Under The Moonlight

Sebastian came across her in the night along the riverbank under the moonlight. He was a painter, a well known one in fact as he had been commissioned several times by the King. He often walked to the river in the middle of the night to clear his head. This night he saw a beautiful maiden staring at the moon with a look of pure anguish. She was not frightened by him, and when he asked about her heavy sadness, she explained that she was tormented by nightmares at night and ghoulish day-dreams each day. Sebastian tried to comfort her with useless words, but he instinctively knew that her soul was allready lost. After they parted he could not get the image of her out of his mind, and spent three days and nights painting miniature paintings of her in the same pose, as he had seen her on the bank that night. He confusedly tried to erase the anguished look in her eyes each time he painted her. When he felt he succeeded, he begged off a favor from the local jewlerysmith and had a necklace made with her tiny portrait in the center of the pendant. He went back to the river, treasure in hand. He wanted to show her what her lovely face could look like without sadness. When he arrived to the river, he found another beautiful lady weeping. It was her sister! She explained that her sister had taken her life, here, in the dark swirling waters, as her maladies had been too much to bare in this life. Sebastian took the sister's hand and gently placed the jewel in her palm.