On my various journeys I once came across the peculiar village of Tarres. In every way this village is unremarkable, it has your average farmlands, average village square with fountain, church, and city hall, and average houses dotting average sized roads. Which is to say, I would not have mentioned it at all, except that all the citizens of Tarres appeared to be extremely happy and wealthy and the whole town seems to be free of conflict. Not even a single poor beggar or arguing couple was encountered during my entire stay. In this age of battle, political conflict, wealth inequality, and general unrest, I came to find it quite strange. And the longer I stayed in Tarres, the stranger I found it. It was almost like the town lived in a bubble of contentment cut off from the rest of the world.
Except... I had simply walked in the gates. Normally I would expect to find this kind of idyllic setting in an isolated mountain valley, or on an island removed from quarrelsome neighbors. In quiet contrast to my expectations, the town of Tarres was easily accessible by the main road in the area, although not so centrally located to have been a key trade route. In the absence of any key industry or apparent strategic importance, the general wealth and well being of the populous left me quite flabbergasted. Like they simply had Enough and always had and always would.
While I was mulling over the apparent strangeness of Tarres one day, I came across a young man tossing a half penny into the village fountain. Although not the rarest of treasures, half pennies are certainly very valuable in this day and age and I found myself wondering what wish the young man had believed important enough to suffer the loss of a half penny. Curious, I asked the nearby townspeople whether this was a common occurrence.
No one in the town of Tarres knows exactly when this custom of tossing half pennies into the town fountain started, but the townspeople were quite clear that when each village boy comes of age they must go out on a journey to find half pennies. Whether it takes them a day or a year or a decade, once they have found one, they are to come back to the town with this small treasure and toss it into the fountain. Legend has it that this small act brings peace and wealth to the town and that if any village boy were to fail in his coming of age quest, then some un-named misfortune would befall the village of Tarres.
I also asked if anyone in the town was in charge of cleaning the fountain and recovering the half pennies that the boys tossed in, to which I was treated to looks of bewilderment. Everyone I spoke with insisted that the fountain was never cleaned and that the half pennies simply disappeared. Even after extending my stay multiple times, I was unable to solve this particular mystery. Eventually I was forced to give up and move on.
To this day I still wonder about the town of Tarres, where boys toss half pennies into the village fountain.
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