Week 14 Story: Ghost Hunting

Being a paranormal investigator isn't all it's cracked up to be. Emma wanted to uncover the secrets of the supernatural, to prove once and for all that ghosts really existed, and to find a way to help them move on or protect the living from the more hostile ones.

Instead she mostly ended up listening to old houses settle, investigating "cold spots" that were clearly ordinary drafts, and chasing away neighborhood kids who couldn't resist the opportunity to try and freak out the ghost hunter. She was still certain ghosts were real, but now she was even more certain that homeowners were terrible at identifying a haunting.

So when the Henderson family hired her to have a look at their house, she wasn't very hopeful.

The Henderson's had at least done some research on their house before coming to the conclusion it was haunted. A woman named Annabelle Fairchild had died there fifty years earlier, shortly after giving birth to a baby boy. Her husband had moved out two weeks later.

The fact that someone had actually died in the house made it more promising than some of places people hired Emma to look into, so she agreed to spend a night looking into it. The Hendersons let her in and went to spend the night in a hotel. Emma set up motion activated cameras throughout the house, briefly walked through asking for any spirits to show themselves, and settled in the nursery, where most of the activity had been located, to wait for any paranormal activity.

At midnight, the temperature in the room plummeted. Shivering, Emma got up to look for anywhere a draft might be coming from. She was interrupted by her EMF meter let out a sharp whine and she felt something brush past her, moving toward the crib.

Emma turned to face the crib. In the moonlight streaming through the window, she saw the faint outline of a woman in a white nightgown leaning over the crib.

Emma's heart leapt in her chest, and goosebumps that had nothing to do with the cold rose along her arms. This was what Emma had been waiting for her whole life. A real ghost. And not just any ghost, a full body apparition. She had enough cameras set up in the room that she definitely had footage. If she could just get the ghost to talk to her, she become a legend in the paranormal community.

Emma pulled out a radio scanner, turning it on to create white noise for the spirit to speak through. She took a step toward the ghost. "Hello? Annabelle?"

Annabelle turned slowly to face her. "Where's the baby?" The voice that came through the radio scanner sounded nearly robotic, but Annabelle's face clearly displayed her anger.

Some of Emma's excitement faded. The ghost's interest in the Henderson's baby wasn't necessarily anything evil, but Emma felt almost instinctively wary about it. "He's not here. I'm--"

"Where is he?" Annabelle had somehow turned up the volume on the radio scanner. The temperature dropped again, a cold wind whipping through Emma's hair, and the furniture began to rattle. "What have you done with him?"

"I haven't done anything!" Emma yelled over the wind. "His parents took him away."

Annabelle let out a wordless shriek. Toys that had been scattered across the room floated up from the floor and flew through the air. "NO! They can't do this to me. Taking him away, just like my husband took my little boy. I watched over him every night, comforted him when he woke up and cried, protected him. And now he's gone forever."

"Annabelle," Emma shouted. When the ghost didn't respond, she raised her voice even more. "Annabelle! He's not gone forever, just for tonight."

The wind cut off abruptly, toys hovering motionless in midair. "What?"

"His parents took him to a hotel so I could investigate. They hired me to find out if the house was haunted, because they were worried about his safety. I'll tell them that you don't pose any danger to him, that you were just trying to look out for him."

The toys dropped back to the floor and the room returned to a comfortable temperature. "So he'll be back?"

Emma nodded. "Yes, he should be back by tomorrow night."

"Very well," Annabelle said, fading from view. "I'll return tomorrow night, then."

Emma stared at the empty space where Annabelle had been for a moment. Then, she hurried over to check the footage on her camera. What she'd witnessed tonight would revolutionize the way the world thought about ghosts.

Being a paranormal investigator was the coolest job in the world.
                                                 
                                                                (Ghost)

Author's Note: This story is loosely based on the Russian fairy tale The Dead Mother. In the original the mother dies in childbirth. The father hires a woman to take care of the baby, and the woman notices that the baby is unusually quiet during the night. She spends the night in the nursery and discovers the dead mother coming in to nurse the baby. The next night, the father and some of his friends wait to catch the mother. When they burst out of hiding, the mother runs away and they discover that the baby has died. I kept the idea of a dead woman coming to take care of a baby in the night, but switched it to a modern setting with a paranormal investigator and got rid of the part where the baby dies.

