The thing you have to know straightaway is that there are different kinds of kings. There are the kings of the sort you probably think of – heads of state, living in grand castles and ruling over thousands and thousands of subjects. Then there are petty kings, whose domains are smaller, their rule focused on […]
Month: June 2018
There was once a bar that had a simple rule, something more important than, “No shirt, no shoes, no service.” More crucial than, “Tip your servers.” More sacred, even, than, “No repeat songs on the jukebox as you’re leaving.” The simple rule, emblazoned above the entrance and along the bar itself and on the matchbooks […]
This is an old, old story about an old, old man. He wasn’t always old, obviously. He’d once been young, and deep down there was a part of him that was surprised to catch a glimpse of his reflection and see the white hair and the wrinkles that greeted him there. Not that he thought […]
A long time ago, there was a knight who had taken the hardest path to knighthood. What many people don’t understand about knights is that there are, fundamentally, two types of them. The first type was one who knew what they had and what they could accomplish. This was the most common sort of knight, […]
I’d never before felt envy of the sort that I felt when I first saw her pick up a sword, without a clue how to hold it properly. “Teach me,” she said, and I had no choice but to do so. Not because I saw any inherent gift within her – I didn’t, though there […]
Once there was a ruler who, upon their coronation, was given a worrisome, impressive, and questionable gift. It was a glorious chariot (that was the impressive part) that was drawn by two sphinxes (that was the questionable part) who refused to allow the charioteer to use reins (that was the worrisome part). It took the […]
There was once a bird who had been entrusted with the greatest treasure of its kind. This bird wasn’t the wisest or the swiftest or the strongest bird. It wasn’t even from an especially important bird family. So it seemed strange, in a way, that this bird among all the other birds had been given […]
Once there was a ruler who had been beset by terrible dreams. They weren’t the usual sort of unpleasant or strange dreams – they were true nightmares, full of fear and violence and death of the people the ruler had sworn to protect. After the dreams had ruined more nights of rest than the ruler […]
There are all kinds of bravery. There’s the bravery of taking a stand for what you believe in, there’s the bravery of fighting your enemies, there’s the bravery of speaking uncomfortable truths to your friends. I’ve witnessed all of these and more besides, and I suppose I’ve done something like that a time or two […]
Once a group of five friends went off to war, and just two of them came back. “We ought to have known,” they would tell themselves later, but how could they? The omens were all positive, from the visions in the fire to the gust of easterly wind as the lots were cast to […]