Here is my story for The Sands of Sorrow. It's sorta long, but I didn't forget the deadline this time!
 
This is a story of a beautiful girl, a goddess, and a lesson learned.
 
Once there was a very beautiful girl named Rhiannon. Rhiannon lived in a small glenn just south of what is now known as New Thalos. Surrounded by desert, Rhiannon lived with her mother and father and sisters and brothers in a grassy, forested part of the glen. Their family was a happy one.
 
One sunny day, Rhiannon was sitting outside on a calm grassy knoll knitting a colorful scarf. On this same day she was approached by a stunningly beautiful woman wearing a flowing white dress and a crown of wildflowers in her hair. Rhiannon, momentarily stunned by the womans glowing beauty, stammered out a greeting.
 
The woman spoke: "I am the Goddess Athena. I have come down from Mount Olympus seeking knowledge."
 
Rhiannon was spellbound. "Gods and Godesses are allowed off the mountain?" she asked. "To walk among
peasants and laborers?"
 
The Goddess Athena laughed merrily. "Of course," she said. "We are not prisoners. We may come and go
among mortals as it pleases us."
 
Rhiannon was very surprised as she had never seen a goddess before, nor had she heard of one walking
around among her own people. She listened with rapt attention as the beautiful goddess spoke of her life
atop Mount Olympus. As she listened, her hands and fingers took on a mind of their own as they 
continued knitting the scarf she was creating in her lap. When Athena stopped speaking Rhiannon stopped
knitting and stared at the scarf in her hands. It was the most amazing creation she had ever seen, and to think that she had created it with her own hands was unbelievable. She looked at the goddess and asked her how she had caused her very own fingers to create such beauty.
 
Athena laughed again. "I did nothing. It was not I who possessed your fingers to create that scarf. It was you. The beauty was in  you the whole time."
 
Rhiannon was surprised. "Then I must give it to you, because without you here, surely the scarf would not have been so beautiful. Reverently Rhiannon folded the scarf and stood before the Goddess Athena. With a small curtsey, she presented the scarf and just as reverently, the Goddess Athena took it, softly rubbing her fingers over the soft wool.
 
Athena smiles at Rhiannon then. "Thank you," she said. "It is beautiful." She then cocked her head thoughtfully to one side.  "Rhiannon," she said "You have been so kind to me, taken time out of your day to speak with me, and you have given me a most beautiful present that you created with your very own hands. For that I shall return the favor. Ask of me any one thing that you want more than anything, and I will grant it for you. But make your choice wisely. Once the words pass your lips, you cannot take them back."
 
Rhiannon's eyes lit up. "I don't need to think!" she said breathlessly. "I want to be like you. I want to be an Immortal."
 
The Goddess Athena gave Rhiannon a very soft, very sad smile and said, "It is done."
 
With those words said, she hugged Rhiannon close and bid her farewell. And just like that, Athena was gone.
 
Rhiannon then pinched herself, musing that she did not feel any differently.  She laughed a little just as her mother called her into dinner. As days passed, Rhiannon forgot about her wish. As week passed, she forgot all about having met a beautiful Goddess. But as years passed, she began to remember. As more years passed, she watched everyone around her grow old and die. She watched a bustling city be built out of nothing. She watched herself in the mirror...never aging a single day.
 
Rhiannon began to cry. Her large crystal teardrops fell freely, drenching the grass beneath her feet.
She wept for the glen she had lived in for so many years. She wept for her family and her friends. She wept upon the grassy knoll where she met the Goddess Athena that fateful day so many years ago. Rhiannon
wept so much that the salt of her tears eventually dried out the grass and the flowers, causing them to 
wither and die. Trees she had watched grow from tiny saplings into strong weathered trees were felled as
their home of rich soil dried out and became sand. With no protection from the sun, the river dried and the earth cracked. And still Rhiannon sobbed as she sat on her knoll.
 
One day between bouts of tears, the light got softer around her. She looked up, once again, to see the
Goddess Athena standing before her.
 
"Your sorrows have overcome you." Athena said.
 
Rhiannon sighed. Her voice was soft as she spoke. "I have lived for so long. I have watched my mother,
my father, my sisters and my brothers all die before me. I have watched my childhood friends grow old and die also. I have seen a city built out of nothing. And I have watched my home, once a fresh and green place surrounded by sand, become part of that desert. All things living are gone. And my heart breaks to know that I am the cause of it. If only I had thought more when you granted me a with those many years ago. I have spent the better part of my life lamenting the 'if onlys'."
 
The Goddess Athena gave Rhiannon a comforting smile. "I cannot give you back your mortality, nor can I
take you back in time to 'undo' what has happened. But I can offer you peace with yourself in knowing that this land would have become barren eventually without your tears, the city to the north would have expanded and wiped out the glen." Then, with a slight wave of her hand, the sandy hill that had once been the grassy knoll where Rhiannon had asked for her Immortality sprang to life. Grass grew once again. Trees and flowers sprouted up from what for so many years had been only sand and grit. A spring burst forth from the ground like a geyser and then bubbled merrily as it sloshed down into a basin. A bird chirped happily from in a tree.
 
Rhiannon's tears of sorrow became lighter tears of joy. Athena spoke again. "While I cannot offer you mortality, I can offer this oasis amidst the sands of your sorrow. And, should you wish it, I can offer you a place among the gods and goddesses of Mount Olympus. While a piece of you will most always be broken, the heartbreak will fade in time. And you will always hold with you that your grassy knoll thrives again. It will offer relief and sustenance to the animals that take residence in the desert. It will mean a life for the nomads who will pass through the desert, seeking out this oasis.

And so Rhiannon set off with the Goddess Athena.Her heart still heavy but lighter than it had been in the past several lifetimes. She set out to take her new place atop Mount Olympus and learned her way as a handmaiden of gold. And she never once forgot her lesson: *Be careful what you wish for.*
 
And that is the story of The Sands of Sorrow.
 
**Fabricated entirely by Pandora**