Week 13 Story: The Changeling

Bridgett was thrilled when her daughter was born. She'd been trying to have a baby for years, after all. She named the baby Lilly, and doted on her constantly.

One day, Lilly started acting strangely. She no longer cried to be picked up. In fact, she'd sometimes fuss if Bridgett held her for too long, which she'd never done before. She started speaking in full sentences, when she'd only known a few words before.

Despite the strange behavior, Lilly was still a sweet baby. Bridgett loved her regardless of how she acted. But the sudden change worried her, especially since there were tales of fairies in the area. She decided to perform a test she'd heard worked to make a changeling reveal itself.

Bridgett cooked some food and put a small portion inside and eggshell. She carried the eggshell out into the living room where Lilly was playing and set it on the coffee table.

Lilly looked at it. "Mommy, what's that for?"

"I have some guests coming over later, so I'm laying out some food for them."

Lilly laughed as if that was the funniest thing she'd ever heard. "That's ridiculous, Mommy. That's not even enough food for one person. I've never seen an eggshell of food feed a group of guests."

Bridgett sighed sadly. "You're not my Lilly, are you?"

The changeling stopped laughing. "Yes I am."

Bridgett shook her head. "No, you're not. You're a changeling, left here by a fairy mother. My Lilly is living with the fairies now."

The changeling looked like she was about to cry. "Please don't make me go back. My other mommy isn't nice like you. She didn't want me. I want to stay here with you." She started to cry. "Please let me stay."

Even knowing it wasn't Lilly, Bridgett couldn't stand to see the child in front of her cry. It wasn't the changeling's fault that her mother had left her here and taken Lilly away. She'd been a sweet and mostly well behaved child for the whole time Bridgett had her.

Reaching out to take the changeling into her arms, Bridgett said, "Don't cry. Of course you can stay here. I wouldn't send you away." The child calmed slightly, and Bridgett added, "But I have to bring the other Lilly back, too. You're going to have to trust me."

When the changeling, who Bridgett decided to call Violet from now on, had stopped crying, Bridgett carried her out of the house. The went to a nearby bridge, and Bridgett held Violet out over the water bellow.

"Fairies, come take your child back or I'll drown it. Return my child to me."

An old woman appeared from thin air on far side of the bridge. She was holding an identical child in her arms. Bridgett pulled Violet back from over the bridge and walked over to meet the old woman, who she knew must be a fairy in disguise. She made sure to stop while still standing on the bridge, knowing that the fairy wouldn't be able to walk over running water.

"Give me the child," the fairy woman commanded.

"You give me my child first," Bridgett answered.

With a hiss, the old woman shoved Lilly into Bridgett free arm. Bridgett shifted the two children so she could hold them both while freeing up one hand for a moment. She reached into her pocket, pulled out a handful of salt and threw it to the ground at the fairy's feet.

The fairy shrieked in rage, glaring murderously at Bridgett, but was unable to keep herself from stooping down to count the grains of salt.

Bridgett ran away as fast as she could while the fairy was distracted. When she got home, she warded her house against fairies as best as she could without harming Violet.

The next day, she began looking for places to move so she could raise her two daughters in peace.


           
                                                                  (Twin Girls)

Author's Note: The story this is based on is a Welsh fairy tale called Brewery of Eggshells. In the original, a mother of twins leaves her babies home alone for a few minutes while she runs to the neighbor's house, and they are replaced with changelings. She visits an old man who knows things about the fairies, and he says to test whether the babies are actually changelings by cooking some food in an eggshell and saying she's going to feed it the the threshers, and if the kids laugh or say they've never seen anything like that, to take them and throw them in the river.

Week 12 Story:Lady Knight

Ana had always wanted to be a knight. She'd grown up hearing her grandma Britomart's stories of her time as knight, all the adventures she'd had and the people she'd met, and every tale filled Ana with longing to have some of those adventures for herself. Britomart always wanted to talk about the lovey parts of the story, and how it was really only for love that she'd set out as a knight in the first place, but Ana didn't care about any of that. She wanted to hear about the daring rescues and fights, not about how her grandparents met.

