Long ago, our ancestors lived only in grayness, there was no reason to lift their faces to the sky, for there was no sun, or moon or stars to light the way. Few humans thrives, but there was a man and his wife, who defied the odds. With all his heart and soul this man loved and protected his beautiful wife, so it would be no surprise, that one day when his wife fell deathly ill, he was desperate to save her. He traveled far to consult the Hedge Witch.
The Hedge Witch listened, "Please," the man begged "Please, name your price. Help her. I will do anything." The Hedge Witch, with a certain look in her eye, bobbed her uncontrolled mane of hair and reached out with her long, thin arm, offering a vial of clear liquid. "She must drink this elixir. When you give it to her add a drop of your blood and I promise you this will make you shine to her." The Hedge Witch turned towards the small window of her sod covered shack and spoke again, “Be warned man. this..” In his haste a desire to return to his suffering wife, the tearful man did not wait to hear the warning the Hedge Witch may have offered, but instead, muttered quick thanks and rushed out through the hand-hewn door that closed quietly, on its own behind him.
The terrified husband returned to the death bed of his wife. His voice barely above a whisper, he spoke words of love to his pale soulmate, and brushed her curls away from her eyes. Stopping only to steady his shaking hands, the man pricked his finger, adding just a drop of his scarlet red blood to the vial given to him by the Hedge Witch. The husband tenderly tilted his wife’s head back and poured the liquid from the vial into her mouth. He rested her back to her makeshift straw bed on the floor. He held her hand for a long while as she fell into a deep sleep. He too slipped away.
Brightness woke the wife. The most beautiful light she had ever seen shone in the sky. It was this same light that future ancestors would call the sun. She smiled for the warmth of this light and noted she felt better than she had ever felt. The wife tried to wake her husband to tell him the potion worked. "Wake up my love, " she gently whispered into his ear, but he made no motion. Alarmed, in a louder, urgent voice she said, "Wake up now. Do not toy with me. Open your eyes to see the light.” When he made no sound and made no move as he would usually do when he was only teasing her, she shook him roughly, finally accepting he wasn't sleeping. He was gone. He had left her alone in the world and in her anguish, she lay beside him crying. What a cruel joke that has been played.
The broken-hearted wife, no longer cared about the sun that was high in the sky, no longer gave note to the well-feeling that her lungs and skill felt, for her heart was broken. She made the same journey her desperate husband had made to the cabin of the Hedge Witch. When the woman arrived at the same hand-hewn door that her husband had rushed through only the day before, she did not wait for the Hedge Witch to answer her knock. Instead, she forced open the door and found the witch sitting at her small table that was covered with herbs and strange things. "What did you do to my man?” demanded the woman, "Why is my love dead?" The witch simply laughed a soft laugh "My dear, he gave his life for yours. He loved you so much that his spirit now lights up the world. Be happy you still can see the gift of light and life he has given you. Do you see that his love the warms your skin?" The woman cried harder " I cannot live in this world without him,” Sobbed the woman now widowed. "You can bring us together once more, can you not?" The witch nodded, " I can bring you together once more but only for a short time" The woman looked into the witches eyes "I'll do anything to have him back" The witch nodded and handed her still another potion, "Drink this and then lay alongside him and do not fail to kiss him before you fall asleep. "
The woman took the vial and returned to the home that sheltered her lifeless husband. Lying next to her lover the wife drank the sweet tasting liquid and kissed the lifeless lips of the man who had given his own life to prolong her own. Some unknown time later, the woman awoke no longer housing a body, but floating above the body she herself had once housed, and the body of the man she had loved so completely. Was that a look of peace or completeness on their faces, she wondered? She looked around and realized she herself was emitting a warm, mystical, glowing light, which was the first time our world was graced by moonlight. As the light that seemed to be coming from deep within her center grew brighter, and the glow of sun her husband’s love had created grew dim on the horizon, she thoughts turned her love again when she heard his voice. " My love, we cannot be physically together but I shall die every day so your beauty can light up the world at night, and every so often when our luck is great we will touch for a moment or two and it will be beautiful."
Perhaps now and then, when you allow yourself a moment to appreciate a beautiful sunset and the rising of the moon, or stand in awe as you witness a rare eclipse, your thoughts will go to the husband and the wife whose lights the world both day and night.
YOU ARE READING
A Time Before Light
Short StoryJust a short fairy tale about loving someone so much you would die every day for them. I wrote this for my daughter and read it every night at bed time. I hope someone enjoys it as much as her.
