Fablerise Tales

## Komani

Do not eat the green twist tubers

We can not gather those

Purple, blush or white earth roots

Green: and hungry we must go

One did not remember tale -

Through dread winter in Dunrock

Ate the green twist tuber

Tentmother so hungry she forgot

Once bitten, Goliath cannot stop

Sleepy warm your mind will stay -

She hid her source of dreadful food

Her duty forgotten for play

The kids of Kavaki explored for fun

While Tentmother guzzled her green

When danger came they were alone

Screams and death felt like her dream

Bodies rent and babies broken

Futures lost and children stolen

Mind of green had become swollen

Forsaken job, for which she’d been chosen

Exiled to die, she was renamed

So numb she barely heard

‘Narea Kin killer’ was banished far

With Bodybroken as her ward

So do not eat the green twist tubers

We will not gather those

Purple, blush or white earth roots

Green: and the herd no longer grows-lis

## Llunet

Once Upon A Time, there were two kingdoms. They were divided by a great mountain range that kept them completely separate. One kingdom was bright, warmed by sunlight, lush with fields and meadows. The other kingdom was dark; black clouds always covered the sky, and in the darkness prowled terrifying beasts with sharp fangs and claws. Because the two kingdoms were so different, they were deeply suspicious of one another and for a long time a quiet war brewed between them.

In the Dark Kingdom, there lived a young woman. She lived alone, for her family had all been killed by beasts. Yet she dreamed of the kingdom on the other side of the mountains. She dreamed of seeing the beauty of the Light Kingdom, a place bathed in light from the sky.

She packed up her meagre belongings - for she knew that she could never return if she left - and began to walk toward the mountains. On her way, she had to hide from all manner of beasts, and from other people of the Dark Kingdom who would try to stop her from leaving. She walked and walked until her boots were beginning to wear.

Then, when she got to the mountains, she began to climb, and climb and climb. Until her hands were raw and her legs ached. But she made it to the top after days of climbing, and at the top she rested for a moment. Stretched before her was the Light Kingdom, green and gold and warm in the sunlight. She gasped for how beautiful it was - for up atop the mountain it seemed to her that it was everything she had ever dreamed that it would be.

She had to climb down the other side of the mountains, but the thought of feeling the warmth of the sunlight on her skin gave her strength. She climbed for days more, until her hands were bloodied and she felt her legs might collapse beneath her. But she made it to the other side. And she stepped into the light, raising her hand to feel its warmth… and her skin began to bubble and burn.

She had already travelled so far. She could not go back to the Dark Kingdom, for she was scared that she would be called a traitor to her people. And she did not have the supplies or strength to climb back across the mountains anyway. She would not survive. So, she covered herself up as best she could with what she had, tried to keep to the shade of trees during the daylight and continued forward.

Not far from the foot of the mountains was a quaint little town, and she made her way there to ask for food and shelter. But when the people of the town looked at her, they saw that she was from the Dark Kingdom because beneath the burns they could see her grey skin. These people - these beasts - may not have been like the others that prowled in the darkness, but they were just as fierce and cruel. Their weapons were their claws and their sharp words, their fangs. They ran her out of their town, brandishing their blades and screaming curses after her.

The young women went to the next town, and the same happened. It happened at the town after that, and the next one and the next one. She ran from them all. She ran and ran until her boots were worn through, her skin was scorched and she felt her body beginning to give up.

No one offered her help. No one would take pity on her. Everyone in the Light Kingdom called her evil simply because of how she looked and where she had come from. This was not the place she had dreamed of.

But still, somehow, the young woman had hope. By chance, she heard of a town far to the north that was not quite part of the Light Kingdom. She hoped that the people there might tolerate her, or at least let her rest in peace. She travelled northward for days and days, running, walking, in pain and in fear, her strength waning with each step. She had to leave her belongings behind, one after the other, some stolen from her, ripped from her, and some she no longer had the strength to carry. She was left with nothing but threadbare rags that hardly shielded her from the sunlight.

Then finally, the ground beneath her feet grew cold and turned white. She felt the icy touch of snow on her burned skin. She thought that she might be dead. In the shadows of great, tall trees, on a bed of snow, she fell.

I think you would be forgiven for thinking this is the end of the story. But it isn’t. There is one thing that every good fairytale needs before its end.. Perhaps you might be able to guess what it is.

A young man was wandering beneath the tall trees and it just so happened that he was from the Northern Town. He was a very smart man with many years of learned wisdom. But he was not proud. He knew that there were things he did not know. So when he came upon the fallen young woman in the snow, he saw her burnt skin and her ragged clothes, he saw that she was weak and near death, he saw her grey skin and her pale hair, he saw that she might be from the Dark Kingdom, but he did not know who she was. And, perhaps more importantly, he thought that she was beautiful.

He took her to his home, where he made sure that she was comfortable, and he took time to help her heal. At first, she was afraid that she would be cast back out into the light and feared the man. But he asked her to tell him her story, and when she had finished, he promised that he would protect her. So she stayed. And they fell in love.

The people of the Northern Town were not pleased to have a citizen of the Dark Kingdom among them, but they held no love for the Light Kingdom either - which was trying to force them to accept its rule and erase their customs, but that is another story. And the people of the Northern Town could not argue when it seemed the Arch Heart Themself smiled upon the couple’s union - for they were blessed with Elvish Twins, two children born less than a decade apart which is almost unheard of.

And so, although the young woman had dreamed of living in the light, she found that she was happy in the shade of the tall trees. For she had found a different sort of light in love and family.

And they all lived Happily Ever After. The End.