My Expressions

Aries’ Dilemma

In the simplest of things,

“It’s upon you now,” the man breathed. He looked at the young master hopefully. “You have to fulfill the legacy.” Aries sighed and looked down at the gold-plated tiles on which his massive throne sat upon. Yet he was to take place in another seat, which seemed even bigger, almost colossal.

Doubts and Reservations

“It is not my place to do so. I am not worthy of such power,” Aries looks up at his companion who has been at his side since he was an infant. “You should be the one in my place. You are most fit.” Orion turned around facing the grounds which held the vibrant blossoms that were oh-so dear to him.

He noted how the rich smell of the freshly cut grass filled his senses and soothed the strain on his mind. “After your father passed away-” He was very rudely interrupted by Aries behind him. “Yes, yes I know. Mother grieved for a long time nonetheless she remained firm for the people and reliable to their needs. I must follow her example as a clear-cut ruler. You’ve made me mindful of that plenty of times, Orion.”

Troubling News

By the time the other finished, Orion looked over his shoulder with a frown. He was still careful to be harsh with his expressions as the effect of the loss of a mother, too, is far worse than the understanding of people can comprehend. The man shook his head at the thought and shifted his gaze back to the grown flowers. Aries stood behind him now, joining his train of thoughts.

Urgent Call to Action

As if in sync, their mind drifted off the pitiful defeat of their army in a petty mistake and a slip of a hand which changed the path of their lives they never imagined would be a possibility; the loss of a king and a father. “What must be your reason to feel unworthy of the very throne your father took place on?”

Orion raised his eyebrows in amusement and looked at Aries from the corner of his eye. He exhaled before opening his mouth to speak but the words were cut off as one of their beloved warriors came rushing in. “YOUR HIGHNESS, THERE HAS BEEN TROUBLE IN THE TOWN! THEY…” The warrior painted and couldn’t complete his sentence before two more came in shouting the same thing. “The people need you, your highness.”

Internal Turmoil

These words haunted Aries. The need of people. The need he can’t possibly fulfill if he doesn’t have the confidence to. “The drought is affecting people greatly, first it was the spread of the illnesses and death. Now, they are quarreling on their shares.

People are piling up outside the castle.” Orion rationalized as he observed the look of confusion on Aries’ face. Aries hesitated on giving a straight answer. Instead, he opted to storm out of the room with no clarification at all. This perturbed Orion. Why is the young master acting in such an unusual way? He thought to himself.

Orion’s Intervention

Aries sat upon a desk that seemed to be crammed with books of history. His head shot up as soon as the door to the entrance scraped the wooden floor. This area was nothing like the rest of the castle, which is exactly why he adored it. Mild panic was evident on his face as he investigated the door. Orion seemed to emerge out of the doorway looking questionably in all directions. His firm gaze seemed to soften as he saw Aries hunched over the desk.

Orion decided that telling Aries off would not be the best of choices and settled to halt in front of him. Aries looked up, in hopes of finding Orion’s much-renowned wisdom. But to his dismay, he met Orion’s much-disappointed vision. “I lack the leadership qualities you deem me to hold.” Aries was countered by a mere ‘hmm.’ Aries shot a muddled look at the man, now, beside him.

Usually, he had hoped a certain judicious speech would have perked him up a bit but it seems that even Orion had naught. “Come with me,” Orion said, taking a step forward. He stopped right in the middle of the room and looked over his shoulder when he noticed Aries idly standing. “Are you coming or not?”

A Lesson in Leadership

Orion had led them into a forest from the back of the castle as they couldn’t risk getting caught in the middle of the squabble. Aries halted when he fathomed his surroundings. He was now enclosed in lush green trees with a number of nests resting on each. He examined the small dusty hut afore him. It was a frivolous rose hue with a tinge of violet. The slope of the roof was ornate in bales of lime-colored leaves.

