Coat of Mail

‘That’s the dress my great-grandfather wore when he went to battlefields,’ said the young boy to his friend with some arrogance.

‘He was a soldier?’

‘Soldier? You think an ordinary soldier could wear such a dress? He was a general in the army. He fought and won many battles. He was a brave warrior and the king rewarded him every time he won a war. Palaces, gold, horses, and land were given to him. He was the richest man in the kingdom.’

‘What happened to all those riches?’ the friend asked, almost incredulously.

The boy too had asked this question of his father; the father was proud of his linage. But he had inherited nothing but a coat of mail and a few battle-weary swords.

‘Actually it was his third wife; she was in fact a witch. She had bewitched the great man; that proved his and our undoing,’ the young boy invented a story on the spur of moment. He had caught his friend’s attention who was now more interested in hearing the story of the witch.

But the young boy was himself keen to know as to what happened to all the wealth that his great-grandfather had acquired. He knew it was a mystery but his father was reluctant to answer.

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A post for Sunday PhotoFiction on a photo prompt.