Story for Shika (postcards)

In the time of buttercups and walnut trees, there lived a phoenix. It was only small, like a robin, but it seemed much bigger, and of course it was extraordinarily beautiful. To look at it one would think that it was on fire, but the grass and the trees never went up in flames, so certainly it was a magical kind of fire. The phoenix had seen the beginning of time, and would live to see the end, but it still enjoyed simple pleasures like the first drops of the rising sun splashing on its elegant face, and a cool glass of fresh lemonade.

The other animals were always a little frightened of the phoenix when they first met it, but once they got to know it, they realized that it was very kind and also an excellent friend to have around. The phoenix came up with all the best games and told the most interesting stories; it also always knew where to find food for all the animals, and if ever they were threatened - by beast or by nature - it would protect them. The animals never knew just how the phoenix protected them, or to what degree, but they always felt safe in its presence.

One day there was a great rumbling far away in the emerald hills. The animals all turned and stared, and the hair on Cat's back went straight up towards the heavens. 'What is that noise?' asked Squirrel. The phoenix told them that there was a great presence in the hills that wanted to take their land from them and put the phoenix away in a small dark hole for all eternity. The animals grew scared at this, but also very angry. Who would want to hurt the phoenix!? 'What can we do against such a force?' inquired Bear. The phoenix said that they must all join together, and not be scared. The forests and the pastures and the rivers and all the land belonged to them, and no one could take it from them.

The rumbling continued for days and days, getting louder all the time. The smaller animals huddled together at night, and the leaves on the trees shook. 'What is happening in the hills?' Sparrow wanted to know. The phoenix said the presence was getting ready to sweep the lands from under them and take all the colours of the animals and the lands away. 'What should we do?' the animals asked. The phoenix told them to be strong, and to remember that this was their land. When the presence made its way down the hills, they must stand together and force the presence out. 'How will we know what to do?' said Deer. 'What if we aren't strong enough?' demanded Raven, always the cynic. The phoenix said that, as animals, the power was inside each and every one of them to drive out the presence.

Finally, one day, the rumbling stopped, and the lands grew quiet. The animals all spoke in whispers, wondering what would come next. They looked anxiously at the phoenix, but it was stirring its iced tea and smelling the daisies. Then out of nowhere, the presence spoke, 'I am the great presence from the emerald hills. This land is mine, and you, phoenix, are mine as well.' The animals trembled, and some of the younger rabbits began to weep. But the phoenix hushed them, and floated far above the tree tops to address the presence from the hills. It said, This land belongs as much to you as it does to all of us, and no more. I belong no more to you than I do to any one. The presence grew very angry at this, and made all the trees shake and the ground roll. But the phoenix burned all the brighter, and said nothing more.

'If you will not bow to me of your own will, I will just have to force you!' said the presence, and it tried to grab the phoenix out of the air. But the phoenix was too fast, and it flitted back down to the ground next to all the animals. 'You will follow me and you will be mine!' said the presence, and stomped and stamped with all its might. But the animals shook their heads and one of the braver Cows stuck out her tongue. The presence grew very angry and turned the skies red and the clouds black, but the phoenix burned so bright to be blinding, and the animals all felt the strength inside of them that was their claim to the land.

All of a sudden, with a great rush of air, the phoenix disappeared. In its place burned a cloud of golden flame, and then there was only a pile of ash. The forest held its breath; even Cricket stopped chirping. Then there was the tiniest of cheeps, so quiet and so high that many of the animals didn't hear it. 'What was that?' said Pill-Bug, and poked its head into the ash. Inside, he found a miniscule bird, naked and wrinkled, singing the sweetest song any of the animals had ever heard.
No presence disturbed the forest for many, many years.

Laura (disgusted at our binary world)

I had tried to love her. A clandestine love seemed almost more romantic, the knowledge of something frowned upon, yet I knew such logic must be flawed. But just as I did not choose my name at birth, I cannot choose who I love, and so all I could ever do was disappoint. Sometimes that was enough.

