[ WP ] A man on the verge of self destruction yells to his reflection about his mistakes and failures . He turns to see his pet has entered the room , jokingly the man asks the animal what he should do next . To his surprise it answers him .

The great wings of Thadarpol beat against the vapors, the great turtle's feathers moistening as it sailed through the clouds. 
 
 In the eponymous city which lies upon his back, the mighty elven king Cato sits on his throne. Now fidgeting, now fiddling with the crown, now eyeing his timid messenger pigeons, now jerking to his feet. 
 
 Now he paces to and fro. `` *Idiot*'' he mumbles to himself `` The budget!''. He eyes the pigeons sharply. He waves violently at them `` You will not speak of this!'' and, by application of the royal technique, the birds are silenced. They nod their heads in understanding. 
 
 `` Not that anyone could n't guess'' Cato stopped and stared at his reflection in his mirror `` what destruction I have wrought. Not for me alone, but for my people. Not for they alone, but for kind Thadarpol who has given so much.'' 
 
 He sighed deeply. Slowly, he brought his crown, down from his head, until he held it before him. He eyed its rippling waves of gold, studied its whorling geometric riddles. 
 
 He recited the Strawman's words `` *Be little, O King, and tremble. Pitchfork and fire, sword and water, war and destruction. Burning wings and eternity's twilight. *'' 
 
 He cast the crown aside, it whirled and ricocheted across the throne room, metallic screeching swirling about the mighty king. 
 
 `` BY WHAT RIGHT AM I KING?'' He yells into his own reflected eyes `` BY WHAT RIGHT IS ANY MAN KING WHO LEADS HIS PEOPLE TO SUCH A *FALL*-'' At the word, he turns his head and gazes through the throneroom's balcony, out into the beautiful cloudy dawn beyond. 
 
 His mind turns to the centuries of his life that seem endless now, back to the beginning. To the day when a teenage runaway orphan had met a man made of straw. To the adventures the pair had had. To the happy smile of that unchanging face that had been drawn -he was sure- by a child's caring hand. To the day when they met again, years later, and the Strawman told the tale of how he had sacrificed himself to save two small children from Death's Assassin himself, and miraculously survived. To the years between and the bitterness that had grown in that unliving straw heart. 
 
'It is my thoughtlessness.'' He turned back to his reflection `` When I banned those psychedelic crystals I was thoughtless. My mind is what I am, to repugn this thing that would change that which is *me* was my folly. *My* insolence to my friend of centuries will cost my people their lives. It will cost Thadarpol his beautiful wings. It might break the hope and vivacity that is the defining thing that I have cherished from my inception. From the first moments of my life, being raised by Rin the fairy and Grandfather the old oak tree. On my adventures I befriended bears and priests and headless men, throughout, the thing that drew them to me, the thing that let me help them was my constant, trusting, innocence. My heart's power to withstand the morbidity of this world without falling-...'' 
 
 He turned and took a step towards the fall. 
 
 `` But now my friend the Scarecrow made of straw will burn my friends and pillage my people's wealth. What heart could stand to see? What mind would let it?'' With his death the Strawman's hate would die. 
 
 He laid his hands upon the balustrade. 
 
 Suddenly the palace shook as a great rumbling voice called out `` **THE LORD OF THADARPOL IS CATO**'' 
 
 The pigeons flew by and dropped the crown upon Cato's head. `` *Thadarpol can speak? *'' Cato wondered. 
 
 And his people milled into the streets of the city, and, upon seeing their king, they took up the cry `` THE LORD OF THADARPOL IS CATO!'' 
 
 The sun rose and glinted on the golden crown, the king raised his hand to his people, and they cheered and did not see the tears of joy that fell from the mighty king's eyes. 
 
 edit: spelling
