The Golden Pear

In the beginning of a world like ours, a pear tree sprouted. From its branches grew once a new moon, a golden pear. The inhabitants who lived in this world journeyed to the pear tree for the chance of biting into this golden pear. For taste was not what drew them, it was the power they received and the magical gifts granted.

Some who ate the golden pear gained the power to conjure a sphere of fire or light. Others swam beneath the deep surfaces of the water for hours before ever needing to take a breath. Some could create a gale of wind with one deep breath, and some could make seeds grow into a bountiful harvest in mere days.

Over time, the pear tree became a site of battles, and death littered the surrounding earth. The golden pear shriveled when hands red with blood touched its flesh. Knowledge spread that only the worthy could get the golden pear. A society of people built a wall encircling the pear tree. They built a castle nearby and the pear tree became part of the royal garden.

Creator ruled this world alongside their children, the other gods, until one day they had to banish a child. The god of the animals had created creatures that harmed those he had sworn to protect. They sentenced the fallen god to stay in the Void. It was a place of darkness and misery, and he became lonely. He had no one to keep him company but the creatures he had created. If he had the golden pear, he believed his powers would amplify and he could curry favor with them for a chance to be one of them again. He wanted to leave the darkness of Creator’s displeasure to bask in his light once more.

The fallen god had a plan. He wanted the snake to enter the royal garden and bring him the golden pear. He believed that an animal would be exempt from the golden heart rule. Diabos followed his master’s orders and left the Void for the light.

When the obsidian snake entered the garden, the queen’s daughter, a young princess, was playing beneath the tree. She wore a crown of pear blossoms over her glowing white hair. She was singing to a bird perched upon her hand. It startled Diabos to set his eyes upon something so beautiful, brimming with good. After his time in the Void, beauty and goodness had become a distant memory.

“Hello,” he hissed out.

Startled, the princess spun around, resting her amethyst eyes on the snake curled around the pear tree, diamond-shaped head inching towards her own. Her ruby lips parted in surprise, then shifted into a smile that seemed to thaw a piece of the icy heart of Diabos.

“Hello, obsidian snake. Why are you in the royal garden?” The bird fluttered away, and she watched it go before turning back to Diabos.

“I am here to speak with you,” he hissed in reply, retreating a fraction.

“Whatever for,” she said, standing up and reaching for a higher branch of the tree. She swung her body up and landed on the higher branch, her gaze fixed on the snake.

“What is the golden pear’s power?” Diabos was in awe of this girl’s beauty.

“I know it brings good fortune to those who eat of it,” she said, standing on the branch, her body blocking the pear from Diabos.

“That is why I am here.”

“No, you will not be getting this golden pear,” she removed a dagger from her boot. “Those deemed worthy shall be the only recipients.”

Diabos lifted his head until he was level with her dagger. “Why am I not worthy?”

“Only those with golden hearts may have the golden pear. The gods give gifts and decide who receives one.”

“How do you know my heart is not golden?” Diabos hissed.

“I am from the Kingdom of Luna. I have a spark of her power resting within me.”

Diabos reeled back as if a bolt of lightning had struck him. “The power of Luna! My emotions you may hold the power to identify, I’ll believe that but only Luna can tell if my heart is golden.”

The young princess lowered her dagger another fraction and her eyes glowed even more brightly as she looked at this trespassing snake.

“I see what you wish to hide.” She swung up to the next branch, sitting next to the golden pear. “I see the oily blackness that swirls in your heart like poison. I know you answer to the fallen god and that he wishes to devour this world with his darkness.”

She touched the golden pear this time, fingers touching its flesh, as strands of her hair lifted with the breeze.

Diabos slithered towards the golden pear, entwining his body around the tree’s trunk, pushing his way towards the branch that held the princess and the golden pear.

“I always choose what is best for my master. What is best for my master is best for me.” His hiss rose, betraying the fact he didn’t believe in the words that he was speaking.

The girl, who Diabos assumed was a princess, glowed with moonlight and it infused her dagger until she was like a small moon perched on the tree. Diabos realized she was not the princess, but the goddess of the moon.

Diabos froze as he recognized who the princess was and the powers she possessed. She could banish him from ever leaving the Void again. She could trap him in an endless cycle of only darkness and misery. This was his moment to choose between the light and the dark. Good and evil. Choosing between what his master wanted and what the mortals need.

The moonlight formed a barrier around the pear tree as Luna sang. She floated above Diabos, knocking him to the ground, and the blackness of his heart would not allow him to penetrate the moonlight.

Luna’s eyes were closed, her hair floating as she sang her lullaby. Diabos slithered back, feeling his power fading, and weakness overtook his body as he slithered back through the small gap in the garden’s wall. He slithered back to the Void, returning to the darkness, misery, and his master.

The power of light had defeated the dark. Light won the battle, but the war between light and dark began on this day.