The Maiden of Autumn

Short Lore Story #1

Autumn. Fall. Harvest. There are many names for the time of year when the trees outside become orange, red, and yellow; The air outside becomes a bit chilly and begins to lightly nip at you, and everyone begins to prepare for the many holidays to come soon in the following months.

It’s a lovely time of year when everyone starts to wind down and get cozy in their homes, a hot flame roaring and crackling in fireplaces or outside as people camp for the last time before winter hits. It starts to get darker outside much earlier, and the sun shines brightly earlier in the morning.

And deep within the brightly coloured forests of fall is when a special being begins roaming the lands, along the long winding rivers of fish moving to warmer places before they freeze over. They hop around and scurry from treetop to treetop, surveying their territory closely, keeping the forests safe and preserved from any… unwanted visitors. 

Well, that’s just what They say anyway.

In reality, the being that is said to roam the autumn forests and watch over it couldn’t be further from the rumors and folk tales in legends.

This “Demi-God” as some may call them, is a being known as Panky. 

Panky is… Unlike the other seasonal Demi-God’s. Where the job of the seasonal Demi-Gods is to watch over and preserve nature and the balance of the seasons that come and go, Panky is a shallow and degenerate individual who somehow landed the job of “The Maiden of Autumn”. He stays cooped up in the shrine during his working hours only, and ignores all of his basic tasks that are imperative to keep up on as a Demi-God. 

As soon as he isn’t needed at the shrine any longer, he scurries over to his cave that he calls home and does nothing but sleep and eat all day… among other activities that would disgrace anyone in their position if found out. 

Panky is the worst behaving and most shallow of any of the Demi-God’s, who does not take their position seriously at all. 

But,

He remains a very popular and lucrative asset among all the seasonal maidens. He brings in the most visitors to the shrine out of any season by far, and the donations he is able to bring in is inconceivable compared to any of his colleagues, or former Autumn maidens. So Panky is reluctantly kept (If only for this reason). 

Panky will yawn during prayer with the visitors to the seasonal shrine, disgracing mother nature by never giving thanks to her or the bounty she brings to nature. He will bully and shame the visitors who don’t give enough money to the shrine, making them feel bad and telling them they don’t love him or mother nature enough if the donation is small. He never cleans the shrine or keeps up on the chores around it, instead asking the visitors to do it for him while he plays video games, all in return for things that… A Demi-God should NEVER be doing with a human.

The other seasonal Demi-Gods of Winter, Spring, and Summer all hate him dearly, but as soon as they are heard complaining about him to the higher ups, they are all told to be quiet, and are told that once they start earning as much money for the shrine as he does, then they can speak. 

By every metric and measurement, Panky is scum. He is, however, very valuable scum that must be reluctantly kept around because of the profits he brings into the shrine. If only there was a way to get him to behave… probably not though.

The Maiden of Autumn (aka Panky) during a photoshoot. He said he would let the shrine visitor touch his tail in return for taking one for him; After the picture however, he ran away into the trees and blew raspberries at the poor guy who’s time he wasted.