It wasn't hard for Ana to convince her father to let her learn how to fight growing up, especially not after her grandma agreed that she should be taught. So when Ana finally decided that she couldn't live another day without going on an adventure of her own, she was confident that she would be able to make her way as a knight.

Ana told her grandmother that she had seen a knight who would be her own future husband in the magic mirror, and that she must set out to find him at once. If Britomart was suspicious of Ana's sudden interest in love when she'd been nothing but indifferent to it before, the old lady kept those suspicions to herself. She gave Ana her magic spear and helped the younger woman get ahold of some armor and sneak out of the castle.

The first few weeks of Ana's time traveling as a knight didn't quite live up to her expectations. Adventures, it seemed, were not as easy to find as they had been during Britomart's time, and it was no longer the custom to have a friendly fight with any knight you happened to come across.

Eventually Ana did find what looked to be the start of a promising adventure. Riding into a clearing, she discovered a knight weeping outside of a derelict tower.

"What is wrong?" Ana asked the knight.

"The lady I love is locked inside this tower," the knight answered. "I cannot reach her. Whenever I try to go through the door, a mighty flame springs up in my way. I fear that my love has become the prisoner of some foul sorcerer."

Ana remembered one of her grandmother's stories, of a lady trapped in the same manner. She wondered if that same magician could still be at large after all these years. It really didn't matter if it was the same man or not. Either way, Ana would defeat him and rescue the lady in danger.

"You should not give up so easily," she told the other knight. Then, remembering her grandma's story, Ana held her shield in front of her and walked resolutely toward the door.

As she approached, flames sprang up in her path. Ana ignored them and continued walking forward. The flames did not burn her at all, and she walked easily through the threshold.

The inside of the tower looked nothing like the outside. From without, it looked long abandoned and on the verge of collapse, but inside it was apparently in good condition. Ana climbed up a staircase which was as sturdy as if it had been built the day before and well lit from sconces set regularly into the wall. When Ana looked into one of these, she saw not a candle but a floating orb of light. Clearly the sorcerer was still here.

Ana reached the top of the staircase, and found a closed door. Holding her shield in front of her with one hand and readying her sword in the other, Ana kicked down the door.

A beautiful lady who had been sitting and reading shot to her feet at Ana's sudden entrance. The lady didn't look hurt, or sick, or like she was being held captive at all.

"Who are you?" the lady asked. "How did you get in here? My fire should have burned any man who tried to enter."

"Your spell?" Ana asked.

The lady scowled. "Yes, my spell. Which is why I'm interested in how you got passed it. Has my magic begun to fail."

"No, it has not." Ana pulled of her helmet. "The spell didn't stop me because I am not a man."

The lady's eyes widened. "Why have you come here?"

"The knight outside seemed convinced that you were being held captive by an evil magician, so I thought I'd help. Clearly that's not the case."

The lady looked offended. "Me. the sorceress Minerva, captured by some magician? That's ridiculous. I locked myself in here because that knight would not stop declaring his love for me and demanding we be married, no matter how many times I told him I wasn't interested. I really didn't want to kill him, so I thought I'd just go where he couldn't follow until he gave up. But it's been weeks, and he's still out there waiting."

Ana frowned. "That is unacceptable behavior. If you said you weren't interested, he should respect that. Stay here, I'll go fight him for you."

"Lady Knight," Minerva called. "Not that I doubt your ability, but it might be easier if I simply used a spell to put him to sleep so we can leave. I would have done it before, but I didn't think I would be able to get far enough away before he woke up and followed me. If we left on your horse, we could put some good distance between us and him while the spell holds."

"I would rather fight him."

Minerva shook her head. "He fights unfairly and is a coward. Wouldn't it be better to let me take care of him so you can fight a more worthy opponent? And besides, while I appreciate the offer, I would like to take care of him myself. He has been vexing me for nearly a year now."

Ana nodded. "Very well. If you feel you must defeat him, I will not stand in your way."

And so Minerva placed the other knight in a magical slumber, and she and Ana rode away together. As they rode, Minerva said to Ana, "If you're still looking to fight some villains and rescue someone, I know of a town nearby that has been harassed by the undead for years."

