She tried to prevent me from leaving. She begged me. She locked the doors of the house. She wailed and wept. But my mother had warned me not to stay long with the people by the sea. I had already fallen in love with the hula dancing, the drums and songs, the joyful,...
I came out into the garden of my homestead and I noticed that something had been tramping down the corn. I went looking around, thinking a pig must have gotten in. Then I saw some dirty thing lying under the peach trees. “Here’s something! Here’s something! There’s a...
I’m just a simple private but I’ve found the king’s ring. He’s promised a large sum for money for it and I plan to return it. But how? If I report it to regimental headquarters, the matter will have to go all the way up the ranks. It will go...
When I was flying over the forest I saw a freshly killed ox lying in the clearing. What good fortune! I swooped down, landed on the carcass, and began to peck at the flesh. Just then a fox caught me in his mouth and ran with me to a lion who was sitting at the...
I never make house calls. I can afford to stay home and see my patients here. The only exception I ever made was for a king who offered me a great sum of money to come to his court. A thorn in his foot had become infected. I told him the wound could not be healed, not...
I flow past the hut of a poor fisherman, shunning the glare of the sun and the noise of the towns. I stream past trees and under bushes, listening to the song of the birds. One day, when the fisherman came to cast his nets, I brought him a crystal cradle. He slipped...
When I was just a foolish girl, I caught a fish. It spoke and said that if I didn’t throw it back into the river, something dreadful would happen to me. I didn’t listen. I brought it home. My mother told me to throw it back in the river because a speaking...
I had sent the little girl-fish on such an arduous adventure to reclaim my crown that I began to doubt she would ever return. My ladies had started to become restless. “I am tired of staying here,” said one fish. Her colors changed with every anxious twist...
I have a bit of magic, oh, yes, I do, and it is quite special. Nothing like you’d see in a magic show. No, I don’t like to make a spectacle. I just stand by the road, and I ask questions, like I did the other day, when the peasant’s three sons walked...
One evening, there was a knock on my door, and two tall, astonishingly handsome strangers stood before me. They asked for a night’s lodging. How could I refuse them? Before we sat down to eat our meal, there was another knock on the door. This time, it was a...
