Behind Enemy Lines (Day Three)

[Akirapryde]

She laughed at the question, "sometimes I forget." She motioned him to join her by a large muddy area. "My great grandmother passed away when she was one thousand five." Trysta said as she smoothed out the mud to make a smooth surface, "at her age, it was considered an exception even for my people. But my mother told me she held on to see the birth of my sister and I."

She took a branch and drew a flower, "we are all Daughters of the Triple Goddesses," she explained pointing at the flower. She took a line from the left of the flower and started to draw a spiral circle in on its self. "The Maiden is the beginning of all life. She is like me and all young daughters. She is rebellious and often acts out of passion and emotion. The Maiden loves to dance, she is the Goddess of young lovers. As all daughters pursue love in their early lives. "

Once that spiral was complete, she drew a line from the top of the flower directly above the flower, "the mother wakes up with the dawn. She brings her daughters under control and sets them to bed. She is the matriarch of our Houses and our people. She rules over us, warms our world and brings life to it."

Trysta looked up at him, "The mother is who all daughters become when we start to settle down. At this point in our lives, we learn or should have learned the importance of family, and our duties to our people. We start to take our places within our houses. Start to have our own children."

She drew a line from the right of the rose, "the Crone or Old Lady is who all mothers grow in to. She is a wise teacher. As she wakes with nightfall, she tells us stories of our past. Teaches us that we should learn from the mistakes of others. The Crone warns us that we were not the first of her children choose."

Trysts looks up again, "that there were two sons before the Mother gave birth to the Daughters of the Forest. They were called the Sons of the Plains. The Crone tells us that these two sons were rebellious like the Maiden. But unlike the Maiden, they didn't grow out of it. They fought with each other until the day came that they mother could not stand the fighting anymore."

Trysta leaned back on her heels and looked him in the eyes, "When the Daughters of the Forrest were very young, the Sons of the Plains crossed the great sea, from their cities of old. They came to our forests and brought war and suffering. This angered the Mother so much."

As the Crone would tell us, the Mother warned them to stop what they were doing. She shook their great cities, withered their crops, poisoned their waters. And the Sons of the Plains wouldn't listen. They continued to invade our lands, our forests. So the Mother choose to bring her sons to an end."

"She stepped down from heavens. It was told to us by the Crone that the mother was very angry with them. That she couldn't bare to see her children hurting each other anymore. Because of this, she walked among their cities. So angry was the Mother that she wanted to walk deep in to our forests. But the Crone protected her Granddaughters."

"As our legends go, the Crone stood in the way of the Mother's anger. She lit up the night sky allowing the Mothers wrath to fall where it was deserved and sparing her Granddaughters. The Sons of the Plains were no more and we, the Daughters of the Forests flourished."

"But we are reminded that the Crone is always watching over us. And she is always aware that lurking just out of sight is the Maiden. Waiting for her to sleep, so that the Maiden can take her place by the fire and dance the night away. That is until the mother wakes. We are told to be mindful of the wrath of our mother."