For an exercise with my writing group, we each picked a myth from a list of prompts. Mine was: Write a myth to explain why leaves change color. Below is that myth.

Once upon a time there was a tree. Its branches were long and wide. Bright green leaves stretched out toward the sky. The tree stood at the top of a hill, overlooking a forest of other, similar trees.

Whenever the wind would blow, the tree would sway back and forth. The trees in the forest below would join this great and mighty tree in its gentle dance.

The birds loved the tree. The tree loved the birds. It would spread its branches farther and higher, giving them lots of room to build their nests. The squirrels loved the tree. The tree loved the squirrels. It would drop nuts and seeds to fill their fuzzy bellies.

On a particularly cool, breezy day, a young boy stumbled up the hill. He paused at the base of the tree, resting his hand on the thick trunk. The boy began to cry.

“Hello? Is anyone there? I can’t find my way home!” he wailed.

Birds flitted out of the tree and into the sky, startled by the boy. Some squirrels poked their heads through the tree’s branches to get a better look at the boy. The tree was concerned.

“Hello? Hello!” the boy yelled. Tears clouded his vision and he plopped down on his bottom, too sad to continue his journey.

The tree swayed its branches bigger and faster than before, inquiring if any of the trees below knew the way home. After lots of rustling and jostling around, a tree deep, deep within the forest responded with a ‘Yes! He lives over here!’

The forest shook and swayed as all of the trees clamored to tell the great tree on the hill that they had found the boy’s house. When the tree heard this, it danced in celebration without any wind.

The boy was startled by the tree’s sudden movement. He jumped to his feet and gave the tree a long look.

The tree tried to tell the boy how to get home, but the boy couldn’t understand it. It shook and swayed and dropped some nuts. It stretched and creaked and groaned. Nothing. The boy didn’t speak tree.

And then, the tree remembered something. It could change the color of its leaves. The tree never did this, because the leaves would fall off after changing. The tree was a little scared of how the other trees would respond if they saw it without any leaves.

But the tree needed to help this boy get home. It shifted and swayed. The leaves turned from green to yellow to orange. The boy stared up at it in wonder.

One single, beautiful, vibrant leaf blew off of the tree and down the hill. As the boy watched the leaf dancing on the wind, he saw a line of trees in the forest below as their leaves shifted colors.

With a gasp of delight, his eyes followed that wiggly, wobbly line of yellow and orange trees. Then, he saw the smokestack from his family’s cottage.

“My house!” he yelled, pointing at it. He turned and hugged the tree’s trunk. “Thank you! Now I can get home!”

The tree decided that it loved the little boy as it watched him run down the hill and through the forest. It loved the little boy so much that it let go of its beautiful, green leaves for him. And then, after a snowy, windy winter, the tree was delighted to find a new set of leaves budding in the spring.