Arrow-of-the-Sun

People find their way here through means both sad and strange. It is no hardship at all to enter, but you will find enormous difficulty in getting out. The road ahead is dark and perilous, and many an unwary traveler has met their unfortunate end on the jagged paths. They, of course, did not have the benefit of sound advice. You do. Take advantage. Read carefully and read closely. Do not stray from these rules. If you stray, you may never see the light again. Already you must feel yourself growing cold and heavy. This is normal. Think of sunlight and birdsong and the smell of fresh-cut grass in the spring, and you will feel the warmth retur

 There was one door in the nurse room that was always locked. Oliver could never hear any noise coming from the room beyond. The matron often went to great lengths to keep anyone from noticing it, even going so far as to visit it at the strangest hours of the night. All this only made Oliver more determined to get inside. The hardest part was sneaking out of the bedroom when he was sure the other boys were asleep. Only the youngest boys got the beds – the ones who liked to cry and sniffle and pee. At four years old, Oliver had already been promoted to a towel on the floor at the very back of the room. Oliver stepped carefully over t

My character took me by the hand when I was six Whirled me through the sea and the sky and the stars Laughed with silver eyes, and I, enchanted Shared with him my innermost desires. I wanted to be a librarian Because they could read books all day, and it Didn’t seem like too much work. Check in, check out, apply a sticker or two On the books’ unbroken spines And when a page ripped, I’d tape it up With that special book tape all librarians had My father wanted me to be a doctor. Instead, I would become a doctor of fairytales. So my invention played his part in my land of fiction And smiled and danced me through my dreams Ch

The raven cackles Breaking the crisp white stillness A dark spot in snow.

The storybook ends: an old merry-go-round shrouded with peeling red paint bleached gray by dusk slowly spinning to a stop.

I walked across the silver sands And paused as starlight caught my eye That danced above the gentle waves And shattered under liquid sky. Stars shone and sparkled on the sea And vanished into foaming shore Then glimmered into sight again And shifting constellations formed. But all too soon, the starlight dimmed And as the moon relieved the sun They merged into the evening sky And gleamed like jewels when day was done.

 When Ophelia Lindell moved to the small town of Shine, nobody knew what to think of her. She did not join a guild. She showed no interest in the Actors or Singers or Writers or Artists - an unprecedented occurrence, for Shine was a society shaped by art. The actors in its Drama guild were the most sought-after in the entire world. The Singers had voices like sunlight on spring meadows and warm chocolate winters. The Writers spun words through their stories like gods in their own right. And the Artists wielded paint and brush as their instruments of creation, each finished work more stunning than the last. Ophelia Lindell was odd. All the t