“Can I choose any place that I wish to go to? Rai-Taro asked.
Rai-Den nodded.
Rai-Taro frowned. “I will not go to the warriors and the lords because fighting makes me ill.”
“Will you go to the rooms of the princesses?”
“No!” Rai-Taro was very firm. “I will not go there. And I do not want to live the life of a priest.”
Rai-Den was surprised. “Do you wish to live with a poor peasant and his wife? That is a very hard life, and you will have very little money with you.”
Rai-Taro shrugged. “The peasant and his wife do not have any children. They will probably love me.”
Rai-Den nodded. “Then you will go as their son and you have chosen very wisely.”
The poor peasant toiled in his rice field, which was at the foot of a mountain.
The rice field was dry and the poor peasant cried. “What will I do if my crop fails? May the gods have mercy on us.”
He sat on a Stone at the edge of the rice field and looked very weary and tired.
Suddenly, the sky was black with clouds. There was a storm and also rains.
When that happened a bright lightning flashed in the sky and a ball of fire fell on the Earth.
The peasant man ran towards the place. That is when the peasant was even more shocked.
The ball of fire was gone, but a baby lay on the wet Earth.
The peasant man was stunned and he picked up the little baby and carried it to his home.
The peasant came to his cottage door and called his wife and showed her the baby.
The man was sure that this baby was Rai-Taro, the first son of the Thunder God.
So they named the boy as Rai-Taro.
Rai-Taro grew up to be strong and he was always happy.
He was the delight of his parents and the neighbours loved him. Since the time he had been raised by the peasant and his wife, the peasant always had good fortune and all his work prospered.
When Rai-Taro was 18 years old, all the neighbours came to his birthday feast.
However Rai-Taro was silent and sad.
The foster mother looked worriedly at her son. “Usually you are the happiest of everyone. Why are you now silent and sad?”
Rai-Taro sighed to himself. “That is because I must leave you now.”
A foster mother worriedly shook her head. “Why do you have to leave us? You have given us good fortune since you have come. What can I give you in return if you leave us?”
The son shook his head. “You have taught me to labour, to suffer and to love. And because of that I am more learned than all the Immortals.”
Saying this, Rai-Taro left the house.
In a white cloud, he went to the heavens.
The peasant and his wife wept bitterly, but the husband held her hand and comforted her. “When we grow old and after that we shall meet our son again.”
Adapted from Japanese Folklore
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