literature

The Firebird

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Literature Text

Prologue-In the Beginning, Earth was very lonely. Sky saw this, and gave her a star, which sparkled like a diamond. Earth became happy, and married Sky. Young Earth became Mother Earth, for she gave birth to twins, Summer and Winter. Soon Sky got jealous, and wanted rid of his children. Mother Earth banished him to stay in his domain forever.
She married Ocean, who was much gentler than Sky. Earth soon had another set of twins, Autumn and Spring.
Soon after, Earth and Ocean decided to create a place where creatures could dwell in peace. They invited all of their friends to become part of this new world. Many decided to take the form of animals: Grace became a swan, Wisdom became an owl, and Vanity a peacock. Earth also gave her children powers to create the seasons.
Earth began the world with Summer, then Autumn, and finally a long Winter, which is where our story begins, as the sun dawns on the cold, hard Earth. After a frigid Winter, it truly wants to wake up. The first Spring isn’t remembered by humans, although animals will never forget it.

Chapter 1-The First Spring
In a forest valley with a single mountain, filled with Spruce, Fir, Elm, and Ash, a single creature walked. He was Knowledge, who had taken the form of an elk. He walked into a cave, half-submerged by water, and breathed on one of the icicles hanging from the ceiling.
As a single drop fell into the water, a small form grew from the waves. It was Spring, emerging for the first time, her blue hair glistening. She flowed silently and hugged her friend who had woken her, then looked over his shoulder. She had work to do. As she came out of the water, her body changed to a healthy green. Where her body touched, the Earth grew green once more. Dead wood sprouted flowers, and butterflies and ferns grew from her hair. She shook them away, promising to play later, her amber eyes laughing gaily.
She went to the trees, causing them to grow new leaves, and never was satisfied with simple work. A flower she pulled from the soil could never be small, but a lovely work of art. Even a tree ready to die got blossoms, with some encouragement from Knowledge.
Everywhere she went, greenness and youth followed, except when she came to the mountain. As soon as she started ascending, her growing magic stopped. Spring looked back, surprised. She caressed the ground with her gentle touch, but only a flicker of life came to her before fading.
Spring was confused. She silently flew up the sinister mountain. At the top was a crater, and in the centre of the crater was an egg-shaped lump. Spring floated down to it. It grew out of the mountain like a wart, shapeless and ugly. As Spring reached out to touch it, red eyes suddenly burst from it, along with brownish-grey smoke. The smoke crawled in the shape of nightmarish visions, and figures writhing in agony. Fire started gushing from the mountain, scalding Spring’s soft skin. The eyes belonged to a huge bird of fire and destruction, from which flames issued, threatening to destroy the little sprite. The fire nearly destroyed the mountain, and threw Spring back to the edge of the forest. But she was not safe yet. The Firebird sunk back into the volcano before instantly coming out as lava.
Spring flung herself on her trees, wanting more than anything to save them, but as she saw the lava consume other trees, she ran, having no other choice. Knowledge looked on helplessly from a cliff, knowing that he could do nothing.
Spring ran on, but the Firebird seemed to be everywhere at once, forcing her to scramble off of boulders and onto another cliff, where she gazed onto her forest, once lovely, now a hellish fury, as if Hell itself had decided to come to the surface. Spring wanted to weep, but the Firebird had found her again, consuming everything in its path. Spring scrambled up one of the only trees left standing, right to the top, where the Firebird transformed from lava back into an eagle. It stared at Spring mockingly.
Scared, amber eyes of youth stared into red, cold eyes of hate, and the Firebird struck—
* * *
Nothing had survived. All that was left of the ravaged landscape was the destroyed mountain and the stumps of once-proud trees. The smell of burned wood hung in the like a curtain, as did flakes of bark and leaves.
Knowledge walked along the bare ground, looking for any sign of his friend. He was granted his wish by spying a spot that glowed with the faintest green ever seen. He breathed on the spot, and from the stirred-up flakes of ash, formed the pathetic small figure of Spring. But her once-beautiful green skin was brown, and her amber eyes looked defeated as she hugged her knees. Knowledge nuzzled her shoulder, but she still didn’t move. Flakes of skin sprang off her like dead leaves, while other parts of her flowed like sand in the breeze. The two looked around at the destruction, and Spring curled up even more, wanting again to weep. Knowledge bent his beautiful head, and said with his deep blue eyes, Then I’ll take you away. The small form took hold of his antlers and climbed onto his head.
Knowledge began to run, his hooves stirring up eddies of dust. As she feebly hung on, her hair flowing around her, a single tear fell from Spring’s eye. Where the tear fell, tiny plants began to grow, a vibrant green.
Seeing them, Spring heard the Earth calling to her, begging her to renew the old. Smiling slightly, Spring pushed herself off of Knowledge’s head, and turned into the force that had created her: Water. She was a huge wave, and as she passed over the land, a gentle rain fell, pure and cool. And where the rain fell...

Trees burst from the earth, exploding in twists and knots, greener than ever before. Flowers and butterflies once more flowed from Spring’s hair in generous, never-ceasing amounts. Spring flew over the earth, no more than a vibrant green shadow, until the fire was no more than an ugly memory, covered with a carpet of green grass. Now even the mountain succumbed to the magic of rebirth.
Her work finished in the valley, Spring sang her praise to the Sun, before turning into a sunbeam, to spread the life of spring to the rest of the Earth.
Knowledge was back on his cliff, approving his friend’s work, when he heard a whisper on the breeze.
Thank you.
Heavily based on the finale from Disney’s Fantasia 2000 (which, in my opinion, was so much better than the original)
I wrote this for Grade 8 Language Arts ^^; So it’s kinda juvenile, but I like it anyways.
© 2005 - 2024 Kiki-Hiraku
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