Ana smiled. It seemed like having company might make life as a knight more interesting.

                                                       (Joan of Arc by Harold Piffard)


Author's note: Britomart is a princess who becomes a knight in order to find the knight she's supposed to marry, according to a magic mirror made by Merlin. One of her adventures as a knight involved rescuing a lady from a sorcerer who'd locked her behind a gate of fire. It was never explained why Britomart could walk through the fire and the male knight she was with at the time couldn't, so I decided for this story to have the spell be gender specific since the lady in question wanted to get away from an overly persistent suitor. I also wanted my protagonist to want to be a knight for the adventure, not because she wanted to find a husband.

Week 11 Story: Wolf Pack

Rebecca had loved her husband once upon a time. At least, she had loved the man she thought he was. But he had changed, bit by bit, after they got married, until he became so cruel she could no longer recognize him as the man she had once loved.

She left him one day. She had nowhere to go, but she couldn't stay with him for one more day. Anywhere else would be better. She'd figure it out.

Rebecca met Lucy in a bar. Lucy smiled kindly, and asked what was wrong. Lucy listened with genuine concern to Rebecca's troubles, and offered her a place to live.

Maybe it was stupid to agree to move in with someone she'd just met, but she really had no where else to go.

Lucy's apartment was almost always full of a group of other women. None of them technically lived there, they were all neighbors, but they came and went as they pleased and there was always at least one other person there. Everyone was friendly to Rebecca, but they all seemed like they could be dangerous if they wanted to be. They referred to themselves as "The Pack."

For a while, Rebecca was pretty sure her new roommate was in a gang. And then the night of the full moon came around.

Walking into the living room and finding it filled with giant dogs was a shock. Then all the dogs turned to look at her, and Rebecca realized that they weren't dogs at all. They were wolves. One of them leaped at her. It knocked her to the ground, and she was certain she was about to die.

The wolf licked her face. It's tail wagged excitedly. Cautiously, Rebecca pushed the wolf off of her so she could sit up. The rest of the wolves had gathered around her. They all nudged against her, and several tried to climb into her lap. They seemed friendly enough, and Rebecca didn't know what else to do, so she spent the night playing with a pack of wolves.

Rebecca fell asleep at some point, and when she woke up, the wolves were gone. Instead, she was surrounded by Lucy and her friends.

Lucy apologized for not warning Rebecca about the apartment full of werewolves earlier. She explained that the pack had been planning on transforming somewhere else that month, but they'd lost track of time the night before and ended up wolfing out in the apartment. Lucy insisted that Rebecca had never been in any danger. Sure, werewolves acted almost entirely on instinct in their wolf form, but wolves were social animals. They had pack based instincts as well as hunting instincts, and the pack had bonded with Rebecca. They would never hurt her.

Lucy said she would understand if Rebecca wanted to leave, if she didn't feel safe there anymore.

But Rebecca had never felt safer anywhere else. She knew for certain, now, that Lucy cared about her. That all of these women cared about her, and had no intention of ever harming her or letting her be harmed.

So Rebecca stayed. A few months later, her husband showed up and tried to convince her to come back to him. He didn't get very far. After all, Rebecca had been taken in by a pack of wolves, and the pack always protects its members.

                                       
                                                                      (Wolves)

Author's Note: This story is based on the Sioux Story of the Lost Wife. In the original, a woman runs away from her abusive husband. She follows a man who promises to lead her to safety. The man turns out to be a wolf, and she lives with the wolf pack until her tribe finds her again. She goes home with her parents, and eventually ends up back with her husband. I decided to have the wolf pack be werewolves because that's the first place my mind goes when I read about a person turning into a wolf. I changed the ending so she doesn't go back to her husband.

Week 7 Story: Amaterasu

The sun goddess Amaterasu and her brother, Susanowo, had what might generously be called a rocky relationship. Susanowo would not listen to reason, he caused problems for the mortals on earth and the other gods in heaven constantly, and he influenced his children to take part in his trouble making. He also had a habit of barging into his sister's palace, demanding her hospitality, trying to pick a fight with her, and terrorizing her attendants. Amaterasu's job ruling over the heavens would have been difficult enough without having to deal with her unruly little brother, and she always dreaded the times when he would show up at her palace gates.

