The Legend of the Sand Spirits (Short Story)

Fairy Tale idea

I have these two salt and pepper shakers that are in the shape of a man and a woman.In the box when i bought it, there was a love story of a Chinese man and woman in it. I took this story to another level and made it into my own with a battle of good and evil that lasts for eternity and a little bit of magic. I was at the time a little bit crushed by guys not liking me, so the story has a bit of tragedy. This could be considered a children’s book or a Chinese fairy tale..

The Legend of the Sand Spirits

The
Legend of the Sand Spirits

On
the distant shore of China, a daily battle wages that starts at sun-up and ends
at sundown. It is the battle of the sand
spirits against the evil spirits that prowl about the earth. These evil spirits could cause the greatest
harm during the day, but at night their powers weaken, so it is the job of the
sand spirits to fight them during the day.

Spirits
can never die—unless they will it—which is the hardest part of living as a
spirit. After a day of hard battle, each
sand spirit must hurl themselves into the crashing waves of the ocean. At daybreak each spirit is resurrected into a
stronger spirit, because they must have this strength to fight the evil
spirit. This saps the strength of the
evil spirits because they delight in the death of their enemies. Any joy evil spirits feel can weaken them. At the last hour of day, the evil spirits
goad and prod the sand spirits to march into the ocean, for the sand spirits
have always feared the ocean and the evil spirits sense this and feed on their
fear.

Right
before the sun sets the sand spirits must parley with the evil spirits. The evil spirits agree to relinquish their
most evil powers in exchange for the lives of the sand spirits. Then, at sunset, the sand spirits cast
themselves into the ocean and the weakened evil is released into the world,
mostly in the form of nightmares.

At
daybreak the evil spirits must return to the ocean and fight to get back into
the world with their most powerful evil, because in order for them to replenish
their powers they must dive deep into the ocean.

Every morning the sand spirits come
to life and ride onto the shores on the crashing waves to begin the next day’s
sunrise battle. With the power of the
evil spirits they bargained for, the sand spirits use the evil spirits’ own
power against them, doubling it with their own power. People sometimes see this battle as swirling
sands of mist during the brightest of days.

Each
grain of white sand is a warrior fighting millions of evil spirits at
once. Once every so often, one evil
spirit gets through and chaos happens in the forms of disease, famine, war, or
natural disasters. The Battle of the
Sand Spirits and the Evil Spirits has happened since the beginning of time.

One
day, a girl named Xiao Yi came into the world.
Soon after her birth, her mother died of hemorrhaging. Her heartbroken father, Piao Li raised Xiao
Yi with his mother. When Xiao Yi was
five, she started to walk with her fisherman father to the dock since her home
was nearby. After waving goodbye to her
father, the shore called to her and she would walk along it singing little
made-up songs. Unaware of her very
beautiful voice, and not often using words, she would think of her dead mother
and tears would stream down her face as she sang.

She would then turn around and walk
home in silence. When she reached home
she would start the day helping her grandmother. Before night fell she would walk the shores
again to sing before she would meet her father when his boat docked. She did this every day for her father and
enjoyed the short time she would have alone.
The sound of the crashing waves always soothed her, like a gentle
lullaby. This kept her happy among
people and helped her with the deep sadness she carried with her. Only her songs betrayed her true emotions.

Because
she only sang on the shores, no one ever heard her songs—except the
spirits. One sand spirit, Chi Shui,
heard the beautiful song of the five-year old as he was fighting the evil
spirits. When she returned at nightfall,
he would have second thoughts about throwing himself into the ocean. Every day,
without fail, he would.

At eighteen, Xiao Yi grew into a
lovely young woman whose beauty turned the heads of many eligible men. But she was a quiet girl and she never paid
them any attention. Her long, thick hair
had grown to cover her back. She hated
to put it up, as was the fashion of the other girls, so she left it down and
would sometimes run along the shore, letting the wind play with it as she ran
until she was breathless.

Chi
Shui was in love with her from the moment he heard her song, but was in
denial. Every passing day became harder
and harder for him to die but his sense of duty was stronger than his
love. The last thing he would see before
he dove into the water would be the sight of Xiao Yi.

One day the wind spirits, who were
allies to the sand spirits, sensed the love of Chi Shui, for his love had
become so strong the spirits could sense it.
One wind spirit had enough of this pining. As soon as Chi Shui came out of the water,
the wind spirit blew him into the eye of a rich merchantman. As soon as this happened, the man had amnesia
and Chi Shui took over his body.

At
this moment, Xiao Yi came onto the dock with her father. She said goodbye to him and proceeded to go
to the shore. Chi Shui rushed to her, tripped,
and fell at her feet. Embarrassed, he
turned his face away, but Xiao Yi bent down to help him up. She looked into his eyes and fell in love.

Chi Shui asked her to take a walk
on the shore with him, and she breathlessly agreed. They walked the shore in silence. He requested her to sing for him. Surprised at this request, she closed her
eyes, faced the ocean, and sang. For the
first time since the beginning of time, the Battle of the Sand Sprits and the
Evil Spirits paused, for the song was so beautiful and pure. They never heard a human express such raw
emotion especially of true love. When
she stopped, the fighting had to resume.

Chi
Shui watched the waging battle and began to yearn for his life again, unsure
why he was in this situation in the first place. He started to walk toward the battle when his
eye caught sight of Xiao Yi and forgot all but her.

They
spent the entire day together and the time went by so quickly, yet seemed to
last forever. Soon, it was time for Xiao
Yi to meet her father. They went for
another walk on the shore. Chi Shui
looked at his brothers in parley and knew what he had to do or the spirit world
could turn upside down. When his
brothers started to head to the ocean, he told Xiao Yi he would love her until
the end of time. He had a duty to the
sand spirits he must always fulfill. He
kissed her hand slowly and ran into the ocean just as the sun touched the
horizon. The grain of sand washed out of
the merchant’s eye, who regained his memory.

Flustered, the merchant stamped out
of the water. He saw Xiao Yi and asked
what the meaning of this was. Confused,
Xiao Yi looked into his eyes and saw a stranger. Stammering some excuses and forgetting about
her father, she ran home crying. Her
grandmother saw her and asked her what was wrong. Xiao Yi told her of her day and what Chi Shui
had said to her.

Her
old grandmother told her of the Legend of the Sand Spirits and the battle that
the spirits fight for the good of the people.
She told Xiao Yi how special she was to be chosen to be loved by such a
powerful spirit. They never spoke of
this again.

Xiao
Yi never married. People who have seen
her walking the shores say clouds of sand will swirl around her, yet she comes
home untouched by any grain of sand. Many
are afraid of her and call her a sorceress.
She knows in her heart she will never be happy again. Every free moment she will walk the shores,
singing her songs of mourning and a lost love that can never be matched.

When
she died, she requested that her ashes be thrown upon the crashing waves at
sundown. When her ashes touched the
water, a small whirlpool occurred and two forms of sand twisted out of the
water to become one.

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Tales-Stories 17 months ago from Johannesburg, South Africa

Beautiful story – well done!

Samlyong 16 months ago

Very sweet,shouldnt have been so tragic though 😉

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