And the most important thing was the pen of sheep facing it. It was in complete contrast to the house, it didn’t have the warm and welcoming feeling the house displayed. Instead, sheep were scattered around with the seemingly cold haystacks. They looked like they hadn’t been cared for in a long time. “What am I to do here Orion?” Aries asked in a frustrated tone from walking for so long. “You’ll see that you are yet to learn to be the majestic ruler, you so desperately wanted to be since you were a tot,” Orion said calmly.

Right after he uttered the previous words, an old man stepped out of the cottage. He had a large white beard, which seemed neatly trimmed according to Aries, and a head full of snowy hair. Clad in a beige-colored cloth with a slight cowl neck. “Ah…I was expecting you, gentlemen.” The old man spoke up. Without a word, he headed back inside and hoisted something that looked like a sack over his shoulder. “I will be going now. Thank you for your kindness, Orion.”

Testing Leadership

The man, then, simply walked away without giving a second glance to the two. “It’s my pleasure,” Orion replied to the man as he was walking in the direction opposite to them. “Now’, – his face turned firm as he stepped towards Aries – ‘As you said, you apparently do not hold the control a leader must have. “Will you at least have the courtesy to tell me why you’ve brought me here?” Aries huffed, sore and irritated.

Orion simply gestured towards the flock of sheep. “What?” Aries again asked questioningly, not getting the clue. Orion let out a sigh and internally face palmed himself, thinking how he got here in the first place; because of Aries’ obliviousness. “You are to look after these sheep – or rather – lead them, for a while.” He said. Aries stared intently at him, still confused as to what he must do.

Orion shook his head in disappointment and ushered him inside the pen. “Your first task is to clean up the pen. The rest will be given to you later.” He, then, left Aries dumbfounded and standing in the middle of the pen with sheep nipping at the strewn grass below.

Lessons Learned

No matter how many lessons it took, Aries was always a slow learner. It was quite obvious that he couldn’t successfully look after the sheep even if he tried his hardest. It had been several days now, yet Aries had no clue of what to do.

Orion took it upon himself to instruct Aries day by day as to what his duty would be. Each day a new obligation. Aries just could not get used to the fact that Orion would have the audacity to make him clean up the mess of mere sheep.

Facing Challenges

“Now that you’ve learned to clean the sheep. You must move on to the next task.” Orion declared as he led Aries with the sheep following him. He turned to look at the young man. A silent indication to show if he had even an inkling of what he was talking about.

Orion let out the millionth sigh of the day and turned to look in front of him, leaves hanging in strings like a curtain. He moved them to get a clearer view. The place seemed dark, gloomy. It was cold unlike the warm house they had been in just a few hours ago. The place had a vast area of trees towering the two men and the sheep. “You are to herd the sheep,” Orion stated simply. “In this very place? It is quite eerie don’t you say?” Aries said as he brought the sheep forward nevertheless. He carefully led the sheep near the grassland for them to feed on.

With the stick in Aries’ hand, he made a peculiar noise for the sheep to follow. Which they did obediently.

Overcoming Fear

“Good. Very good,” Praised Orion. “I see you’ve taken heed to my lesson yesterday. I was afraid you’d dozed off.” Aries looked at him, proud of his work with the sheep. “Now what?” He questioned, “Now, we must wait.”

Understanding the Lesson

Aries started to learn more keenly. Every day he brought the sheep to herd. Yet he couldn’t keep his mind from wandering as to why Orion asked him to do such a thing. Was it a favor for a friend? Nothing good can come out of this anyway, Aries always told himself. Every dawn, he was to feed the sheep. Which is what he did today as well.

Although, Aries had a bad feeling about today. It was odd, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. Aries sat back and watched as the sheep filled themselves with the lavish jade colored grass. Just then, he heard some kind of shuffling behind the shrubberies. He thought nothing of it and continued observing the sheep spread across the land. He heard the noise again. This time it was closer.

Bravery in Action

As he was about to investigate the instigation of the sound, a strange creature ran right past him, toward the sheep. It was grey in color, and ran rapidly to the sheep. After moments of perceiving the situation Aries was in, he found the strange creature to be a wolf. An enormous one at that too. The wolf was about to reach the herd of the animals when Aries tailed right behind him.

