Kind
Kara-
As you know, the wand chooses
the wizard, or in this case, the witch. It is my highest honor to inform you
that the legendary Kindness Wand has chosen you to be its master. The Kindness
Wand choses only witches or wizards of great prestige, wisdom, cleverness, and
particularly kind hearts. The wand has laid dormant in our museum for
centuries. It has recently awoken and chosen to be the instrument of focus for
your natural born magic. To understand the power and nature of the wand, first
you must hear its story.
Kilda
and the Kindness Wand
Once upon a time when magic ran wild
in the world there lived a human girl. Her name was Kilda, though no one had
ever told her. The name, like the girl, simply existed. There were no other
humans to explain how she had gotten there. There was no one else to tell her
why she was alone. So, Kilda did not think about it. She could not be lonely if
she did not know there was another way to be. Kilda, in fact, did not know much.
There was no one to teach her.
So, she lived her life, blissfully exploring
her world. Kilda, like most humans, had a sense of right and wrong, an
understanding of cause and effect. She used these tools to adapt to her
kingdom, niche, world, whatever it was. She did not have a name for much of
anything, which was ever so frustrating.
Kilda discovered what was safe to eat and what
was not. Several eating experiments had left her sick. Kilda began to find
things she liked very much to eat, and some not so much. Sometimes the things
she found to eat were sweeter when they were certain colors. So, she looked for
those colors on other things. Unfortunately, this strategy did not always work.
Kilda lived on, gaining new knowledge each
day, exploring farther and farther from the place that was her home, though she
knew not what to call it, or that it should be called anything for that matter.
But, she knew to come back to the place. She belonged to the place as much as
it belonged to her.
One day as Kilda explored she came upon
something new. The new item turned out to be many things. They were not things
to eat, or wear, or sit on. They smelled musty. They were diverse colors,
shaped basically the same, but different in size, some thick, some thin. Some
would bend, others stiff. They made a wonderful soft noise when Kilda turned
them over in her hands. As she did this, Kilda noticed that each one of them were
filled with markings.
Kilda sat down and explored each one as she had
explored her own world. They were fascinating, and confusing. She had no idea
what purpose the objects had. One had things inside that she recognized. It was
food, but not. At first, Kilda was monumentally confused. She saw the thing she
liked to eat, but it was nothing she could eat. It did not feel like food. It
just looked like it. There were other things next to the not-food. Each food thing that was not a food thing had its own
other… Thing. It had a name! Kilda
began to understand. Everything, like Kilda, had a name.
Curiously Kilda searched the objects for
hours, finally deciphering a few names. Lingonberry was the first. The food she
liked was Lingonberry. Then she deciphered the objects that she had found were
books filled with words that represented things, ideas, and actions.
How Kilda learned to read in such a short
time is a mystery. Perhaps it was because no one was there to tell her she
could not. Kilda had to get back to her place before the light changed to darkness.
She brought all the books she could carry. Once she got back, Kilda plopped
down under her favorite tree, a sycamore, she would soon learn, to read more.
Before night came, she learned several new words: curiosity, kindness, caring, determination,
and giving. Kilda dreamt that night about the new words she had learned.
The next day Kilda discovered even more. She realized
that some things had several names, some big with meaning, some to distinguish
between other things, some to be funny or scary. She decided that she wanted to
name things. If most things had several
names anyway, why could she not give a few more? she thought.
Kilda tested various names for different
things, as if they were shoes that could be fitted. She tried making up her own
words like, ‘bumble-thumper’ for the clumsy rabbit. The bunny did not seem to
care what its name was. For other things, like the sycamore tree, she used
words that she learned. The immense tree provided shade for her without even
being asked. It gave shelter for the squawky
nut-crunchers (squirrels) and hammer-headed chirpy-doos (woodpeckers). The
name ‘Kindness’ seemed to fit the tree. So, she sat in the shade that Kindness
provided and learned all she could.
Time passed, and Kilda’s knowledge grew. She
often went back to get more books from the pile. She returned the books she had
mastered. What if someone else wanted to
learn names? Thankfully, there were
always new books waiting for her. Mysteriously, there were often books on
subject which she had pondered over the previous day.
Kilda would spend days researching one
subject, learning all she could. When her studies took her in another
direction, she would follow it, often bringing her back to an original
question. These connections were sometimes quite confusing.
Kilda often had to draw her own maps in the
dirt with her finger to connect different subject for a better understanding.
One day, while Kilda scribbled a universal equation on the ground under
Kindness, she noticed a flat-faced hoot-flapper (owl ) was watching her.
Kilda was having a particularly tough time
with this mysterious connection. “Do you know something I do not?” she asked.
His wide face tilted as if tuning his ears
would help him to understand.
Kilda realized he was curious. He, like
Kilda, wanted to learn. “Maybe, if I explain it to you, you could help me
figure it out,” she said.
The hoot-flapper flapped and danced excitedly
from one of Kindness’s branches.
And just like that, Kilda began teaching.
