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 Posted: Thu Oct 05, 2006 5:08 pm
 The Crystal Heart A Vietnamese Legend The Crystal Heart is a tale that I heard when I was in boarding school. We did it as a play and it stuck in the back of my head. I was reminded of the tale again in a recent class that I took and decided to look it up again. Reading it as a story and not a play was enjoyable. It was then that I thought of this quest. I hope that you enjoy it.
Comments Are LOVEDIt is the only way that I can get better.
 Updates:
09-08-06: I have added some more info but there is still things to go.
*I have the writing done. The banners are next. Comments are really appreciated.
09-10-06: Added a Donation section for the next "Dream for a Dream" slot. I won’t be going around asking for them, but they will be accepted if offered.
*Also a connections section
10-12-06: first off this is the new place for my quest. I am really exsited about the new quester guild. I have also been thinking about not asking. I have decided that since this quest means so much to me that I am going to find a way raise more funds.
Index
1. Into
2. The Legend
3. The Legend Continues
4. Fa'e Concept
5. Detailed Personality
6. Art Work
7. Guardian
8. Donations
9. Good Luck Wishes
10. Connections
11. Questions
12 Reserved
13. To Do List
14. Questing One Says
15. Info Links
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Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 12:50 pm
 Long ago, in a palace by the Red River, there lived a great mandarin and his daughter, Mi Nuong.
Like other young ladies of her position, Mi Nuong was kept indoors, away from the eyes of admiring men. She spent most of her time in her room at the top of a tower. There she would sit on a bench by a moon-shaped window, reading or embroidering, chatting with her maid, and gazing out often at the garden and the river.
One day as she sat there, a song floated to her from the distance, in a voice deep and sweet. She looked out and saw a fishing boat coming up the river.
“Do you hear it?” she asked her maid. “How beautifully he sings!” She listened again as the voice drew nearer.
My love is like a blossom in the breeze.
My love is like a moonbeam on the waves.
“He must be young and very handsome,” said Mi Nuong. She felt a sudden thrill. “Perhaps he knows I am here and sings it just for me!”
The maid’s eyes lit up. “My lady, perhaps he’s a mandarin’s son in disguise—the man you are destined to marry!”
Mi Nuong felt a flush on her face and a stirring in her heart. She tried to make out the man’s features, but he was too far off to see clearly. The boat and the song glided slowly up the river and away.
“Yes,” she said softly. “Perhaps he is.”
All day long, Mi Nuong waited by the window, hoping to hear the singer again. The next day she waited too, and the next. But the voice did not return.
“Why doesn’t he come?” she asked her maid sadly.
As the days passed, Mi Nuong grew pale and weak. At last she went to her bed and stayed there.
The mandarin came to her. “Daughter, what’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing, Father,” she said faintly.
The mandarin sent for the doctor. But after seeing Mi Nuong, the doctor told him, “I can find no illness. And without an illness, I can offer no cure.”
The weeks passed, and Mi Nuong grew no better. Then one day her maid came before the mandarin.
“My lord, I know what ails your daughter. Mi Nuong is sick for love. To cure her, you must find the handsome young man who sings this song.” And she sang it for him.
“It will be done,” said the mandarin, and he sent out a messenger at once.
Days later, the messenger returned.
“Lord, in no great house of this province does any young man know the song. But in a nearby village I found a man who sings it, a fisherman named Truong Chi. I have brought him to the palace.”
“A fisherman?” said the mandarin in disbelief. “Let me see him.”
The messenger brought him in. The fisherman stood uneasily, his eyes wide as they cast about the richly furnished room.
For a moment, the mandarin was too astounded to speak. The man was neither young nor handsome. His clothes were ragged and he stank of fish. Certainly no match for my daughter! Thought the mandarin. Somehow, she must not realize . . . .
He gave his order to the messenger. “Bring the fisherman to my daughter’s door and have him sing his song.”
Soon Truong Chi stood anxiously outside the young lady’s room. He could not understand why they’d brought him here. What could they want? He was just a fisherman, wishing only to make an honest living. He had hurt no one, done nothing wrong!
At the messenger’s signal, he nervously started to sing.
My love is like a blossom in the breeze.
My love is like a moonbeam on the waves.
In the room beyond the door, Mi Nuong’s eyes flew open. “He’s here!” she cried to her maid. “How can that be? Oh, quickly, help me dress!”
Mi Nuong jumped from her bed. Never had she so swiftly clothed herself, put up her hair, made herself up. By the time the song drew to a close, she looked like a heavenly vision in flowing robes.
“Now, open the door!” she said, trying to calm her wildly beating heart. She forced herself to stand shyly, casting her eyes down in the manner proper to a modest young lady.
As the door pulled open, Truong Chi shrank back, not knowing what to expect. Then all at once he found himself gazing on the greatest beauty he had ever known. He felt his heart leap, and in that moment, he fell deeply, hopelessly, desperately in love.
