Kildare Library Service

Maynooth Library hosted an Easter Holidays Creative Writing Competition for Ages 7-12 and was overwhelmed by the exceptional talent on display in the entries. The winning story from the 10-12 category is the immersive Fantasy ‘Spirit of Spring’ by Tiago aged 12 years old. 

Spirit of Spring

A long time ago, there was a boy whose name we do not know.

Legend has it that a strange creature cursed the Magical Tree. The Tree is the Spirit of Spring’s life force.  The curse turned the Spirit evil.

The Spirit of Spring always awakes with the return of the light. It helps with new beginnings, fertilizing of crops, unfolding of petals and growth. Also, all the children love to make bouquets of bluebells, daffodils, and forget-me-nots. But this all came to an end one day.

The curse sent an uncontrollable growth of trees and plants all over the world. Roots overgrew everything, trees fought back with their big branches and plants destroyed houses. People were scared, so they took refuge in the walls of the grand palace which were built out of the hardest stone.

One day the boy was looking out from the top tower, and seeing all the devastation decided to go to the top of the mountain where the Spirit lived and try to reverse the curse. So, he packed a rope, some food and drink, a map he got from his father who was a map maker, and a poison remedy, which he stole from the secret store in the castle, just in case.

He climbed rugged mountains, he walked the steep hills and sailed the vast oceans. At dawn he finally reached the foot of the mountain where the Spirit of Spring lived.

He started to climb the mountain with his rope, but as the sunlight touched the ground, great large thorn bushes rose from the ground below his feet.

They pricked his shin and it stung, and he realised it was poisonous! So, he grabbed his poison remedy and rubbed it on his shin. The pain stopped abruptly.

He climbed as fast as he could and when he reached the top it was about midday and he was so tired his head started to spin and he had a terrible headache, his legs felt like jelly and when he walked to the Magic Tree he fell to the ground and fainted.

                                                                        *

He opened his eyes; he was in a hospital. There were pictures of Easter eggs and Easter bunnies everywhere.

Then he saw the nurse.

“Hey there, little fella!” she said.

“Where am I?” he asked.

“You were in the Naas hospital; you’ve been unconscious for quite some time.”    

“Where is my dad?”

“He’s still at work.”

“Making maps?”

“You could say that…. He said to me he works for Google maps.” 

He sat up and looked at the bottom of the bed and saw a bouquet of bluebells, daffodils, and forget-me-nots.

Then a woman came in, it was his mother.

“Hello dear! Are you alright? I hope you have learned your lesson and you will not climb to the top of the tree again…”

“What time is it?”, he asked

“Its five past twelve,” the nurse replied.

Then he shut his eyes and went back to sleep.

The end

We hope you enjoyed this story. Remember under the Government’s Keep Well Campaign – Switching off and being creative or learning something new, getting back to nature, and finding ways to relax can help our general wellbeing. For more information check out our blog posts here and here or take a look at the Kildare County Council’s Keep Well page for the latest activities to help you Keep Well.