Listen, children, here is the story of the first winter.
Once upon a time long long ago, before the lines between gods and mortals became clear, there was a little girl. This little girl was cast out by her family, by her community, by all the people of that time. But the plants and the beasts and the sky and the stars saw her. And they saw that she was a child. And they resolved that they would bring her out of her sorrow.
---This is a story I made up it's not a folktale or something.———
This work is in the public domain and anyone can do whatever they want with it.
The Town was a good Town. The Townspeople were kind to each other. Everything was beautiful. Everything was clean. The women wore pretty cotton dresses. The men wore handsome button-up shirts. Parents adored and doted on their children.
They lived in accordance to the prophecies passed down to them by the Giver, the great being who had created all of this. The final prophecy decreed the coming of the Taker, who would take it all alway.
The Taker was meant to end the world. But the Taker would have to first be raised within the Town.
---The main character uses they/them pronouns. The main character likes using they/them pronouns. The main character is genuinely genderqueer and it's fine. They use they/them pronouns because they like it. Not because of all the cult stuff that happens. The cult stuff is separate from the genderqueer stuff.
———
This work is in the public domain and anyone can do whatever they want with it.
Solaria was beautiful. Shining. Bountiful. It was a land of prosperity and luxury.
For those who were citizens.
Reymi unfortunately was not a citizen.
He was a child slave caught up in the middle of the summer solstice celebration.