 | Name | A Thousand Nights (VI) |
| Type (Ingame) | Quest Item | |
| Family | Book, A Thousand Nights | |
| Rarity |  | |
| Description | A wandering researcher once walked through rainforest, desert, and city during a time of great catastrophe, collecting these stories along the way. It is said that the original work truly did contain countless tales and that naught but a fragment of that is still extant today. |
Item Story
| Tale of the Bird Chaser This is a story of an old bird chaser. North of the kingdom lies a dense forest. It is home to a flock of birds that can mimic the words of humans. They often gather like a cloud by the break of the dawn. As they fly in the forest, iridescent hues dance on their spread wings, and their chatters echo round the tree crowns. But these creatures are not alone, for an old and frail man dressed in tattered rags always comes and spends all day chasing after them like a savage. Just as how a towering tree was once tender and delicate, the old man used to be fair and handsome. He grew up in a village by the forest. Agile and kind, he was much-loved by all. Every girl in the village adored him, but his heart fluttered only for his love, a young priestess serving in the forest who always fascinated him with miracles of the divine. The young man often thought that he would give up anything to be with the girl, until death did them part. Alas, that which is sweet never lasts. A grueling war broke out, and the young were conscripted, including the man. Before he left for the battlefield, he saw his love weep for the first time. Teardrops rolled down her cheeks like dew falling from a green leaf — then down into his heart. Yet little did he know the actual reason behind the girl's melancholia. He made hasty promises, wishing to ease the girl's sorrow — one caused by departure, as he then naively believed. With grief written all over her face, the girl gave no response to his beautiful vows. After a brief silence, she said she would send talking birds to relay her words of longing. It was an unusual use of power, but the young man took her act as a means to secure his love. So he nodded. The young man departed the next day to honor his duty to his kingdom. It would soon be over, he thought. But reality eventually proved him wrong — the war dragged on and on. It was not until stubble grew on his chin and his eyes and hands became battle-hardened that the dust finally settled. His only solace in this brutal war was the birds from his hometown. As if guided by the gods, they always managed to come to him on quiet nights, carrying her words — the whispers of her bitter-sweet longing, telling him of changes in the village, or of a few short verses she wrote him. The sustained separation had not diminished his love for her. Instead, if love was a monument, it would be driven into his heart. When the war finally ended, he hurried home to propose to his beloved, only to find that she had died of an acute illness on a cold night shortly after his departure. The young man refused to accept it, for he had just been visited by a talking bird the previous day, when his young priestess read him beautiful prose through its mouth. He broke into the girl's closed chamber. But as the sunlight filled the dim room, it stirred what was inside: countless enchanted birds waiting to be awakened from their rich slumber. In a single instant, the birds rushed past him, wings flapping by his ears, and flew through the open door into the sky like an ethereal cloud, returning to their home. At last, the young man stood alone, his love's empty room before him. It finally dawned on him why the girl had made that most unusual arrangement with that saddened expression on her face the night they parted. It had been an arrangement for a lifetime — on her dying bed, she must have taught the birds countless words, more than enough to fill his every night since with a flicker of light. Birds live far longer than humans think. From that day on, the young man has been chasing the talking birds in the forest. In their voices, he seeks to catch her lingering soul, to repent for his sin of scattering her love in the woods. Maddened yet tireless, the young man has not stopped his chase for a single day as he turned into a middle-aged man, then aged into an old man. The talking birds now speak of nothing new, and their numbers have dwindled. But what if there is still one that he has not yet met — one with something from her that he has not yet known? The obsession traps the bird chaser in the forest, and upon his face is written the toll of years. He skillfully sets up traps very catch the birds and keeps them in a cage, stroking their necks, playing with them, and giving them the best cereals and clearest water. Then, he will say to them, "Speak, Talking Birds, speak of my love, who the forest favored so dearly. Speak of what she taught you." And so, the generously-fed birds will tell such a story... |
Am i stupid or i can't see anything but HP% scaling on her kit?