Bring me the Alana… This was the instruction of King Josephethanmar to his sons Prince Peredhìl, Prince Eredhìl, and Prince Branagh. The King of Branaghan lay ill in bed and only the Alana—a rare mythical bird with beautiful, never-before-seen plumage—could heal the king. Only its voice could make the king well.
Each set his heart and eyes on the goal; the Alana. The bird could only be found on Turtle Island, an island in the shape of a turtle (which some believed to really be a gigantic sea turtle) that would appear only once every hundred years. The island would appear for an indefinite period of time and then sink again at will when it pleased.
The journey was treacherous. It required travel through land and sea, forest and mountain, coastland to coastland. Prince Peredhìl set out on his quest, sojourning without guard or soldier by his side. For three months, all of Branaghan did not hear from him.
“My son,” King Josephethanmar said to his son Eredhìl, one day, “I am an old man. If I were as young and vigorous as you and your brothers are now, I would have made the journey myself. Yet I cannot. Go now. Search for your brother, bring him back, and take the bird with you.”
Now, the young Prince said in his heart, “I am young. My father is old. He faces the setting sun, I face the rising sun. If I go, perhaps he may award me the crown. Is that not the reason my brother Peredhìl went away on the journey? If I get the bird, I will get the reward and snatch Branaghan’s scepter from Peredhìl’s hand.”
With this in mind, the Prince Eredhìl set off for Turtle Island. He searched far and wide for his elder brother Peredhìl. But either body or shadow he could not find. Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months. When all of Branaghan had not heard from either of the brothers, they expressed their desire to send the young Prince Branagh to search for them. The king readily agreed, for the Prince Branagh was Branaghan’s last hope. But his mother Queen Hadassah would hear none of it. She feared for her son. She had had troubling visions of the young prince being tied to a tree, made a feast for lions, and left for dead. She deemed him “unready for such a burden as has been placed upon his young shoulders.”
