The Prior Quest (The Bookania Short Stories)

Title: The Prior Quest

Series: The Bookania Short Stories (#1)

Year: 2012

Author: Kendra E. Ardnek

Summary: How far will a man go to repay a debt made in his youth? Push au Kim’s life was spared by an enemy soldier, and he vowed to someday repay the man. When he finally finds him again, he finds that he has just died, leaving behind three sons.

Well, on to plan B. (from Goodreads)

Main Characters:
~ Boy
~ Push au Kim

Review: This reads just like a fairy tale! For some odd reason, my brain wants to register it as a fairy tale retelling, but I can’t be sure. *adjusts librarian glasses* Well, whether it is or not, it’s still wonderful. I don’t think I enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed some of Kendra’s other short stories, but I would still recommend it to other readers.

Once upon a time, there was a miller-turned-soldier who had but one son — his pride and joy. While in the war, he caught a young enemy who pleaded to be let go as he, also, was his father’s only son. He also promised to repay the miller-turned-soldier for this kind deed. Moved with compassion, the miller-turned-soldier let him go. The war ended, peace was restored, and the miller-turned-soldier went home to find he had another son! Then he had a third some time later just for good measure. However, the wife died before telling anyone the last son’s name, so instead of renaming him, they just called him “Boy.”

And that’s where it starts. Years later, when the miller is dead, Push au Kim (the young enemy) returns to pay his debt and insists on helping one of the sons since he cannot help the father. The older two sons want nothing to do with this odd foreigner, so naturally, in the normal fairy tale style, it’s the third and youngest who gets chosen. With Boy at his side, Push is determined to repay that debt to the umpteenth degree… and Boy is quite astonished at how it all plays out.

Advisory: Push does some, ah, less than nice actions to gain wealth and status for his young master (i.e. dumping people in ovens, lying) which I would not recommend for anyone to copy, but everything is in a very decidedly fairy tale atmosphere.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
 

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