The Selfless Virgins

He looked up at the sky in great distress as his emotions began to spill out of him like a pot boiling over.

"We need rain NOW!" He screamed out into the Great Beyond, unsure if they would even be listening. He waited, breathing heavily as his anger quickly dissipated and desperation took its place.

"Please," he whispered, choking back what felt like a sob-he wasn't sure; the last time he cried was over twenty years ago.

The gods answered him, but their request would devastate Xavier in ways he dared not to imagine.

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Two thousand years into the future, in a land called Xavier (which was formerly known as the United States) the ruler of this dystopian society found himself in great distress because the land of Xavier was in a severe drought and had not had rain in over two years.

Now, because this Dystopian society was largely dependent on laboratory-grown food, the people of Xavier had been able to sustain themselves without too much inconvenience for quite some time. However, drinking water was becoming dangerously scarce, and even the wealthiest class of residents in Xavier were struggling to afford the rising price of drinking water.

The ruler of Xavier, also called the “Za,” was in a full blown panic. If the land did not receive rainfall within one month, the people of Xavier would begin to suffer severe dehydration. The Za began to summon the gods of weather so he could ask what could be done to remedy the severe drought they were experiencing. The gods told the Za that Xavier needed to sacrifice ten virgins to the Great Beyond in order for rain to fall over the land once again.

After receiving this information, the Za immediately put out a decree summoning all of the virgins in Xavier to report to the capitol building by sundown. The Za explained the situation to the virgins when they arrived, and asked who would volunteer to save their nation. All of the virgins immediately raised their hands in an eagerness to sacrifice their lives to save their families. The Za decided to choose ten virgins at random in order to decide who would be sacrificed. The people of Xavier gathered around to see which virgins would be chosen as a sacrifice. The parents of all the virgins wept and prayed their daughter would not be chosen. At last the time came, and the Za drew ten names from the bowl. The crowd held their breath, and all were silent.

After the ten virgins were chosen, they immediately said goodbye to their families and followed the Za to the Great Beyond. As the ten virgins stood at the edge of the Great Beyond, looking into the dark abyss, they did not feel fear. They joined hands, took a deep breath, and leaped off the edge into the Great Beyond. As they floated off the edge and into the darkness, their white robes fluttered behind them, leaving an ethereal haze of white that was transformed into sparkling white flecks that scattered across the dark sky like stars. The Za was amazed at the magical transformation that took place immediately after the virgins jumped into the abyss. He felt a sigh of relief as rain began to trickle down out of the sky. He looked at the glittering sky above and knew that the virgins did not suffer a painful death, but were transformed into a beautiful, sparkling skyline so that the people of Xavier would always remember the ten virgins and their selfless bravery.

Author’s Note- This story is based off “The Maidens Who Broke the Drought” from the Tejas Legends Unit. In the story, a tribe experiences severe drought, and the chief of the tribe learns that in order to lift the drought, the tribe must sacrifice their maidens to the snake chief. The maidens immediately volunteered to sacrifice themselves because they had been taught to give up their lives for their tribe if necessary. When the time came, the maidens bravely held hands and jumped off a cliff to their death where the snake chief was waiting to devour them below. However, a spirit in the sky transformed the maidens into honeysuckle flowers before they even reached the bottom of the cliff. Now, whenever the tribe sees the pretty white flowers growing among the rocks at the foot of the cliff, they can think of their selfless maidens who were willing to sacrifice their lives for the tribe. I liked this story because of how brave and selfless the young maidens were, and I wanted to retell it in a dystopian setting. I wanted to include as much of the real story as possible, especially the part about how brave and selfless the young maidens were.

Source- When the Storm God Rides: Tejas and Other Indian Legends retold by Florence Stratton and illustrated by Berniece Burrough (1936).

The glittering night sky. Source.