Her name was Laura. She had wavy blonde hair, past her shoulders. She would flick it, without realizing, whenever someone looked at her too intensely, which for a normal person meant at all. She knew what she was and she was damned good at hiding it. She had to be. She worked as a lawyer, a junior one of course, couldn't allow her to have too much power, that was as high as she would ever get, as any of us would ever get. But she lived well, if having a roof over your head and spare pantyhose is living well. Maybe she lived much worse than me. Probably.

We met at a cafe. I didn't normally go there, but the music drew me in, and she was there, and she spoke to me. I stayed much longer than I had expected, went home friend count plus one, very pleased. She went home and cried tears that made her eyes sore for hours after the water had stopped.

We met the second time by accident, or at least I think it was an accident. She would say that everything happens for a reason, or she would if she said anything any more. I was hurrying to a client, she was daydreaming on her lunch break, I called the client and told them my car had broken down and I would make them a new appointment at 15% off, she got food poisoning and didn't even bothering going back for her coat.

We fell hard for each other, but I didn't realize, how could I, how could I not? She fell in love. I feel into the best friendship I had known in years. Sometimes the two things felt the same, but maybe only to me. I drove her wild, she made me want to live forever. I forgot what love meant and she remembered.

We continued to meet at the cafe for almost two months before the inevitable. Then we only saw each other in private, like decent people, or almost decent. Hidden away, that was the only place for us, barring nowhere at all.

Of course it wouldn't last. As much as I loved her, I never loved her. She knew it, she knew I couldn't, most of the time she could take it but who can really take that, and why would I want her to suffer. But I am who I am and as much as I wish I could change myself I can't. She can't either but that doesn't seem to matter, she's gone now because of it, as they all are, inevitably.

Don't ask me where.
Don't ask me why I'm not with her. Somehow they seem to know.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
And don't you forget it.

Farmer Ray's Potato Farm

Every year came the potatoes to Farmer Ray and Jo's farm. Normally this would be a good thing, but these potatoes were unwelcome. Farmer Ray liked carrots and cauliflower and Farmer Jo had raspberries and blueberries and apple trees. Neither of them had planted potatoes ever since that year. The year that the potatoes had come.
At first Farmer Ray had only found a few small potatoes amongst his carrots and cauliflower. He had thought they were perhaps left over from the last farmer. He pulled them out, and ate them, and decided that that would be that.
The next year, Farmer Ray found more potatoes amongst his carrots and cauliflower. He pulled them out again, and ate them again. When he planted the carrots and cauliflower he made extra sure that there weren't any potatoes that would grow again.
The year after that, the potatoes grew not only amongst Farmer Ray's carrots and cauliflower, but also in between the raspberries and blueberries that Farmer Jo spent so much time looking after. There were so many of them that Farmer Ray and Jo put them into big potato sacks and sold them at the market. When people asked them what kind of potatoes they were selling, they shrugged and said, Mystery potatoes. Sometimes when they said this, it sounded like giggling noises came from the potato sacks, but Farmer Ray and Jo were sure this was just in their imagination.
Every year the potatoes kept appearing, bigger and bigger and always more numerous. Farmer Ray and Jo learned to just accept that the potatoes would come. Eventually the carrots and cauliflower and raspberries and blueberries and apple trees became fewer and fewer as the potatoes grew and grew. Farmer Ray and Jo became known as Potato Farmers at the market, and became famous for their Mystery potatoes, which tasted like no other potatoes in the land.

The Little Star's Big Adventure

A children's story in space

Once upon a time there was a tiny little star. All it wanted to do was to grow up into a red giant, but it knew that it would be a long time until that happened. Until then, it wanted to take care of its little universe as well as it possibly could.

The little star often spoke to its planets and their moons to make sure that everything was alright. If ever there was a problem, the star would do everything in its might to make it right again. The planets liked the little star very much - it was gentle and considerate, and always remembered their birthdays - but the little star couldn't help but wish for adventure. And one day, it came.

