|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 1:45 am
Sometimes at night, when she settled down to sleep, she looked at the stars and she would see them as little flames, little flickering fires. It made her think of this old story. Perhaps she was the only one to know this story, perhaps not, but it would do no good for her to carry this story around and not share it.
Sometimes at night, when she settled down to sleep, she looked at the stars and she would whisper the story to herself, and when she finally closed her eyes and succumbed to sleep, she always dreamed of flames.
A long time ago, when the swamp was young and the creatures living in it even younger, the Motherfather walked amongst her creations and lived side by side with them in the swamp. Everywhere she walked, new life sprung up and the swamp which was made from her tears of loneliness was filled with life that made it so that the she was no longer lonely. Even so, she was not meant to be one of them and so, she watched over them as the Motherfather, making sure that they were well.
The swamp is naturally a warm place, as tears are often warm, and thus, the creatures were accustomed to the heat and unaccustomed to the cold. It was said that the few times that the winds became very strong and the swamp turned cold many kin died because they knew not how to survive in these conditions.
Seeing her children die made the Motherfather shed more tears for she never wanted to see her children die because she had not provided them with a way to survive in the world she had create.
It was after several windturns that the Motherfather decided that she would make it so that her children would not face the winds alone. She would give them a tool to survive these times of cold and let them flourish as they never had before.
It was with this resolution that the Motherfather looked over her children and waited for the next windturn to arrive.
The next windturn was the coldest one the swamp had ever experienced and this spurred the Motherfather into action. Around her, her children were shivering in the cold, crying for help and she could never ignore the pleas of her children.
With one high leap, she leaped from the swamp and into the sky. As she reached the peak of her jump, she snatched a star from the night sky in her jaws and as she fell back to the swamp, she brought the blazing star with her.
It burned the Motherfather’s mouth, but she knew that this warmth could save her children and when she landed, she laid the star down and all the kin drew close and marveled at the heat that it provide. It licked at the frozen foliage, melting it before consuming it.
It thawed the Motherfather’s children and brought new life to them, but then the wind blew hard and a spark from the star flew into the sky and landed on a tree. It was then that the tree began to be eaten up by the spark and become star-like in its warmth and brightness.
Again and again, the spark flew and the starlight spread throughout the swamp, eating everything in its path. In horror, the Motherfather cried large tears that flooded the swamp and put out the stars. She had never meant for more the star to take more lives that it would save from the windturn. She gathered her children close and shielded them from the destruction until the swamp began to flourish again.
When her children began to wander again, the Motherfather warned her children to be careful with the stars. She named the swamp eating starlight ‘fire’ and was careful to instill in her children respect and fear for the great destructor but amongst her children still remain those who remember the fire as a life giver and a great warmth that fights off the wind chill and the cold.
Remembering her naming dream, Ember knew both the life and death that fire brought and it was with these memories and the words of the story that she set her head down and closed her eyes.
Darkness swallowed her sight, fire swallowed her mind and her dreams burned with the ferocity of a fresh star brought down to earth. It brought warmth, it saved lives, and it wrought a beautiful, terrible destruction.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
