The great brick castle on the hill wore a mantle of magic ivy. In winter the leaves were white. In summer and spring they were green. In autumn they blushed red as red. The people at their labors in the village and fields below paused from time to time to gaze with pride at the […]
‘Where’s my slender trident? I distinctly remember leaving it leaning against the shed. Is it leaning against the shed? No, it is not leaning against the shed. So where is it? I’m looking at you, Bernard,’ said the witch. ‘Look at me all you want. I know nothing about the silly trident,’ replied the raven, […]
‘Oh, find the ghostly hollow where color melts away, and deadly shoots of cane await in silent fog so gray,’ sang the grandmother. ‘Why is the cane deadly? Why is it foggy in the ghostly hollow? How do I find it?’ asked the granddaughter. ‘You must discover the answers to the first two questions on […]
Euphonia Gasp stormed into the witch’s cottage and flung a worn out shoe against the wall. Then she flung another worn out shoe against the other wall. The witch glanced up from her sewing and smiled. ‘I take it you haven’t succeeded in finding White Mountain,’ said the witch. ‘No. There’s no such thing. You […]
Once in a land lost long ago, the royal family despaired. Each of the fourteen regal sons of the regal lord and regal lady had failed to free the land from the shackles of enchantment which rendered the land’s every living creature clumsy. Constantly heard were cries of ‘Sorry about that’ and ‘Whoops’, not to […]
The display of jewels twinkled on top of the square cut board. The baker’s assistant nervously shifted her weight from foot to foot. And why not? She had won the right to select one jewel by winning the hopping race, outstripping by a good margin all the other assistants in the flung far and wide […]
While the glittering whirl and sash of the Grand Inaugural Ball was at its frenzied peak, deep down dark behind a cobwebbed wooden door in the castle’s long forgotten underdungeon, the shapeshifter worked her magic guided by the glowing time chart’s moving fingers. The night of glory was at hand. Sparks flew. Bright was the […]
“I must have the finest of red bricks and the most binding of gray mortar to build my giant cube,” said the Queen. And so it came to pass that a monstrous cube of bricks, fair dwarfing the palace, towered above the city. Plague followed drought followed war, and devastation ruled. The city became abandoned […]
Once upon a time in the Land of Pie a call went out to all the cherry wedges scattered here to yon and back again to gather at once on the Platter of Display in the Central Courtyard. ‘What can this be about?’ asked Mavis, a slender cherry wedge hurrying through the rhubarb patch. ‘We’ll […]
In the concrete city of Pastel, the pavement sweeper’s daughter, Eonia, was often observed standing on the pebbled slab nearest the small square of dirt and tugging on one of the auburn ringlets hanging below her left ear, a sure sign that she was deep in thought. ‘Eonia! Come mix the brick paste,’ called her […]
