The Empty Tavern

Life has come to a stop in the village. It’s evening and no one knows what to do. They would normally go to the village tavern, have a few mugs of ale and share some gossip. This is how life has always been here. But today, when the first customers arrived, they found the doors and windows all boarded up. There is no sign of the landlord either. His house is empty and no one has seen him or his family after last night.

Some hovered around the deserted tavern for some time, hoping the landlord would come and explain everything. He never came though. They all went home at last, feeling the coldness of the night for the first time.

A Battle on the Walls

In the flickering light of the torch, the drawings on the walls of the cave seem to move. I watch in amazement the epic scenes of battle unfolding on the walls. One drawing is very striking. It depicts a huge soldier, almost twice as tall as the rest and more than three times wider, swinging a very large battle axe at the enemies. The drawing of the man somehow stands out, as if it’s embossed in stone rather than simply drawn with paint. I touch the figure on the wall and feel it move under my fingers.

The battle axe swings, decapitating two men in one swift stroke. All the drawings come to life. Men fall from their horses, heads roll on the ground, camps burn, arrows fly. I feel as if I am inside the battle, soldiers fighting all around me.

And then it all stops. The figures still feel as if they are moving, the battle still going on, and yet the lines of paint are all where they were at the beginning. It takes me a while to realize my torch has died. Everything is dark.

In My Haven

I’m looking out of the large windows of my room. Columns of smoke can still be seen rising from the burnt down city. A dark layer of smog is hovering over the land. The buildings are ruined, the trees withered, people and animals dead.

I look at the screen on the wall. Outside temperature is over 50 degrees celcius now. I turn off the screen and draw the curtains over the windows. The cool weather coming from the air conditioner is very pleasant. So what if the whole world is burning down? I’m comfortable and happy, right here in my haven.

Sand and Water

The storm continued to rage all around us. Large drops of rain splashed on our bodies. And then suddenly all the sound stopped, although the rain continued to fall as heavily as before.

“I thought we’d need a bit of quiet if we are to sleep here,” she said.

I continued tracing circles on her glistening breast.

“What is it with us and water?” I said, “Can’t we once do it when we are properly dry?”

She chuckled.

“Are you sure you are a desert girl?”

“Oh, I am a desert girl,” she answered, “You seem to have an affinity with water.”

“Do I? I never noticed.”

“Sand and water,” she said, “we are a muddy couple!”

She pulled me closer and I felt tingles all over my body, tingles that had nothing to do with her touch, or the rain. She had called us a couple, and that somehow made me forget all we were about to face, come next morning.

Star Fall

When the moon sets behind the mountains, his fire finally dies. He lies on the ground besides the glowing embers and looks at the stars blinking at him in the night sky. The breeze blows warm air into his face and he relaxes, thinking this is a better place to sleep than the softest bed in his father’s palace.

The long line of a shooting star splits the sky in two. He watches as it flies over and disappears behind the trees. Then there’s another shooting star, and another. He suddenly sits up as the whole night sky transforms into a frighteningly magnificent scene. Thousands and thousands of stars, all of them, are falling.

He watches in awe as the world is showered by falling stars. When the last one falls, he looks at the ground. The stars are already dying out. A minute later, everything is dark. The only light comes from a few embers that still burn red.

Life Is a Ladder

He’s almost forgotten what the world looked like before the ladder. Climbing the ladder was merely the result of curiosity. Living off the fruits that grew on the plants, those endless mazes of branches and leaves that kept him company on his way, turned out to be surprisingly easy and even pleasant. Sleeping was no difficulty either. Some of those branches seemed to be made for sleeping.

But why he kept on climbing was another matter. The curisoity wore off after a week or so. But then he thought what if the end was just a little ahead. So he climbed, on and on, until living and climbing became synonyms.

He no longer longs for the ground, nor for the land he used to imagine he would reach by climbing. Life is a ladder. The world is a maze of branches.

An Ordinary Needle

A needle is all there is in the room. He wants to pick it up, but it’s hot. He pulls back his hand and sucks at his finger. As he continues looking at the needle, it starts to burn red. Smoke rises from the glinting steel.

In an instant, it’s back to silver, and then red again. It continues to flash. Sometimes it stays red for a second or two, other times for perhaps half a second.

The needle flashes on and on, hour after hour, and he keeps looking at it, as if there is a hidden message in the rhythm of flashes and if he looks at it long enough, he finally understands. But the understanding never comes.

Hours later, finally the needle flashes red one last time and then goes back to its ordinary glinting silver color. After a few minutes, he gingerly reaches for it and touches it with the tip of a finger. It’s cold. He takes the needle and looks at it. It’s just an ordinary sewing needle, and he is still a prisoner.

A Tale of Two Brothers

Once upon a time, two brothers lived in a faraway small kingdom. One brother was the king, living in a large castle with high towers. The other lived in a small cottage, living off his small farm.

One day the king was riding towards the nearby woods for a hunt with a party of noblemen and courtiers when he met his brother on the road. When he saw his brother in his ragged farming clothes he asked him, “Why do you lack so much in ambition, brother? When we came to this land years ago, we were the same, you and I, but now I am the king and you are but a farmer. If not the king, you at least could have been a lord with lands where other people farmed for you.”

The brother smiled.

“When you look out of your windows in your castle,” he said, “you no doubt enjoy the beautiful scenes of the farms scattered all around the countryside. Why, I enjoy the scene, too, only I’d rather see it up close.”

“You are short-sighted brother,” said the king shaking his head. He spurred his horse and rode away with his companions.

Not Mine Anymore

The fact that I had feared it for several days could not lessen the immensity of the news. I vaguely felt my feet becoming freezing wet and distantly realized that I had let go of the bucket of water. Then Issa Varid added the last strike.

“We need someone to go after her,” she said her voice harsh as usual.

“You can’t expect me to, to…” I stammered.

“You are the only one who can do it.” she said.

How could she think that. How could she even imagine that I could just go after her and kill her, just like that? Then I realized, I couldn’t just stay here and let someone else do the job. The idea was so revolting that I had to fight really hard to keep my breakfast in my belly. I had to see her. I had to see her one last time, even if she wasn’t my Sama anymore.

Here Be Dragons

“Here be dragons,” her map says, but all there is is water, as far as the eye can see. She’s been sailing for over a month now, sure that she would find land. Dragons live on land after all.

Not that she has seen no wonders on her way. A row of tall towers of rock gave her a fright, when she thought it’s the fingers of some monster rising out of water. She could swear they hadn’t been there a second before that, but they stood where they were, as unmoving as any piece of rock she’d ever seen.

Then there was a school of bright green fish. Each as small as a fingernail, all shining in the night. There were millions of them traveling to the east, and for a few hours, the sea shone green in the middle of the night.

She also saw a black shadow lurking around her boat for a few days. It was so big that at first she was sure a monster fish was about to attack her. But the shadow only kept her company, never breaking out of the water for her to see what it looked like, and as suddenly as it appeared, it disappeared one day.

She hears a splashing sound coming from behind her. She turns her head and sees something red darting towards the sky. Then other things of the same shape, but of different colors dart out of the water. She follows their path. They go up and up and up, and then start flying in a large circle. They look like small birds, none larger than a dove. She sees flashes of light in their flight path. They continue circling but come lower and lower until finally she can see them clearly.

They do seem like birds, but their bodies are not covered with feather but with glittering scales. There is another flash of light. It’s fire, coming from the mouth of one of the birds. These are dragons! And she’d heard dragons are huge!

She watches in fascination as the circle of the dragons comes lower and lower, until suddenly, the dragons leap into the water in unison, and disappear.