A tale of stubbornness

Once upon a time, in a faraway land, there existed the country of Tubanks. It was a peaceful place, with rolling green hills and plenty of forested areas. The cheerful and law-abiding folk were always welcoming to newcomers and visitors alike.

Ruling the country was a fair, yet secretive, band of sorcerers. While they were well liked by the people, the sorcerer's laws were sometimes perplexing and decided in secret meetings. Of course, the sorcerers would also hold public meetings for the people to view, if for nothing else but to display their generally positive intentions.

But there was one sorcerer, who was the youngest and yet looked to be the eldest, who often caused strains within the ruling band. His name was Klak and he swore he never made a mistake and often dissented against the band - both in the secret and public meetings - usually without any explanation as to why.

As we all know, nobody is perfect and Klak made his share of mistakes. But even in the face of irrefutable proof, Klak maintained his stubborn air of faultlessness.

The country's people were mostly unaware of Klak's massive sense of self-importance, and they were happy to have him as one of their rulers. But there was one citizen, Astra, who was a bit of rebel and sometimes disobeyed the sorcerers' laws.

You see, Astra built her cottage on a piece of land too close to the forbidden forest, which was in direct violation of the laws of the land. Why people couldn't have their homes close to this forest, no one was certain, but it was the law and everybody besides Astra respected that law.

Well, the sorcerers didn't like to show off their great powers too often, so instead of destroying Astra's cottage with a quick poof of smoke, they instead cast a spell that prevented her butter from churning properly in her kitchen.

Astra was a great butter lover and she didn't take kindly to the sorcerers' spell. While she was eating her dry toast one morning, she took to the idea that Klak was solely responsible for the butter spell. Astra started digging around the sorcerers' lair and found some old magic manuscripts that proved Klak wasn't so perfect.

Shortly thereafter, Astra started talking wide and far about Klak's manuscript mistakes, but took the extra step of saying Klak might have acted with malice when making the errors. When reminded of her unlawful habitat by fellow residents of Tubanks, Astra refused to listen and stubbornly continued her tirade against Klak.

The situation snowballed and pretty soon, everybody knew about Klak's supposed imperfectness and Astra's inability to make butter. It was the talk of the land and both Klak and Astra were none the better off.

If Klak would just admit to being less than perfect, then Astra would have nothing bad to say about him. And if Astra would agree to uproot her cottage and obey the laws of the land, she would be able to churn her butter. But neither could see the error in their ways, and because of their mutual stubbornness, neither one could live in true peace in Tubanks.

The end.