Legend of Spring

This is my legend of spring.

The Legend of Spring

By Lorna Harris-Mackay

Once upon a time there was a woman called Mae who lived in a village in the far west of a land called Comeotoo, which no longer exists. Now Mae was known for her amazing gardening skills and understanding of nature. She was a plain, hardworking woman with rough hands and a rather red face from working in the sun.

Comeotoo was a good land but it had a terrible weakness it did not know the season ‘spring’ so all the gardens were either too hot or too cold.  There was no month for the flowers to simply be enjoyed and this greatly bothered Mae. She put a lot of work into her flowers only to watch them wilt in the heat and shrivel in the cold but she thought there was nothing she could and so life went on until Mae fell pregnant. She was out in her garden when a lovely women with long auburn hair and bright green eyes appeared to her and announced, “I am Lela, in your womb you hold a child called Spring, she will bring a new season you will come to understand as a time of growth and new life. Treat your child with care, for she is the one to begin it all”. Mae was shocked but nodded silently and the woman faded into the morning sunlight.

Shortly after this, Mae’s husband was out chopping firewood when a large branch fell from a tree and trapped both his legs, crippling him. He was trapped there in agony, for many days and nights until Mae finally found him and with great difficulty dragged him back to the farm. Unfortunately he could no longer work, so Mae did all the farm work herself. Over the months Mae’s mind was so distracted by all the farm work she came to think of the woman as a daydream and didn’t give much thought to what the woman had said, until one dark and stormy night she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl who was born with her eyes wide open. The midwife exclaimed that it meant that she would be wise and all seeing, Mae thought she was the most beautiful baby she had ever seen and named her ‘Spring’.

 Over the years Spring grew into a lovely young woman and when she was approaching her 12^th year, Lela appeared to her and spoke. “I am Lela and you are the one who will bring Spring to earth. You must follow my instructions carefully, first you must pick an unblemished pumpkin from your mother’s garden and hollow it out then you must put into that pumpkin an autumn leaf, a winter snowflake, and a feather from the most colourful bird you can find. After you have found all these ingredients you must sprinkle them with 7 drops of your blood and speak these words, “For all the elements and all things good pleases bring spring to our land and let the flowers grow at hand”. After that, if the spell is performed properly there will be darkness for 4 days and nights and when the sun rises again the world will have “spring”. Spring nodded and Lela was gone.  Spring began her task immediately. When she had finished mixing and singing there was a deep shaking rumble within the earth and the land fell into absolute and complete darkness for 4 days and nights. Then on the fifth morning the sun rose again and the land was in full bloom, the season spring had arrived but the girl was nowhere to be seen for she had not found her way out of the forest.

But it was said that once a year the girl Spring walks the earth and leaves new growth and new life in in footsteps.  

Reviews

[Marie]

This is a fine resurrection story, and I really enjoyed it.
There is one thing I have to point out. If Spring was no where to be seen, how could she have a final resting place. You are talented enough to rework this without her dying, for the season of spring never does.

[Valkyrie Warrior]

How is that?