When people first began to spread across the earth, the trees and the sun were friends. Back then it was said that no two friends had ever been closer. Back then, the weather was always nice, and the trees were always green. But all of that would soon change. Because you see, as people began to gather into tribes and families, it was only natural that stories would be shared among them. And what could be better than to tell a story about a beautiful sunset? It was by far the most beautiful thing in the world. Stories and poems and songs were being made in honor of the treat that the sun gave them every night. Artists would make murals dedicated to the colorful sky, children would sing nursery rhymes, and even dogs would howl as the colors splashed across the night sky creating a new work of art every night.
Well, it was only a matter of time before the trees became sick with jealousy. No songs were sung for them. It was as if nobody even noticed they existed. That's where the old saying comes from ... "can't see the forest or the trees." One day a grand old tree came up with an idea. It was such a great idea that the timing had to be just right or it wouldn't work. But trees were good at keeping secrets, always had been, so they managed to pull it off without a hitch. One day, all at once, every single tree exploded in a rainbow of colors. Their leaves turned bright red and orange and yellow and even a few purple ones! Imagine, a purple tree! It was amazing. The people had never seen anything like it, and sure enough, stories and poems and paintings filled the streets and hallways. The trees were very happy.
But the sun wasn't. It had gotten used to all of the attention and didn't want to share it with anyone, not even its oldest friend. So to get back at the trees for this betrayal, the sun came up with a plan of its own. And what happened next would forever change the world to this very day...
The sun went away. It moved away from the world and made everything get cold. It was a lasting cold that the world had never known. The trees now had a big decision to make... Now, a full tree of leaves is quite heavy to hold, and it takes a considerable amount of energy to hold them high into the sky for all to see. So, the trees could keep the leaves, which the people liked very much, or drop them so that they could protect themselves from the bitter cold. Well, trees want to live as much as the next person does, so they really had no choice but to drop all of their leaves. So they did just that... and every last leaf fell to the ground.
This made the people very sad. And instead of stories about pretty skies and beautiful leaves, they wrote stories about bleak gray skies and horrible frightening cold. Seeing what misfortune the sun had brought upon the people it had loved, it had a change of heart. It came back and soon after everything turned green again, and the gorgeous skies followed. Well, there was no returning to the innocent days of before, and the bitter cycle of jealous games had begun, and continues to this day. The trees would soon get jealous again of the skies created by the summer sun, and the sun continued to get jealous of the trees for the beautiful fall colors. But nobody seems to mind all that much, because as the colors continue, so do the poems, and songs, and countless stories throughout the ages...
THE END