Now two different kinds of aliens lived on the little star's planets. One was called the Gloogloos and the other were the Neeglars, and they were both peaceful peoples. But in the neighbouring galaxy lived the vicious Z'Art'Oks, who liked nothing better than destroying peaceful alien races and humiliating little stars. The Z'Art'Oks flew their destroyer ships above the planets of the Gloogoos and the Neeglars and they told them bad jokes and made all their food taste like eggplant and dog biscuits. The Gloogoos cooed sadly and the Neeglars keened, but the Z'Art'Oks only laughed at them and made them listen to Phil Collins.

The little star saw all this happening and it got very upset. The poor Gloogoos! The unhappy Neeglars! Clearly something had to be done.

First the little star tried talking to the Z'Art'Oks sternly and asking them to leave, but they dyed all the grass purple and the trees pink.

Then the star tried bribing the Z'Art'Oks, telling them that they would have lots of candy if only they would return home, but the Z'Art'Oks pulled out a giant cotton candy machine from one of their destroyer ships and made cotton candy and put it on their heads like hair.

Finally the little star told the Z'Art'Oks that if they didn't leave, it would burn all their ships. At first, the Z'Art'Oks didn't believe the little star. But it huffed and puffed and blew a great big fireball into space, and then the Z'Art'Oks knew that the star really would destroy their ships. So they all got back in their ships - after turning the food and the music and the grass and the trees back to normal - and they flew away.

After the Z'Art'Oks had gone, the Gloogloos and the Neeglars rejoiced, and thanked the little star profusely. The little star was very flattered by all the attention, and blushed so hard...

...that it turned into a red giant!

And the Z'Art'Oks never bothered that star again.

The Arcanum House

Throughout the four hundred year history of the Arcanum House, no one had ever dared cast the spell. For as long as anyone could remember there had been the spell book in the library, with a cover made of skin - no one asked what kind - and dyed blue. Its pages were very old, and of different colours where a new author had added their latest spells. Every spell inside - from the most simple spell for getting rid of warts to the most archaic, written in a lost language and capable of destroying nations - had been cast. Except for one.
Enter Bernie.
Bertrand Arsinoe Samson Arcanos was twelfth generation Arcanos. He had lived in Arcanum House his whole life, and didn't know it could be any different. His father had grown up in this house, and his father's father, all the way back to the Great Arcanus himself. Of all twelve generations of magicians, Bertrand was the absolute worst. When he was very young, Bertrand had made a dragon appear in the middle of Loch Ness (mostly by accident, admittedly, since he had been only three at the time, but Bertrand chose to spin the tale differently when at social events), and ever since, he had hardly been able to make a kettle boil, much less attempt the ancient spells in the spell book.
Not that he hadn't tried.
Of course, after the dragon incident, great things were expected of Bertram. His father and grandfather and uncles and aunties all did their darndest to encourage Bertie's magical abilities. His aunt Marjorie constantly bought him toads for a reason that he had never been able to figure out. His uncle Nestor enjoyed pulling coins out of Bertie's ear (but he never let Bertie keep them). And his grandfather Julius Marcus Arcanos the Dastardly seemed to think it would strengthen Bernie's constitution to

Jack the Rabbit

One day Jack the rabbit drank a funny green liquid. He thought it was water coloured green by having some grass clippings and spinach in it, but it was actually coloured green because a mad scientist had mixed a bunch of liquids together and then put the liquid in Jack's house. After drinking the liquid, Jack went to bled, and had sweet rabbitey dreams of cotton candy and giant hammers. When he woke up the next morning, Jack's lush white pelt had turned green, and was oozing all over the place. Jack's little black eyes grew wide and he rubbed himself the walls to try to get the ooze off but it just wouldn't come off. A few hours later, after having been laughed at by his wife and twenty two children, Jack began to feel a little funny. He ate some grass to try to feel better, but to no avail. He hopped around in the sun and did ear stretches, but no matter what he did, the funny feeling remained.

That evening, as Jack was chewing on some grass, the ooze spontaneously lit on fire and Jack began to float, as well as glow spookily. He flailed his little bunny legs but gravity had reversed itself! Jack floated further and further upwards, a burning rabbit beacon. In the night, a chattering was heard. Many feet in the night followed the rabbit Jack.

Somewhere a scientist cackled.