“This is quark theory. A quark is any of number of subatomic particles carrying
a fractional electric charge, postulated as building blocks of the hadrons.
Quarks have not been directly observed, but theoretical predictions based on
their existence have been confirmed experimentally.”
The flat-faced hoot-flapper’s eyes widened.
His feathers ruffled excitedly. He, in fact, hooted.
Kilda noticed his enthusiasm. “Yes, it is
exciting. With a word like, ‘quark’ who would not want to know all about it?” Her lesson continued through the day. When she
was tired, and they had reached a good stopping point she invited him back for
more lessons the next day.
She slept that night with a better
understanding of quark theory. It seems that as she explained it to the owl,
her understanding of the details grew stronger.
The next morning Kilda was awoken by a
long-toothed needle-rump (porcupine) nudging her foot. “May I help you,” she
asked?
The insistent creature nodded his head toward
Kindness. Then turned and ambled back toward the tree.
Kilda wiped the sleep from her eyes to find a
plethora of woodland creatures waiting for her. There was the flat-faced hoot
flapper, a rock-backed swimmy-disc (slider turtle), a knife-nosed neckapotomus
(great heron), a hammer-headed chirpy-doo, and even a snot-otter (hellbender
salamander). They all sat around the base of Kindness or perched upon his low
branches looking at Kilda expectantly.
She stepped in front of the small crowd. “Are
you all here to learn with me?” she asked.
The creatures looked about at each other for
a moment. The flat-faced hoot-flapper hooted first. Then the most wonderful
sound Kilda had ever heard happened. A chorus of positivity rang out. Some chirped
cheerily. Other cackled cautiously. A few hissed hopefully. One grunted
gratefully. Even the snot-otter gave a slimy thumbs-up.
Kilda smiled. She moved some rocks about so everyone could
see better (or hear better if they did not have eyes). The dusty dirt patch she
had used for equation scribbling was cleared for a fresh lesson. “Using my
finger to draw in the dirt simply would not do, any more. I will need a stick,”
Kilda mused.
Kindness gently shook. A stick the size of,
well a wand, dropped to Kilda’s feet. She picked it up. It fit her hand just
so. The stick had one pointy end, perfect for scratching in the dirt.
“Thank you, Kindness,” she said and hugged
the trunk of the mighty sycamore. She continued addressing the class, “Well
then, so long as you are nice to one another, you are all welcome. Also, if you
have a question, please ask, or hoot or snarf or gargle or whatever it is you
can do to get my attention.”
Kilda knew the animals could not speak in
human tongue. She had heard other humans on her explorations but avoided them
at any cost. Each time she heard them speak, they sounded grumpy or mean.
Although Kilda knew humans could do amazing things, she was certainly afraid of
the individuals she had encountered.
Kilda continued addressing the crowd, “I will
happily explain any subject in a manner which we can better comprehend. Nobody
understands everything the first time. Today, we are going to learn about the human
folklore!” And that is how Kilda’s classroom under Kindness began.
Weeks past and the curious crowd under
Kindness grew. Not everyone showed up every day. There were nests to build,
nuts to gather, and burrows to unbury. Kilda settled into a pattern of teaching
the first half a day for six days a week. The second half of each day, she
explored her books to learn new things. Kilda could not decide which part of
her day she loved the most. The first half, spent sharing what she had learned,
or the second, when she learned something new. It was a wonderful life for a
curious girl.
On the seventh day, Kilda walked to the pile
of books to return the week’s previous books and acquire new ones. Sometimes,
she would think of a question during her journey. Magically, there would be a
book or several on just that subject. She always said, “Thank you so very much
for the books!” aloud as she left. There was no one there that she noticed, but
it could not hurt to be polite.
One sunny spring morning as Kilda wiped the
sleep from her eyes, she noticed something was amiss. The classroom under
Kindness was empty. Most of the tree-dwellers like the squawky nut-crunchers,
knife-nosed neckapotomus, and hammer-headed chirpy-doos were high up in the
canopy. The ground crawlers like the snot-otter were hiding under stones or the
rock-backed swimmy-discs simply hid inside their shells. The stick-headed lawn-munchers (deer) and bumble-thumpers
where nowhere to be seen. That was odd.
“What is going on?” Kilda asked one of the
flat-faced hoot-flappers she saw shivering in a high branch.
He pointed his head toward the crotch of
Kindness’s first big branch, where it met the trunk. There sat a young blue
dragon. Her scales glistened in the early sunlight and smoke drifted from her
nostrils. They were so rare that Kilda had not come up with a name for them,
yet.
Kilda was slightly startled. She had read
books on dragons but thought them to be extinct. They were reportedly fearsome
creatures. However, this one did not seem terribly fierce. Though, the other
creatures were quite concerned.
Kilda addressed the dragon. “Are you here to
learn?”
“Yes,” she replied.
“Wonderful!” Kilda exclaimed! “I have never shared
with a dragon, nor have I ever spoken with anything that could answer back with
words! You are welcome if you follow the rules. Rule number one, be nice to one
another. Rule number two, ask a question if you are confused.”
