The Maiden's Knight

Created with Night Cafe Studios

Once upon a time...

A maiden occupied the banks of a deep untamed tributary. It was all her own, a gift from her ancestors, and she tended it, and her child-like wonder fed the growth along its banks and the flow within its waters for many years.

In her early years, it had flowed quite vivaciously. Then, as the ways of the world closed in on her, she withdrew further and further from her true nature. She desperately searched for peace beside her stream, but doubt and fear overwhelmed her, and over time, the waters became trapped and stagnant as debris accumulated, damming the flow of the water.

Some debris, she'd assumed, was normal. But over the years, the voices of society were loud, and all she wanted was to find peace. She could not find it in the world, and as her own waters became blocked and begrimed, she became withdrawn, and a melancholy filled her heart.

Created with Night Cafe Studios

The flora that once grew wild along the banks slowly began to decay as the waters that once flowed into the small pond area where she lived, stopped coming. Not only had her stream been dammed from the debris, but so the spring from which the waters came had been clogged.

The area slowly turned into a bog. But the maiden could not leave. For this was where her essence resided. Her very being stemmed from these waters. But the waters had become so muddled that the maiden became hopeless.

Though she tried to remove small bits of the dross, it overwhelmed the waters, and the maiden sat and mourned on the banks of what once was her precious pond, feeling her very Self drift into the depths of the mire. Lost.

She didn't know how long she had sat and mourned along the bank, but one day, suddenly and without warning, a knight stumbled upon her. Similarly, as lost as she. No one had ever stumbled into her little grove before, and the maiden knew, with the waters being a gift from the ancients, that it was sacred, and she was weary of the knight and his presence in the place.

The knight did not wish to frighten the maiden, and so removed his helm straight away. He bowed to the maiden then and removed a dull grey stone from a pocket under his armor.

"An offering?" The maiden questioned, taking the stone from the knight. He simply smiled in acknowledgment.

Just then, a soft breeze flitted through the dark canopy above them. A most joyful sound to the maiden, as nothing of the sort had occurred in the treetops in a very long time.

For some time, the two stood apart, discussing questions of little importance, but never once touching on the subject of the state of the stream.

It was unclear how much time had passed, but one day, they found themselves sitting side by side on the bank. The maiden felt a chill in her toes, and realized she had been dangling her feet in the water. The water, she realized, was cold, gently flowing, where before, it had become warm and full of algae. When she looked around, new growth had started to bloom around the edges of the stream. She gasped at the sight.

The knight sat beside her, jabbering on and mindlessly throwing stones into the water. She looked down and realized she too had a stone in her hand. It was of a vibrant purple hue, and glowing. The knight released a green stone into the water, and as it flew through the air, it left a sparkling green trail behind it. As it sunk beneath the water, the ripples it left fluttered out to the banks, sending a pulse of green light into the budding plants. The plants stood taller, and shimmering gold specs danced into the warm air.

Magic.

The maiden could hardly believe her eyes. She then tossed her purple stone into the water and watched the ripples float down to where the earthen dam had clogged the stream. It was mostly all broken apart now, but the ripples from her stone sent a shimmering purple glow into the embankment, breaking free small bits of the debris that had been caught.

She looked then into the face of the knight, realization blanketing her like the spring sun. He quieted then and returned her gaze. Soft and gentle. A warm smile met his bright eyes, and she couldn't help but return it.

Created with Night Cafe Studios

Suddenly, and without warning, a love had grown between them, igniting the magic of the forest, waking it back up. Offering the maiden and the knight the stones needed to break apart the stagnancy that had taken over the spring, allowing the flow of the stream to start anew.

The maiden realized then that what she thought had been an attempt at peace for herself, had indeed, actually been stagnancy in her waters. What she had, had been lonely, not peace.

They stayed there then. Building a quiet, truly peaceful life on the banks of the stream. Their love kept the waters gently flowing.