And so, when he started one of his visits by bursting directly into the room where she was working on a thunderbolt, clearly in the mood to start a fight even more than usual, she decided that she truly wasn't in the mood to deal with it. She left to hide in a cave and give her brother time to get over whatever had caused his little temper tantrum. Hopefully seeing the consequences of a few days without sunlight would make him hesitate to be so rude to her in the future.

Amaterasu couldn't say exactly how long she stayed in her cave. It was hard to judge the passage of time when the inside of the cave was always bright with her radiance and the outside was perpetually dark. It couldn't have been more than a week at the very most when the sound of beautiful music began drifting into the cave.

Going to the mouth of the cave, Amaterasu saw the goddess Uzume doing a celebratory dance outside. Amaterasu had always been very close with Uzume, and the other goddess was a talented and lovely dancer, so Amaterasu sat in the cave's entrance to watch.

When Uzume's dance ended, Amaterasu called out to her. "What are you celebrating, Uzume?"

"Oh, haven't you heard?" Uzume called back, a mischievous smile pulling on her lips. "I have found a sun goddess to light our days and lead the heavens. Isn't that wonderful?"

Amaterasu narrowed her eyes at this strange and confusing answer. "Have you? I suppose that's good, then, though I can think of no one suited to the job."

Uzume's smile grew and she walked over to sit across from Amaterasu. "Oh, she's perfectly suited," she said. "Not to mention beautiful. The most beautiful goddess of them all, in fact."

Amaterasu raised an eyebrow. "So, you're appointing yourself to the position?"

Uzume laughed. "Oh no, not me. Here, I'll show you who it is. Truly, you'll be amazed."

Uzume pulled an ornate gold frame from her robes and held it out for Amaterasu to see. Amaterasu's own face stared back at her, the sun goddesses light reflected dazzlingly off of a mirror.

Amaterasu chuckled and rolled her eyes. "You're a terrible flirt," she said, standing up and offering a hand to Uzume. "If you wanted me to return you could have just asked."

Uzume grinned as she took Amaterasu's hand and pulled herself to her feet. "Where's the fun in that?" she asked. Her smile faded slightly before she spoke again. "You will come back, won't you? Things are not going well without you."

Amaterasu nodded and began walking back toward her palace, hand in hand with Uzume. "Yes, I'm coming back. I was always planning to, and if Susanowo hasn't learned his lesson by now, I doubt he will."

Uzume's smile returned in full force. "Wonderful! Everyone will be so happy to have you back." With that, she ran toward the palace, pulling Amaterasu along with her.


                                              (Amaterasu emerging from her cave)

Author's Note: This story is based on The Miraculous Mirror. In the original, Amaterasu flees from Susanowo because she is afraid of him. Then Uzume tells her that the god's have found a new sun goddess who is more beautiful than Amaterasu and shows her a mirror. Amaterasu thinks her reflection is her replacement, rushes out of the cave to fight it, and the cave is sealed behind her. I thought that it didn't make any sense for Amaterasu to fall for a trick like that, so I turned the mirror thing into a joke between her and Uzume. I also had her leave because she was fed up with Susanowo instead of afraid of him, because I don't think the literal queen of heaven would be that easily frightened.

Week 6 Story: Custody

Clarissa the witch was not a cruel woman, but she also wasn't given to doing things purely out of the goodness of her heart. After all, if she helped someone out there was no reason they should't do something for her in return. She didn't think this was a bad thing. It didn't change the fact that she had helped someone, it just meant she had something to show for her troubles.

So when the king came to her, begging that she find a way to give him an heir, she agreed only on one condition. She had longed for a child of her own, and the king only needed one heir. Modifying the spell to guarantee the queen would give birth to twins wasn't too terribly difficult. The king tried to trick her into taking the child of some servant who hadn't agreed to her terms, but she saw through that easily enough. She took the elder twin, a little girl, to raise as her own, naming the baby Fern. She left the king and queen with the younger boy, a perfect heir to the throne. Everyone had what they wanted, and everyone was happy.

At least, everyone had been happy until a demon decided to break into Clarissa's house in the middle of the night.

