Flyaway Tales

by Stefano Amadei

  “Master, your wisdom is truly endless! It was not my intention to be disrespectful, but only a clumsy attempt at being your humble servant to help you in your difficult choice. Even I, hundreds of years ago, made a mistake.”

  The genie’s speech made Badwinter curious so that, for a moment, he narrowed his eyes thoughtfully and the water stopped boiling around him.

  “Tell me, then, what was your mistake?”

  “I was at the time little more than a boy. I was going to the market to sell the few vegetables that I had with me when on my way I crossed the path of a messenger on horseback, who in his haste, almost overwhelmed me. I was covered in dust and, when it cleared, I saw a gleam coming from the ground where the horse in his haste had put one of his hooves.

  It was a gold medallion in the shape of a crescent. I never knew if it was the messenger who lost it, certainly it was by chance that I found it. I dusted it off and a genie emerged who told me he had only one wish for me.

  “If I had been smart I would have been able to express a thousand other wishes or want to disappear, but I was greedy and I thought only of myself. Therefore, believing that I could play, I expressed the desire to become in turn a genie like him. Once a genie I was able to think of all the other wishes I could have had, and most importantly, see them carried out in an instant.

  “But I was wrong. As soon as I had spoken my wish I ended up in this lamp. Passing from hand to hand I learned the hard way how sad and selfish is the human soul. And so every day I regret my choice and that I wasted a great opportunity that everyone is waiting for in a lifetime. And here I am. A genie, Master, is none other than a lost soul forever! But to you, my benefactor, you certainly do not care about this story because you mean to destroy me. At least you will put an end to my suffering.”

  The devil was no longer beside himself with joy, but he didn’t want to make this too obvious. He had never thought of the genie in those terms. If he could get him back to being an ordinary boy in a short while, for he said, he could have had his soul. Thinking about this in fact the boy had already succumbed, and very slightly, to temptation at least once.

  And now it seemed, seeing those empty speeches about doing good, helping others and so his spirit must certainly have had a greater value. He decided he could get it with not much effort.

  “Tell me genie, why not express some wish for yourself that will take you back to those times and how many more people you can help?”

  “Dear Master, this is the point precisely. What I have tried to explain is that a genie can only carry out the wishes of others, their mind does not matter, however good and beautiful they are. Moreover only one wish cannot cancel another and I, in all these centuries, I have never met anyone who was willing to give up the advantage to help someone else for free.”

  “Maybe I can help” interrupted Badwinter. That sentence cost him much, but a soul of value was well worth some minimal sacrifice.

  “But Master...you’re a devil!”

  “Already a devil who has grown tired of hearing a babbling genie who is unable to fulfill even a simple wish! Tell me, what would you do if you were freed? What would happen to you?”

  “Master, in addition to being eternally grateful to you for my entire life I think that the wish would make me go back in time to the moment before expressing my wish and I certainly would not do it again!”

  It was just what Badwinter wanted to hear.

  “Genie, fulfill my wish! I want you to be free!”

  “Be it as you wish, Master!”

  The devil was already premeditating a series of petty temptations to grab the genie’s soul when he returned again to being a boy, when an indescribable force took hold of him and crushed him so much that he was forced to shrink again and again and again. The same force then literally sucked him, without him being able to do anything about it, into the genie’s lamp, plugging him up inside.

  But what’s happening?” The devil asked incredulously from inside the lamp with a now ridiculously shrill voice.

  “Master, I was saying that wishes must be made with care. They work in two directions, past and future. When you wished for me to have my freedom weren’t you thinking of persecuting me or of forcing me to do something using deception that would again enslave me to one of your endless temptations: the wish wouldn’t have allowed you? I would have been free no more!

  I think that as long as I live you will be forced to be down here and you will be here for a long time as I will ask the genie of the medallion for a long and wise life. Goodbye and thank you Master! I think you’re the first devil in the world to have done a good deed!”

  Saying this the genie vanished dissolving into thousands of white bubbles.

  While he was still looking for a solution to the awkward situation in which he found himself, a huge hook came out of the sand of the sea bed and grabbed the lamp, while a deep and threatening voice shouting, “BADWINTER! TELL ME, WHAT SHOULD I DO WITH YOU?!”

  “Um... Your Evil, your Meanness, Sire Beelzebub, I can explain everything...” said Badwinter trying to explain himself before disappearing, swallowed up into the depths of the earth waiting for his deserved punishment.

  CAT'S PEACE

  A month or so after his arrival in his owners’ new house, Whisky the cat was already used to almost everything.

  There was a large field in front of the house, a white villa with a huge garden to explore and even a dirt road leading into a forest: a real godsend.

  Whisky had made friends with the neighbors’ cat, Maia, a small tortoiseshell kitty yellow, gray and white.

  Indeed, that night he had an appointment and would have to open the door.

  Whisky had decided to spend the night out at the cost of being punished, but his owners were good with him, they would understand.

  Precise as usual, Maia was waiting for him at the beginning of the road to the forest. It was a very bright night: the moon was full: that June was very hot. The crickets could be heard in the field.

