Tale 6: The Boy Princess by TheOtherSarshi, literature
Literature
Tale 6: The Boy Princess
He was once a princess who lived in a tower guarded by a dragon - a splendid child, and very proud, like the Virgin among Saints and the Moon among Stars. Ah, what a life he had! All the dresses money could buy, the most doting parents... And also a small, but not entirely negligible, problem.
You, dear reader, have probably already guessed what his problem was. There was something that nagged at him, secretly, when he saw that no princess in any book ever had to shave. It also nagged at him to see all of them married to men. And it also nagged at him that they were all girls. But he shoved it aside and lived on.
Since it all happened long
Tale 4: Lace Umbrella by TheOtherSarshi, literature
Literature
Tale 4: Lace Umbrella
I never knew her name, nor anything about her. I held her high in my heart, harbouring an unintrusive tenderness, never telling her a thing about it, never intending to. I waited until, maybe, one day she'd glance at me. She never did.
She was there on rainy afternoons, waiting endlessly in the bus stop, a parasol made of black lace held elegantly over her head. An oval, perfect Asian face, sparkling black eyes. I--You know, she never noticed me. But I always noticed her. I was fascinated from a distance by her bare, slender, white arms and her graceful profile, dark against a cloudy sky. Who was she, I wondered. What was she doing in this E
Tale 3: Journey to the Body by TheOtherSarshi, literature
Literature
Tale 3: Journey to the Body
One year later, she awoke in half-darkness, next to the mouth of the cave, recalling nothing. Her dark hair was long, dirtied with soil, moss growing on it. Her darkened red dress was laced with cobwebs. A daffodil had risen next to her left shoulder. She felt cold to her very core, as thin as a skeleton, weakened, but alert.
'The miracle of life,' she murmured, or maybe she only thought it. 'That I am still alive.' She wondered idly if that was the sort of thing she would have said before.
Her hands twitched as she remembered how to move them. She felt the rock under her fingers and pressed. Her knees bent and she discovered how it was to
Tale 1: Unseeing Eyes by TheOtherSarshi, literature
Literature
Tale 1: Unseeing Eyes
They say that one day a young man slighted a witch. How this came to be is not remembered, nor is it of any import. But she cursed him furiously, saying thus: That he should be compelled to marry the first woman that he laid his eyes on, whether good or bad, whether stranger or sibling, whether beautiful or ugly. Then she walked away and was never heard of again.
Now, the young man, who lived under the same roof as his ten sisters and his mother and father, was much afraid. He tore his shirt to pieces and tied the cloth over his eyes, determined to be blind entirely rather than to bring such tragedy onto his family. When he returned home, af
Tale 2: Worlds in the Attic by TheOtherSarshi, literature
Literature
Tale 2: Worlds in the Attic
He was very old by now. His long, white hair, uncut for fifteen years, was loosely spread all over the back of his coat. His shoulders were brought forward by age, his fingers weren't as deft as they had been. If there was one thing he was very happy for, it was that when he had started, he had used the higher shelves first. It meant he didn't have to climb steep, uncertain ladders all the time now.
There were hundreds, thousands of jars and bottles and little tin boxes neatly stacked on the shelves, hung from the ceiling by thin chains or ropes, some small and precious glass containers brought together by ropes hanging from the ceiling like