Week 2 Story: Abomination and Aversion

 Abomination and Aversion: The Mikaelsons

This story is about a powerful family whose line dates back to the Kingdom of Norway in the late 10th century. A viking family with a viking warrior as the father and a powerful witch as the mother lived in a village with their children. Niklaus was among one of the sons but was strongly hated by the father, Mikael. The father never loved Niklaus because he was not his own biological son, and because of that the son was never enough for his father and was always seen as a weak obscenity. 

Mikaelson Crest

In order for Niklaus to earn his father's love he felt that he needed to prove his strength. One day Mikael challenged Niklaus. He wanted his son to kill a boy from another family within their village, and bring him back his heart. "If you can do this, then maybe you are worthy of being my son." Mikael was ruthless and cruel; he did not care for other people and enjoyed to see people suffer.

"I accept." Niklaus said. Although the son was a kind and loving spirit, his desire for his father's approval was so strong that committing such a brutal act was worth it to him.

Little did Niklaus know, his father was setting him up for failure. The boy Mikael wanted his son to kill belonged to a family of supernatural werewolves. The father gave his son this task on a full moon knowing there was a high chance he would die.

Approaching the other family, Niklaus was hesitant. Niklaus felt in his heart that this was wrong. He instead hunted an animal and took its heart hoping to use that as an alternative to give to his father. But by doing so, something strange began to happen. 

What the father and son did not know was that the biological father of Niklaus was man of the werewolf family. Mikael without knowing was sending Niklaus to kill his brother. 

When a werewolf kills a living thing, they trigger a family curse that causes them to transition into supernatural beings. By killing something, and with the werewolf bloodline running through his blood, Niklaus's werewolf curse was triggered. 

The werewolf family was inside their house when they heard intense agony; they all quickly ran outside to see what was making all that commotion. Niklaus was breaking every bone in his body, slowly turning and transitioning into his supernatural form. The man from the family turned into a werewolf to help guide his long lost son. Their family took him into their home for the rest of the night to help take care of him during and after his transition.

After the night was over and after he had turned back into a human form, Niklaus got to know the family, learned about all the family secrets, and learned how to cope with his new life. He had also came to the realization that Mikael had sent him away hoping for the werewolves to kill him. This fueled a fiery anger that made his blood boil. 

Niklaus walked back to his home to return to Mikael. Seeing him from afar, Mikael was utterly shocked and confused on how his son was able to survive a night with wolves. "I am undone!" he said to himself. Niklaus's survival earned the respect of Mikael, but by then it was too late. Niklaus's feeling of betrayal consumed him; he walked up to Mikael looked at him in the eye, pulled out a dagger and stabbed him in the heart. "Sleep well." he whispered.

The Originals

Author's Note: I kept a lot of the story elements and themes form the original, but made it my own version. The characters and dynamics of my story were inspired by the TV show, The Originals. Both stories included the fathers sending their sons out to do a  task that would put them in harm's way. I made a couple of plot twists within the story one of them including the ending. The original story had the father die from his heart bursting into seven pieces, but in my story, the father died in the hands of his son as a means of revenge.

Story source: Tayodhamma Jataka in The Jataka: Volume 1 translated by Robert Chalmers.