Story Magic by Beth Ball

Author:Beth Ball [Ball, Beth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781952609121
Publisher: Grove Guardian Press
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

“LEGEND OF THE BLACK OAK FOREST”

As Cassandra taught us, in the days before the parting of the seas, a great green oak grew.

She stretched high, her canopy rising above all the other trees, and from there, the oak watched and waited.

If anyone had paused to ask, however, the tree would have confessed she was not sure what she was waiting for.

But fate would not hold out forever. There came a day when the tree’s fortune turned. And in this changing of her fortune, her fate affected that of so many more.

A young woman came to the oak, desperate for love. “There is a man where I’m from who longs to marry me. I know I’m meant to be with someone else, but I don’t know whom.”

The great green oak thought this over. It wasn’t customary for her to be sought in matters of the heart, though she was keen to try her hand at a subject readily practiced by sages across the land. “Very well, I shall do my best to help you.”

The woman smiled and wrapped her arms around the tree. “Thank you,” she whispered. “How shall I pay you for your aid to me?”

Laughter rustled the tree’s slender leaves. “You need not pay me, child,” the oak finally said. “But here, take this.” She dropped an acorn into the girl’s hands. “This piece of me will travel with you. Plant it where the roots of your heart find their resting place, and I will continue to guide you.”

The young woman was overjoyed at this prospect. She tucked the acorn into her pocket, planted a kiss on the bark, and skipped off into the forest.

That afternoon, the young woman returned home to find that she and her family would be going on a trip, leaving behind the suitor she did not wish to wed. “Where are we going?”

Excitement glittered in her mother’s eyes. “Do you feel that, child?” she asked, gesturing to the open carriage window once they were on their way.

The girl leaned out, and the wind rushed through her hair, but she could not find the sensation her mother had indicated. “No, Mama, I do not.”

The bronze-skinned woman brushed her daughter’s hair back away from her face. “You will, my daughter. A change of fate drifts down from the moon and the stars. It calls to you, my child.” She smiled. “Be sure to answer, when the time comes.”

With a nod, the young woman pressed her palm against the acorn in her pocket. Even from afar, the wisdom of the oak fluttered down to her.

Their carriages drew to a halt once they reached a verdant kingdom, its borders enclosed by a protective mountain ring. Inside, celebrations stretched as far as the eye could see, from the smallest villages to the grand castle itself, where guests arrived from many distant lands. The time had come, the girl soon came to understand, for the kingdom’s lord and ruler to choose a bride. And though she was but one

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