If you take the path
implied by perfect lawns stretching between carefully tended hedges, you’re most likely to reach a palace and all the wealthy comforts that suggests. It’s not the worst of choices, having a full belly as you prepare for a dry bed. Turn around, and you’ll see the woods, a dark path twisting somewhere undefined through taller trees than any fairy tale ever proposed, where there could be wolves, salivating at the thought of tender youth, or a clearing with a witches hut and its waiting oven. Or maybe the wolves are sent to guide you to a mage’s rooms, a home-school full of wonders so unlike those of a rich man’s towers. It’s your choice, of course, but from here, nearer the end of my days than you to the start of yours, I know which way I’d take.
4 thoughts on "If you take the path"
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I like this. Rummaging about in a superstructure for all stories
Thanks, Chappy!
I especially like “through taller trees than any fairy tale ever proposed.”
Thanks, Gaby. The things of fairy tales seldom measure up to reality’s wonders.