A thousand and one tales

Tale #109: To Stroke A Hedgehog

A noblewoman of some renown liked to stroke the animals of the court and countryside. Cats and dogs; cows and horses; sheep and goats; the King’s crows and the Queen’s swans; the noblewoman petted them all, and took great delight in doing so.

One spring, a hedgehog took up residence in the bushes of her garden. Each night, she put out food for the creature, and over the long months of summer she slowly gained its favour. One night, she sat in the garden in her nightgown, the bowl of food in her lap. The hedgehog climbed up onto her, and while it ate, she reached down, and gently, ever so gently, stroked the hedgehog’s back.

Over the coming days, many asked her to describe how it felt to stroke a hedgehog, but she could not find the words to describe the sensation, and so she stayed silent, no matter the clamour they made for her to impart her wisdom.

Before autumn turned to winter, the noblewoman went mad and died, and her knowledge was lost to the world.

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Notes:

1. Written April 1st, 2019
2. Part of my ongoing “To…” series
3. All of which utilise the same ending formulation
4. The series began with To Follow A Cat
5. And includes To Lose Your Faith, To Follow A Child, and To Ponder Infinity
6. But, confusingly, not To Be Kept Safe

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Tale #108: The Woman In The Bookshop

There was a woman who was born in a bookshop. She dreamt in words, spoke in pictures, and always knew a liar when she saw one.

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Notes:

1. Written on June 28th, 2019

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If you like the things you've read here please consider subscribing to my patreon or my ko-fi.

Patreon subscribers get not just early access to content and also the occasional gift, but also my eternal gratitude. Which I'm not sure is very useful, but is certainly very real.

(Ko-fi contributors probably only get the gratitude I'm afraid, but please get in touch if you want more).

Thank you!

Tale #107: The House At Dusk

The house at dusk stands out black against the reddening sky, a lone monument upon the hill. The house at dawn looks much the same, yet who can tell what fresh horrors have occurred within its walls during those long hours between.

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Notes:

1. Written on November 18th, 2019

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Support An Accumulation Of Things

If you like the things you've read here please consider subscribing to my patreon or my ko-fi.

Patreon subscribers get not just early access to content and also the occasional gift, but also my eternal gratitude. Which I'm not sure is very useful, but is certainly very real.

(Ko-fi contributors probably only get the gratitude I'm afraid, but please get in touch if you want more).

Thank you!

Tale #106: To Be Kept Safe

There once was a town that was besieged by beasts. Cats caught the fish from the lake, curling their paws beneath the waters and hooking them out with a quick swipe of their claws. Foxes ate the chickens in the hen house, biting off their heads with a single snap of their jaws. And packs of wolves… well, they would eat your own grandmother in her bed if they caught so much as a sniff of her.

So to keep themselves safe, the people of the town built a wall that stretched around the whole of the town.

In the days that followed its completion, the cats climbed over it, the foxes burrowed under it, and the wolves bit through the wires as if they were string. Only the people of the town were stopped by the wall, trapped inside and unable to escape.

“What’s wrong with the wall?” they wondered, and together set about identifying where they had gone wrong. It needs to be higher, they said. Deeper. Stronger.

Those were the faults they identified. Those were the faults they vowed to fix.

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Notes:

1. Written December 2019

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Patreon subscribers get not just early access to content and also the occasional gift, but also my eternal gratitude. Which I'm not sure is very useful, but is certainly very real.

(Ko-fi contributors probably only get the gratitude I'm afraid, but please get in touch if you want more).

Thank you!

Tale #105: Beneath A Ceaseless Sun

A prince set off in search of the spring of eternal life. Even though his navigator would assure him each morning that it was just a little further, and soon his journey would be complete, the prince travelled for many years without ever seeming to find himself any closer to his destination.

One day, the prince was overcome with thirst as they toiled across the shifting desert sands. He drank the last of the water, and then declared that they must arrive soon, else surely they would die beneath the merciless sun.

The prince’s navigator once again assured the prince that they were almost there. He spread out his maps on the burning sand and said, “Look, my Lord and Master. You are here, and the spring of eternal life is there, and this path will lead us there by nightfall.”

The prince studied the maps, and it was apparent that they were not here, that their destination was not there, and the path, if it existed at all, would lead them only in spirals. It was only now, after so many years of ceaseless toil, that the prince realised that the navigator was mad.

He offered his navigator to the gods, but neither blood nor prayers were enough to grant the prince his salvation. By the time he was found, his skin had burned to dust, his bones to sand, and the only evidence of his existence was the gold of his many rings, which still shone out from the shifting desert sands as brightly after a thousand years as did the unceasing sun above.

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Notes:

1. Written on November 12th, 2019
2. And based on true events
3. Also the title is derived from Beyond A Steel Sky
4. Which I’ve never been able to complete

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Patreon subscribers get not just early access to content and also the occasional gift, but also my eternal gratitude. Which I'm not sure is very useful, but is certainly very real.

(Ko-fi contributors probably only get the gratitude I'm afraid, but please get in touch if you want more).

Thank you!