Mi Nuong could not wait a moment longer. She lifted her eyes to look upon her beloved. And in that moment, her eyes grew wide and she burst out laughing.
A mandarin’s son? Her destined love? Why, he was nothing but a common fisherman! How terribly, terribly silly she’d been!
Shaking with mirth at her folly, she turned her head away and whispered, “Close the door.”
The door shut in Truong Chi’s face. He stood there frozen, the young lady’s laughter ringing in his ears. He felt his heart grow cold and hard.
Truong Chi was sent home. But he could not go on as before. Hardly eating or sleeping, he grew pale and ill. He no longer cared if he lived or died.
And so he died.
The villagers found him on the sleeping mat in his hut. On his chest sat a large crystal.
“What is it?” a man asked.
“It is his heart,” said a wise old woman. “The laugh of the mandarin’s daughter wounded it so deeply, it turned hard to stop the pain.”
“What do we do with it?” asked a young woman. “It is very lovely. Like one of his songs!”
“We should put it in his boat,” said another young man, “and let it float down to the sea.”
At sundown, they set the crystal in the fisherman’s boat. Then they pushed the boat from its mooring and watched in sorrow as it drifted down the river and out of sight.
But the boat did not drift to the sea. It came to shore by the mandarin’s palace. And so it was that the mandarin found it at sunrise as he strolled along the bank.
“What have we here?” he said, reaching in to pick up the crystal. He turned it over in his hand, examining and admiring it. “What a splendid gift the river has brought!”
A few days later, when no one had claimed it, the mandarin sent it to a turner to be made into a teacup. He brought the cup one evening to Mi Nuong’s room.
“A gift for my lovely daughter,” he said.
“Oh, Father, it’s beautiful! I can hardly wait to drink from it!”
When the mandarin left, she told her maid, “It’s late, so you can go to bed. But first make me some tea, so I can drink from my cup.”
The maid finished her task and went off. Mi Nuong poured the tea, blew out the candles on the table, and carried the cup to her window seat. A full moon shone into the room, and looking out, she watched the moonlight play upon the river. The scent of blossoms drifted from the garden.
Mi Nuong lifted the cup to her lips. But just as she was about to drink, she cried out in surprise and fear. She quickly set the cup down on the bench.
On the surface of the tea was the face of Truong Chi, gazing at her with eyes filled with love. And now his sweet song filled the room, familiar but a little changed.
Mi Nuong is like a blossom in the breeze.
Mi Nuong is like a moonbeam on the waves.
And Mi Nuong remembered those eyes she had seen so briefly through the open door, and she remembered her laugh. “What have I done? I was so cruel! I didn’t mean to hurt you. I didn’t know. . . . I’m sorry. So very, very sorry!”
Her eyes filled with tears. A single tear dropped into the cup.
It was enough. The crystal broke, releasing the spirit of Truong Chi. Then Mi Nuong heard the song one last time, floating off over the river.
Mi Nuong is like a blossom in the breeze.
Mi Nuong is like a moonbeam on the waves.
“Good-bye,” said Mi Nuong softly. “Good-bye.”
* * *
It was not many months more when Mi Nuong was given in marriage to the son of a great mandarin. He was young and handsome, and she felt that her dreams had come true.
Yet now, as she gazed on a different garden and a different view of the river, she often still heard the song of the fisherman echo softly in her heart.
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Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 12:51 pm
The Legend Continues
But what happened to the shards of the crystal heart? Well they where put in a special box with a lock that Mi Nuong kept with her. She would talk to them sometimes when something was bothering her heart, and always feel better after she had. She named the shards Ngai, after the herbs that healed wounds. The shards where actually holding her pain. Taking it from her, just as it had kept the pain from Truong's heart. When Mi died the shards where put away, thought of just as a trinket that the girl had loved. However pain of such magnitude is not something that can just disappear. Pain is something that needs to be transferred. This idea is not unlike the one of Jesus dieing on the cross so that we may live without sin. When Truong was set free the shards became the keepers of the pain that caused him to die. However a fate such as this is not something that is usually chosen. The shards inner pain became is own. Over the many hundreds of years the shards changed locations. The box became battered and the lock rusted. No longer pretty to anyone it was left in the woods. It was there that the box finally fell apart and the crystals lay under the decay. It was there that they began to change. After being trampled on by the many animals of the forest, the shards became many. After a while their will allowed them to fix themselves into one pit of crystal. That one crystal could do nothing however. Not really alive and not really dead. The crystals seek someone to help it become something more, so that it may finally let go of the pain kept within.
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Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 12:52 pm
 Name: Ngai: Vietnamese name meaning "herb."
Gender: Male
Age: Hundreds of years
Looks: He is pale and looks tired most of the time. His hair looks of the sheen off of a crystal, a wonderful silver color. His eyes are pure white, even though he can see. He has a skinny build. His shoulders are broad however. His ears are pointed like an elfs so that he can hear better. He has a warming presence about him that he tries to hide most of the time.