  The two cats made their way to a small pond that Whisky had recently discovered. There they found other cats and more arrived after them.

  There was a nice black and white kitty, Ciuss a cat without a tail, two tiger-striped gray cats called brindle cats Matrioska (which are the Russian dolls that fit one inside the other) because one seemed to contain the other, Pippo the mischievous and even Luna, who never left the house, the moody Psychocat and many others who didn’t know Whisky.

  Maia made him understand that they were doing something important and he needed to live well and at peace with others.

  When everyone had licked, brushed and been introduced, by mutual agreement they formed a circle.

  The cat Pippo began. He sat in front of the first cat and bowed front legs stretched out, his head and his ears low. He meowed softly. He stayed like that, as if to apologize for all the pranks, for all the ugly and spiteful things or that he would have liked to or could have done.

  It was a sign of respect towards the older cats, as an example for the younger cats.

  He stayed that way until the cat in front of him had slowly placed its right paw on his head. Only then Pippo passed beyond and repeated the same motion with all the cats, even with Whiskey, he understand how, and did as the other cats. And so each cat asked forgiveness from the other for the mistakes of the entire year and humbly waited for the forgiveness of the others.

  They began again, with joy, together, in peace with everyone.

  Even Whisky did it. And when he had finished he realized that he had never felt better: he was free!

  When everything was over however the moon was reflected in the pond.

  It was time to go hunting: the night was just beginning.

  THE FIREFLY CELESTE

  It was already evening and the sun had set behind the tall chestnut trees that served as the border of the Lonely Willow meadow.

  The tall grass and crickets chirped in the bright sky, Venus was among the first to a
ppear together with the other brightest stars. It was a wonderful evening.

  Little by little, here and there in the meadow, small points of light could be seen, they were fireflies.

  In a short time, on top of the highest grass was all a glimmer, one was exchanging messages, one glitter more beautiful than the most beautiful Christmas lights.

  In all these pulsating signals one firefly, that came from no one knew where, had its own light.

  However, it was a brightness that was a little special.

  Such as clover sometimes forms one more leaf making four, so this firefly had a blue light. Our firefly was called Celeste.

  For the rest she was like all the other fireflies: playful and mysterious.

  But as soon as the others saw her, they became a little jealous and a little worried, they wanted to see clearly and called the guards, two big fireflies a little lanky who immediately brought the firefly Celeste to the Queen of the fireflies.

  “Glowing majesty...” said a guard “... this firefly has created disorder in the field. She glows with a strange blue light.”

  “True?” asked the queen turned to Celeste, meanwhile, frightened, she had gone out and made a tiny weeny light. “Don’t you know that in our field fireflies all have a white light or at most a little yellowish and that it is prohibited by law to have different colors? How do you explain yourself?”

  “Majesty, your luminescence...” replied Celeste timidly”... I don’t belong to your people nor to your field, nor to the field nearby... You must know that where I live fireflies are free to have any color they want, but unfortunately are forced into lamps, into narrow and confined spaces.

  No one cares about us. Luckily I managed to escape from my prison and after many adventures here I am. It didn’t seem possible to find all these sisters in the field flying free, I could not help myself and I stayed because I was happy, for this I ask your forgiveness. But, I cannot really apologize because of the color of my light, I was just made like this, it has been my light since I was born and I love it.

  Solar Majesty, but wouldn’t it be nice if you could, with your precious help, free my other sisters who live locked up and so we can all live together in peace? Wouldn’t it be nice if your field became the most beautiful field in the world with multicolored fireflies and that you were the first luminous majesty to have had this brilliant idea?”

  The queen thought this over for a while and then said, “You have aroused my curiosity. We’ll organize an expedition to liberate the multicolored fireflies, after all, maybe we are less than those vain butterflies?”

  And so they did. In the beginning the multicolored fireflies were greeted with a little suspicion, but then more and more turned on lights and opened their little legs.

  And one evening a little girl who was a bit naughty, as she was chasing her black and white cat saw a rainbow of colored lights.

  She went to her mother and said, “Mum I saw the insect Fairground.

  Her mother wanted to see it and the little girl and her husband took her to the field.

  As she watched the lights go on and off a sense of peace filled her, “It would be better if we didn’t tell anybody about the colored fireflies, it will be our little secret.”

  And Celeste? She had realized her dream and, when she got married, all the fireflies celebrated by forming beautiful good wishes in blue.

  THE OGRE’S GARDEN

  While he traveled the world in search of his fortune Tommaso came to a beautiful country on the edge of the Black Forest.

  He entered the inn and asked for a hot meal and a room for the night. He listened to the restaurant owners. The mood in the village was not the best and the people were sad. A distressed man cried at a table.

  Tommaso approached him asking if he could ease some of his pain.

  “You can’t...” said the man, “...no one can do anything about it.”

  “Tell me and we’ll see!” Tommaso said firmly.

  “All right...” began the man “...but then don’t blame me if you won’t be able to sleep tonight. You should know that once upon a time this was a pleasant village. Happy and carefree people lived a quiet life, with their little problems and daily chores.

  Then, suddenly, like a summer storm, the Ogre of the Blades arrived and everyone’s life changed for. And, unlike a storm, the Ogre of the Blades does not want to go away!”

