The Alabaster Jar

The land was dying. Crops withered. Animals starved. Worst of all, people were magically transformed into stone. And despite Mara's back-breaking toil, the hard-baked soil of her parents' farm only gave up the aged artefacts of an ancient villa that once stood here. Her parents tell her to throw away an alabaster jar she finds; but then a woman appears, whispering 'Awaken me – to awaken the land…'