Fable

Fable

She was born at night, in the darkest hour after the moon had been eaten by the clouds and the stars had ceased their twinkling in the heavens. She was born at night and the night was in her manner, her moods and her face. Her hair was like the strands of the lightless sky and her eyes were two sparkling circles of coal. She was marked by the night and by the darkness.

During the day she did not go outside and dance in the dusty dirt with her siblings. Her eyes were too sensitive to the glare of the sun and her skin burned too easily. Instead she stayed inside and helped her mother with the cooking or played in the darkest corners of the house waiting for night to come.

When darkness did finally steal its way stealthily over the land and she was tucked snugly in bed with her sisters she would wait for their breathing to fall into a slow rhythmic pattern. When sleep finally called them she snuck out from under the blankets and ran as if carried by the wind over the soft grass. There she danced and laughed under a shower of stars and the glowing moon. She danced and laughed and the stars danced with her, engaging each other in waltzes and promenades and swinging each other ‘round the moon. The girl clapped her hands in delight and the stars were reflected in her eyes of coal.

On one of her midnight outings the Night Lady came. She rode out of darkness in a shimmering silver chariot pulled by horses made of moonlight and shadow. Her hair was the night and her face was pale, perfect and flawless beauty and her mantle trailed stars. She picked up the girl, wrapped her in a cloak of night and put her in the chariot and rode with her back into the sky.

The girl was not afraid but rather filled with wonderment at the sight of the earth far below and the ethereal horses cantering across paths of stars, dust and darkness. She reached out a hand toward a star, a sparkling jewel in the sky. Her hand closed around it and she plucked it out of the darkness then fastened it to the stuff of night that had become her cloak.

“This is my kingdom,” the Night Lady said with a broad sweep of her arm and stars dripped from her sleeve and became lodged in the sky. “You know it. You know it well. You are full of night and of my kingdom. You are one of my own.”

The girl smiled at the Night Lady’s words, feeling warm and protected in her cloak of darkness. As they flew farther away from the earth dark phantoms began to float by. Pure shadows shaped like men, women and children.

“What are they?” the girl whispered, reaching out a tentative hand.

“Don’t touch,” said the Lady in a soft voice. “They are the sleepers, the dreamers of the earth below. They wander my kingdom peacefully until my sister chases them away."

“Your sister?” the girl murmured, still fascinated by the floating shades of dreamers.

“She comes from the other side of the world in her chariot of gold and scares the stars and her staff of flame gobbles up the night. I flee from her and hide on the underbelly of the earth until she is gone and my kingdom returns to me."

“I have seen her,” the girl said, turning from the world of velvet on the other side of the silver chariot. “I have seen her run across the sky, burning yellow and orange. Her staff is a great fiery orb and her kingdom is made of clouds instead of stars.”

The chariot turned abruptly and the ghostly horses cantered on paths made of dust and moonlight past great, swirling heavenly bodies. An old man with a long beard and spectacles opened a door in the moon as they past and the Night Lady nodded to him as he raised a hand in greeting. She then turned back to the girl and gave a slow nod to her head. “That is why I need your help. My sister is ruthless and takes over my kingdom at will. Help me stop her.”

The girl looked at the Lady wonderingly. “But she gives life, does she not? I have seen how happy children are to play in her light.” The Night Lady gave her a mournful look and the girl felt pity. “But if you put me back on earth, I will talk to her when she rides across the sky in her chariot of gold and fire.”

The horses turned back and rode out of the sky once more and set the girl on a high cliff overlooking the sea.

“She will see you here,” the Night Lady said, “and maybe she will talk to you.”

The girl sat down and watched the Lady ride once more to her kingdom in the sky. Soon her sister came, slowly, darkness fleeing silently in front of her cloak of colors. Then she burst over the horizon and her hair stretched like a river of gold behind her and her eyes were the color of fire.

“I want to talk to you,” the girl breathed, and the wind carried her words to the woman with the staff of flame. She turned her chariot pulled by two red dragons toward the girl of night and shadow who stood on a cliff by the sea.

“You have my sister in you; I can see her in your eyes of coal.”

The girl turned her head, eyes too sensitive to take the burning light. “I came on behalf of her.”

“Why does she run from me? Why must I chase her.” The eyes of fire looked at the child of night sorrowfully.

“She says you chase her. Chase her and her kingdom away with your light and fire.”

“But I must do this!” the Day Lady wailed. “I cannot control that her kingdom runs from my fire and my face! I must ride across the sky to help the living and the waking…”

“As it is her task to ride across the sky for the sleeping,” the girl said, understanding.

The Day Lady nodded and her chariot of fire glowed redder as it sat above the sea. “These are our tasks. This is what we must do. I wish she would understand.” The dragons pulled against their fiery harnesses toward the azure plain. “I must do my task now, as I must always do.” And so she rode back into the sky behind the tails of dragons.

The Night Lady came to the girl as her kingdom overtook the sky. She looked at the girl with sorrow and said: “It didn’t work. Your talk. I was listening on the underbelly of the world. So now you must come with me, come with me to stop my sister from chasing my kingdom of night away.”

The girl shook her head, “No, your task is to ride across the sky to help the dreamers and sleepers. She has to help the waking. It is the way it must be and has always been.”

The Night Lady looked sad and tears like tiny diamonds appeared on her beautiful cheeks. “But you are of my kingdom, don’t you want to help it?”

“This is not the way,” the child of darkness said refusing the night.

“Then I must go,” the Lady said, bewildered. “I must go into my kingdom of darkness, stars and moons. And you cannot come with me, for you are of the night and have refused it. You have rejected my kingdom so it must reject you. Are you sure?” The Lady held out a pale hand as her horses began to canter into the stars.

“I’m sorry,” the girl said, and watched the Night Lady enfold herself in a cloak of darkness and disappear.


Perhaps the Night Lady took the night out of the girl when she left her on the cliff by the sea. For, ever since that night, the girl ventured into the day and danced with her siblings in the dusty dirt. She became tanned by the sun and slept fully through the night. On some days, or some clear nights, she would look up at the sky and think, sadly, of the two sisters chasing each other ‘round the world for eternity.