Username + ID: Apollione + 373946
Fawnae Name: Doemeter
Credits: Rose,
Roses,
LeavesMyth: „𝐴𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑙𝑙, 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑛𝑒𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝘩𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑤.“Doemeter, goddess of nature and time, but also wither and decay. There is nothing eternal in this world, not even so called gods. Everything needs to one day meet its end, be it with loud bang or a quiet sigh. Only Doemeter is the one who stays, who watches it all. Some would call her goddess of life and death, the ultimate goddess, but only few know that although she helps them in things such as survival, she's nothing more than just a observer. Sometimes cruel, sometimes kind, but that's just how gods are. Fickle, often bored by their so called "immortality" and always oh so proud. There is no god that would let anyone call their name in bad manner and Deometer is no exception. It is said she cursed many, much more than blessed, but her probably biggest curse fell on
Sylveer, a foolish wolf that dared to challenge her for her immortality and tried to trick her with dirty trick.
„𝐼 𝑤𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟... 𝑊𝘩𝑖𝑐𝘩 𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑏𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑚 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 𝑎𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒? 𝑊𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑏𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑎𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑓𝑢𝑙 𝑦𝑒𝑡 𝑓𝑢𝑙𝑙 𝑜𝑓 𝑡𝘩𝑜𝑟𝑛𝑠, 𝑜𝑟 𝑝𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝑦𝑒𝑡 𝑠𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝘩𝑎𝑛 𝘩𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑦?“The creation of Doemeter is just as mysterious as is her whole personality. It is said she grew out of an enormous tree as it's only fruit and after she fell, the tree withered, but there are also myths that say she was
the tree and simply decided she'll walk the land in a body of the first creature she saw - a fawnae. She was beautiful, immediately catching eyes of many. Celebrations were in place - a new god's been born. Whenever she stepped, flowers bloomed under her feet, birds sang in joy in her presence and fruits she made grow were sweeter than anything anyone ever tasted. It's no suprises that not long after she came, temples started to grow in her name. Many were hoping the new goddess will bring prosperity to their land which she sure did for some time. She even enjoyed it. The way everyone celebrated her, praised her. It was intoxicating. But after some hundered years, everything changed. Many got used to her presence and thanks to good life without any struggles, they got spoiled... Too spoiled. They wanted more and more, without giving Doemeter a single thanks. It was expected of her to want to make them happy, what else would she be there for? Nothing, she'd be useless! ... And so, the goddess decided to take all her gifts back. Trees and flowers withered, buildings started to decay and crumble under the pressure of time she had in her powers. No pleads made her change her mind. What she gave, she took back to the single drop. And after that, she left.
Doemeter created her own kingdom in forest, where once the tree she was born from stood. There, she had many faitfull servants, be it maidens, bachelors, both or neither, it didn't matter. Only requirement was to serve her and never betray. They mainly helped her to care for her beautiful gardens, full of various flowers and trees. Those were peacefull years. Travelers often wandered into them but as long as they didn't cause any harm, they were welcomed with warm smiles and some refreshments, until they were ready to continue their journey. And then, one day, a new traveler she never saw wandered in. Wolf with cocky smile, named Sylveer that had a simple goal - to become immortal.
„𝑌𝑜𝑢'𝑟𝑒 𝑎 𝑓𝑜𝑜𝑙 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑒. 𝐼'𝑙𝑙 𝑙𝑒𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑡𝑟𝑦. 𝐿𝑒𝑡'𝑠 𝑠𝑒𝑒 ℎ𝑜𝑤 𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑡 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑙 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑠 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑓𝑎𝑙𝑙.“Sylveer was a young wolf, his life has just began and yet, he was already so full of himself, believing he's able to challenge even the gods. He was traveling from temple to temple, trying to challenge every single god he could think of, but none of them answered his foolish calls. Thinking it was probably because they were too scared of him to even show up, he decided to find a god that'll have no other option than to face him. A god that is already walking on this earth. That's when Doemeter came to his mind. Finding her wasn't really difficult. After all, she never tried to really hide herself. But when he found her, he didn't even try to hide his true intentions. He simply stood before the beautiful goddess and said:
„I, Sylveer, came here to challenge you, Doemeter, goddess of nature and time, wither and decay. Will you accept my challenge or will you run away like the other gods before you?“
Such a foolish words, Doemeter thought, yet she was amused. This foolish wolf was saying other gods ran away from him?
„This flower sure seems too eager to wither. Tell me, Sylveer, what gives you the guts to challenge a god?“
„The fact that none of them were brave enough to accept my calls. If they were so mighty and powerfull, why wouldn't they answer?“
„Maybe because your calls are like those buzz of a fly.“ She mocked the foolish wolf. „And so, you came to me. Well? What is that so great challenge that makes you brave enough to come here?“
„Life of a wolf is short. Too short, in fact. That's why I want to make a bet with you, that I'll be able to dodge your so called time of decay and if I do, I want your immortality in exchange.“
Doemeter stood there in a shock for a while, watching the cocky smile of the little creature, until she bursted into a loud laught. „You want to outrun the time! The only thing that is truly eternal in this world. How foolish. But you sure amused me, so I'll let you try. Here, take this.“ And there, between them, from a ground grew a single sunflower. „This is a flower of life. Your life, to be exact. Make sure you take good care of her. Every petal that falls means the closer you are to loosing your challenge. And once all petals fall, a new sunflower from the stem will grow, this time black. And when that one grows, I will come for you.“
And so, Sylveer left Doemeter's gardens, without spending even one more breath in there. One week flew by, then a month, a year... 20 years went by and Doemeter hasn't felt the flower withering. How was it possible? Wolf's life was at most 16 years long, so how did he survive 20 and still feels like he's able to go longer? Confused, she decided to find him. What a surprise it was, when she found the sunflower frozen in a cube of ice, unable to wilter. „What is the meaning of this?!“ she snared and turned towards the wolf, that was smiling from ear to ear.
