The Challege Rise and Shine

 
 In a spot of the world where civilization has respected the peace, and Green and Wild rest easily before venturing into the forests and mountains again, under the biggest and most inconspicuous hill dwell the King and Queen of the Wind and the Heavens.
 They had never been seen out of the Hill since the appointment of their titles, for if the People of Nature knew who they were together, their crowns would be taken and buried in the bogs, and they themselves would be banished to the Frigidland.  The King and Queen had won their titles justly, but also decietfully for they were not an acceptable pair.  They managed to be together through this clever trick.
 The Breezeshifter, Rise, was full of mischeif and never stayed in one place for long.  No one could catch him so he was able to get away with many impish deeds.  The other Breezeshifters glided steadily throughout the land, but Rise gusted dirvishes around them.  He coldly blew leaves off of branches to disturb the glassy ponds beneath, whipped the dangling vines of willows into the antlers of the most highly respected Buck, and bitterly pushed a forward wind out of the sails of merchants' boats.  Never did he stay.
 Until he saw Shine.  She was spectacular, but soft.  Brilliant and soothing.  She couldn't be ignored, yet all she did was stand there quietly in the sky.  Rise managed to calm himself around her and feel warm, and he was patient enough to bathe her with his presence.  Shine felt her impatient flicker steady when Rise approached.  Her brightness softened and her fever turned from blue to orange.  They'd found something in their acquaintance that grew to a pleasant companionship.  That companionship became Love, and from that Love Rise and Shine birthed a Glowind, a child of the Breezeshifters and Heavenlies that could live neither on the land nor in the sky, but swept the space between.
 The Breezeshifters blamed the Heavenlies for the abomination, and the Heavenlies despised the Breezeshifters for creating such a spirited nuisance.  Rise and Shine were banned from each other, one to a cave and the other behind the sun, and each lost purpose for shifting and glowing.
 Soon thereafter, the previous King and Queen of the Wind and the Heavens had retired to their origin and the People of Nature needed new rulers.  It was time for the Lottery of Kings.  Each retired royalty became Riverstones of the People of Nature's origin.  Only those two stones have the symbols of wind and light on them.  Whomever found these stones and entered the Hill would become the next King and Queen, and a new tree would appear the evening the second stone returned to the Hill.
 Following their hearts, and hidden by calm and shadow, Rise and Shine emerged silently to scour the rivers for the Lottery Stones.  While others searched, then slept, and ate, then searched again, Rise and Shine continued endlessly without pause or sustinence.  And to help them, their forever-brilliant and roving child covered the waters at all corners of the land to finally show Rise and Shine where the stones each were hidden. 
 Their spirits leaping for joy and with fear of being found, the two sped to and entered the Hill.  No one saw, no one knew, and all assumed Rise was in his cave, and Shine kept behind the sun.  When the tree appeared that evening, the People of Nature rejoiced and were guided by the wisdom of Rise and Shine as they hid together in the silence and peace.  Rise and Shine were never seen, but because they emerged only at night in their disguises to survey their realm.  And to proudly greet their Glowind child who grew to be a beautiful, restless joy between heaven and Earth for the rest of eternity.

Jenessa Gayheart