The First Salt-Sower

Folklore

Listen. Listen close, little ones. Put your elbows on your knees and hush. [pause] I tell you of the First Salt-Sower. Before the tide came, the basin was empty. It was a bowl of grey dust. And in that bowl walked Elu. Elu had a heart of clear glass. A heart that held the light of the first dawn. [pause] He loved the Earth-Mother. He loved her with a love that shook the mountains. He gave her the glass heart. He gave it to her so she might know his truth. But the Earth-Mother was greedy. She was greedy for the light. She took the heart, and she locked it in a cave of iron. She locked it away where the sun could not find it. [pause] Do you hear me? She locked it away. And Elu, he stood on the rim of the world. He stood there and he waited. He waited for a thousand years. He waited for a word. He waited for a sign. But there was no sign. There was only the wind. [pause] Then came the weeping. Not water, no. Not the soft rain of the clouds. Elu wept crystals. He wept white stones. He wept the salt of a broken thing. [pause] He wept and he wept. The crystals fell into the basin. They fell like snow. They fell like a blanket of white. Again, I tell you, they fell until the dust was gone. The crystals melted into the deep. They melted into the blue. And that is why the sea stings your eyes. That is why the sea tastes of grief. [pause] Remember the Salt-Sower. Remember the glass heart. Now, go. Go and fetch the water.