Aurora and Nita

this is an English assignment that my friend and I worked on together. It is a myth that has to describe a natural phenomenon and teach a life lesson

Long ago, in the cold land of the North, there lived a girl named Nita. She was different from her fellow tribe members. She was unique, but they instinctively pushed her away from their social circles. She spent every spare moment in the woods, alone and away from everybody else, carrying a bow and a quiver full of arrows for her protection. She enjoyed the quiet sanctity of the woods.

One day, she came across a lone bear in the woods. At first, she was worried she would have to shoot an arrow to protect herself, but something stopped her. The bear was so innocent and made no move to attack. She couldn’t imagine the death of it being caused by her. She felt a strange connection to it, so she spared its life. What Nita hadn’t known then was that the bear had felt the same connection towards her that night.

For many changes of the moon, Nita watched the bear in awe. One evening while she was observing the bear, Nita was leaning up against a small tree and began to shiver from the harshness of the cold, arctic air. Before she could get up and walk back home, the bear she’d been watching came and sat down beside her, shielding Nita from the wind. At first, she was terrified, for she thought that the bear was going to take her life. There was nothing she could have done. Her bow and arrows were out of reach. Much time passed until Nita realized the bear was not going to hurt her.

From that day, Nita and the bear met each other in the woods and they would sit together enjoying each other’s company. A friendship formed between them and Nita felt that the bear was the only one who understood her. She gave it a name: Aurora.

Days turned into years, and Aurora and Nita were the best of friends. But unfortunately, bears do not live as long as humans do. So when Aurora passed on, Nita was left alone and suffered her friends’ absence. She no longer felt the will to live. For a full change of the moon, Nita didn’t even go outside, as it reminded her too much of Aurora. When Nita finally ventured outside one evening, she was amazed by the dancing colors in the sky and the new constellation that had formed.

The constellation was Aurora the bear and the dancing colors were her spirit. The starry Aurora said to Nita: “My dear friend Nita, it is alright to grieve for the loss of someone close, but one must not carry this burden their whole life. You must learn to move on. I will always be with you in the sky and in your heart.  One day, you will join me in the sky, dancing and celebrating the life you’ve had. Please celebrate the time we shared, not grieve over the loss of it. I love you.”

Nita took Aurora’s advice to heart and applied it to her everyday life. Even when her parents passed on, Nita grieved, but she also saw their life as a gift and knew that one day she would join them in the sky. She never married or had children like the other girls in her tribe did and that was okay with her.  When Nita’s time finally came, she gladly joined Aurora and her parents in the sky, where they danced and celebrated the wonderful lives they’d had, painting colors across the sky each night to remind people to celebrate life, forever.