April 10, 2019
When the itinerant peddler chanced to encounter an enchanted barrier of lavender blooms deep in the forest, he proceeded cautiously, but not cautiously enough. No trace of him remained. The peddler’s wife, alarmed when her good husband failed to return home, searched the woods for days. At last, she stumbled into the presence of the […]
January 23, 2019
Mudcakes drown in gray slurry stretching flat to the horizon. Bleak silence. Motionless. Two figures kneel. ‘Across there,’ says one. ‘It was in the dream. I do not know what it was. It hurt my eyes. I am too old. You go. I will wait for your return.’ ‘Yes, Grandmother. I will find it. I […]
June 9, 2018
The green imp, hidden away in a cave behind the crash of waterfall plunging over the highest cliff on Jagged Mountain, sat gazing at his treasure, a magic pool of broken blue green jade. The imp’s bushy eyebrows, snow white, quivered with pleasure. Otherwise, for the time being, he posed motionless. Down the mountain through […]
November 28, 2017
‘Describe the pain in your knee. Is it sharp? Dull? Does it throb?’ said the witch doctor. ‘Yes,’ said the witch. ‘It starts every Tuesday as a kind of long stabbing. Then it dulls on Wednesday and Thursday, throbs Friday, retreats until I think it’s gone on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Then Tuesday. Stab, stab, […]
November 14, 2017
‘If you don’t behave, I’ll send you to where the ferns grow, and there you’ll be eaten by the Bad Skoon.’ The witch’s daughter narrowed her eyes and presented to her mother a skeptical expression on her as of yet still smooth green face. ‘Oh, there’s no such thing. And if there is, what is […]
October 11, 2017
‘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, […]
September 23, 2017
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 […]
September 4, 2017
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 […]
June 5, 2017
Long ago in the Realm of Flowers a pumpkin grew to be huge, orange, and rotten. It rolled and bounced viciously around the garden wreaking havoc. Its cruel laughter rang all the day throughout the realm. The flowers, at a loss for what to do, held a secret meeting late at night in the old […]
May 2, 2017
In the Valley of Soot the bleak town of Scraps sprawled in the mud next to the sludge stream. In the worst of the huts Little Scratch crawled under the splintered beam to breakfast. ‘Here now finally, are ye?’ said Little Scratch’s mother. ‘ Eat your scrape of tar and hurry up about it before […]