Why The Willow Weeps

Once upon a time there was a beautiful young girl eyes as green as grass her short life had been filled with pain but when she smiled it lit up the world around her with happiness, this girls name was Willow. Willow, every day just before the sun set went to a lake of which hanging over the crystal clear water was a leafless tree. She cried every day bellow the bare tree tracing idle patterns in the water tinted orange by the setting sun, she cried for herself and the horrors she'd seen she cried for the dreariness of the world and the pain of everyone around her, and the dead tree listened. One day as she sat with her face to the lake salty tears mixing with pure water she heard the beating of hooves and looked up to see a man handsome powerful and cold. She bowed as was her custom to even commoners and begged forgiveness for disturbing the strangers travels. He got down from his horse silently something had changed in his demeanor almost tenderly towards the girl his ice had melted away at the sight of her pain and love brushed his heart, love at first sight. And he interrupted her flow of apologies with a simple question...he asked her name. Willow told him startled to find this stranger so kind to her and she smiled when he told her he was to return the next day love at first sight healing her painfully raw heart, and all the while the dead tree listened. The next day the man returned and they talked a great deal, the man had turned out to be none other than the king of the land's brother Prince Kelden he told her of his life as prince, and head of armies, of his troubles in life, the battles he fought often, and the danger he was put in, and how he got past his troubles, and how her pain melted his ice barriers. In turn she told him how she longed to help and saw the pain in everyone she met even the cheeriest of people she was happy when she helped and sad when she couldn't and she never felt anger because the wicked people she had met were only so because of pain they had felt or pain perhaps that was woven into there being by the ones who had felt it like a father raising a child to hate. And this is how her days went when the sunset, her and her prince sitting with their backs to the twisted form of a dead leafless tree reaching over the water. But as fate would have it one day the prince had not come to her one evening and heartbroken the girl cried at the base of the tree with more pain then she had ever felt, her prince had not abandoned her but war had left him recovering in a healer's room for many days. The girl alone uninformed cried at the foot of the tree for days she didn't eat she didn't drink or sleep she simply cried until one night mere minutes before her prince would return the lake grew silent of her sobs and the stilled form of the beautiful Willow lie lifeless beneath the leafless tree curled up in her ball as if she were still crying. The prince had turned white as snow seeing her lifeless form and straightened her body at the roots of the tree and mourned allowing even his princely posture to fall away and give in to grief. Tears splashed onto her dress and the roots of the tree and something odd happened that forced the prince to back away from her body. The roots of the tree wrapped around her body and dragged her down into the soil. Kelden screamed at the tree, rage, love, and pain chocking any words he had... he wanted her back. The raged screams ended as abruptly as they began when the tree's dark brown bark mixed with a tan bark that almost resembled human skin and new thin flimsy branches sprouted and leaves as green as Willows eyes grew on those branches one leaf for every tear Willow had ever shed, like the tree it's self was crying. Kelden marveled at the birth of the tree and named it weeping willow in memory of Willow. Pained tears sunk deep in the revived roots and a rustling went through the tear filled leaves and suddenly Willow herself stood before the prince, his tears flowed even stronger now but they were tears of joy and he ran to Willow embracing her and she hugged him back. He whispered a plead in her ear "let me be with you" but she simply shook her head because he was needed places that were not with her but she asked him to come whenever he needed his heart to thaw and when she felt his tears at her roots she would come to spend the evening like she always had with him in the past. He slept that night under the Willow tree next to his one true love her arms wrapped protectively around him like the leaves that separated them from the rest of the world. Days passed months even at a time where she wouldn't see her prince but when his heart was raw with pain or cold with ice he came as he promised and she appeared to him and comforted him. The prince had grown old over the years and nearing death he made one request to his kingly brother, Kelden told his brother of a place where he would find a tree that wept and that when Kelden dies to bring him there enter the leaves and place him over its roots and mourn for him there. The brother agreed to this as a dyeing mans wish and when Kelden died he brought him to the tree and cried over the loss of his brother and once again the roots of the tree wrapped over a body but not Willows this time it was Kelden the brother did not become angry with the tree or mourn any longer he simply smiled because somehow in an unspoken brotherly way he knew Kelden was remembered and that he was with the one he loved. He said his final goodbye and turned to leave to be met by Willow, he stumbled back and saw Kelden beside her and they both embraced him in a hug as their final goodbye.

And now if you ever sit in a willow tree in pain and distress tell it what you feel and it will always remember because all Willow ever wanted to do was help, and sometimes when the wind blows right you can see Willow and Kelden walking hand in hand with smiles that would brighten anyone's day and love that was timeless. And that's why the willow weeps...