„Isn't it obvious? Me beating you in our challenge!“
„You're cheating! You froze her! The flower isn't able to wilter!“
„You never gave me any rules really, so I don't see the problem.“
Doemeter scoffed, baffled. „So you want to play like this? Fine. You're forgeting who you're standing before, boy.“
Every god is prideful and not a single one would let a mere mortal fiddle with them like a fiddle. And Doemeter was no exception. Foolish, foolish wolf, he thought he can outsmart the god, but didn't realize gods don't like to be outsmarted. Before he could react, the ice the sunflower was imprisoned in cracked and exploded. Doemeter's eyes started shining like a moon in the dark night and the wind started picking up, wildly spiraling around them, shredding the flower apart.
„You wanted immortality, so immortality you shall have. Right now, it might sound like a win for you, but soon, you will find out how lonely such a gift can be. You will never wilter, only grow. You will be a shadow to many and a home to even more. But no one will ever know who are you, nor will you be able to tell them. Where your flower once was frozen, there will now stand you.“ With those words, Sylveer's legs started to change into roots. He tried to run away, but the roots dig into the ground too fast and too deep. „No weapon will be able to cut you down. No fire will be able to burn you. You shall stay there, for eternity. Just like the time you tried to outrun.“ The last thing Sylveer managed to get out of his throat, was a scream and then, he fully turned into a tree.
„𝑁𝑜 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑠𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑤 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑑𝑜𝑛'𝑡 𝑏𝑒 𝑠𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑑. 𝑂𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑣𝑒, 𝑦𝑜𝑢'𝑙𝑙 𝑔𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑎 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑎 𝑛𝑒𝑤 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑤. 𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑏𝑒𝑎𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑓𝑢𝑙. 𝑆𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑛𝑙𝑦 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑑𝑜.“There are many more stories about Doemeter's curses, but there are also few about her kindness. And then there is a special one, filled with love and tragedy.
It is said Doemeter had felt love only once and as quickly as she felt it, so quickly she's been denied of it. Her name was Liltinn, a human that once wandered into her gardens. She was very weak and hurt, but what Deometer felt from miles away, she was severely ill. Her flower was slowly withering, loosing it's petals every day. But even so, Liltinn was always softly smiling. She did not come to Doemeter's garden to search for cure or for more time, she was simply traveling so she could see as many beauties there are in the world and this garden was supposedly the last location on her list. The goddess was interested in the pure soul with no ill intentions and decided to give her a shelter in her kingdom. And without knowing it, she also gave her a space in her heart.
Everyday she would find Liltinn taking care of her flowers. She wasn't even one of her servants and yet she wanted to help as she was grateful for Doemeter's hospitality. And Doemeter was always watching her, from time to time opening a conversation with simple „How are you feeling today?“
And Liltinn always answered the same: „Wonderfully, my goddesses.“
Even on days when she was visibly in pain, she said the same, never complaining, which concerned Doemeter, until one day, she couldn't help and asked: „Why are you always saying you're fine when you're visibly not?“
„I don't know. I guess I simply got used to it. Hiding it, I mean.“
„Don't do that. I may not cure you of your illness, but I can help you at least ease the pain. It must've been hard, carrying all this pain by yourself. Don't be afraid to lay your head on my shoulder.“
At that moment, Liltinn bursted into tears and started telling her about it all. And Doemeter just layed there, on the ground with her, listening. However, although they bonded at that exact moment, it was not destined for it to last long. After that day, Liltinn's flower started withering even faster. She was often bedridden, unable to even move. Doemeter tried her best to keep her flower in bloom, but it was to vain. She wasn't goddesses of life, though many called her so. Liltinn wasn't really a flower she could caress back to life. She was a human. And as such, she was at the end of her road. The only thing Doemeter could do, was send her on her new journey with her blessings.
„I'm scared, Doe.“
„Don't be, my love,“ said goddess with soft voice, while she let her lay on her back one last time. „Everything will be okay. You won't feel anything.“
„I'm not scared for me. I'm scared for you. I'm leaving you behind.“
It was the first time the goddess of time felt tears in her eyes, quietly cursing the flow of time. „I won't be alone, Lil. You'll never leave. Not fully. You'll always be there with me in some way. I can promise you that.“
„Alright... I'm glad.“ And with that, her love let out a single sigh of relief, closing her eyes, never to open them again. Doemeter walked with Liltinn on her back for few more hours, without saying a single word, until she finally put her on the ground. There, a grass started to grow, creating a blanket for the sleeping soulmate of their goddess and on top, a stem grew. And from that stem, a hundreds of flowers grew. They were a new kind, white and rich, just like her soul was.
„Here, just as I said. This way, you'll always be there with me. Liltinn.“
And that's how the Liltinn flower was born.