Live Your Myths

Pakistani Myth | The Lake of Tears (آنسوجھیل)

Myth Origins: Pakistan 

Prince Saif-ul-Malouk didn't care. He wasn't good at abiding by rules anyway. If he fancied something, he would go through anything impossible to make sure his every yearning was fulfilled. It only took him one early morning to gallop his horse wild through the wastelands of Naran Valley. He'd heard of the famed Badr-ul-Jamal, a fairy he could never forget, a delusion he couldn't push away and an urge his soul couldn't dare to reel off from and so he went to find her.

Living through bouts of unquenchable thirst, insatiable hunger and trials of climatic heat, Saif managed to find a missing trail. It led him to a lake where Badr would be taking a bath.

Badr was the queen of fairies and she was the personification of beauty and superiority. Ensnared in the tallest of mountains by the white giant Deu Sugaid, she yearned for release from his captivity. Her heart was as pure and high-strung as the petals of a blossom swayed by the springtime breeze but to reciprocate the love of a heartless giant was beyond her limits. Once every fortnight, he would permit her to visit the Queen Mountain. (ملکہ پربت)

If watching Badr splash waters over her fellow fairies was any less mesmerizing, the prince had contrived to catch a glimpse of her unmatched beauty. Earth slipped right beneath his feet as Saif barred his nephrite gaze on Badr.

The moonlight shone silver over the crystal clear waters as if specks of shadows played carefully in eyes of Stars. One by one, the queen's friends disappeared in the thickness of air after grabbing their flying clothes stacked against the salt stones.

Badr's flying dress was gone or maybe stolen. Covering her petite frame she struggled to hide the color of dismay falling bright and sheer on her fair face. And then a voice came from the corner, a figure of speech that changed her life forever.

"If you need your flying piece, you have to make a bargain."

"A deal?" She mumbled beneath her plump lips.

There was a conspicuous demand in the request that came her way and she couldn't dare ignore that. With every step she took closer to the masculine voice, her fear of the white Giant grew wild in her bones.

"Yes, a deal to follow me."

"To where?"

Being deprived of her flying dress, she could no longer return along with the other fairies. At the moment, Badr was willing to behead the man for the dishonor he had committed against the Fairy Royalty.

"To My Kingdom."

"Why would a prince like you wish to take me?"

The question came straight after his reply, confusion etched across her face. Why would a mortal man want to take her?

What came after was a surprise, she couldn't move her gaze away from him. He was a man worth seven skies and eight seas. Brown skin glistened clear on his face as he returned the flying dress back to her. Badr half-blushed on the fact that Saif all this time had his eyes fixed on the beaded sand.

"It would take a man a hundred deaths to get a face-off with a woman like you."

"I'm flattered, my Prince."

Thereafter, Badr rode his horse back to the valley but when the white Giant came to know about her missing from the scene, his fury knew no bounds. Smashing his feet in the middle of the lake, he divided the water body into two parts in an abrupt state of panic that Badr may have drowned herself.

Finding no significant sign of her drowning, the white Giant found the trail of her footsteps. Tracing her path back to Naran Valley, he saw a happy Badr sleeping in the embrace of Saif-ul-Maluk. Anger dawned upon his nerves and he caused a flood to rise from the first moiety of the lake, drowning Naran Valley in its depth but the flying dress of Badr saved them both from the surge of waves. Sighing a heave of unrequited revenge, Deu Sufaid returned to his land, Oblivious that Badr and Saif had managed to survive the wretched flood.