The Story of Rumbling Bald, the First Rain, and the Beginning of Trees

Once many many seasons ago, the Great Mother had a beloved friend called the Life Tree. This Tree lived at the top of what is now known as Rumbling Bald and had buried its roots deep into the rock to get the water far below the ground. The Life Tree knew all there was to know in the universe and this is the main reason why the Great Mother befriended this mysterious tree. The Great Mother would come from the sky every full moon and sit in the Life Tree's branches and together they would have the longest conversations of that time. Seeing as how knowledge was such a rare gift in the beginning, for there was not much of it, the Dark Lord, who wanted all things for his own, sought out the Life Tree. The Dark Lord begged the Life Tree to reveal all of its knowledge so that he may control the universe. Life Tree refused to give the Dark Lord any knowledge for it knew the nature of evil. The Dark Lord pleaded, bullied, threatened, and cried before the Life Tree, but the Life Tree still refused. The Dark Lord knowing that the Life Tree would never share its knowledge, began to rip every branch from the Tree until all that was left was the trunk, which slowly began to die. The next full moon the Great Mother came to visit her dearest friend, only to discover that the Life Tree was dead. The Great Mother was so upset by the loss of her friend that she began to cry and her tears fell from the sky onto the earth and the water ran into every crack that the Life Tree had created with its roots. The water was so powerful that it widened the cracks until it had loosened the boulders from the cliff side and they all began to fall. The Great Mother, still in mourning for her friend, created a smaller and far less talkative versions of the Life Tree and allowed them to flourish all over the earth and to this day whenever the Great Mother is reminded of the Life Tree, which is quiet often, her tears become the rain.