugs the cool and shaded spots and it could also be found on two pages in the book.

The page for Cannegor (making up names is hard) was like any other.  It had the name (right after Ca’artil and before Casret) at the top. Beneath the name was a diagram of the plant in bloom.  There was a history of the plant and its origins.  The pages then gave explanations on uses for the plant.  It laid out the method of preparation and instruction on administration.  There was also a section of warning about the harmful effects of its use in unwise dosages.

Among the uses of Cannegor are the mundane (like as a cleaning agent and demulcent for enflamed tissue) and the very useful.  The most useful was as an antidote for venom of the grass snake that was common in the farmers’ fields.  A beverage made from the roots was taken orally to counteract the effect of the poison.  Without the antidote the snake venom would paralyze the body and put the unfortunate soul into a coma that ended with death when the heart stopped.

            While the drink would cure the bitten it had side effect of its own.  It would cause a high fever that would cause delirium.  In that state of delirium there would be a hallucinations and a semi-euphoric high.  If taken while no grass snake poison was in the blood it would cause the hallucinations and high without the fever and sweating.  It was known as the escapist drug to those who used it as a tool to forget the pain and woes of life’s hardship.  To many of the citizens of the kingdom the drug was unknown; but there were those who knew it and used it.  Among the users was the king.

Before the unexpected and unexplained death of the king’s wife and son he was a proud and optimistic man.  But when sickness hit and took his wife and the kingdom’s heir the king was ashamed at having only surviving daughters and a no queen to stand by his side.  Instead of taking a new wife and bearing another son the king slid into depression and turned to addiction.

As the king’s addiction grew his ability to rule diminished.  Slowly the burden of the kingdom’s operation shifted to the king’s council.  They, worried with the condition of the king, took matters into their own hands.  They signed a secret edict outlawing the plant’s existence.  A group of men was hired from the kingdom’s treasury to destroy every last trace of the plant. It took nearly a year to do but they eliminated the plant from the whole of the kingdom. It was these men, under the stamp of the king’s personal seal, that took the pages from the book.

As their work progressed the supply of Cannegor shrank.  It became increasingly hard to obtain.  Because of the secrecy of the operation no one took action to hoard or save any of the plant or seed.  It was only a matter of time until the last plant was destroyed and it became extinct.

And while different stories about the mysterious disappearance began to circulate the knowledge of what really happened (that was held by so few) was tucked away in the deep parts of the mind not to be spoken of.  The king’s council let the stories continue and even promoted them.  One man however remembered the story and saved it for the time when he could tell his son.  He told me. And now I am telling you, son.  I will begin to teach you about the plant and its use and how to identify it.

My father collected seeds from the plant because he could not bear the thought of the plant being lost forever.  He collected enough to be able to bring it back at some point in time.  He wasn’t able to do it in his lifetime.  There were those still alive that were part of the conspiracy to destroy it.  He gave me the key to the lock that protects them.