Week 3 Story: Luna, Lies, and Mercury

Girl in a Wood painting by Nikolai Bogdanov-Belsky. Web source: Wikimedia Commons. 

There once was a girl named Luna. She came from a very poor family, but she longed for the finer things in life. One day, Luna's mother instructed her to travel through the woods and into the city to sell some of the family's possessions for money. She handed Luna a small burlap sack with their only few things that had value: an heirloom locket, an antique tea kettle, and a few items with silver that could be melted down. Luna felt sad and somewhat ashamed that her and her mother's lives could fit into a tiny burlap sack.

The girl set off on her journey through the woods. She didn't like to travel alone, but Luna knew that she had to do this for her family. After about an hour of walking, Luna began to grow very tired. Not paying attention, she got her foot caught on a tree root and fell. As she went down, her sack flew out of her hands and off a small cliff.

Luna began to weep. Not only was hurt from the fall, but she had just her family's chance at any extra money. Right as she began her defeated walk home, Mercury appeared in front of her.

"Why are you crying dear girl?" the god asked.

"I dropped my bag off of that cliff. It was very important that I get where I was headed with it," Luna replied.

Before she could say anything else, Mercury flew off of the side of the cliff. He came back holding a beautiful velvet bag with gold stitching. When he opened the bag to show the girl, it was overflowing with gold coins.

"Is this what you were looking for?" Mercury asked.

Luna paused for a moment. She knew that this wasn't her bag, but she also knew that this gold could very well save her family. It could give her a chance to leave home and get an education. Before she could finish thinking everything over, she blurted out

"Yep! That's my bag! I was just on my way to the bank to deposit it. Thank you so much!"

Mercury, the god of thieves, knew that this wasn't the truth, but gave the girl the gold anyway.

Years passed, and Luna was able to start a successful business. It was not long before her misfortune began. She went bankrupt, her husband died, and Luna herself got very sick. Somehow, she knew that this had something to do with the gold she wrongfully took from Mercury all of those years ago.

Luna made her way back to the woods, and Mercury was waiting for her.

"Why are you crying dear girl?" the god asked.

"I'm sorry. I am truly sorry. I lied and now my life is ruined," she said.

"Nothing is ruined forever," Mercury said. "What is the lesson that you learned?"

"It is always best to tell the truth a work for what you have," Luna said between weeps.

When she opened her eyes, she was back in her home. Her husband was still alive and her business was still  open.

Once she had learned her lesson, Mercury allowed her to return the wonderful life she had built with his gold. One thing is for sure though, Luna will always think twice before telling a lie, or even a fib, again.


Author's note:

This is a retelling of Aesop's Fable, Mercury and the Woodman. The original story involves a man working in the the woods when he loses his axe. When Mercury tries to give the man a gold and silver axe, the man declines and says that he just had a regular axe. Mercury rewards the man for his honesty and gives the man all three axes. With my retelling, I kept this same main idea and changed the main character to my protagonist, Luna. Mercury's character remains mostly the same in my story, except he is a little more forgiving and does not just hit Luna when she is dishonest (like he did with others in the original). Instead of being honest when Luna loses her possessions in the woods, she lies and ultimately suffers for it. I wanted to Luna to make a different choice from the man in the original because I think her learning a hard lesson adds to her depth as a character.

Bibliography:

"Mercury and the Woodman" in The Aesop for Children. Author unknown. Illustrated by Milo Winter. Web source: UnTextbook.