Digging Up The Sun

Once upon a time an old but very powerful witch called Smyrna, because she was cold and dark as winter inside, buried the sun plunging the whole world into an age of darkness and ice.

For a long time people searched to find where she had buried it but no one could find it and so they got used to the arctic climate and living in the dark.

But then, one day, a little boy was playing, digging in the snow and building a snowman when a gold beam of light shot out of the ground.

Uncovering more snow the boy looked down under the snow and saw a gigantic golden ball; the sun that the witch had hidden.

Excitedly, the boy grabbed a handfull of gold from the sun and rushed to get back home to tell his mother about what he had seen.

Sadly, as he walked home, the boys eyesight started to fade.

You see, the boy had gazed directly at the sun and for far too long and so the sun had blinded him.

Struggling to get home, he passed three things. The first was a robin singing; the second was a jingling bell and the third was a prickly holly bush.

When the boy got back home his mother was horrified that he was blind but she was also amazed that aswell as being blind the boy had a brown face as if it had been tanned by the sun.

"What has happened to you my boy", she asked, "That made you blind and turned your face that colour".

Then the boy told his mother what he had found; that he had been digging in the snow and had seen something under the ground that glowed with a bright golden light and then he showed his mother the handful of glowing gold in his mittened hands.

Immediately, the mother guessed that her son had found the buried sun and she went to tell the people in her village.

"We must dig it up", said the chief elder of the village, "Gather all our picks and shovels and dig up the sun".

"But how can the boy lead us to where it is buried when he is blind", asked another of the villagers.

However, then the boy told the villagers of the three things he had passed; a robin singing; a jingling bell and a prickly holly bush and the villagers decided that they would follow those clues until they found the location of the buried sun.

There was only one place where holly still grew, in defiance of the dark and cold, that was in the forest of evergreen and so they went there.

As they were travelling through the forest, however, a windwolf, a creature that had been made by the witch Smyrna to guard the forest overheard what they were looking for and started to howl, a howling wind coming out of its open jaws with a cold that was as sharp as its teeth.

But, fortunately, a drop of the shining gold that was in the boys hands fell upon a hollybush and when that happened the hollybush turned into a dragon with scales of green, shiny holly leaves and eyes like red holly berries that ate up the windwolf before turning back into a hollybush.

Relieved, the villagers blessed the sun for its power and then they carried on through the forest.

But then, beyond the forest they came to a valley that full of strange flowers called windbells; these were not natural flowers but more things that the witch had made; flowers with sleighbells for heads and when the wind that she had conjured up blew through the windbells they all rang at once and the ringing of them drove all of the villagers mad.

All around him, the blind boy, though he could not see them, could hear the other villagers crying in pain as they clutched their ears and rolled upon the ground.

But then the boy felt the piece of golden sun within his hand start to change until, feeling it with his fingers he felt the shape of a horn and then, realising what had to be done, he placed the horn to his lips and blew and when he did a golden wind blew through the valley and, like the heads of dandelions, blew all the ringing heads of the windbells away until the valley was only filled with silence.

The blind boy heard the other villagers sigh with relief and then cheer for the magic of the sun.

But then the villagers came to the place where the boy had heard the robin singing and now he could hear the sound of hundreds of robins chirping but they were not real robins. When the witch had buried the sun all the real robins in the land had died out. No, these were the witches mechanical robins, their breasts glowing with a strange red fire that gave each of the little flapping automatons its life and when the robins, twittering in artificial trees of silver and gold saw the villagers they began to get angry; their twittering more dischordant and harsh and their tiny steel beaks starting to open and close with a loud snapping sound like a mousetrap when its sprung.

Then, all at once, like a plague of locusts descending upon a field or a cloud of angry bees; their eyes glowing as bright red as the strange lantern light in their chests, the robins swarmed towards them, their wings clattering as they flew and then, suddenly, the villagers felt themselves surrounded by tiny birds with razor sharp pecking and snapping beaks.

The villagers fell upon the ground, covering their faces and the blind boy even let go of the piece of sun he had been holding, letting it all fall to the ground as he covered his head, trying to protect himself from the beaks of the birds.

But then, rising up from the ground, the golden sun became a fabulous flaming phoenix that, soaring and swooping about in the air just like a bird of prey, snatched up the mechanical robins with its red hot beak and talons or swatted them away with its gigantic flame feathered wings, the heat of their sunfire melting the metal wings of the robins so that they couldn't fly and fell to the ground.

Then suddenly, the blind boy could not hear the fluttering and chirping of the mechanical birds anymore or the pecking and snapping of their steel beaks.

"The Sun, the sun has risen like a phoenix and defeated the witches birds", he heard someone say.

But then they went forward to the place where the witch had buried the sun and they all saw beams of golden light, as tall as tent poles, shining out of the snowy ground where the boy had uncovered them.

"Cover up your eyes with something before you dig", said the village elder, "Or else you will all go as blind as the boy".

So they tore off their sleeves and made blindfolds out of them, tying them around their heads, then with their picks and shovels, they started to dig at the snowy ground.

But then something else appeared, rising up from behind the horizon; something taller than a mountain and even darker than the darkness of a sunless land.

It was the evil witch Smyrna and she was angry, her gigantic eyes blazing like two large cracks full of volcanic fire; her mouth opening as wide as a chasm and roaring with the force of the four winds combined as, on mile long legs, she strode towards them.

"Keep digging", said the village elder though his heart was trembling as he heard the witches enormous footsteps, "If we can release the sun, it is our only hope".

But then the blind boy felt something strange happening to him, a glowing sensation spreading throughout his limbs and, if they hadn't been blindfolded, all round about him would have seen a light as bright as the sun bursting from the splayed fingers of his outstretched hands and from every golden hair upon his head. Even the boys blind eyes lit up until they became blinding.

"We are all rays of the sun", he said, speaking with light in his words, "Even the sun itself is a ray of a greater sun; a deeper light that shines through all good things".

And saying this the boy became so bright that a shadow appeared behind the giant witch but the shadow was a hole and a hole with no bottom then the boy became brighter still, as bright as a star until, flying like a shooting star towards the witch he knocked her backwards into the shadow as deep and dark as her own evil and she disappeared with a terrified scream that got fainter and fainter until she was silenced altogether.

But then the sun, using its own beams to drag itself up out of the hole it had been buried in flew up towards the sky and, as it did, suddenly, light filled the Earth again.

All over the world people looked up and smiles like sunlight spread across their faces and cheers which are the sound of sunlight burst from their mouths as they saw the black sky returning to bright blue; then the villagers, taking off their blindfolds and looking up at the sky smiled and cheered aswell.

When the mother of the blind boy looked around to find her son, however, she couldn't see him and she started to cry, thinking that her son was dead but then she looked up and saw him for he had become a bright star in the sky.

"Do not cry mother", she heard the boy say, "We are all stars and the light of heaven shines through us and will go on shining forever".