goodbye_sun (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} goodbye_sun) wrote in ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} amber_moment,@ 2008-03-19 00:29:00 |
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| Entry tags: | short story |
Kumo
Title: Kumo
Author: goodbye_sun
Rating: For the first time ever - G
Warnings: None.
Created for a monthly challenge at: simhaven
Prompt: Pick any myth, legend or fairytale and provide an interpretation of the events from the point of view of one of the central figures.
Summary: The Japanese word kumo carries with it two meanings. This tale explains why it is one word is both spider and cloud.
Authors note: Even as a child, long before I learned to weave, this was one of my favourite stories. In fact, this is the version I read.
 When I first met Yosaku he was tending his fields. Even now I like to look out from my high vantage point and watch him preparing his garden for the new years planting. It was the same task he was doing when I first met him, he was a young man then, but touched with age my eyes still find themselves wandering his direction. I like to imagine he suspects the silly way I stare out at him because occasionally he stops his work and looks up at where I sit hidden from view. But alas you are not interested in the esteem in which I hold him now; you would like to know how this simple farmer came to help someone like me at all. Both our kinds appreciate the way the sun warms you through on an early spring morning, and it was for that reason I found myself perched on a rock one very fine morning only metres from where Yosaku was working. It was while watching him diligently turning the soil that my mortal enemy was able to sneak up on me from behind.  If it had not been for the quick actions of Yosaku, my life would have ended there. He had seen the snake and drove it away, thus sparing me. Fearful that the snake might return, I quickly bowed to Yosaku before retreating to the safety of my web. I did not forget the kindness he had shown me, and after a few days I came up with a way to repay his generosity.  It used all my will to alter myself into the form of a woman, and all my bravery to walk up to his house and call his name. When he appeared he eyed me with curiosity until I explained, “Yosaku-san, I understand you are in need of a weaving girl. Won’t you please allow me to stay and weave for you?” He smiled and accepted my offer with a shy bow before showing me the weaving room. When I was certain he was busy in his garden I began to work. By the time the sun was dipping its head below the tree line I had finished eight lengths of cloth. It was more than enough to please my new master, but it also raised his curiosity for he had never known anyone to weave so much in one day. “Yosaku-san, I do not ask how you grow the finest vegetables in the region, please respect my work and do not ask me such things. I must also kindly request that you not watch me when I am working on the loom.”  He had agreed, but we all know how prone to curiosity mortal man is. A few short days later, he slipped quietly to my window and peered in. It was that day he saw me as what I really was, for sitting at the loom busily working away was not the shy girl he expected, but instead the spider he had saved. He was not shocked, or fearful at the sight of me weaving cloth for him. Quite the opposite. It filled him with happiness that I had so wanted to show my appreciation. When I was nearly out of cotton Yosaku set out on the long journey to the nearest village. On his return, he stopped to rest, and as he sat in the shade along the path, the snake he had chased away slithered into the sack he was carrying back to me. He returned to the farm never knowing what was waiting at the bottom of the bag of cotton. In the morning I went to the weaving room and began to eat handfuls of cotton so that I could spin it into thread to weave with. I had run out the day before so I consumed it greedily wanting to make up for the work I had not been able to finish the day before. As I made my way down the bag, I grew closer and closer to where the snake was hiding, and heavier and slower as I filled my belly with cotton. When it was sure I could not out run it, the snake slithered out of the bag.  I ran as fast as I was able, but the snake easily caught up with me. Just as it was about to gobble me down, I was once again rescued. The Old Man Sun had watched everything that had happened to me, and wanting to show how pleased he was that I had repaid Yosaku for helping me, reached down and pulled me from danger high up into his home in the sky, safe from the snake forever.  I show my gratitude to the Sun by weaving beautiful white clouds from the cotton Yosaku had bought for me. On the days the Sun burns the hottest I weave extra clouds to help shade Yosaku while he works. I think he is grateful, for he often looks up into the sky and smiles. |
