Vignette - Death Under Oak (repost with pic)

[jdarlack]

I'm going ahead and reposting this. My original post had issues.

Pic below links to Flickr. It's an 8x8 vignette adapting "The Pardoner's Tale" from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales for the [url=https://www.facebook.com/groups/477341774018308]LEGO Forest Folks[/url] group on Facebook.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2oa6zbn][img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52611477 ... 0f4871.jpg[/img][/url]

DEATH UNDER OAK: There once were three forest rogues—brothers, young and boisterous. In a night of revelry, cheer—and perhaps too much ale—the brothers decided to track down the enemy of all enemies: Death himself. They stumbled from the tavern a wandering in the forest and found an old decrepit hermit. They teased him in his feeble age, and demanded he show them the way to Death, for they planned to defeat him once and for all. The hermit pointed deep into the forest and with a grin explained that Death could be found under a gnarled oak.

The three rogues set out at once, boisterous and loud, until they came upon an old oak tree. To their surprise (and cheer) they didn’t find Death. They found a hoard of glistening gold. Tired, and wary with greed, they decided to stay the night, split the treasure three ways, and go on their merry way. They could always avenge Death later.

The three of them grew thirsty, and the two eldest brothers insisted that the younger rogue go to town and grab some wine so they could celebrate the night. While the youngest grumped away, the others started to conspire. If they killed the younger rogue (even though he was their brother), they’d have more of the treasure to split. Their heinous plan was set.

But while the youngest grumped into town to raid the winery, he entertained his own heinous thought. He’d poison two of three bottles with rat poison. This would be the last time his older rogue brothers would bully him to some menial task, and now he’d be all the richer. He walked back with his three bottles.

When he got to the tree, his brother rogues greeted him with a loud boisterous, "Halloo, little brother!" While one patted the youngster's back, the other plunged the dagger in deeply. The youngest rogue immediately died, leaving his three bottles and all the treasure.

The two eldest were thirsty and feeling a bit guilty (but not too guilty, as they were rogues after all). So, they decided to take two of the bottles of wine to drink, and poured the third on the ground to ‘honor’ their brother (of course that bottle just happened to be messy and smeared with the ick of their brother’s blood). Each grabbed his own wine and gulped it down...

You can guess the rest of the tale. Both brothers surely died—the greedy rats that they were. The old hermit was right. The rogues found DEATH UNDER OAK.

This old tale has been told to young Forest Guardians from time immemorial as a warning that death is never far from greed, and that all the loot in the world is not worth the loss of life—your own, or your companions'.