Journey of the Sacred Hardwood
Wandering through time, there was a little girl, by name of Amser, who liked to visit the different times. The little girl enjoyed telling stories about the many things she had seen through time. This girl once visited a young woman who lives in a town near Buya, and she told her a story.
The young woman's name was Diahann, and she used to visit the many shops in Buya and nearby cities to check for new weaponry. She was owner of the Golden Bow which she had obtained after very hard work and practice for the bow to accept her as its owner. Diahann used to visit the room of Enlightenment every moon to participate of a contest named Eight Hour Do Story Contest, in which they were given a theme and a topic, always different but based on weaponry. This season she was given the task to write a story about the journey of the sacred hardwood, which would be used to build a special bow'
Diahann had finished her story and left for home, she started cooking lunch as she heard someone knocking on the door. She went to open the door and it was a little girl who was knocking, she asked if she could come in.
~the day became night as Amser entered Diahann's hut~
Diahann invited her to come in and sit on the couch, that she would finish cooking and give the little girl some of what she was cooking. Amser looked around and saw the Golden Bow hanging on a wall near the ceiling, and she stared at it.
Diahann asked the little girl what her name was and she answered "Amser, which means time". Then the little girl went to the kitchen with Diahann and started talking to her about the Golden Bow. After a few minutes of conversation about it, she decided Diahann was worth of listening to her story.
~as Amser sat down on one of the chairs that were in the kitchen the early birds started singing like if the sun was rising already' and she began telling one of her stories~
A long time a go, I witnessed a young woman that wore a white SetZe gown walk and climb the mountains to the northeast, yes like heading to the sea'
She was searching for a special piece of wood that an old man told her she could use to make a bow; that this wood was the best type of wood to use as the stave of wood for the bow. She walked for several moons until she felt a cold breeze running through her long hair. There she knew she was very far from home and she took a coat out of her backpack to cover herself from the chilling breeze she was heading to. Then she remembered about the story the old man told her, 'you will know when you have found the correct tree, and you will also feel the cold bush attacking you'.
She knew she was getting closer to the place in which she could find the special wood for her bow. She had to cross frozen rivers and many mountains covered by ice and snow, but she did not give up because of these challenges of nature, she knew she had to find this wood for her bow, or the bow would never be the one she wanted so much. She had to fight several polar bears that attacked her; she had to fish out of ice for her daily food. Things were getting rough for her but she would not give up because of this.
The old man's story told that she would find a pine covered by snow, with golden leaves on it. The story also told that this was the tree Siddhartha Gautama had mediated under for so many years.
She was about to faint, as she climbed one more hill; she fell on the snow and rolled down the hill making a snowball out of her until she hit something and the snowball broke up. She woke up, still stunned because of the hit with a tree which had golden leaves snow fall on her after the snowball hit the tree. She could not believe it, this was the pine with golden leaves; the type of pine that is used to make the best arrows and the best belly and back of the bows.
She took out her axe and cut a branch out of a similar tree which was growing near this tree, she did not cut the tree she had crush on because it was marked as a holy tree.
As she was heading back to her village she went to visit the old man had told her the story about the holy tree. She told the old man all had happened to her on her journey and all the things she had done, the things she had experienced with every detail possible.
She went to her hut and began building her bow, crafting the wood into a perfect shape to use it as the stave of wood used for the type of bow she wanted. Hours passed and she finally had her bow the way she wanted it, shining with holy grace; this bow had been blessed by the blessing all the trees in the area she gathered the branch had received from Buddha himself.
~the sun rises and Diahann realizes that the night had passed already, and the sun was coming out, she ran to see her food before she burn the house down~
Amser kindly stood beside Diahann and told her not to worry, her food was completely perfect and ready to eat, that Amser is the name of the young girl that travels through time by controlling it, telling great stories to many people, inspiring them to write even better stories.
Winner of 2nd place at Do's One Hour Story Contest
Baekho Diahann