Once upon a time, there was a little girl. The little girl lived in a
very large castle, far away from the rest of the world. The castle had
endless rooms and very tall walls. The little girl loved the castle,
for every day she discovered some new place in it.
However, it was also a very lonely castle. There did not seem to be
any other people living in it besides the little girl. Sometimes, she
had the feeling that she would occasionally find someone else in one of
the rooms, and spend the day with them, but as the days went on, such
encounters seemed as if they were only dreams. In fact, sometimes it
seemed as if the little girl was entirely a dream. When she really
thought about it (which was rarely), she could not remember where she
came from, or how she got there.
But these thoughts did not trouble her most of the time, for there
was so much to explore and discover. One evening, the little girl found
an old wooden door that she did not remember seeing before. She opened
it and saw a stone staircase, leading upwards. The little girl was not
one to resist mysterious staircases, so she immediately ran in and
tumbled up the large stone steps, almost as if she were climbing a
mountain, as the steps were quite tall for her little legs.
The stairs seemed to go on forever. Up and up the little girl
climbed, getting excited as she went. She had a small hope in her
heart that these stairs would finally lead her to see the open sky. For
you see, the little girl had only ever glimpsed the outside through
tiny windows. Finally, she felt a cool breeze on her face. The stairs
ended, and she found herself in a large empty courtyard. The little
girl looked up, and gasped in wonder.
She had made it to the very top of the castle, somewhere she had
never been before. And there above her was the open night sky, dotted
with stars. The little girl, exhausted from her climb, lay down on the
cool stone ground and looked up at the dark sky.
“What a beautiful thing is the sky,” she thought, her eyes darting
from star to star. Her eyes landed on one star in particular, that
seemed a little brighter than the rest. The star seemed to twinkle at
her once she noticed it, and she smiled.
Suddenly, she heard footsteps behind her. She stood up, startled,
and turned around. An elderly gentleman stood there, in long grey
robes, and the little girl recognized him right away. “Hello Magician!”
she said excitedly. “I forgot you! I thought you were a dream. Why
does this always happen? Why did the stairs lead to the sky? Why is
that star twinkling at me? Who am I, why am I all alone here?”
The little girl had so few chances to speak to someone (if they were
someones at all, and not simply dreams) that her questions came tumbling
out all at once, for fear he would disappear before they were all
asked.
“Hello little one”, said the gentleman. “I see you have found me
again. I do not understand why you insist on calling me ‘magician’ –
there is no such thing as magic, or those who perform it. I am simply a
wanderer.”
The little girl ignored this. “Magician, why is that star twinkling
at me? I have this strange feeling inside me, like I know that star. I
think that star is a person. I think I met him before, and we had
adventures together, and then he flew away to become a star in the sky
and I fell asleep and became a dream of a little girl all alone in a
castle.”
The little girl trembled a little inside. It was not often that she had such strange thoughts.
“Little one, calm yourself. Those thoughts in your head are only
dreams. A star cannot be a person, and a little girl in a castle can be
nothing more than a little girl in a castle. You must sleep now.”
And the little girl did indeed feel herself getting sleepy. Her eyes
felt heavy, and she lay back down on the stone floor. The ‘magician’
took off one of his robes and gently lay it over her. He was worried
for the little girl. She was starting to remember things she should not
remember; things that would bring back her unhappiness. It was better
that she not remember. But he did not know how to stop it. He knew she
would remember him when she woke up, and that was not how things should
be. The spell was coming undone. He quietly went down the stairs and
disappeared.
While the little girl slept, she dreamed. Her dreams were full of
strange things. Water all around, and a long thin boat that she paddled
with someone else she could not see. Bowls and boards full of chopped
up coloured foods, on their way to becoming something delicious to eat.
Small flutters of brown, blue, and red, that came and stole almonds and
fluttered away again. Stories of a man who flew around in box that
scared her, but some warmth always there to soothe the fears. Trees
with long branches and eagles that spoke.
When the little girl awoke, it was still dark. She sat up and hugged
her knees, looking up at her star. “I know you,” she whispered, not
caring what the magician said. “I know you used to be a person and I
used to play with you. “
The little girl’s eyes filled with tears that did not fall, and
blurred her vision of the stars. Her star sparkled even brighter and
bigger.
“You are my shiny star,” she whispered up to it. “And I will find you again.”
***
Sometimes, the little girl liked to sing. She would make up songs
and sing them to herself as she explored the castle. Usually, she
didn't mind singing to no one. But sometimes, after an especially
beautiful song, the little girl looked around at the silent stone walls,
and felt a little sad.
