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April 23 - April 26, 2021
Ayama and the wood - little red riding hood, beauty and the beast, cinderella
“The horrible legends of Tarrare’s polyphagia found their way into Ayama’s first tale in far gentler form.“
Now the people stopped fretting over their taxes and their crops and the war, and instead worried they might be snatched from their beds and eaten.
Nothing like a vicious monster to make you forget about taxes and criticizing the rich lol
“Come now, Ayama. You know how the stories go. Interesting things only happen to pretty girls;
“The king has nothing I want.” “Then perhaps you might show mercy freely.” “My father never taught me mercy.” “And can you not learn?”
But just because no one bothered to listen to Ayama didn’t mean she had nothing to say. In fact, she had plenty.
You see, some people are born with a piece of night inside, and that hollow place can never be filled—not with all the good food or sunshine in the world. That emptiness cannot be banished, and so some days we wake with the feeling of the wind blowing through, and we must simply endure it as the boy did.”
it was impossible not to bloom in the prince’s sunny regard. But what she really wanted was a glass of water.
they’d gotten so used to ordering Ayama about that they’d forgotten how to treat her as a daughter.
The beast might shout and snarl, and he might well devour her, but he’d at least been interested enough to listen to her speak.
tried not to think of the beast eating her in one bite—or worse, two.
“Do not behave as a tyrant and then tell me to scold a tyrant to behave. Show mercy and mercy you may be shown.”
she had thought a lot about how she would tell the tale when it belonged to her.
Speak truth, she reminded herself. Then she wound the story tight and let it unspool anew.
This goes to show you that sometimes the unseen is not to be feared and that those meant to love us most are not always the ones who do.”
“Who can say? Bad fates do not always follow those who deserve them.”
Ayama thought that was a fine proclamation, but what she really wanted was to sit down and take off her shoes. She supposed if the prince had bothered asking, he would know that.
“Does the monster trust you, girl?” By this time, Ayama had grown used to speaking her thoughts and rather loudly, so she said, “There is a great difference between not eating a person and trusting a person.”
But as had been the case for most of Ayama’s life, despite the strength of her voice, the king either did not listen or did not hear.
Ayama did not want to take the knife, but she did. It was light as a dry seedpod. It seemed wrong that death should feel like nothing in her hands.
they’d seen so much and done so much that they knew better than to trust handsome faces and fine titles.
“And what lesson am I to learn from this story?” asked the beast when she was done. “That there are better things than princes.”
because Ayama had given him something to feel besides anger, he did forgive her,
she knew well that only courage is required for an adventure.
They pray that their children will be brave and clever and strong, that they will tell the true stories instead of the easy ones.
The Too-Cleaver Fox - Referenced in Siege and Storm
THE FIRST TRAP THE FOX ESCAPED was his mother’s jaws.
But a killer might be reasoned with—not so a metal trap.
“I can bear ugliness,” he said. “I find the one thing I cannot live with is death.”
I make a bitter meal, but excellent company.”
“Just because you escape one trap, doesn’t mean you will escape the next.”
He knew what it was to be caught in a trap. Sofiya had lived that way a long while, and a lesser creature might choose to live in fear rather than grasp at freedom.
“Freedom is a burden, but you will learn to bear it.
“It is always the same trap,” she said gently. “You longed for conversation. The bear craved jokes. The gray wolf missed music. The boar just wanted someone to tell her troubles to. The trap is loneliness, and none of us escapes it. Not even me.”
The Witch of Duva - Hansel and Gretel, Nibble Nibble Mousekin by Joan Walsh Anglund
Kind of referenced in Crooked Kingdom alongside Little Knife reference
“Hansel and Gretel.” My favorite version of that particular story was the creepily titled Nibble Nibble Mousekin by Joan Walsh Anglund, and it wasn’t the cannibal witch who bothered me. It wasn’t even the selfish stepmother. For me, the real villain was Hansel and Gretel’s father, a man so weak-willed, so cowardly, that he let his wicked wife send his children into the woods to die twice. Don’t go back, I would whisper as we approached the inevitable final illustration—happy father reunited with children, evil stepmother banished—and I was always left with a feeling of unease as I turned the last page.”
THERE WAS A TIME WHEN THE woods near Duva ate girls.
Soon she was more ghost than woman, drifting silently from room to room.
Stupid Nadya, you think. Stupid girls. I would never be so foolish. But you’ve never known real hunger.
The khitka might take any form, but the shape it favored most was that of a beautiful woman.
Hope made her stubborn.
No path could lead her back to the home she had known.
She learned which herbs were valuable and which were dangerous, and which herbs were valuable because they were dangerous.
sometimes she felt her curiosity clawing at her like a different kind of hunger.
Few good things happen to a woman alone.
Now you know what monsters once lurked in the woods near Duva, and if you ever meet a bear with a golden collar, you will be able to greet him by name. So shut the window tight and make sure the latch is fastened. Dark things have a way of slipping in through narrow spaces. Shall we have something good to eat? Well then, come help me stir the pot.
Little Knife - Referenced in Ruin and Rising and Crooked Kingdom