  “Did you say an Ogre? It’s never very nice when you come across one of them. And what has this ogre done? Please continue... “

  “One night he made a beautiful garden appear with flower beds, gravel paths and fountains, on the edge of the Black Forest.

  All were delighted and amazed by the beauty of the work and at the beginning I was also impressed and like the others did not listen to the elders who immediately kept away saying it was impossible to build something like that in one night and there must be something evil at work, warning us to do the same.

  But the flowers smelled so good and the water in the fountain played so beautifully that everyone, sooner or later, ended up visiting the garden. Soon we repented. It was clear that the elders were right. No one worked in this marvel yet the grass was always freshly cut, the water in the fountains was always clear and the gravel always raked. As we went into the garden, we could never see its end, or the trees of the Black Forest, which instead should have been visible all around.

  The first to disappear was my daughter who was as beautiful as the sun, and was called Alba. Gradually other young people were lost in the garden and never heard from again. It was when no one set foot in the garden for fear of not returning again that the Ogre of Blades showed up claiming other young people for himself. If we had not sent them the Ogre threatened to change the village into stone as a symbol of the stubbornness of its inhabitants. An effort to save one would have saved no one.”

  At this point the man drank his wine and Tommaso motioned to the innkeeper to fill both glasses again. Then the man continued, “Since then, every month, a young person must voluntarily go into the garden to save us. Tomorrow is the day and I have to sacrifice my only son to the Ogre. The village is now empty and we no longer know what to do. Now Ogre or no Ogre there is no hope and no future for us. How can we free ourselves from this evil?”

  Tommaso looked at the man again, then drank his wine and said, firmly and without thinking: “Leave your son at home tomorrow. I’ll take his place. I want to see this Ogre of the Blades that you speak of and the fountains in the garden. If I die I will have done a good deed and I will have seen something incomparable.”

  Incredulous the man grabbed him by the shoulder, shouting “No! I couldn’t forgive myself for having your blood on my hands. It would be as if the Ogre had taken my son. Now I regret having told my story.”

  “It’s too late, I have made up my mind. It’s my choice and it’s not your fault if I want to go. Don’t worry then. Just tell me where I can find the entrance to the garden and at what time I should present myself. The Ogre must not know about the exchange.”

  So much said and so much done the man told him, despite a thousand please to give up.

  The next day, at the appointed time Tommaso showed up at the entrance to the Ogre’s garden.

  All the people who had gathered before at the news that some fool had found the courage to challenge the Ogre, Tommaso entered the garden. The story would end in one-way or another.

  As soon as he entered Tommaso could not help but wonder. That garden was much more beautiful than the man at the inn had described.

  Paths of gravel and dirt roads branched off from the entrance; large-branched trees invited him to rest under their shade and down some rounded steps gushed cheerful waterfalls. High, thick hedges formed the border. Apparently nothing prevented him from leaving.

  Tommaso turned to look at the people one last time people, but found the entrance had disappeared.

  Without worrying too much about this, Tommaso decided to go straight ahead. After a few
steps a strange monument appeared in front of him. It was a huge sword with the blade pointed toward the sky, as if to challenge him.

  At the bottom there was a plaque with an inscription:

  IT MAKES THE HEART BEAT, BUT IT IS NOT LOVE,

  IT TIGHTENS THE STOMACH, BUT IT IS NOT HUNGRY,

  DRIES THE THROAT, BUT IT IS NOT THIRST,

  MAKES THE FISTS CLENCH, BUT IT IS NOT ANGER.

  SOLVE THE RIDDLE AND THE OPPOSITE WILL HAPPEN.

  Tommaso thought for a moment, walking around the sword that was much taller than he was and as wide as his chest. Whoever had forged the sword knew his business.

  Thinking about this to himself Tommaso went up to a small inner garden where, a statue of a man stood, surrounded by small pines.

  “Hey, is anyone there outside?” asked a voice nearby. Tommaso, heard the voice very well, looked around but saw no one.

  “I’m here, beside the pine trees in the ditch,” the voice persisted.

  Tommaso looked and saw a turtle in the bottom of the ditch trying desperately and unsuccessfully to get back to the top.

  “Help me please. I was looking for something to eat, I came down here and this is what happened.”

  Tommaso picked up the turtle and brought her to safety placing her gently on the grass.

  “Thank you very much. In the evening those channels fill with water and I would certainly have drowned. You have saved my life. Tell me what I can do to repay you. Oh, I forgot, my name is Peel, pleased to meet you!” As she ended speaking the turtle lifted her head toward the young man.

  “My name is Tommaso and I came here to try to defeat the Ogre of the Blades and return peace to the villagers.”

  Peel was silent for a moment and then replied, “Many have tried, but you cannot defeat the Ogre. In fact he can only be killed by his own blades, which he never leaves, even at night while sleeping. Now I have been here for so long. All the young people who come here, sooner or later turn into locusts. At night they lay everywhere and when they get up the garden is beautiful again and ready for the next day. Me, though, I’m afraid and so I hide underground. You would also do well to find a shelter for the night.”