Personality: Being the pain of a broken heart is a heavy burden. He is rather quite, and frail. Not opening up to many, if at all, he is looking for answers. Never having felt any other emotions before, he is awkward with others. ((more in next post))
Seeking: To understand his existence
Powers: Seeing the pain if others: when he wishes to he is able to see the sufferings of others. These usually show themselves as orbs that glow from within people's chests. When he is young he won’t be able to control this power, but as he gets older he will. Making objects turn into crystal: something that he will be able to do in his teen stage. It won’t be easy to control and it will frighten him at first, but it will become useful later. Turning his body into a crystal: he will be able to do this as a toddler. When he gets scared his body turns into a crystal like state. It wont be something that he will be able to control however until he is a youth.
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Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 12:54 pm
 Baby: Ngai is a quite baby. Actually Ngai is completely quiet. He never cries or anything. Occasionally he will throw a little fit, but it’s basically him kicking is clenched fists around and curling his toes. He only smiles when he is alone with his guardian, otherwise he is almost like a doll. He is able to the orbs of pain in others, but he dose not yet know what they are. He dose not like crowds and tends to clings to his mother.
Toddler: Ngai still is not talking, and it is found out that he can not. It makes communication extremely frustrating for the little one. He fast learns how to walk so that he may get away from others. He starts to learns some sigh language but isn’t very good at it yet. He seems to care about his mother very much, but not many other people. He only likes to meet new people when it is one on one. He is shy and it is hard going places with him. Every once in a while when he gets scared, he turns into a crystal type state. It lasts a few hours and he becomes extremely heavy during that time.
Kid: Having found out that he was once part of someone else’s heart, Ngai is looking for more answers. Having learned sign language his is now trying to learn to read with the help of his mother. He is starting to understand that the glowing orbs that he can see on everyone’s chest something that only he can see. He is still not quite sure what they are, but he guesses they have something to do with the heart. He still changes into a crystal type state when he is overwhelmed with things and dose not like to be in crowds. He is shy and a little ashamed that he can not talk like the others can.
Teen: Ngai is troubled by the fact that is just the broken part of a man’s heart. He wants to learn why he was left behind in this world. He is able to control when he sees the orbs inside of others and learns that they are the pain of others. He dose not understand why everyone else has pain inside of them but that pain is not manifested like he was. He thinks that he is the pain it self and feels terrible for being like the pain in others. He is tall at this point and interested in learning new things. He is learning magic from his mother and finds out that he is able to make other objects crystal. It is hard for him to do but something that he won’t give up on learning. Meeting new people has become easier for him, but when overwhelmed by to many he can still become scared and turn into a crystal state.
Youth, Adult [Fa'e & Human], and Elder [Fa'e & Human] will be decided as he ages.
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Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 12:57 pm
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Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 12:58 pm
 Name: Znithose
Gender: Female
Age: Created by chaos at the beginning of time, then put in a coma like state, has been awake for 2 ½ years.
Looks: 5 feet 9, Zinthose and looks around 23 or so. She as large while feather wings on her back that she can fly with. Her skin color is a light purple and silver. Half of her body is covered with the light purple with silver freckles while the other half is a light sliver with purple freckles. She has long deep blue hair with aqua marine tips. Her eyes are a deeper purple then her skin and she has elf ears. There is a tattoo on her lower back of a crescent moon in black ink.
Personality: Zinthose is a kind person who has gone through a lot. She is open the others but will not tell everything about herself. She cares a lot about her family for what the have done for her and would never leave them. Zin can be very stubborn when it comes to making sue everyone is ok. She recently expelled the evil that lived in her heat and went against the will of chaos by doing so. She is living a much more normal life now that she has chosen the path of Justice instead of chaos. She is living in her own place now and looks forwards to the next chapter in her life.
Seeking: To enjoy her new alignment.
Powers: Basic magic with the wand she was given as a child. She sometimes learns new useful spells.
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Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 1:07 pm
 This is a section where I can keep track of what I have and what my friends have kindly given to me.
Solar Headdress
Elegant Veil X 2
Chyaku Norisu Scarf
Winter Fox Mink
Angelic Bracelet
Ancient Kantana
Staff of the Angels
Gwee the Dragon
Angelic Microphone X 2
Steel-plated Ninja Band
Bani Clips
KiKi Kitty plushie X 2
CoCo Kitty Plushie
Thank You Letter for Apr 2006 X 2
Thank You Letter for August 2006
I don’t know what this is all worth, but hopefully it will help.
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Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 1:08 pm
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Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 6:05 pm
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Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 6:07 pm
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Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 6:10 pm
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Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 6:12 pm
2. Think of way to make gold 3. Think of what kind of world he could have been living in.
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Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 6:14 pm
 Little Pink Fluff Ball Bunnies
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Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 6:18 pm
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