Winner of Finish This.. xtaintedlove

A young Indian girl from one of the Brazilian tribes was told by her father of an ancient belief that a fearsome, but extremely handsome and powerful warrior-god lived on the moon. As the time passed, she came to believe in the tale and she fell in love with the warrior-on-the-moon. After that, no boy in her tribe seemed worthy of her affection. All of her family's desperate efforts to marry her with noble and respected young men of the tribe failed. The Indian girl waited patiently, during the days when the moon was not visible or was only a crescent. And when it emerged in its full splendor each lunar cycle, she would spend hours awake staring into the sky, trying to see the face of her imagined love. Many times she was seen running through the jungle in the dead of the night, arms outstretched, as the moon shone at its fullest, trying to catch its rays and embrace her warrior lover. But chasing moonbeams was then, as now, a hopeless task, and the great love of her life remained a distant dream. Her parents, her friends and her relatives despaired of ever convincing her that the passion she felt was a mere illusion. The months passed, and she still chased the moon without ever once coming nearer to her loved one. Then, one very clear night when a full moon shone in all its splendor in a cloudless sky, high above the tallest jacarand trees, the Indian girl again went into the jungle, this time determined to embrace the moon-warrior and have him forever. She raced further in the jungle and came upon a glass-like lake, many kilometers from her village. And in its deep mirror-like water she saw the brilliant reflection of the moon. "At last", she thought, "my beloved has come down to Earth, to bathe in a pool". Without a moment's hesitation, she plunged into the lake to meet him but, of course, it really was all an illusion. Too late she discovered her error, for her strength had departed. The poor girl drowned in the lonely jungle pool, far from her village, her parents and friends. But the tale does not end here. The warrior-on-the moon, so goes the legend, did indeed exist... Yes, the warrior-on-the moon did indeed exist, and took pity on the beautiful Indian girl who had loved him so much that she had died in desperation trying to embrace him. Filled with remorse, but without the power to bring her back to life, he resolved to make a star on Earth. He transformed the dead girl into a star of the fresh flowing waters of the Amazon River. That star is now a giant flower that reigns supreme as queen of all aquatic plants. The Indian girl was transformed into the giant water lily, the Vitoria-regia, whose flower opens wide only at night.

The Legend of the Water Lily (Vitria-Rgia)