Clarissa had gone to check on her daughter after an unnatural chill spread through the apartment. She recognized the figure stooping over Fern's crib as a demon instantly, from the creeping sensation it's presence gave her as much as the horns and tail.

Without hesitation Clarissa threw a ball of energy into the creature's chest, slamming it backwards into the wall. "Stay away from my daughter," she said, hurrying forward to stand between the demon and the crib.

Forced himself away from the wall and snarled at Clarissa. "That is my child, foolish mortal."

That...was not the answer Clarissa was expecting. "What?"

The demon rolled their eyes before repeating themself. "I said, the child is mine. The mother promised me her first born years ago, in return for saving her father's life. I have the right to raise the child due to blood oath, so hand them over."

Clarissa crossed her arms impatiently. "Oh for the love of...I made a magic contract with the father, promising the baby to me. That's every bit as binding as your blood oath, so I won't be handing anything over."

The demon's glowing yellow eyes widened at that, and they stuttered wordlessly for a moment before settling on a retort. "I was promised the child first."

"That would only matter if we'd both dealt with the same parent and you know it."

The demon let out a howl of rage and sparks shot from their hands, though Clarissa noticed they seemed to be trying not to actually light anything on fire. They also cut off their howling when Fern started crying.

"Great job, you woke her up." Clarissa took Fern out of her crib and rocked her.

"Look," the demon said. "Why don't we just split custody? You can keep the child here with you for a month, then I'll take her with me to-"

"Absolutely not," Clarissa cut them off. "For one thing, children need stability. Hopping between parents in different planes of existence every other month is not conducive to healthy development. And besides, how do I know whatever dimension you came from is even safe for a human baby?"

The demon growled. "Then what do you suggest?"

"Well," Clarissa started, already halfway regretting what she was about to say. "You could stay here with us. That way we could both raise her, and she wouldn't have to go back and forth all the time. Everyone would be happy." Clarissa actually wasn't that happy about inviting a demon to live with her, but if it kept her daughter safe and meant she wouldn't have to fight said demon, she could learn to live with it.

Seeing that the demon looked ready to continue arguing, Clarissa added, "I really think this is what's best for the baby."

Finally, the demon let out a frustrated sigh. "Fine, I'll stay here if I must," they conceded.

Clarissa nodded. "All right then," she said. "We'll be one big, happy, really weird family."

                                                 
                                                              (Witch and Baby Devil)

Author's note: This story is loosely based on the Indian fairy tale The Prince and the Fakir. In the original story, a Fakir agrees to help the king have an heir in return for one of his children. He then tries to cook the child he took, but is instead killed himself. The story then follows the prince who was taken by the Fakir. I decided to use the idea of a magical being wanting a human child, but switch it so they wanted to raise the child. I also wanted to explore the idea of what would happen if the same child was promised to two different supernatural beings, in this case a witch and a demon.

Week 5 Story: The Calf

Inaya had taught herself magic at a very young age, much younger than most people would consider advisable. Her father had fretted constantly, and tried to persuade her to wait until she was older. Her mother had hovered and reminded her to be careful at least five times a day. Alishba, Inaya's childhood friend, had been gratifyingly excited whenever Inaya successfully pulled off a new spell, but had mostly sat by and complained about being bored she was while Inaya tried to practice.

It occurred to Inaya, as she stared at Alishba in horrified shock, that the other girl would probably be glad soon that she had practiced so much when they were younger.

Inaya was looking at a calf. It was pretty, as far as calves go, but there was nothing very special about its physical appearance. Most people wouldn't see anything out of the ordinary about it.

                                      

But Inaya's skill with magic allowed her to catch glimpses of people's spirits, and she clearly saw that the cow was unmistakably Alishba. The two had been inseparable for nearly their entire lives, and recently had started dating. Inaya would recognize Alishba in any form.

"Alishba, dear, why are you a cow?" Inaya asked.

Alishba mooed in response. Inaya wasn't sure why she had expected anything else.

"You can explain when you're human again. Give me just a moment."

Inaya laid her hand on Alishba's furry forehead and, closing her eyes, chanted a spell to reverse transformations. When she opened her eyes, however, nothing had changed.

