Fairy Stories & Other Tales

When Red burst on the scene, it was all he could do to keep from lording it over the others.  It wasn't entirely his fault; he could not help a perfectly timely arrival.  White had already arrived, indeed she was the first to arrive.  But it was readily agreed that she was far too showy and demur.  Too stately for her own good, Red thought.  The only reason why she held her place was only because she arrived first, and no other reason.  Everyone was simply too glad of her presence to notice her lack of vibrance, for she made the barrenness seem all at once more bearable.  

Two girls sat on a rock and stared out at the wide expanse of sea and sky that met their gaze.  They had decided to spend the day philosophically.

            'Do you think, Jo, that something could drop out of the sky big enough to empty the entire ocean in one splash?'

            'Oh, sure,' said Jo, easily enough.  'But if that happened, we'd all die.'

            'All of us?Everyone?’ queried the asker.
‘Definitely,’ said Jo. ‘Even if someone was right in the middle of the continent sitting ready in one of those boats that can flip the right way up again?’ ‘They’d probably die, too,’ Jo said.‘Listen, Lily, do you think there could be a disease so bad everyone on earth would die within an hour?’ Lily sat thinking for a moment, then said, ‘If the disease travelling in something really fast, like through light, then yeah, it could happen.’ ‘Light as the bearer of doom?’ said Jo, with a raised brow and a small smile. ‘Exactly,’ said Lily lightly, flas…

Mist, soft and shaded in shadow, folded over the meadow.  The trees picked it up at the forest's edges, their leaves pressing into it like hands into dough.  If you could climb to the tops of them, and pop your head beyond the fog, a scattering of early starlight would greet you.  But those stars could not be seen in the low cloud.  The air was fresh, though thick and damp, and a mouthful would ease thirst.