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Once upon a time, there was a kingdom plagued with misfortune. The desperate king, in order to bring luck back to his kingdom, sent his men to steal the neighboring kingdom’s luck. The men stormed across the border in search of the secret of the neighboring kingdom’s good fortune. They took the kingdom’s valuables and tortured and killed its people, but still they could not discover the secret of their neighbors’ luck and good fortune.
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Annoyed and unsuccessful, the men returned to their king. The valuables they brought were quickly lost to misfortune. The king set his eyes on another neighboring kingdom and once again sent off his men. Once again, the same thing happened.
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The king was growing impatient, yet he kept sending his men farther and farther out into the world until none of it was left. His was the last remaining kingdom in the whole world. Surely, without the others, now his kingdom would have all the luck.
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Nevertheless, his kingdom’s luck did not change. Things got worse and worse and the kingdom turned to ruins.
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All seemed lost when one day a middle-aged woman holding a crystal orb came walking into the kingdom. The people were puzzled as she walked by them. They had all known for years that everyone from all the other neighboring kingdoms had been killed and therefore she should not be alive. Nevertheless, she looked as real and as healthy as they had once been.
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Making her way into the rundown palace where the king lay dying, she eventually came into his room and presented herself before him as the luck he had been searching for. The king took one look at her and passed away without saying a word. She placed the crystal orb on his corpse and the kingdom’s luck returned.
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It was the king who had brought the bad luck to his kingdom, and with his passing the luck returned.
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Evelyn Benz is a young author, she can be reached at www.evelynbenz.com.
