The Dragon and the Lamb

A dragon stands in the clearing of my forest and breathes fire into the sky. The trees around him shudder as the coals rain down and burn holes in their leaves. If he were to change his angle, the entire forest would catch fire and we would be consumed in his wrath.

I stand before the dragon with my sword in my hand and my shield raised. Heat rolls off his body and seeps through my armor. Lies pour out of his mouth.

“You stand there before me with a sword and a shield, but you cannot penetrate my armor. The lamb led you here and has left you. Look around you, he is not here.”

Fish out of Water

Once upon a time, there was a fish who swam in the sea. One day, the birds flew overhead and whispered to him. Their voices fell through the sky and down into the water like gold and silver coins. They plunged into the water and attracted this fish until he listened to their words.

“Come up out of the water,” the birds said, “You don’t know what you are missing. The grass sways in the wind and the leaves on the trees whisper secrets you will never understand from the water.”

A Lord in a Faraway Land

There once was a land where the inhabitants struggled for their food. They planted seed each year and hoped the rain would come. They pulled weeds and harvested their crops and hoped to fill their storehouses.

One day a man came from a far away land. He came riding a noble horse and behind him was a caravan filled with riches. The camels and horses and donkeys behind him carried spices and fabrics and thick robes from afar. The people crowded around him to see. They looked out their windows to see him travel through town and set up his tents on the outskirts.

The Badger and the Man in the Moon

Once upon a time there was a badger who wanted to reach the man in the moon. She looked up to the sky and watched the moon’s graceful arc. She watched him rotate through the heavens and counted the days. She watched him fade from light to dark and back again.

To Find the Buried Treasure

There were pirates.

She lived by the shore and watched their ships come in. She looked out her window and watched them enter the shops. She watched them go about their business and she watched their drunken brawls.

She had a coin collection. They were coins she gathered off the street, coins she found here and there. She kept them in a box and called it her treasure. But what treasure was it really? It was just a few rusty coins.

The Astronomer, the Librarian, the Alchemist, and the Herbalist (AKA the three wise men)

The astronomer bent over his workbench and scribbled the notes from the night. The sun peeked over the horizon and illuminated the day as he lay in his bed ready to capture his sleep. The scent of wood shavings filled his nostrils as he slept and he dreamed of the stars he had seen.

Dreams filled his head. Dreams of the one who was to come, dreams of the one who already was.

The Lion and the Lamb

They skirt around my trunk. They rub their antlers on my bark. They drink from my friend the stream. They build their homes in the rocks.

But animals did not always live here. When I was just sprouted, I listened to the stories my fathers told me. They looked down on me and sang through the night. They sang the songs of the coming of the animals, painting images in the sky. I watched as the blue and green touched down to the earth before fading once more. I watched the colors reflect off the snow. I watched them as I watch them now.

Listen flowers of the forest. Listen to my voice. I will sing to you while you sleep under the layer of snow. I will sing to your dreams. Listen and watch the images form in your mind, hear the tale I will tell you.

The Legend of the Land of Hats

There once was a land where the people were given beautiful knitted hats. The King gave them these hats and they wore them wherever they went. They wore them to the market, to the palace, to their beds. They were identified by their hats. If ever they left the kingdom strangers recognized them by their hats.

The Lynx

In the beginning, there were beasts in the land, but they were unlike the ones we see today. They were misty, mere shadows of the beasts we know. The beasts wandered the earth, leaving no trace of their coming and going. They wandered from the tip of the aurora to the tip of the great desert. There they wandered, there they learned what it meant to thirst.

The shapes solidified in the desert, they grew coats and their eyes began to sparkle. The animals came together in the oasis where they lived peacefully for some time. They drank the water that rose up out of the depths of the earth and they ate the leaves of the trees there. They lived in a forest unlike any we have ever known, a forest with few trees and few springs of life.

Listen

I will tell you a story.

Come close as the winter settles in and watch the fire blaze. See the sparks fly into the sky. Watch them scatter into the night air. Hear them follow the paths to the clouds and dance with the snowflakes that live there.

There once was a knight who lived in a castle. But there was a princess to rescue, so he set out on his way. He set out on his way knowing that to fail this quest would be the end. The end of everything he had known, everything he could know. He would be banished forever. If he failed this quest he would be horseless, swordless, armorless. He would be unable to defend himself or anyone else. He would be gone forever.

The Moon Horse

The moon horse was not always a moon horse. He ran through the pastures and up the sides of mountains.

He led a herd and stood proud, mane flowing in the wind as he gazed down on his territory.

The villagers watched him from afar. Many men had tried to catch him, but they were all unsuccessful. Many of them never returned.

There was a girl in the village who dreamed of taming this untamable horse. She watched his silhouette grace the horizon and saw him in her dreams. She spoke to him. She listened to him. She learned to understand him.

And she was blind.

The Story Sisters

The rain comes in torrents. It pours down my trunk, soaking the absence of my leaves. I look into its face as it comes, the rain falls like stars around me. I look up into the eye of the storm and see myself in the center.

A single drop falls in my eye.

I look around and cannot see my neighbors. Their presence is obscured by a curtain drawn between us. I cannot see my roots.

Somewhere on the other side of these clouds my friends race across the tops of them. The moon shines down, illuminating their play. My friends are white. They shine in the light of the moon and reflect her already reflected light. They dance on the hills of the clouds and jump from billow to billow. They play hide and seek.

The Prince and His Princess

The stars sing above me. I watch as the princess steps into her carriage. Her silver shoes alight on the step and she is hidden. The shadows carry her over the road and into the sky. They mount higher and higher. The stars sing stronger as she approaches, they know where she is going and what she will find there. A prince awaits her. He stands at the door of his castle holding his breath for her. As soon as he sees her, he will race down the steps and take her hand. He will help her descend from the carriage and escort her into the hall.

They will dance.