The dragon looked at Kilda. “I have a
question.”
“Go ahead, and thank you for obeying the
rules,” Kilda said.
“By being nice to one another, does that mean
I can not eat anyone here, not even a bite?” the dragon asked.
The classmates all around shuddered.
The question surprised Kilda, but all the
same, she had to follow her own rule and be nice. The dragon was simply asking
a question, following rule number two. “That is correct. You cannot eat or even
bite anyone here. That would not be very nice,” she replied.
“Ok. I will do my best,” the dragon said.
“Thank you,” Kilda replied, thinking of how
to make the dragon and the rest of the creatures more comfortable. “If you need
to bite something, bite my wand. It is just here, anytime you need it.” She put
the wand at the base of the tree.
The dragon replied, “Thank you so very much.
I may just need to do that.” But the blue-scaled blaze-burper behaved. (Kilda had
thought of a name for dragons that very moment).
Class went on for several months with few
interruptions. The students became comfortable with the dragon’s presence.
Until one summer day during class a ruckus erupted from the nearby woods.
Humans had found their way to Kindness, Kilda, and the class.
Dozens of men stomped from the woods carrying
torches and pointy sticks. They walked right to toward the clearing under
Kindness.
“There is the beast!” yelled on of the men as
he pointed a pitch fork at the blue-scaled blaze-burper. The intruders blitzed
toward the tree.
The dragon picked up Kilda’s wand and bit it
nervously. Then decided to climb higher into Kindness out of reach of the aggressive
men.
Most animals knew to stay well away from
humans. The rest of the class scattered, except for Kilda. Even though she was
quite afraid, she stood tall, or as tall as a young girl could under the
circumstances. She picked up her wand, a tooth was stuck in the handle where
the blaze-burper had chewed it. She waved the wand at the men, pointing it directly
at the nose of the leader.
“This is our classroom under Kindness! Here
we are nice to one another! Here we do NOT hurt each other. This is the first
rule of Kindness!” She stamped her foot. She had never yelled before. She did
not like doing it.
Kilda tried very hard to remain calm, but the
idea of someone hurting one of her friends was infuriating. Plus, they were
breaking the rules of Kindness. Kilda could not allow it any further.
The man stopped at Kilda’s confusing
outburst. “What are you doing here, little girl? We are here to kill that
dragon. That beast is going to eat our livestock and burn our houses! Now, get
out of the way or I will move you, myself.”
“You most certainly will not kill that
blue-scaled blaze-burper!” Kilda exclaimed. “This is our place!” She had to
think quickly. She had never seen nor spoken to another human before. She
thought of their history and folk lore. Some of the things they feared were ghosts,
sharks, tigers, fire, and magic. Kilda did not have any of those things, that
she knew of, but the men did not know that. Men also feared witches, she
remembered.
“What are you going to do to stop us, little
girl?” The man laughed. The army he fronted chuckled as well.
Kilda pointed her wand at the man’s nose. She
had to stand on her toes to reach his height. She swatted his bulbus
protuberance of a snout with every word. “I am a terrible witch! You see my
wand? It comes from the mightiest tree in all the world, Kindness. If you take
one more step towards the blue-scaled blaze-burper, I will curse you for
generations. I will set your houses ablaze, make your mutton go mad, poison you
wells, rot your teeth, shrink your skulls, and whittle your bones! I will kill
you with Kindness!”
A spark flashed from the tip of the wand
which singed the man’s moustache, and temporarily blinded him. It could have
been residual dragon spit from the tooth stuck in the handle that ignited the
spark. It could have been magic. It may have been both. Only Kilda and Kindness
really knew. But it happened.
“She be a witch! Run!” The man yelled, but
most of his men had already scampered away like a stick-headed lawn-muncher at
the sight of the fire.
“And do not ever come back!” Kilda yelled. The
creatures sheltering in the cover of Kindness squawked, hissed, yalped, barked,
bellowed, and hollered right along with Kilda. And the men never returned.
The legend of Kilda the Witch grew throughout
the kingdom. As the story spread, many wanted to know how the little girl knew
so much about the world. That alone was proof enough for most to call her a
witch and stay clear.
In the stories written about Kilda, the truth
is that she was a witch. It was not her immense knowledge that made her magic. It
was because she could talk to animals and trees and they understood her. But,
if anyone had asked Kilda, she would have kindly told her truth. “It is not
magic that I know what I know. It was a library, hard work and determination
that got me here. I would have shown you, if you had but asked.”
A lesson taught to everyone on that day long
ago: Never underestimate the power of an educated girl wielding Kindness.
Kind
Kara-
Now you know the legend of the
Kindness Wand. Over time the wand has found its way to many witches and wizards.
It has seen hundreds of adventures. Every wand has its own powers and the
Kindness Wand is among the most powerful of all. So, wield it well, as I know
you will.
Sincerely,
-Michael P Wines
Curator of Magical Artifacts
Order of the Dragon