The Magic Flute

I'm taking a women's folklore class and was assigned an oral storytelling with gender implications. I decided to loosely base my story off of Yoshitaka Amano's, Mateki: The Magic Flute, which is based off of Mozart's opera.

The Magic Flute

By: Megan Fowler

In the beginning lay the void.

The void gave birth to twins- a daughter of darkness and a son of light.

The two grow up together in the void, and their happiness fueled their creativity.

The two of them loved one another so much that they never wanted to be separated. They each created something so that they could always find the other.

The son created fire to shine through the void and spread warmth and happiness.

The daughter created a flute whose song was pure joy. As the daughter played the flute, the fire danced and the twins were happy. Whenever they went to explore the void, they could always find the other.

A creature sat above the void and watched the twins. It saw the fire dance and listened to the flute’s haunting tune. The creature decided that the flute was the more valuable of the two. The music of the flute could be heard from much farther away than the flames could be seen. Further, it was saw that the flute must be the more powerful because of how the fire obeyed its song. The creature was filled with desire.

The creature entered the void, and as it did, the crack widened.

The creature waited for the twins to separate and then went after the son.

The son wondered through the void and until he found a creature floating in front of him.

“Greetings, Son,” called the creature.

“Who are you?”

“A friend with a warning. Your sister means to conquer you.”

The son does not know what to make of this. “What lies are these that you speak?”

There came then the sound of the flute.

“My sister is calling me, I should go to her,” The son turned to leave.

“See how she strives to outdo your creation? Her song pierces the void in a way that your fire cannot. Further, it is her song that makes your fire dance. She is already your master.”

The son weighed the creature’s words and new them to be true.

“Sister means to kill you and to plunge the void into eternal darkness,” whispered the creature as he felt his desire pulse within him.

“What should I do?”

“Give me your fire, I will take it lead your sister away. You can escape.”

The boy gave the creature his fire. The creature laughed and jumped upon the son. Without his fire, the boy was helpless and the creature swallowed him whole.

Picking his teeth clean, the creature settled down to wait.

The flames danced higher as the haunting music of the flute grew louder. The Daughter of Darkness stopped playing when she saw the creature holding the dancing flames.

“Where is my brother?”

“Your brother was so consumed by your song that he became the dancing fire.”

The daughter was shocked. Her body shook with grief. The daughter new that the creature was lying, but there was nothing she could do. After a moment she reached out her hand, in it she bore the flute.

“Please, take this, in exchange for my brother.”

The creature snatched up his prize and disappeared.

The daughter picked up the flame and held it near her heart. The fire had begun to die in the absence of the music. She felt the loss of her brother drain her as the flame shrunk. Overcome with the pain, she was desperate to cry, however she knew that any tears would put out the tiny flame cupped in her hands. So instead of crying, she opened her mouth and filled the void with her sorrow. The sound of the flute played through the daughter with a new kind of song, a song of grief.

As she sang, the fire in her hand grew until it became a pillar of flame. The void caught on fire. The song burst out from the daughter, the fire burst out from the son.

The fire danced to the music, the music played to the dance.

The creature was destroyed by their power and his body fell into the void, becoming the earth. His blood rained down upon the earth and eroded away rivers, it pooled into oceans. The turmoil from the twins hung above in the sky and the fire became the sun and the song became the moon. Together they watched over creation and their balance pushed the earth and pulled the water.