'There Are Wizards Up There'

A woman went walking in the wood one day. It was a thing she had not done since she was a child. Weeks of a tiring, soulless existence had turned into years, and somehow she believed in the depths of her that it would all change with a single walk in the wood. But even as she walked amongst the trees, the world seemed the same - tiring and soulless. And then she turned the corner, only to find a little girl tiptoeing along the path.

    The little girl started when she saw the woman. Then she brought a finger to her lips.

    'Be quiet,' the little girl whispered.

    The woman bent her body slightly, hunched her shoulders, and whispered back, 'Why?'

    'There are wizards up there,' the girl returned softly, pointing up the fern-strewn hill that lay next to the path. 

    The woman's face went solemn then. Her feet moved of their own accord, arching and heightened on the tips of her own toes.

    The little girl nodded with approval.

    Suddenly they understood each other perfectly, the little girl and the woman.

    It would not do to disturb the wizards.

    As the woman tiptoed away, she felt the stress of all her life slip from her shoulders. The scales fell from her eyes, and she smiled.

    After all, why wouldn't she? She was walking through a forest with wizards.

Popular posts from this blog

The Library at the Edge of the Universe

 There was, of course, a library at the edge of the universe. It was built to fit the space. That space, for the moment, was infinite. But it was the kind of infinite that was smaller than other kinds of infinite — both space and libraries are funny that way.     This library had an agenda. Most do. But this one's was more specific than most. It wanted to hold all the books in the universe, whether they liked it or not. And it got the books by poking and prodding the universe in all kinds of different ways, until it gave up the literary ghost. Well, all the literary ghosts.     So. There sat a library at the edge of space that housed all the books in the universe. It mostly sat, anyway. Sometimes it stood. Occasionally it stretched a bit. And on two occasions, yawns were recorded as galaxies doing a funny little seismic shift.     It might yawn again. In an eon or two.     Because it is waiting.     It's been waiting for an infinite amount of time. One of the smaller infinites
Read more

The Shadows

The light shown on Anya’s fingers. It curled around her palm and danced. This, she thought, was the sheer pleasure of having magic.       But in the midst of her play, a shadow grew.   It was not unexpected; it was the cost of doing magic, for it always begot shadows.   But it never ceased to offer discomfort.   If she could find a way to practice her craft and leave behind the adjacent darkness, she would.          Anya was not fond of the dark, or shadows, or of the sense of unease that grew whenever she let the flickering brightness dance.   But, too, there was a feeling of wholeness in her work.   How could that be, such fulfillment when darkness lay about her?   A constant wonder—the weight of it only born by extinguishing the light for a time until she could bear it again.       Today was such a time.          Anya took the light, and threw it at the darkness.   The next breath, and it was gone.   Elimination brought palpable relief, while at the same time she felt the loss of
Read more

As Usual

 Once upon a time, when the air was colder and the nights more dark, a fire gleamed in the distance.      It moved and crept and finally it swept, the whole world engulfed in it's flames.     When the flames died, all that remained was char. For a time.     Until the first shoot rose. The thought of fire died a death made only by forgetting.     And, as usual, the world went on.
Read more