Author's Note: This is just a little mythical story I wrote for a school project. Enjoy!
The Weeping Rose
By Lady Josephine Rose
There's a constellation in the night sky that reflects upon a common human error, and that is death by despair. People for many centuries now have called it the "Weeping Rose," for it resembles the form of a rose flower with three bright blue stars below it, symbolizing that the flower is crying. The constellation appeared many centuries ago in the early 1600s, when a young princess by the name of Thalia Rose fell in love with her educational tutor, John. Her small likeness of him grew into something larger, and she soon found herself falling in love with the commoner. Every day she would go near the riverside – smiling – and throw fresh rose petals into the river and watch them float away; she avoided the thorns on the stem, knowing of their harm.
One day, her kingdom went into water with a neighboring one, and soldiers were needed, for they were outnumbered. The King and Queen sent royal messengers to collect young men, starting in the castle and working their way through the many small homes surrounding the extravagant building. John was one of them. He was sent to fight for his hometown, no matter the circumstances. With worry deep in her heart, Thalia would visit the riverside twice a day to throw full, blooming roses into the river, a sign of hope and protection. Her battle for peace and life was broken, however.
A few weeks into war, Thalia got a message from her father that John had died in battle, and she immediately began to weep. He had never known of her true feelings, and now he never will. Falling into a deep depression, Thalia would walk around the kingdom in disguise, donating her expensive riches to charities, or give them to orphans, the homeless, and poor. She knew that with her true love gone, life was just a game that kept the strong and killed the weak. If you did not know already, she was weak from the start.
One day, when the clouds covered the night sky, Thalia made another trip to the riverside to pray like she always did, but this time she prayed for peace and hope for others. She was certain her life will be short if that peace didn't come soon; not being careful, Thalia pricked her finger on a rose thorn, and a drop of blood fell into the river and turned it a sickly red. Realizing her negative thoughts, she slowly stepped into the river and was soon submerged in water; she could not swim. When the peasants of the town, going for an early morning drink, found the body of the dead princess, they began to grieve. While tears escaped their eyes and cascaded down their cheeks, the dark clouds above began to move, and in their place were new, bright stars in many colors, from red to blue, in the form of what is supposed to be a rose crying.
Thalia's mistake for pitying the ones who did not want to be pitied, and taking her life for one that might not have loved her back, is a common sign of weakness. Life is more important than a lost love; it is a gift that cannot be re-bought. So, that was the story of the Weeping Rose and how it came to be. It can be seen in April, when the princess died, and consists of many different stars. Its main purpose to remind us of significance of life is still with us today, and will forever be until the stars die out.