Week 3 Story: The Astrologer's Revenge

The Astrologer woke up in a cold sweat. For the fourth time this week, he'd dreamt of that terrible night.
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It had started out wonderfully. The Astrologer was doing his favorite thing, admiring the stars, and imagining the future they may hold. One constellation seemed to promise him a deep and passionate love, while another predicted that the next months would hold pleasant surprises.

Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night

As he scanned the sky from east to west, he noticed a troubling grouping of stars. They seemed to be telling him that the end was coming, but were not specific as to what end.

Suddenly, his feet fell through the ground. His mouth and nose filled with dirty water, and he sputtered as he struggled to catch his breath.

Sometimes, The Astrologer woke up after this point of the nightmare. On worse nights, it went on. He could handle having fallen, but the rescue was so much worse. The nearby villagers kindly pulled him from the sinkhole, but then began to berate his dreaming. They criticized his precious stars, claiming that they were millions of miles away, and unconcerned with The Astrologer. The villagers insisted that he should turn from the stars, and give his attention to the immediate.
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He'd dreamt of that night so many times, and now, he was ready the break the cycle. Despite the early hour, The Astrologer got out of bed and sought the stars.

He furiously studied the constellation he'd noticed that fateful night. He refused to believe that the end the stars had promised much be the end of his dreaming. He considered the relation of the constellation to the village, and collected information on the lives of the villagers.

Three sleepless days later, he believed he had cracked the stars' code. An end was coming, and it did not bode well for the villagers...
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The stars seemed to warn of an upcoming storm. It would be fearsome, full of powerful lightning and roaring thunder, and would take place directly over the village. Based on his reading of the stars, The Astrologer knew the village would not survive.

Even after all that had happened in the past weeks, his decision was easy. The Astrologer raced to the village square, warning everyone he saw that a storm was brewing, and it was time to evacuate. Many scoffed at his claims, while others broke into panic. Eventually, a town meeting was called.

The Astrologer maintained his claims, asserting that the village would shortly be destroyed by a great storm. Some seemed to believe him, but unfortunately, his rescuers were in power, and testified against The Astrologer's sanity. Ultimately, he was declared unreliable, and his warnings were ignored.

He left the village hurt and dismayed, but he knew he had tried his hardest to save them. That night, the stars, seeing The Astrologer's disappointment, sent a storm which leveled the village, without harming the villagers. The next morning, a search party found The Astrologer taking shelter in the hole he had once despised. The immediately brought him home, where he was given a place of honor and leadership as the village rebuilt beneath a starry sky.


Author's Note: "The Astrologer's Revenge" is a sequel to Aesop's The Astrologer, from the book The Aesop for Children. In the original fable, the Astrologer falls into a hole while admiring the stars, and is criticized for caring more about the distant future than the immediate present. After reading, I began to wonder how the Astrologer must have felt, and questioned if the stars would ever align for him.