Wild Rose of the Canyon

After Maya and her girlfriends had been busy in the tea mountain for a day, they all flew out of the tea forest like butterflies and gathered. They did not rush back to the tribe village but decided to come to the canyon ridge not far from the village for nothing but to listen to the wind. There was an endless canyon, with steep cliffs on both sides and a rushing, unsurpassable torrent beneath the ten thousand feet. The opposite ridge was not far off, with rocks, trees, and wild deer visible.

The sound of the wind lingered in this canyon ridge. It was a mixture of the breath of the mountain forest and the sound of the rapids under the ten thousand feet of the cliff. It was like a ghost in the canyon, low and secretive pitch. When it came, the grass and trees had no feeling of it, it went in and out from one's chest and couldn't be seen, but one could play games with it. The girls stood under a thousand-year-old tree, shadowed in the golden sunset, and shouted at the opposite steep cliff in a long tone. The voice turned into the sound of mosquitoes as soon as they were out. They held hands again, stood on tiptoes, probed towards the bottom of the valley, and shouted songs. The sweet singing seemed to turn into soft feathers and instantly fell on the mist and disappeared quietly!

Just as Maya and the others were playing with the wind, a group of young men came upon the opposite cliff. They first waved to the girls and then shouted eagerly. Of course, no inspirational words could escape the depressing wind to reach the expectant party. The boys took off their shirts again, waving their clothes and drawing symbols of love in the air. The girls were at a reserved and flowery age, and without taking off their clothes in return, they were jumping happily on the edge of the cliff like the goat next door until the sun went down and the mist rose in the mountain stream to swallow up the lovely lads.

When the girls were leaving, Maya walked last, and she kept looking back as if she wanted to catch a glimpse of one of the boys. She had chosen a nice name Cetan for him, which means mountain eagle in the valley. This year Maya was sixteen years old and full of fantasies about boys. That night, she had a dream. She saw the tallest young man Cetan on the cliff, his admiring eyes were always directed at her alone, and his smile penetrated her heart. For her, he performed a wrestling match there. He dealt with eight people by himself, knocked them off the cliff one by one, and pulled them up with a wave of his hand. He was in the middle when they left, shoulder to shoulder. She stood shyly behind the old tree, stuck her head out, and looked at his back. Cetan turned his head and said to her warmly: "You wait, I'll marry you!" His words crossed the canyon and the wind magically.

Maya was alone on the cliff's edge, looking at the lush opposite cliff with infatuation, longing for Cetan to show up. But he seemed to be avoiding her on purpose, and he was nowhere to be seen among the lads watching. Maya was disappointed and asked her mother, "Can people from the other side of the canyon come to our side?" Mother replied, "Daughter, I heard that many people have tried it from ancient times. Some ninety-nine fell to their death among a hundred people while climbing the cliff, and the last one was swept away by the fierce water." After hearing her mother's words, Maya came to the cliff again and wanted to see him even more. She wanted to tell him: "I don't want you to marry me. I don't want you to be the next victim." After waiting for a few days, Cetan finally appeared. With a deer on his shoulder and a hunting gun in his hand, he saw Maya at a glance.

He put down what was in his hand, waved his arms at her, and shouted to her with his hands rolled into a trumpet. She listened carefully but couldn't hear anything; she could only keep mumbling back to him. Cetan didn't seem to understand anything, and he sat down sadly and looked at her quietly. And she had forgotten what she wanted to warn him and now just wanted to tell him how much she loved him.

When Maya came here again, Cetan was already waiting for her. She released a lantern made of rosin and red paper, which slowly rose to the heavens and flitted across the canyon with the secret she told him attached. The lantern failed to reach the cliff as she wished but fell into the deep valley. He engraved his name on an arrow, pulled the bow, and shot it at the old tree beside Maya. The arrow flew into the sky but never fell.

In a hurry, Cetan climbed a sky-rise tree. Maya felt like he was chasing the missing arrow, or more like jumping from a tree and flying over a canyon to meet her.

She didn't want to see him as a daredevil, so she danced a solo for him in "Waiting for a Lover." Telling, Boy, don't be impatient. I am a worry-free flower on the cliff, fragrant every day, only for my brother. If you miss me too much, you could meet me in your dreams. Cetan then got off the tree and danced back to her, showing, Girl, you are more like a wild rose on the cliff. I am afraid that you will wither in the wind and rain tomorrow. I would like to turn into a flying eagle and bring you home early. Be the woman of my life.

At this moment, a woman came to Cetan and took his arm.

Maya hadn't seen her lover since that day when the two made their vows. Like the arrow that was shot, he disappeared without a trace. The girlfriends around her each found their lovers and left one after another. And she just made that flying paper lanterns.

On a quiet and moonless night, she released a hundred flying lanterns like red plum roses to line an overpass over the canyon... But that beautiful overpass soon turned into little fireflies in the middle of the canyon and fell into the abyss.

Years later, a helicopter was parked in the tribe village, and a geological survey team came, and Maya became their guide. When they were leaving, their leader asked Maya what she would like for a wish. Maya said she wanted to find someone over the canyon.

The helicopter passed through the canyon and stopped at the village on the other side of the canyon that she missed day and night and couldn't see. She saw the woman once beside her lover – that was Cetan’s sister. She told Maya that her brother went down the canyon and decided to go through the thousand-year-old spell to find her, and he had never come back since.

Maya looked up over the canyon and saw a mountain eagle hovering tirelessly in the sky.