The smoke from the fire drifted through the air and hazed across the full moon, painting it a delicate eggshell blue.  Flames curled and wove around each other as they reached for the sky, throwing sparks into the night air, their short lives bright and quick as they tried to escape before fading away.  Fingers… Read more Passing On

I woke up to the chink chink of porcelain molars and pearly incisors clicking against each other. I squeezed my eyes tight because I knew the fairy might be frightened if she caught me watching her. The warmth of her light moved across my room. She floated to my bedside and I felt her slide… Read more Bedtime Story

The crisp, dried petals of flame of forest collided drily, making it sound as though they were whispering secrets to each other, as they rained into the mortar, filling its deep hollow to the brim. The pestle was raised to push and pack the petals in, then to crush them, the shrill clunks of wood… Read more Flames for New Beginnings, Lilacs for First Love

Having traveled to Memphis to consult its priests, Herodotus concluded that the beautiful Helen had actually spent the Trojan War in Egypt. Likewise, several of the historian’s contemporaries argued that Odysseus fell at Troy and that his famous wanderings were nothing more than the visions of a dying man. As they acknowledge, Odysseus won the… Read more The Long Death of Odysseus

The kind wizard Benne presided over a quiet, forested hamlet deep within the vast province of Usam. It was a land where lush emerald hills rolled like waves under an expansive purple sky and glittering leaves shined from trees that reached as high as the clouds. The three-eyed gnomes, owl-nymphs, and round-eared trolls residing there… Read more The Winner

The howls begin at the same time every night. When the guttering candles have flamed their last, when the boys are sleeping and my husband is sharpening his axe, I hear their screams. Tonight, it is our turn to hunt the spindle beasts and for that I am thankful. I nod at my husband and… Read more The Spindle Beast

A Siekopai Myth from Ecuador This happened when God, Nyanyuh, was living on Earth. He had a wife named Umewá. Umewá cooked dinner for them both, little wild plantains baked on the embers of the fire. They reclined in their hammocks as they ate. Hers was hanging directly above his. He smelled something better than… Read more Why It’s Hard to Harvest Chonta Palm Fruits

Once a very long time ago, before all the words that mean what words mean today were thought of, there was a man who lived in a house with a wonderful garden abounding in flowers and ferns, almost all of which had different names, forever lost to us. But in the center of that garden… Read more The Juniper Tree

One day all the songbirds gathered in the forest to complain about crow, a cheeky bird, a bully bird, a bird so bold as to even challenge the two-legged ones who walked on ground. Crow, complained the robin, is dark. None of us can see him in the night. He steals whatever he covets, the… Read more Crow and the Songbirds

The oil lamps belched soot, staining the temple’s ceiling black. Their flickering flames caused shadows to dance upon the thick marble columns. A lone figure sat on the cold stone floor facing a statue of Apollo. She did not see the man enter the temple.  She did not have to. “You’ve returned,” she said. It… Read more All Rhodes