Illustration first published in Spellbound: A Fantasy Magazine for Children Winter 2002
Coyote, Crow, and Star
Weaver
The world was so lovely
in the bright sunlight. The birds, insects, and animals loved to feel its
warmth on their backs. The sounds they made were clear and bright, joyful in
the shimmering sun.
That would change as the
sun traveled high above their heads and disappeared behind the mountains. The
sounds made by the birds would grow silent, the buzzing of the insects would
grow louder, and the sounds made by the animals would sound sad or scary in the
cold dark night.
One day coyote saw crow
busy at the water's edge. Crow was pecking at sparkling things in the water.
"What are you doing
crow?" asked coyote as he tilted his head to one side.
"I am picking out
all of the shiny clear stones to make lights for the night sky," crow
answered.
Coyote replied, "That
is a wonderful idea. But how are you going to get them to stick to the
sky?"
Crow stopped and stared
at coyote. She ruffled her feathers and turned her head from side to side. She
looked up at the sky and wistfully whispered, "I don't know."
"Crow, do not worry,"
said coyote, "I will walk through the woods and see if I can find a way to
help you."
Crow went back to adding
clear shiny stones to her pile as coyote walked off into the woods. Coyote
looked first for long sticks that would reach the sky. None of them were long
enough. He picked up a pinecone and tossed it into the air. It fell back to
earth and bounced off his tail. He found a long vine and looped that around a
pinecone twirling it and tossing it up in the air. That one got stuck up high
in a tree. Coyote sat and scratched his head with his paw. None of his ideas
worked.
He got up and started
walking again. As he walked down the path he felt something sticky on his nose.
It was a web from the weaver. He wiped it from his nose and walked on. Then he
saw the weaver leap from a branch catching the wind and flying with it to
another tall tree leaving a long sticky thread in her path. She then used it to
add more strings to her weaving until she had made a beautiful web.
Coyote asked, "Weaver,
could you reach the tail of the sun?"
Web weaver stopped and
thought for a bit, "Yes, if the wind was strong, I think I could reach the
tail of the sun."
Coyote explained crow's
idea about lighting the sky.
The wind was perfect that
night. The web weaver climbed to the top of the tallest tree and jumped grabbing
the tail of the sun. Back and forth the weaver wove her web as the sun slowly
tugged it behind the mountains. Coyote
and crow began handing her the shiny stones.
Joyfully they placed the
last stone and brought incredible twinkling lights to the night.
(This flash fiction story (500 words not including title) was written to go with my illustration and is published here for the first time.)
