Description from original post (created 2014-03-26 17:33):
There was once a woman, her long, flowing hair dancing across her fair skin as she walked in the blooming sunlight of the sunrise, who lived near a small village with her father, step-mother, and siblings. Her beauty was known throughout the village, whispered among men and boys as if it was legend. The family to which she belonged was known for having beautiful daughters, so beautiful that the gods themselves grew green with envy, and for many generations the village custom was to send this family's daughters water lilies as a sign of admiration and kindness. This particular woman had just come of age and dreamed of finding a man to love and to keep. She often day-dreamt of her perfect love beside the koi pond near her home, where the water lilies floated, depositied there by so many admirers.Despite the beauty of the young lady, there was one far less beautiful living in the home. Her step-mother seethed at the sight of the water lilies, angry that they would come for such an ignorant child who did nothing but dream. Her brothers all worked the fields, but she was allowed to sit and smile, playing with the water on the shores of that pond.
The woman's step-mother did all she could to keep her inside. She ordered her to do chores and did not let her leave the house to talk to the young men or see the fragrant lilies gracing the glass-smooth surface of the pond. She grew sickly in this state, often too weak to do many of the things her step-mother wished her to do. Many days she simply did not have the strength to wrench her weak body from her bed to drone through the tasks her step-mother set forth.
One night, when she felt illness might take her, she opened her window and crawled out onto the cool grass. Crickets chirped in the warm, summer night as the moon cast its glowing reflection across the lilies, the koi, and the pond. All she wanted as to sit and watch the koi for a few minutes...
Just a few minutes...
She crawled across the grass to the pond and let her fingers dance across the surface of the cool water. The koi played below in the shadows, occasionally rising to catch the water stiders zipping from lilly to lilly. The young woman was so entranced that she didn't heed the sound of footsteps of her angry step-mother, woken by the opening of her window, storming across the lawn.
Her step-mother, boiling with rage that her step-daughter would be allowed to delight in anything, especially the lillies and the koi, kicked her into the pond with a huff and watched her sink into the darkness.
The young woman, startled and afraid, looked up through the haze of bubbles and disturbed silt watched an evil grin spread across her step-mother's face as she turned to stride back toward the house. The woman gasped and choked, desprate to latch on to anything that might allow her to drag her weak body back to the shore, but it was in vain. She was simply too weak, too ill to muster the strength to claw her way to the surface...
The koi remembered, however. They remembered her when she was strong and kind and how all walks of life, all shapes and sizes of people came to the koi pond to deposit beautiful white lillies in her name. Cruelty has no place in a koi pond and these creatures cried silently for her as she sank, eyes closing slowly as her last breath left her body. Perhaps if she could not live amongst people, she could at least be with the koi. She could at least be with her lillies.
The fish gathered around her failing, wilted body and transformed her into a pale maiden with the vibrant markings of the koi who wished to save her. She grew grew scales and her hair turned the bright blue of the sea, and as a last gift of kindness of the koi, a single white lilly was placed amongst her hair.
You remember the koi we let free in the pond, don't you? Remember our koi. They will love you even when I'm dead and gone. No matter what happens, you can always play with our koi.
Additional Versions
Necromancer - With Hood
Necromancer
