The Legend of Gazibe of Lyndas tells a tale of beauty and love for mankind.

1. The Legend of
Gazibe of Lyndas
A short story by Arjan Tupan

2. This short story is licensed under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0
license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/). This
basically means you can copy it and share it for free with friends,
relatives and acquaintances as much as you like. But, you are not
allowed to use it in any way to make money, unless you have written
approval of the author.

3. The Legend of Gazibe of Lyndas
Somewhere in the Aegean Sea, hidden from plain sight in a
naturally formed bay, lies the fisherman’s village of Lyndas.
Because of it’s remoteness and natural protection, Lyndas
was not much ruled by others through history. It never
became an important port, but also never came under rule
of foreign powers. The people of Lyndas liked it that way.
Even their boats, with which they always caught enough fish
to feed the villagers, never sailed with marks from their
origin. So that if they were seen at sea, others would think
they were from neighboring villages or countries. Because of
the wars of others, sometimes they would lose a ship, but
that was the price the Lyndasians were prepared to pay for
their peace and anonymity.
Lyndas was governed by a council of wise men and women,
presided over by one chosen from their midst. This time it
was the matriarch of the village. Her father had presided
over the council many years before her, and her
grandmother years before that. The matriarch had four
daughters, the youngest of which was Gazibe.
Gazibe was a very special child. From the moment she was
born, it was obvious she could charm anybody. Her
beautiful smile, her kind heart, her caramel light brown
loving eyes, her voice of an angel; she could make the
saddest man smile, the angriest man calm, and when she
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4. sang the fishermen of Lyndas would return home safe from
the farthest places the wind and currents would take their
ships. Gazibe gave love to the Lyndasians, and they loved
her more than anything else. Thus, she became known as
The Loved One.
Sometimes strangers would come to Lyndas, under the spell
of her singing. For the sequestered people of Lyndas this
posed a problem. The strangers that did not choose to stay
voluntarily, would be captured, or killed. Never to be heard
of again by their relatives in far away places. There were
times that the strangers brought with them strange valuables
like gold coins, jewelry and spices from far beyond the rocky
islands in the Aegean Sea. These goods were donated to the
community: jewelry for the women to wear on special
celebrations; gold coins for the fishing fleet, because they
came in contact with people who actually knew the value of
them; and spices and other food for the inn-owners. But
apart from this small benefit, both for the villagers as a
community, as for Gazibe the Loved One, the necessary
killings were an enormous burden. The community risked
being discovered by search parties form trading city-states or
relatives of wealthy explorers when they went missing. And
as for Gazibe, her golden heart couldn’t bear having
someone hurt because of her silk voice.
One day, a fishing boat that had sailed in the morning, came
rushing back into the port before it was noon. They had
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5. seen a large fleet of war ships sailing under the same flag as
a ship that had come in some months earlier and of which
the captain and crew had wanted to leave. They now lay
buried in the hills around the closest city state many miles to
the east, brought there at the cover of night in their own ship
that was stripped of any marks of origin and sank even
further away. The large war ship fleet was on a search for
them now, and had burnt and pillaged several coastal towns
already. Within an hour two of the other three ships that
had sailed west this morning were safely back in the harbor
as well. The last one had sailed on eastward, to a special
uninhabited islet. The people of Lyndas had a special signal
for oncoming troubles. For the part of the fishing fleet that
had sailed east, this signal meant to stay out, evade troubles
if possible, and hope for the best. Coming back into the
harbor would give its location away. Some ships would be
able to find an escape route, but some, especially those that
did not see the signal in time because they had gone too far
out, would find themselves in trouble. This had happened
before, but fortunately not too often. This time, the
Lyndasians were lucky, all could evade the war fleet and the
village stayed undiscovered. Some other towns and villages
had a more unfortunate brush with faith those days.
After this, it was clear to the nice people of Lyndas that
something had to be done about Gazibe. The risk of being
discovered was getting too big, so the council had to take a
decision. Marrying her off to a nobleman from another
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6. place was not an option. Although many of the strangers
that were attracted by her singing and chose to stay in
Lyndas knew of options, and were sure that many a
powerful man would be happy to make Gazibe his wife,
nobody thought it wise or desirable to see her leave Lyndas
for good. Any other form of banning her would break too
many hearts; such a thing was simply out of the question.
They had tried many times to make her stop singing, but she
loved it too much, as did everybody else. It would be hard
on the Lyndasians to never hear that angelic voice again.
The council deliberations went on for days, then weeks.
Now and then interrupted by the fear and ecstasy instilled
by a short burst of singing.
Then, one day, a fishing ship came back into the port after
being out at sea for several days. It did not bring in fish, this
time, because the mission was something else. The crew had
found a small, uninhabited island, outside of the main
sailing routes and not controlled by any known power in the
region. On the island, there was a cave, that led to an
underground hall and could be easily closed of with
boulders. The island was less than half a day away by boat,
and almost as unnoticeable as Lyndas itself. The crew of the
ship had tested the cave, and hardly any sound came out.
The council came up with a wise plan. Once a week, a ship
would sail to what quickly became known as the Island of
Song. Gazibe would be on board, as would a group of
selected Lyndasians. She would sing in the underground
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7. hall for an hour, after which the group would return to
Lyndas. Every time, a different group would go, so that
every Lyndasian could enjoy the singing of Gazibe The
Loved One. By staying on the island for only an hour, the
risk of being discovered if an angelic tone would escape the
cave was minimized. If a ship would come to look for where
the heavenly sounds were coming from, the Lyndasians
would have been gone from the island already, and because
the singing would stop after an hour, they wouldn’t be able
to pinpoint its location anyway.
Gazibe The Loved One, and all of the Lyndasians were very
happy with this solution. As long as she lived, and that was
an extraordinary long time, she would perform for a
changing group of Lyndasians once a week. Gazibe was
happy, and loved, and she made sure all the people of
Lyndas felt so as well. When she finally drew her last
breath, her spirit lived on in the dog packs of Lyndas and
surroundings.
Even now, many centuries later, when you sail the Aegean
Sea, and happen to pass the Island of Song at exactly the
right moment, you can hear the sweet tones of Gazibes
voice. Or if you happen to look into two caramel light
brown eyes of a dog that asks for a little bit of love, and
gives a lot in return, you know you’ve met the spirit of The
Loved One.
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