We’re a tough pair! We are made of iron and forged in fire. We have been made to slog through every kind of terrain. We have been scoured by desert sand and scraped by mountains of flint. We have been frozen on ice and scorched in the lava flows. We were worn by...
I still have an ache in my shoulder. “Why?” My grandchildren ask me. “Well, it happened when I released your grandmother from the underworld many years ago. She was trapped down there in a golden castle. I freed her easily enough, but I was left down...
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 was making my way toward the city when I met an old woman on the road. She noticed that I was badly wounded and asked me where I was going. “I really don’t know myself,” I said. I had heard about the kings’ twelve daughters, and how they had been wearing out their...
I am hundreds of years old, and so gnarled and twisted that you will think I am monstrous. I am not a monster but beware the demon who is buried under my tree roots. He is trapped in a bottle, and whenever someone approaches, he starts crying, “Let me out! Let...
