The inspired girl,
Felicia
The Reasons for Seasons
There was a young girl named Mandy. She and her mother go into town every few days to sell their wares. Mandy and her mother live on the outskirts of the town and they own a small part of land that they used to grow crops in. Since their father died and was added to the family graveyard they didn't have enough strength to plant and water all that land. Now stocking up for the winter has become Mandy's job. It is almost the end of Winter. 6 more weeks, Mandy even checked with the groundhog that lives in their small garden. It's still cold, there's always some sort of wind and dancing trees. The forest at the end of the field is where the fire wood is collected. The trees have barely any branches, the ground is clear of twigs and no fallen down trees, Mandy only collects wood for the fireplace, she can't cut down trees. Every year Mandy's father would chop down trees with plenty left over for the spring.
It's early in the morning and Mandy heads out to collect wood, she enters the woods at the end of the field where the path shaped by her footsteps opens at the start. As she enter she picks up a few dry and flaky leaves of cedar and rubs them between her fingers to let the smell escape and stuffs other leaves in her pocket. As she leaves the bushes of cedar behind, their smell sticks to her and doesn't let go. A gentle breeze swipes the back of her neck. The snow sparkles as the sun peeks into the forest through the empty spaces between the branches of all the trees. A crow caws not to far away and the snow crunches under Mandy's feet as she steps into a clearing marking the middle of the forest. The sky is an intense bright blue, dark brown leaves stick out from under the snow. Squirrels scurry around some trees not far from Mandy. The branches around her crack and rustle creating a rhythm, as if they were singing a song. The clearing is warm and pleasant. After a short break Mandy finds the energy to continue further to seek fire wood.
She has to walk far to find wood. After an hour she is almost on the other side of the forest but she finds a few twigs and snaps a few fragile trees into pieces. I can't come home with empty hands, Mandy thought, Ma would be disappointed. The sun is right above Mandy's head, marking noon. “I better get home, Ma will get worried.” decided Mandy and she started heading back. It felt like forever before she reached the clearing, the burden of bringing back nothing weighs down on her shoulders, slowing her down. “Only half way there! If I continue like this I'll only get home by diner!” exclaimed Mandy. Out of breath Mandy sits down on a patch of snow, she waits and listens for anything to distract her from her sorrow. There's no crackle of leaves, like autumn. No rustle of grass, like summer. No welcoming smell of flowers, like spring. Just the dry air and the strong, annoying smell of cedar. Mandy buries her cedar leaves in the ground to fade the smell. Suddenly, she heard a swish, “What was that?” Mandy said, straightening her back and more alert. Another swish, “Who's there?” Mandy asks. Nobody answers. She continues on her journey home.
Well on her way home Mandy spots dark shapes far away. As they come closer she hears the same swishing as before. As the figures come closer, Mandy walks closer to them. Soon she can see that these figures are four ladies in dark cloaks. “Hello,” one lady says, “Can I help you?”. Mandy notices she's staring, “Sorry,” she says.
“My name is Winter by the way, Lady Winter.” says the lady.
“Nice to meet you. I'm Mandy.” replies Mandy.
“These are my sisters Lady Spring, Lady Summer and Lady Autumn.” Lady Winter informs.
Each lady looked the same except for their hair and a dark cloak colour. Lady Winter had bright, almost white hair billowing in the wind like snow falling to the ground. Her cloak was a bright grey colour with the hood lowered. Lady Spring has flowing golden hair with a tint of red. Her cloak was a dark green like a stem. She resembled a blooming flower. Lady Summer was similar to Lady Winter because she wore a brighter cloak, which was a shade of orange. Her hair on the other hand was light brown and pulled back in a high ponytail. Lady Autumn had wavy auburn hair in a lose braid with wisps of hair out of place. Her cloak was a dark burgundy colour.
“You were each named after a season?” asks Mandy.
“No, we are the seasons,” replied Lady Winter.
“What do you mean by that?” Mandy asks, her curiosity rising.
“I mean.....wait, can you keep a secret?” Lady Winter hesitates.
“Of course!” Mandy replies.
“Let's start with the basics,” started Lady Winter, “This forest is our home. We are the daughters of mother nature and the guardians of our mother's woods. This is our mother's woods. We are the cause of seasons. Every year each of us gets to “guard” this forest. What I mean is one by one we lower our hoods to start our season and we make sure the season reaches everyone. This is why it snows during winter. The characteristics of the seasons are related to us. For example, Winter has snow just like my hair, and bright colours like my cloak. Do you understand?”
“Yes, it seems very logical actually. Do you do anything except start and end seasons?” Mandy suddenly feels very special to meet these people. “Well, we can control nature in our forest but nowhere else.” Lady Spring speaks up.
“What things do you do? Can you move things?” Mandy asks. Waiting for the answer.
“Yes, we can actually. We moved trees to make the clearing n the middle of the woods where we usually spend our days.” Says Lady Summer.
“It was nice meeting you, I have a sorrow to tell my mother so I should be going. Good-bye.”
Mandy walks away dragging her feet behind her. “Wait! Maybe we can help, what's wrong?” calls Lady Autumn to Mandy through a layer of trees. Even though her voice is a whisper Mandy can feel her sympathy. Mandy returns and decides this might be a good idea to tell the daughters of mother nature, the seasons. “Alright, I needed to collect fire wood, but cannot find any because I already collected all the branches and twigs I could. Now I will come home only by sunset, with nothing but an empty stomach.” Mandy sighs, “Can you help me?”
“Sure I can!” Replied Lady Winter, soon there was a crack and a BOOM! Mandy turned around and to her surprise there she found a log chewed down by a beaver. Mandy gasped, “Wow! Thank you so much! But how will I carry this home?”
“No problem!” replied the sisters in unison.
Suddenly the forest starts spinning away from them and everything goes bright white, like snow had fallen all over them. Mandy sat up, but there was no sign of the “Seasons”. She was right behind the cedar bushes where she began. The sun shined as brightly as it had before. As Mandy left the woods she found a little sleigh full to the brim with chopped wood. Turning back towards the woods she said, “Farewell and thank you for all your help. I hope we'll meet again soon.” Her mother looked out the window, “Mandy, come inside. You must be getting cold.”
“It's a long story Ma.” replied Mandy with a giggle, “you'll never believe it.”
Every day Mandy goes to collect fire wood as usual but luckily after becoming friends with the season sisters she lives through every season fully supplied. Mandy and her mother live on mother natures home so they honour every season and every thing she has to give them. Mandy's mother never believed Mandy's story but still cherishes all the things that come from nature, just in case.
Do I need to tell it's the end?
Hope you enjoyed my story!
Great story! I loved the ending. A bit of advice: maybe try using more metaphors, similes, personification and showing more emotion through the way the characters say things. But I still really enjoyed reading the story! ;)
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