Sprite Night
by hughpierre
Summary
The story goes that one mischievous mist child found a black stone buried in the earth. Unknown to them, it was a powerful artifact they were convinced to surrender in exchange for punishing their parents who had punished them with lashes for disobeying.
... and so the iron past from the child and disappeared into the ether's grasp. From then on mischievous sprites would hone on a punished child and punish everyone in turn.Those troublesome sprites would now whisk the shard over the landscape to transform soft tillable farm soil to harden gravel. And so everyone inevitably starves to death; including all the children.
Historical Basis
The land in mist valley is ill suited to farming. Outside the implementation of on land chinampas, there is, at best, only a thin layer of top soil in any given area. And even then, loose nuggets of iron are littered across the lanescape that hinder the growth of most plants; save for the mossy grass that grow on rocks.
Cultural Reception
The sprites have no influence in their culture but they tend to repeat them to visiting pilgrims.
The sprites are blamed for many a poor crop yield and famine as they make the soil adverse to nourishing harvests.
The sprites are commemorated for their yield as trade in ore has made their towns the wealthiest in the valley.
In Literature
The iron shard the sprites use to ruin the fields is repurposed as a vicious murder weapon by a supernatural entity or foreign merchant.
It says something that the people ascribe all their woes to outside elements and not to their own industry.
Related Ethnicities
Related Species
Related Locations
Related Organizations
In response to the prompt What stories do parents tell their children about to scare them into good behaviour?
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