Deffinetly not the best thing that I have ver written. Frankly it's pretty bad, but for writing in in about 3 minuets, I have to say it's pretty good. Still, a lot of fun to write even though its a pretty bad story line. Hope theres enough Steve The Stump, even though I never mentioned his name...
~ The Leagend of Steve the Stump & the Flickering Vales ~
Every year, around the time of All Hallows Eve, my Grandmother would tell my two siblings and me a story. She would sit in her old rocking chair out on the little porch, glancing up at the sky, while my siblings and I would sit at her feet. Every year we did this, and every year it was the same story. The story of Steve the Stump.
The Flickering Vales wasn’t always there. And the secret clearing in the forest was once just another part of the ground, covered by the massive trees. There was a time, when there was no clearing, and there were no stones, a time when a small village of people lived just outside of the dark forest. Every year, on the first full moon of autumn, the village would hold a sacred festival. They would go into the forest and lay a gift or a lantern under a tree, hoping that any bad spirits would vanish, and that the forest would let them live another year.
There was one tree in particular that the children liked. They called it The Candy Tree. Every autumn, during the festival they would take a piece of their candy, or chocolate, and lay it under the tree as their gift. Year, after year children would put candy under the tree. Over time, some grew too old, and felt it right to put true gifts under a tree, but the tradition never died
When my Grandmother was a young girl, some new people came. They had come in search of making a new land to call home. The villagers opened their arms up to the strangers and let them stay with them. Soon the foreigners began to build their new city, it was far away from the village, but they still came to trade supplies, for they had nothing.
The foreigners also came to the forest to chop down trees in order to get wood. The villagers were not happy with these newcomers destroying the forests, but there was little they could do, they just offered more and more during the Lantern Festival in hopes that the woods would not turn on them.
My Grandmother never really took noticed of the foreigners that was until they chopped down The Candy Tree. The Candy Tree was one of the largest in the forest, and was perfect for wood; the foreigners had chopped it down without a care, only leaving a small stump in the ground.
The children in the village cried that night, and the villagers banished the foreigners from ever returning. The next day was the day of the Lantern Festival. Even during the day, they could sense something was wrong, the forest wasn’t the same.
The villagers needed to redeem themselves to the woods, in order to establish peace, and so they started making a shrine to the woods. They pushed together rocks, using companions and forest animals alike to bring the stones together. Finally, by the time night fell the shrine was complete.
When the moon rose that evening, on the night of October the 31st, the stones glowed with an ancient power that the people did not understand. It called over and over again for a sacrifice, but no matter what the villagers gave it, it never seemed pleased.
My Grandmother had been with some of the other children, playing around the stump when the moon rose into the sky. A silvery beam of light broke through the space among the trees, and made the stump glisten. A shape formed in the beam of light and my Grandmother stood there, shocked. The other children backed away in fear as a shadow formed atop the stump.
My Grandmother, being the crazy child she was, reached forward and grabbed at the shadow. A small chocolate bauble formed in her hand. With smiled the other children dashed forward and each picked a candy themselves. They raced back into the large clearing, where the adults were huddled.
As my Grandmother was racing towards her father she tripped over her own foot and fell forward, her candy rolling onto one of the large rocks around the glowing shrine. That rock glistened with what could only be described as natural energy. It shook slightly and grumbled, calling for more candy.
The other children slowly set their chocolates and candies down on the rocks before huddling with their parents. Once all the candy was set the rumbling stopped and the stones seemed to go dormant.
The village still goes on like that today, every year we wait for the stump to come and give us candy before handing it over the shrine in hopes that the cycle will continue, and the forest will be at peace for another year.