The Maiden with Hair the Color of the Golden Wheat~~by Layla

The clouds were rolling across the sky. The world was dark and gloomy. The wheat had not yet been cut. The farmers worried that the storm would ruin the ripe crops. The only clear sky left to be seen was a yellow patch to the far east. The farmers said the dragon was angry because he had not yet received his gift of a maiden with hair the color of the golden wheat and so he had sent his wrath to ruin their crops. The clear sky was the glow of the dragon, waiting, watching. . . . . .
The trouble of the land was that all the maidens with hair the color of wheat had already been sacrificed and there where none left. None? There was an old woman with hair the color of the golden wheat. But she was not a maiden and the dragon would say no.
A search was organized to find a maiden with hair the color of the golden wheat with the time that still remained and not a maiden was found.
The thunder rolled across the sky as the dragon roared. The people shivered with fear and fright and the old woman slipped out of her hut in the forest.
Across the wheat fields she journeyed, one destination in mind: The yellow patch of sky on the horizon.
At last, 3 nights before the terrible wrath of the dragon would be released, she came to a wheat field filled with golden colored wheat.
No house was in sight. Who could the wheat field belong to? The sun from the golden patch of sky shone down on the wheat and even as she watched, a dress of pure gold emerged from the ground. She donned it and walked on.
The next sunset, she came to a wheat field filled with stalks of wheat waving in the wind. They glistened in the last rays of the setting sun as it shone out from the patch of yellow sky on the horizon and fell on the wheat of silver stalks.
And just like the wheat of gold dress, a silver dress emerged. The old woman donned it and walked on, feeling as though the patch of gold on the horizon would never near and that it was just as far away as ever.
Night came. The sun disappeared. The moon came out. The stars shone in the sky. And still Thye walked on.
The next sunrise, Thye found herself in an unknown land. The grass was white and the sky was purple. The rivers were hard and the grass, like liquid.
Thye knew what to do. Spreading the dress of bronze on the liquid grass, she stepped onto it. The dress turned into a boat and the wind flew it across the strange land.
On the sunrise of the third and last day, Thye found herself by a wheat field of bronze stalks. The sun seemed to dance within them and the moon shine off them.
Thye looked up, remembering years ago when she was a lovely maiden how the sun and the moon had adorned the sky together; the night the dragon had come and she had cast a spell of age on herself to save herself from the dragon.
And, just like that night, a shadow started to cross the sun, blocking out its light. As it reached the middle, Thye lifted the spell of age from herself and once again she was beautiful and young again. She donned the dress of gold and flung the dress of silver up into the sky where it turned into a silver bird.
Thye climbed up onto its back and the bird flew her to the golden patch in the sky. And there she saw the dragon.
The dragon looked at her and grinned a toothy smile.
Thye raised her arms to the darkened sun and cast a spell of change upon the dragon. The dragon began to shrink, shrink, shrink. . . . . until he disappeared completely, just like how he had emerged all those years before, growing, growing, growing into a huge dragon from a grain of wheat.
“I should have known it was you, Goddess of Wheat!”he said in dismay as he shrunk, “But i shall take you with me!” And the dragon reached out and grabbed her up. The two of them vanished in a poof!
Thye’s sacrifice had not been in vain. The clouds cleared away. The sun shone. The farmers cheered and the crops turned to gold, silver and bronze.
THE END