Today, she climbed up the mysterious stairs she had discovered the
other day, and to her delight they still led to the same place. It was
again the evening. She lay down on the cool stones and looked up at the
sky.. Her star was there, twinkling at her. She let her voice softly
carry itself up to the star, a melancholy song about loneliness and the
moon.
The star stopped its twinkling, and listened.
***
As the days went on, the little girl found herself being drawn up the
mysterious staircase to the terrace on the castle roof. Usually she
just sat and watched the sky. It was always night time when she went.
Her star was not always there, but she was always happier inside when it
was, sometimes appearing from behind a cloud.
Today, however, was different. The girl, on her way up the stairs,
had found a most curious basket. She had no idea where it came from or
how it got there, but that wasn't the most surprising thing about it;
things were always appearing in the castle with very little explanation.
The basket was full of eggs, but most surprising thing about these
eggs was that they were coloured. Red, pink, yellow, spring green, deep
blue, purple. The little girl had never seen such a thing before. "Oh
magician, where are you?" she called out as she walked up the rest of
the stairs, carefully carrying the precious apparition. "I need you to
tell me why I have a basket of rainbow eggs..."
The 'magician' was indeed around, and heard the call, but he would
not appear today. He did not know where the basket of eggs came from
either, and he did not like admitting that. Strange things were
happening in this castle that was supposed to protect the little girl.
He was not a fan of strange things. The magic of the castle was coming
undone and the world was seeping into the little girl's perception,
something that was not supposed to happen at all. Was that not why she
had been sent here? To keep her from the strangeness of the world? The
gentleman watched anxiously from a hidden place as the rest of the
scene unfolded.
When the little girl reached the top of the stairs, she gasped.
Growing out of the stone terrace was something she had never seen
before. The little girl stood very still, her eyes taking in this
second strange thing of the day, lit up by the moonlight. How tall it
was! How strong, how green, and how... sad, somehow. The little girl
rushed over to it.
She wrapped her arms around its base, feeling the roughness. "Why
are you sad?" she asked it. But the long, thin leaves only brushed her
face in response. She sat down, holding her basket tightly in her lap.
She felt like this giant apparition was there to comfort her somehow,
but she did not remember ever feeling sad...
Her face was brushed by the leaves again. The little girl suddenly
remembered. "You're a tree!" she said up to it. "A tree... a very sad
tree... how did I forget what a tree was? I used to know trees... in
some... other place..."
The little girl was troubled inside. She could not recall any
specific memories, but she knew that she had once seen trees, played
with them, sat under them, hugged them.
It was cloudy tonight, and the little girl could not see her star.
She could not see the magician, who had quietly disappeared, unable to
handle things he could not understand, abandoning the little girl he was
supposed to protect. He was starting to feel like she needed other
protection than what he could give her, but he didn't know what that was
or where it would come from.
The little girl looked down at her basket of eggs. "I need... a
river..." she whispered to the tree. "I don't remember why, but I need a
river."
So the little girl sat and waited, under the willow tree, waiting for
a river that would never come, for a star that would always remain just
a star.
***
The little girl could not sleep that night. She tossed and turned.
It felt as if she had been asleep months and months, and yet was never
rested. She had lost track of days and nights. The magician had long
since abandoned her.
As she tried to sleep, she could hear a sound outside, a soft,
roaring sound, the likes of which she had never heard before. The sound
called her.
She climbed out of bed and followed the sound. She found a narrow
winding staircase. Up she climbed, around and around, up the stairs.
She felt cold, and the roaring was getting louder. She finally came to
the top of a turret that had never been there before, and gasped.
Completely surrounding the castle, as far as she could see, was wild
water. It was the ocean, but she didn’t remember its name. She stared
at all that water. It was crashing against the castle, and it was
rising.
The little girl stared out at the sea, and waited.
The castle was crumbling into the sea, and the little girl would
soon go with it. She no longer needed the castle, its protection. She
would go elsewhere, become other. Again.
High above in the dark sky, an eagle silently glided overhead.
**********
**********
A third story
Once upon a time there was a princess who grew up and grew out of the
story book and forgot she was a princess. The castle was dark and
forgotten. The dragons slept, the lilies ceased to sway, the wind and
the ocean and the trees became still and grey. But then a small flicker
of a candle lit up in the darkest corner of the castle, and the dragon
opened his eyes and softly wagged his tail, hoping, faintly, that maybe
the story was not done after all. Maybe the princess was coming back to
play again.
***
The dragon, sleepy but slowly regaining wakefulness, looked out the window and there she was, playing by the sea.
She was glowing and new, and looked like more of a normal girl than a princess.
The girl princess shielded her eyes from the sun and looked out into the
ocean. She saw another girl on an island in the distance. She waved at her across the sea. "Come and play!" she shouted
over the crashing waves.
And play they did.
The dragon smiled.
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