Little Inklings 2022

YANSE AND THE CREATION OF THE RAINBOW It was the day of creation and the Earth was colorless - no black, no white, not even gray, just colorless. All the ancient gods were proud of their work but they knew something was missing. They didn’t know what, but they knew deep down, something was missing. That was when over the horizon, there was a bright light. Slowly, it started to flicker fast and faster, bright and brighter until it erupted like an explosion! Out came flying rocks all over earth but one was weird. It was different. It was… colorful! Upon impact it didn’t create a creator like the others. It didn’t even crash. It seemed to just have floated onto the ground. When it landed, it started rolling all over earth, spreading color behind it on its way. When it finished, the whole earth had been colored. Grass turned green, the sky turned blue, and dirt turned brown. After this mysterious, weird rock settled it was named Yánsè (color) in Traditional Chinese. Out from the rock like an egg came a little girl with long hair; red at the top and faded to blue at the bottom. One eye was green, the other yellow. Her skin was even kind of yellowish. Seeing her you can guess that even her organs were red, blue, green, and yellow. (and you would probably be right) She was covered in a fine rock powder that the rock was full of. She was given immortality from the gods as a gift of completing earth, their creation. Every day in the morning she would supply the Earth with color. Everyone woke up to colorful flowers and green trees. As they started their day, she watched as they painted pictures and wove beautiful, colorful, lively images. The people thanked the gods for water, food, and life. They were filled with gratitude to the gods. But not one of them even acknowledged the color. No one thanked Yánsè for the color. As far as they knew there wasn’t even a god of the color, and as for Yánsè? Well she was left to fill the earth with dazzling, simply marvelous colors, alone, unappreciated, and sad. As the days progressed Yánsè grew sadder and sadder until all colors in the world started to fade. ISAAC ZIDE ❜ 28 18