He couldn’t catch up with the wolf even if he was at the peak of his speed. The only goal on Aries’ mind, right about now, was to protect the sheep. He felt obliged to do it even if the great brute was more powerful than him. The wolf reached the first sheep and was on the verge of tearing it apart with its huge fangs, however, Aries drew near the wolf and sprung right in front of it. The fury and hunger were evident on the face of the wolf.

Aries had no clue as to what to do now. He stood there, ready to take what was coming to him. He, only then, became aware of the stick in his hand. He immediately jolted his hand forward, this appalled the wolf as it took a step back. Aries found himself to be in control and immediately poked the wolf once more. A sharp hiss emitting from the beast’s mouth as it looked with fear to what Aries was going to do.

Reflection and Realization

Aries shouted to at the wolf, something that sounded like “Hrrah,” he then looked at the wolf with a firm gaze and again shouted, “Run, away you beast!” With his stick lurching forward once again. As the wolf feared for its life, yet it stood firm. Stubbornness took over it as it wasn’t going away without a fight. Aries realized this as he brought the stick towards the wolf once more. He kept moving forward as the wolf was being pushed back.

As the pair grew far from the herd of sheep, Aries spotted a ditch, probably meant for the wolf itself. He pitched the stick one last time and the wolf plummeted into the ditch. Aries hurried back and looked towards the sheep, to ensure none got hurt. Emerging from behind him, Orion looked quite pleased with himself as he spoke. “Ahh, there you are. Why must you always make me follow you, you could’ve, at the least, informed me of your location.”

The Lesson Revealed

Aries snapped his head behind in ferocity. “Well, what’s got you down?” commented Orion once more. Still looking far too happy with himself “How can you be so rash?!” Aries yelled. “Didn’t you just see the huge wolf that I just fought?!” “Well, I wouldn’t say ‘fought’. More like, prodded it until it fell.” Aries looked flabbergasted at Orion’s statement. “So you were there,” Aries said admonishingly “Couldn’t you at least have the common sense to prevent me from getting killed?!” His tone got harsher when he reached the end.

“Well, technically it was sent to teach you a lesson.” Again, Aries was ticked off “You mean to say that you sent it to kill me?!” Aries got even more furious. “Of course not’ – Orion put his hands up in defense – ‘I only saw it running toward the sheep and decided not to take any caution.”

Epiphany and Acceptance

“Now, why in the world would you do that?” Aries grew irritated. “Perhaps if you calm yourself down, I can explain.” Orion suggested. He strode further towards the slope, from which they could see all of the lands that was about to belong to Aries. “You have been patient for these past weeks. I supposed you would’ve bombarded me with questions as to why I would make you do this. “I was thinking of it.” Aries muttered under his breath. Orion pretended he didn’t hear that.

“Well, these sheep are like people – your people – the ones you said you couldn’t lead,” Aries stood beside the man who was speaking, he listened intently. “I see you’ve done your job perfectly. You’ve looked after them, even protected them of the dangers, in my opinion the wolf symbolized the drought. “If you can learn to lead the sheep, you will eventually learn to do it with people too, Aries.

The Journey to Leadership

As I said before, the sheep are like people, they will follow you just like the people will and will take your order. You can’t possibly think that you do not have the leadership when everyone has it in them, it’s just up to you to show it.”

Aries was inspired by Orion’s words. He began to realize it couldn’t be that hard to lead the people. Besides, Orion would still be by his side. “Alright then, I best be going. When the words have sunk in, you better join me.” With that, Orion left.

A Leader Emerges

Aries put the need of the ‘people’ before himself and his own safety. The need he thought he couldn’t fulfill. In the end, Orion was right everyone has leadership in them, it’s just upon them to show it. And Orion showed it to him through the simplest of things.

Aries looked around, where the leaves blew around in a small expanse and the sheep, unharmed, were feeding on the grass. A lamb gleefully rolling round in the greenery, making a sound which Aries could only make out as giggling. He decided it would be best if he learned from his lesson. Over the years, Aries became the best leader there was in the history of his lineage.

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