Alishba gave the saddest moo Inaya had ever heard.

"Don't worry," she said. "I know what went wrong. The spell was cast specifically to fool one person, probably your father, so it can't be lifted until he realizes you've been transformed. I'll just tell him, then turn you back."

Inaya sent her father to tell Alishba's father what had happened. When the two men arrived, Inaya recited another spell, this time over a pitcher of water that she threw on Alishba, washing away the curse that had been put on her. In an instant, Alishba was fully human again.

Alishba's father immediately pulled her into a long hug. The moment he let go Alishba ran and threw herself into Inaya's arms, giving her a kiss before pulling her into a tight embrace. Inaya held Alishba, filled with relief that she had been able to change her back. In a little while, Inaya might turn her thoughts toward getting revenge against whoever had transformed Alishba, but for the moment she just enjoyed their reunion.

Author's Note: In the original story, The Hind, from the Arabian Nights, an old man tells the story of how his wife turned their adopted son into a calf and tried to trick him into sacrificing the calf. He refuses to do so, and then the daughter of one of his employees tells him that the calf is his son and reverses the spell in exchange for the son's hand in marriage and permission to place a curse on the old man's wife.

Image: Calf photo

Week 4 Story: Persephone

Persephone sits on the throne of the Underworld six months of the year. This is an immutable fact, and the evidence can be seen in the most basic patterns of nature, the seasons themselves. Persephone goes to fulfill her role as queen of the Underworld, and the cold sets in, plants withering away in the fields. Persephone returns, and she brings with her the warmth, flowers blooming in her wake. This is a simple truth that mortals have long known and understood, although many have forgotten.

The thing the mortals have always gotten wrong is how this arrangement came about.

Marriage by capture was common for the humans at the time, and so they reasoned that this must be how Persephone first arrived to the realm of death. They could not conceive of a girl setting out for such a place of her own free will.

But one day, while picking flowers in the fields near her home, Persephone came across a deep crack in the earth from which asphodels grew, and she heard voices floating up from deep underground. Overcome with curiosity, Persephone climbed down to see what was at the bottom.

The world at the bottom would later fill Orpheus and Odysseus with dread, but Persephone was a goddess, and it took more than the the spirits of the dead to frighten her. She wandered among the dead, and the cypress trees and asphodel along the River Styx burst into knew life at her presence.

Hades didn't know what to make of this young goddess who had appeared in his kingdom. He considered sending her back to the world above, but then he came to enjoy her company. She made those of his subjects who had been virtuous in life happy, and she proved better than him at coming up with punishments for those who had been wicked. So he offered her a place ruling beside him.

When Persephone learned how devastated her mother was with her absence, and how the world had been left in cold and darknesses, she was filled with grief. She knew she had to go back, but she didn't want to leave the underworld. So she and Hades came up with a solution. A handful of pomegranate seeds ensured that her mother would have to let her spend part of each year in her new kingdom, and she was careful not to eat so many that she would be unable to return to her mother each spring.

Since that day, Persephone has split each year evenly between bringing spring and flowers to the people of earth, and ruling as Queen of the Dead.

                                                           


Author's Note: In Ovid's Metomorphses, Persephone is kidnapped and tricked into eating the pomegranate seeds that trap her in the underworld for part of each year. I wanted to rewrite the story to give Persephone an active role and agency in her life

Image: Persephone, Queen of the Underworld 

Week 3 Story: The Golem

She had no name. This didn't really matter, she got along perfectly fine without one. It was easy enough to tell when the Rabbi was talking to her by the way he spoke. The other people had no trouble talking about her with out a name to use. After all, she was the only golem they had ever met.

She really didn't need a name, but sometimes she thought it might be nice to have one.

The Rabbi might give her one if she asked. He had never been unkind to her, for all that he knew she wasn't a real person. He had created her, all those weeks ago, so she didn't see why he should have a problem with giving her a name. But she couldn't ask for one. She had been created to follow instructions, not have conversations, and she hadn't worked out how to speak at all.

She really didn't mind doing chores for the Rabbi, but she preferred the times when he was gone and the neighborhood children would come by. They didn't seem to mind that she wasn't a real person. They would smile and wave and make faces at her, and, she found, they were always delighted when she waved and made faces back.

