Once Upon a Time...
When Wally was little, much too small to realize that boys were supposed to be tough and strong and never cry, almost too tiny to properly walk, he had a favorite bed time story. Every night, snuggled into his favorite Koala bear pajamas and tucked beneath quilts, Wally would beg and beg for his father to tell him the story. Some night his dad would give in right away. Other times he would shake his head and insist that he was too tired or that it was too late, but it always ended the same way: Wally's father would smile and say "okay" in his deep, accented voice, smoothing his son's hair away from his forehead.
It went like this: Once upon a time, there was a handsome young farmer who worked all day in the red sun and slept all night in the sweltering heat. He was a diligent man, who always kept to his tasks, but the constant burning weather was enough to slow down even the toughest farmhand, and his farm never did do very well. At times, the air itself seemed too thick with humidity to even breathe.
One day, when it seemed even more scorching hot than was usual, the farmer yelled the sky in desperation, "If only the days weren't so hot, I'm sure that I could make my farm the best around!"
As if in response to his call, the air around him began to move in a way he had never experienced before; it pushed and pulled and tugged at his hair, and felt extremely pleasant.
"What was that?" he said, eyes half closed in wonder.
"It was me," came a voice, and the farmer turned to see the most beautiful woman he had ever laid eyes on, pale and shapely, her hair long and silken and her eyes a startling shade of deep blue.
"Who is that?" he asked, in awe.
"I'm called 'Wind'." she told him, smiling in a way that made the farmer's heart jump. "I heard you calling for relief, and felt compelled to come and help you. I have seen you working so hard for so little, it only seemed fair. Did I feel nice?"
"Wonderful," said the man, meaning it with every fiber of his body.
"That's good." said Wind. "I'm sure your farm will do much better after that!" With those words, she made to leave.
"Wait!" cried the farmer, not wanting to lose the lovely spirit forever (For, obviously, she was a spirit as no human could perform such a feat.). "I'm certain my farm will do better now, thanks to you, but if you were to stay and continue to help me, I'm certain it would be all the greater."
Wind thought this over for a little bit. It was very nice in this land, despite its heat, and the farmer seemed very kind to her. She supposed it couldn't hurt and agreed.
And so the farmer and Wind worked together, making the farm more and more prosperous with each passing season. The farmer would work the land and when he began to feel hot and tired, Wind would blow on him to cool him down. At night they would talk and laugh with each other in their bedroom, as Wind had taken to sleeping near the farmer to keep him cool at night as well.
With each passing season, the two grew closer and closer until it was obvious that they had fallen in love.
Yet all was not well.
The farmer began to notice that, when Wind wasn't with him or helping him with the crops, she seemed sad and restless, always gazing out into the distance. Moreover, all the farms around his own, with their own hard workers living on them, were doing so poorly while his was growing more and more. In the beginning, the farmer tried to ignore this, too happy and content with his life with Wind to do anything. But the more time that passed, the more restless the spirit grew and the worse the other farms became until he could no longer pretend it wasn't happening.
One night, with a heavy heart, the farmer pulled Wind close to him in their bed and said to her, in a low, sad voice, "Wind, you have to leave me."
Wind pulled back from her lover, shocked. "Leave you?" she said, aghast. "How could I ever leave you? It would break my heart not to be at your side,"
"I know," said the farmer, "but I have been watching you. You feel tied down here, trapped by my love and your feelings for me. You could never be truly happy with me; you're the wind. You were meant to be free and unbridled."
And as much as it hurt her, Wind knew what the farmer said was true.
"Take me outside," she said quietly and, without a word, the farmer took her hand and led her to the very spot where they had met so long ago.
"Dearest man," she said then, taking both of his hands in hers and resting her forehead against his, "know that I will always love you." With that, she kissed the man so dear to her heart one last time.
In seconds wind began to melt away, losing her solid form, becoming moving air as she had been before. For a moment she whirled around the farmer, as if embracing him, before flying off into the sky, once again free. To this day, if you listen closely you can sometimes hear the wind wailing for the man she loved.
Wally would always be close to crying by the end of the story when he was little. As he grew older, he refused to hear the story all together, claiming that it was a "girly fairy tale", but in the back of his head he always remembered the farmer and his long lost love. And some days Wally would gaze at a certain little girl, all joy and rapture and freedom, tied down by nothing and no one, and feel a certain kinship with the man in the story; he knew, deep down, that he could never bring himself to take that away from her just so he could be happy.
No man could capture the wind.
A/N: Kuki's name means "air" in Japanese. That's more or less where this story came from. Also, I really like making up folklore. It's fun.