Fairy Tale Friday: Winter Dragon Steals The Moon

Every year the Winter Dragon stole the Moon, and hid it away in the winter forest until springtime.

The village girl walked to the center of the winter forest, where the hills and the trees and the shining body of the Dragon were all the same thing. The Moon was shining above them, sitting so low in the sky she could almost touch it. She reached out to take the Moon and put it in her lantern, and carry it back to the village. The hills of the winter forest twisted and the trees cracked and waved, and the blue-white eyes of the Winter Dragon watched her with eternal amusement. The Dragon smiled, or snarled, and curled around the Moon, and said nothing.

But the girl asked, with a frozen tongue, "Why do you hide the Moon from us? Why keep it here, to light only your forest, instead of letting it light the sky for everyone?"

The Dragon answered, in a voice like cracking ice, "Because no one else ever notices the Moon, unless I take it sometimes; and beautiful things should not be ignored. But if care enough to come all this way, you may have some moonlight to take with you, and light your way home." And the Dragon put a bit of Moon in the girl's lantern, and sent her home, where she took her tiny bit of light and sent it into the dark sky.

The girl visited for almost a month; and at last the Dragon ran out of moonlight. But the Dragon kept its word as the last bit of silver light was tucked in the girl's lantern, and did not stop her. Instead the Dragon asked "Why do you take the Moon back to the sky for everyone, where it will be ignored?"

The girl answered, in a very plain voice, "Because nothing captive can be beautiful." And she left the winter forest for the last time.

***
Story and art by me, of course!

-Carapace