evilbeej | The Roof-Girl and the Crow-Boy

"Once upon a time, when the sun and the moon were best of
friends instead of dire enemies, there was a small girl who lived in a cottage
with a grass roof. Her parents loved her very much, but they were foolish, and
let her play on the velvety green roof of the house instead of having to play
in the garden with the animals.

"Day after day, the little girl would climb the flower trellis
on the side of the cottage, fingers twining in the wooden slats as surely as
did the wisteria that grew along it. Day after day, she would spend the morning
on the beautiful grassy roof, playing games with jacks and talking to the birds
and weaving dandelion chains, then climb down and have a lovely nap after her
lunch, and then climbing back up and playing until the sun and the moon both
danced in the sky and went to bed.

"It went like this for many years, until one of the birds that
the little girl spoke to - a crow, with a rude voice but good humour - asked
her why she didn't walk upon the ground like the rest of her kind. She told it
that she liked it better up where the air could play games with her hair and
the sun could tell her stories. She confided in the crow that she didn't
understand the people who liked their feet in the dirt and their eyes on their
feet, making sure they'd not fall off the world. She told the crow that it must
be nice to be able to fall off the world like he did. The crow tilted its head,
dark eye glinting at her thoughtfully, and abruptly flew away. The girl was a
bit piqued, but remembered in time that the crow was rude, and it was to be
expected.

"By the time the sun and the moon both went to bed and the
stars told each other secrets in the heavens, the girl had forgotten her
strange conversation with the crow.

"That night, while she slept snug in her bed and her parents
told each other stories and smiled, the crow and all his friends were at work
on the velvety grass roof. They were all in a little circle there, working very
hard, making something from the grass and woven roots with their beaks and
their claws and stopping to judge it sometimes with their bright, quizzical
eyes.

"By the morning, the work of the crows was done, and they were
gone from the grassy roof. Their work, whatever it had been, was nowhere to be
seen. When the girl brought in the morning's milk for her parents, they smiled
at her and held her and told her that soon she would have someone to play with,
someone small who would look up to her. She was a bit confused, as she already
had people to play with, people who were small, but that she looked up to. But
she smiled and nodded and after breakfast, went up to the roof to play again.

"The roof swallowed her!

"Before she could make a single sound, she was looking through
holes in the grass, and holes in the roots, and she could see that she was not
in the roof at all, but in a net high in the air. The wind whistled through the
holes in the net, and played with her hair and her clothes, and stole her words
from her before she could utter them. She could look out and see an enormous
beating of black wings, filling the sky but not blocking the land beneath her,
sweeping swiftly by.

"This journey lasted three days and three nights, and the girl
neither grew cold nor hot, and knew neither hunger nor thirst, only waiting and
wind and the thunder of wings and the brightness and darkness of the land and
the sky. When the journey ended, the net was set down on a grassy embankment
between a river and the garden of a palace built of trees and roots, and the
girl was allowed to climb out. She looked around, dazed, and noticed that her
friend the crow was not there-- only other black birds, birds of many kinds and
shapes and sizes. Other crows, even, just not the one she knew.

"She didn't see him. But all the other birds were bowing now,
in one direction-- so of course she looked in that direction. From the palace
of trees and roots stepped a boy her age, a boy with hair as black as her
friend the crow's wing, and dark eyes as bright and quizzical as-- well, you
get the idea, I'm sure. He tilted his head and regarded her, then offered his
hand.

"The girl took the crow-boy's hand, eyes wide with wonder and
awe and just a little bit of apprehension, and asked him why he had brought her
here. He said, 'We have been friends since we were new, and since time crawled
as slowly as a tortoise and days lasted for years. You wished to fall off the
world, as these, my other friends, have done for ever and ever.' She held tight
to his hand and said in a small voice, 'But I don't have wings.'

"The crow-boy gave her a rakish grin and said, 'You are the
dreamer of mine; I shall carry you.'"