Fairy Stories & Other Tales

How often did he hate it when the wind came in unceasing torrents, beating against his withering chest?   There did not need to be an answer, or rather, there was no need to go beyond the question, for the answer was always the same: every time.   It was like being pummeled relentlessly, but against an enemy too large to receive a return blow.   And it took what little sanity winter left him with and turned it raw.             But he could not hide from it, could not cower.   This was winter, and even at its end, the ever forming, ever blowing storm could not prevent him from doing his duty of winding about the depths of weather—not when its alternative was despair.             And yet, he woke each morning to the galing winds, to the howl that had yet to cease in the months since they had first began, and to the pit of anger in his belly.   It d...

Willow trees can scarcely help the fact that they cast the illusion of being dryads.   That said, dryads scarcely look like willow trees, so there you are.   But I cannot help but see a willow tree and think of dryads.   Though perhaps that is only a trick that memory plays.             The substance of dryads is not the leaves of a willow tree, or any tree, but rather flower petals.   Cream white in color, the petals can be large or small—it all depends on the coverage they desire in a given night.   For night is when they come forth from their trees and frolic in the woods.   To feast in a moonlit stream is the height of a dryad’s joy, and when they tire, they sink into their trees to be one with them until their next parting.               It’s a curious thing, dryads being made of blossoms, for many of the trees from which a dryad spr...

Rain poured down in sheets as Robin looked out the window, mourning the loss of a day spent playing outside the house.   Her grandfather demanded quiet, you see, and that meant that a day spent indoors was a day spent in the doldrums of humdrummery, as far as Robin was concerned—quite frankly as far as most people would be concerned, given that the only books in the house were of politics and economics of which there were only charts and figures with no real pictures.             And on a day where there was no school to attend, no friends close to the ancient estate in which she was cooped, and, of course, not a peep to be made, Robin found herself in a state of the melancholy blues. If anyone who had any experience with the curious and unusual had been around, they would have noticed that there was a tingling in the air.   They would have felt that something had tilted, and that everything was not quite ordinary. ...

A winter’s night saw a painter gazing vividly at the cold moonlight caressing the snow.   He longed to pick up his brush and make the moment last forever.   But it would not work.   It never did.   His art was always a creation of another moment entirely—of a memory.   And that was a fine thing.   But not wondrous.             Still, by day, he painted what he remembered, and it was enough that he had his living.   But by night, he stared and mourned and felt keenly the wistful longing.             Until a day, most pivotal to his artistic life, it dawned on him that the longing was, in fact, a thing in itself.   The moment was not something to be captured, held prisoner, forced to remain suspended in universal objectivity.   His art, a byproduct of memory, was all the more at rest for the nature of his longing.   But what ...

Once upon a time a young lad went out to the river to catch fish for his dinner.   On the other side of the river stood a bear, his gaze transfixed on the fish-laden rushing water before him as he readied himself to take the plunge.             ‘Oh, ho!’ said the boy to the bear.   ‘Would you mind tossing a few fish my way after you’ve indulged?’   For it would be simple for the bear to do so, and it would save the boy the trouble.             ‘And why would I do that?’ returned the bear, looking up from his prey reluctantly.             The lad shrugged.   ‘It would be a simple thing for you to do,’ came his response.               The bear considered.   ‘I’ll do it.   But only if you find me a mate down the way into the fore...