‘Tickling Butterflies’ – The Secret at the Deepest Crevice

I’m serializing my fairy tale novel, Tickling Butterflies. A new fairy tale ‘episode’ is published every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday.

Here’s the story so far.

Enjoy the latest fairy tale:

The Secret at the Deepest Crevice

(Containing the shadowy tale of how a secret becomes too big to contain.)

Seven hours after King Charming the Fourth died, a messenger came to the town of Bambooville. The messenger rode in on his winged horse and landed outside the house of Kate the Tigress.

“The king is dead,” the messenger told Kate the Tigress. “Long live the king.”

The messenger explained to Kate the Tigress that King Charming the Fourth had died seven hours and seven minutes ago, and that her son, John the Cute, was now king. The new king had invited her to the palace, to attend the coronation of the new king and to stay in the palace for as long as she wanted.

Kate the Tigress left the yellow flowers with orange streaks on top of her bed and in the garden where she had planted them. Kate the Tigress climbed aboard the flying horse, and allowed the horse to take her and the messenger to CapitalCity.

On the first day of King John the Cute’s reign, Kate the Tigress thought the celebrations were magnificent, especially the butterfly show. But a worry gnawed at her. Her son’s face had changed. It now showed worry and fret, and no longer showed great cuteness. Already, his adventures have had a toll on him, and if the prophecy was correct, he would die in two years.

On the second day of King John the Cute’s reign, he showed her the Fairy Tale Tree, and told her its meaning. Later, alone in her room, Kate the Tigress’s worries grew even greater. Only she knew of the last two lines in the prophecy, the lines that described what would happen after the death of John the Cute. These last two lines indicated that her son would suffer greatly in the Afterdeath because of deeds he would perform while king. These last two lines indicated that he would suffer until the end of time.

On the third day of King John the Cute’s reign, King John the Cute told his mother how his race with Death had begun. He told her that Death had told him that John the Cute had raced Death before and lost.

“Do you know what Death was speaking of, mother?”

“No, I do not,” she shook her head. And it was true, she did not. But another worry was added to her list of worries.

King John the Cute continued to tell her of his race with Death and how King Charming the Fourth died. He told her that King Charming the Fourth had said that John the Cute was not who he thought he was.

“What did he mean, mother?” asked King John the Cute.

Kate the Tigress found this very strange. “I do not know.”

“Am I adopted? Are you my stepmother?”

“No, my dear child,” answered Kate the Tigress. “I carried you in my stomach for nine months, until you were ready you came out to the world. You are definitely my son.”

“Then maybe Frank the Frank is not my father?”

“No, my dear child,” answered Kate the Tigress. “You are definitely the son of Frank the Frank. You look – well, you looked – so much like him. Frank the Frank is your father.”

“Then what did the king mean?”

“I do not know, my dear child. I do not know.”

And it was true that she did not know what the king had meant. But it was also true that she feared the last two lines of the poem agreed with the king’s statement, for they said John the Cute was other than what he seemed.

Kate the Tigress’ secret was growing inside her, and it was too much to bear in her small room. She left the castle and walked around for five hours, and the largeness of the secret haunted her.

On the fourth day of King John the Cute’s reign, Kate the Tigress heard that King John the Cute had promised to solve the problem of Colonel Stone and the mystery of Minister Vazir’s parents. She had known her son was kind, but fear and fury filled her heart. The more her son wanted to solve the mysteries of the land, the more she was afraid that awful things that would befall him. Kate the Tigress walked around the entirety of CapitalCity for ten hours, as even more fear and fury fuelled her heart further and grew too large to contain.

On the fifth day of King John the Cute’s reign, Kate the Tigress learned that the king had released Prince Charming the Fifth. Then she learned that the prince had vowed vengeance on King John the Cute and had now gone to create an army to defeat the king. The prophecy was becoming true, and it was too much for her to bear.

Kate the Tigress came to the king and said that he was a magnificent king. She said that she was proud of him. She said that she was worried, and that her worries grew with every day at the palace. She said that she needed to go home, far away from CapitalCity. She hugged and kissed her son and asked him to visit often.

On the way back home, she stopped at the Deepest Crevice. The Deepest Crevice was a hole in the land so deep and so wide that anything that fell inside never landed. Making sure she was completely alone, she shouted her secret into the Deepest Crevice. So great was the secret that she could not help but release it.

Then, feeling slightly better, she climbed back upon the flying horse, and flew back home to the yellow flowers with orange streaks.

But behind her, in the crevices of the Deepest Crevice, something was happening. The secret, finally released, filled with clouds of frustration and swirling mists of fury swirled and twirled, twisted and twined, and slowly gathered into shadowy clouds. Then the shadowy clouds swirled closer and closer together. After two days, the clouds, filled with fury, frustration, and secrets, bonded into the form of a human being. It was a human being made out of a dark cloud of secrets and fury and frustration.

Two days after Kate the Tigress had left, a dark human cloud climbed out of the Deepest Crevice. The dark human cloud called himself Shadowy Secret.

Shadowy Secret began to roam the Land of All Legends, knowing the secret future and the secret past of King John the Cute. And he, unlike Kate the Tigress, understood the meaning of the prophecy.

This has been the shadowy tale of how the evil-looking Shadowy Secret was born.

(To be continued on Thursday…)

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Tags: English, fairy tales, fantasy, Online Book, Serialized Novel, Tickling Butterflies