One day the children asked her to come outside and play with them. She had never done this before, but they sounded so eager for her to join them that she decided to climb out the window and walk with them through the streets.

When the children said they were cold and asked for a fire, the golem didn't hesitate to build one. She tended the Rabbi's fire every Sabbath, so it was no trouble for her to do the same for her new friends. The children pulled her with them into dancing around the fire, all laughing and singing together.

Seeing how happy the fire had made them, the golem decided to add more fuel and build it up even bigger. But then it did something the Rabbi's fire never had. It spread, burning the houses around it.

The children screamed and ran away. The golem was going to follow them, but she heard a noise from inside of one of the houses that was burning. It sounded like a child screaming.

The golem easily broke down the door to the house. Inside, a small boy was hiding under a table, too terrified of the flames to run away. The golem went and pulled him out from under the table. She had nearly led him out the door when one of her legs gave out and she collapsed.

                                        

Looking down, the golem saw that her leg had caught fire and burned away. It didn't hurt, as she had not been built to feel pain, but the fire was spreading quickly to the rest of her body. Using the last of her strength, she pushed the child out the door, and watched him run away from the blaze her body burned away, leaving nothing but a piece of paper with the name of God written on it.

Author's Note: This story is based on The Rabbi's Bogey-Man. the original story is focused more on the Rabbi, and tells of how he decided to make this golem, and then another one that turned against him and had to be destroyed.

Image Information: Staring Eyes Brown Clay Golem Fx Makeup 

Week 2 Story- Penelope and the Statue

There once lived a woman named Penelope who was a gifted artist. Her sculptures were admired far and wide, and she loved creating beautiful things to make the world a brighter place. For the most part, she was content with living quietly and working on her art, but sometimes she would feel incredibly lonely, for she was not close to many people.

One day, Penelope began sculpting a statue of a woman as a tribute for the goddess Venus. She worked diligently on this statue, and her skill and attention to detail where such that it appeared almost alive as it emerged from the stone. She gave the statue kind eyes and a playful, knowing smile, and as she worked she spoke to it.

She told the statue what was going on in the world, and what she thought of it. She talked about the books she was reading, and her theories on how the plot would progress. She planned aloud what she would do next to complete the statue, and jokingly asked for its opinion.

                                           

The statue, which Penelope had started calling Grace during their one sided conversations, listened to everything Penelope said. She heard about the world outside Penelope's art studio, and longed to see it for herself. She wanted to read the books Penelope had mentioned, and see if she enjoyed the stories when they were written, or if it was just the way Penelope retold them that made them sound so interesting. She wanted to read other books and see if she liked those stories even better. She longed to be alive.

The day Penelope finished carving Grace she looked into her carved eyes and sighed.

"I wish I could bring you to life," she said. "The world is a wonderful place, though at times it can be cruel. It seems a shame you will never get to experience it. I would have liked to show it to you, I think."

When Penelope began to dedicate her finished statue to Venus, the goddess was touched. She could see from the care put into the statue that carving it had been a labor of love, and she could sense that the statue loved the artist in return. Venus saw that both statue and artist wished for the statue to be alive, and decided to grant that wish.

Life flowed slowly into Grace. Penelope watched, stunned, as the statue drew her first breath. She nearly fell when her legs turned from stone to skin and bone, but Penelope managed to steady her. 

Grace looked up at the woman who had created her, and, for the first time in her existence, spoke.

"Hello," she said. "I'm so glad to be able to talk to you."

Author's Note: This story is based on the story of Pygmalion from Ovid's Metamorphosis.  In the original, Pygmalion thinks all women are wicked, so he makes a statue and pretends to date it before asking Venus to bring it to life. I wanted to write a story where an artist's love for their creation brings that creation to life, without the creepy sexist overtones. I also wanted to include a bit of what the statue thinks of all this, since that perspective is entirely missing from the original. To be clear, the two characters in my story don't feel romantic love for each other at the point that the story ends, although I do think it could develop that way once Grace learns about the world and has a chance to become a real person.

Bibliography: Story Source Ovid's Metamorphoses, translated by Tony Kline (2000).

Image: Statue of a woman