The Weeping Willow Of Pedantia

[Cam]

A long time ago in ancient Greece, in a part of the country called Adelae, known for its mountainous entrance and predominantly red-haired people, there lived a humble farmer and his wife. The man, named Cain, bore striking resemblance to his father, Ham, and his brother Morg'n.

They were tillers of earth and soil, who survived by following their system of annual sacrifices to the god of the fields, and growing their harvest of corn. Their paid harvesters used to sing and make gay - so much that they were known for miles as the Corn family.

One day fortune turned its ugly face towards them and their father Ham became one whom half the populace of Adelae despised - a proud man, but one who let his jaw run away from him at times. His children, following their father's lead, rebelled against their authorities too, and so led them to leave their fields and migrate to the murky underworld city of Pedantia.

Pedantia was once a thriving place, with a large seaport, but a fish shortage had led to unemployment, drugs and depression. It's people were known for their intertwining family trees and strange jargon. The common people of Pedantia could not afford to join together in worship more than once every two weeks, so temple attendences were down if two services were arrainged there in a fortnight. Many were reduced to begging, deriding their near neighbors of Adelae as 'upstarts', 'wine-drinkers' and 'incest-frees'. Clothing was sparse, with many from Pedantia resorting to animal skins upon their feet instead of Greek sandals.

The most famous feature of Pedantia however was the Weeping Willow. An aged tree set in a rich soil it was reputed to have strange powers. Every week, whether the Army of Pedantia had been successful or not in battle, the tree would begin to crack, limbs flexing, branches flailing and leaves rustling. The tree would moan and thrash and no-one or nothing could appease it, however it had survived many things despite its apparent weekly self-destruction.

Once, a swashbuckling pirate had raided the city, pillaged the women, robbed the treasury and even laid axe to the tree itself, uprooting it and tossing it aside. The people of Pedantia however still believed in the tree, so they replanted it and it moaned and wept again. The tree had another curious habit, it used to lose all its leaves in the Northern Autumn, September, even though it was meant to be leaf-laden all year round.

This caused much grief to the Pedantians, and caused their grand army to lose belief in itself, hence its power was greatly diminished during that month. They thought it might have been caused by the water, or their bladders, their opponents dress, mud, flies, the sun, the oracle of delphi, the day of the week they fought or their wive's undergarments. But no-one suspected the Willow.

The Corn family lived happily in Pedantia, listening to the wailing of the Willow and with the rest of the people. They settled down with their cousins and produced fine Pedantian families. Life was quite good, better than most, for they regularly had what the people of Adelae craved more than life itself.

A home final.

[cobood]

Excellent as usual Cam..... Great Read!!

[MargOZ]

What a laugh - thanks Cam!

GO PIES!
Marg

[Cam]

thanks, for those of you who havent worked it out... cornes family (kane, graham & chad), mark williams is the tree.