For Oswald

The Third Fairy Tale: The Little Prince in the Land of Endless Light

Once upon a time, on the other side of the world, far away where the sun did not set, there was a distant country called the Land of Endless Light. No one knew the power of that Land except for one very special person. He was a little prince, who possessed straight black hair and deep violet eyes.

The little prince was a thoughtful soul, who never went out of his way to do harm to the Land in which he dwelled. He treated all of its inhabitants, from the smallest bug to the greatest beast, with respect and kindness. In his garden, he watered all of his plants and made sure they got enough sunlight to flourish. In his forest, he befriended all creatures, large and small. His most loyal friends were five beasts who bore wings colored blacker than night: the Raven, the Owl, the Dodo, the Gryphon, and the Jabberwock.

The Land of Endless Light recognized the tenderness in the little prince's heart. In response to this, the Land glowed and shimmered in the colors of a thousand different hues. His friends, the Black Five, also loved and cherished their prince deeply, and often would follow him wherever he went.

One evening, while the prince sat in his garden, he saw something odd. A black fuzz, smaller than his littlest finger, drifted in the air. This was unlike any other colored light the Land emitted, and the little prince reached out to the black fuzz and said, "Hullo there. What are you?"

"I am the Darkness," said the black fuzz, "and for the last thousand years I had slumbered inside this Land. But now I have awoken and am quite sad."

"Why are you sad?" asked the little prince, instantly concerned.

"Because I am hungry," said the Darkness. "While I had been slumbering, I wasted away until I am no bigger than your littlest finger. Please, help me find something to eat."

Because the little prince never liked to see anything in pain, he cupped the black fuzz in his palm and said, "I shall give you plenty of good things to eat in my home."

Inside the little prince's home, he placed the Darkness on his table. "What would you like?" asked the prince. "I have tea and sweets and bread pudding."

"I don't like any of those," said the black fuzz. It shifted toward the candle flickering on the table. "Those look quite tasty," it said and it hovered over the little flame and with a pop! pop! sound, the Darkness ate the candle flame in two bites.

"Yummy!"

And upon eating the flame, the Darkness grew twice more than it was. "May I have some more?" asked the Darkness.

The little prince obliged, especially since the black fuzz was still such a small thing, and it was hungry. He lit the lantern on the table and the flame flickered as big as two fingers. The Darkness hovered over the lantern and with a pop! pop! sound, the Darkness ate the lantern flame whole.

"Yummy!"

And the Darkness grew four times more than it was. "May I have some more?" asked the Darkness.

By this time, the Darkness was as large as the little prince's head. He obliged, especially since the Darkness was still a small thing and hungry. He lit the kitchen fireplace and threw in some logs, until a mighty fire blazed within. The Darkness crawled in front of the fireplace and with a pop! pop! sound, the Darkness consumed the flame whole.

"Yummy!"

And the Darkness grew eight times more than it was."May I have some more?" asked the Darkness.

The black fuzz was small no more, but as large as a horse. Pieces of it puffed up as it spoke. "Please, I want to eat more."

The little prince had to put his foot down. "I can't," he said, "you have grown too much too quickly."

"Why can't I grow some more?" said the Darkness indignantly. It floated out of the little prince's house in a huge cloud of smoke. Once the Darkness left the confines of the home, it expanded bigger and bigger and bigger, eating up all of the glowing balls of light and golden beams the Land gave off.

"Please stop!" cried the little prince. "You cannot eat all of the light in this world."

"And why not?" rumbled the Darkness. "I have slumbered for a thousand years while the Light reigned. Time for me to take what had been stolen from me." The Darkness grew and grew. The Land of Endless Light trembled and began to crack into pieces.

"Help me!" cried the little prince. "Raven, Owl, Dodo, Gryphon, Jabberwock!"

The Black Five came to the little prince's aid. "What is wrong?" they exclaimed.

"There is a great Darkness in this world that threatens to consume all our light," he said. "We must stop it before it breaks up the entire Land!"

"Indeed, we shall do this," the black winged creatures vowed. "Little prince, bid us to fly against the Darkness, and we will!"

"Fly!" commanded the little prince. "Fly!"

And so the wings of the Black Five grew into Chains, and these Chains wrapped themselves around the Darkness. The little prince's friends caged the Darkness and threw it up, up, up into the stars. The Darkness landed there, and the stars pinned it back. There it remains to this day, and that is why night exists.

The Land of Endless Light, however, suffered greatly from the Darkness trying to eat it whole. Cracks tore throughout the Land, and every step threatened to break it all into bits.

The little prince knelt and started to weep for his poor Land which he loved so much.

His Chains gathered around him. "Don't cry," they said, for every tear the prince shed seemed to crack the earth where it landed.

"It is all my fault," said the little prince. "If I had not fed the Darkness, it wouldn't have tried to destroy the world!"

"Your only fault is your kindness," said the Raven.

"And your kindness is also your greatest strength," added the Owl.

"You cannot blame yourself for what the Darkness does," murmured the Dodo. "It tricked you."

"But my prince," growled the Gryphon, "there is still a way to rescue this Land."

"Let us bind this world together just as we had bound up the Darkness," the Jabberwock said in a mighty roar. "Be strong with us, little prince, and we shall protect everything."

"Thank you my friends," the little prince said, wiping the tears from his cheeks. "Let us protect this broken world with what we have."

So the little prince and the Black Five made a promise to the Land of Endless Light that day: to keep it whole and strong, no matter how much the Darkness lurked over their heads.

Ever since then, the Chains work to bind the Land together, and the little prince, and all of the little princes and princesses after him, fight to keep the world alive.