Does a forest exist in this Earth that is not, in its own, individual way, beautiful? The trees, whether they be grandiose redwoods or magical oaks, stand as if they are stern guards over the forests’ bottoms. Birds of all sizes and colors sing a different concerto for each forest, enveloping all forests in a blanket of music.

But, the real jewels of the forests are the Flowers; the wildflowers, the roses, the daisies, all of them. All Flowers are the colorful inhabitants of the forests mothered by the Rain and fathered by the Sun.

The Rain and the Sun had a specific routine in nourishing their colorful children. On some days, the Sun would shine and on others, the Rain would fall. The two parents always seemed to work out their schedules harmoniously and never was there a problem—except the one summer when the Sun and the Rain fought…

The summer began like all of the summers before. The sky was cerulean blue when the Sun was nourishing and dark and small when the Rain was watering her children. Yes, the summer started like all other Summers until a rainy day.

The Rain had been in the sky, dropping precious water upon the Earth as that day had been planned. The following day, the Sun was to take his place in the sky for that was what the Sun and the Rain had planned but when the time for them to switch places had come, the Sun had not risen. The apprehensive Rain searched the new sky for the Sun’s rays but they shimmered nowhere. Not knowing what to do and not wanting to leave her children alone, she continued raining upon them. As the Rain well knew, too much water would kill them.

She rained for five days and four nights, always searching for the Sun. The Flowers became weaker under the continuous downpour.

“Where is the Sun!” they screamed at the Rain.

“The Sun isn’t here,” she replied, but asking the same question to herself.

Finally, the Sun rose in the horizon. The Rain ran to him in angry joy.

“Where have you been?” she shouted, thunder rolling in her clouds.

“Why have you almost killed my children?” he bellowed back, taking his respective place above the Flowers, who all spread their petals to drink in the long absent sunlight.

“You never came! I could not leave them alone!”

“You almost watered all of them to death!”

“I-I” the Rain began. She knew the Sun was right. She had almost killed their children. Why did she not stop raining? She did not deserve those children…

“Why would anything need something as dark and gloomy as rain anyways?” the Sun yelled at her. “Leave and never return! Go kill something else!”

The Rain did not fight the Sun. Instead, she slowly moved across the sky and left the forest, leaving the Sun and her children.

For a week, the flowers forgot the Rain who had come close to killing them and happily absorbed their lost strength from the Sun. But the week was short lived, for one day, the flowers began to feel thirsty.

“Where is the Rain?” they questioned.

“You do not need the Rain.” The Sun replied.

“But we need water,” the Flowers shouted.

“You can live without it,” he angrily retorted. The Flowers did not argue; the Rain had nearly killed them, had she not?

A few days later, the Flowers felt their colorful petals beginning to dry out. For the first time since the Rain had left, they began to feel afraid.

“Where is the Rain?” they asked the Sun. “We want the Rain!”

“The Rain is not coming back!” he roared.

The parched Flowers felt no strength to argue any longer so they bathed more in the Sun’s unbearable heat. Oh, how the Flowers wished for the Rain to quench their thirst.

A month went by with no Rain and as if on schedule, a flower died from the dehydration. The late flower’s brothers and sisters panicked, knowing that they too would die if they had no rain.

“Where is the Rain?” they demanded. “Bring down the Rain!”

The Sun did not respond, unwilling to admit that he was wrong and that his children needed the Rain.

“Bring down the Rain!” the Flowers repeated.

The Sun looked down for the first time in a month as he had been afraid to do. He saw exactly what he had feared—his children dying. Their once glamorous, colorful petals had all become a crinkling brown and they all struggled and used all of their remaining life just to shout: “Bring down the Rain! Bring down the Rain!”

The Sun could not bear to watch his children die because of him so he left the forest to search for the Rain. He looked through deserts and the other forests. He traveled through mountains and through oceans until he found the Rain.

She had been raining into the Ocean so her water would only join more water and in that way, she would never be able to kill anything.

“Please return to our forest, Rain,” he desperately pleaded. “Our children are dying.”

“But, I almost killed them, Sun,” she looked back down and watched how the droplets of rain from her cloud aggravated the Ocean water.

“So did I. I...,” but he could not tell her how he did kill one. “Please come back to the Forest.”

“Rain will kill them,” she whispered.

“Too much Rain will kill them and so will too much Sun.” he responded.

The Rain looked at the Sun and nodded, agreeing to return to the forest. She followed the Sun back to her dying children. She took her place over the forest and over her Flowers who chanted: “Bring down the Rain! Bring down the Rain!”

…and down the Rain came.