Fables and Enchantments

By Camille LaGuire

Seven fables and children's stories, from haunting to the silly .

Stories include:

"The Enchanted Tree" - A magic tree has touched the lives of a whole town, including one lonely girl who needs some help at Christmas.

"The Hero and The Weaver" - When a young man pesters a magic weaver for a magic cloak, she sets him to impossible tasks to get rid of him... but he just won't give up. What could possibly turn a boy into such a hero?

"The Greatest Treasure" - A poor and tiny kingdom helps a wealthier prince to find the greatest treasure to give to a picky princess.

"When Good Stories Go Bad" - Stories are meant to be shared freely, otherwise they might go bad on you. (Inspired by a Korean folktale.)

"The Princess Who Would Not Smile" - Smiles must come from within.

"The Hot Bun Man" - And old street vendor and a rich man discover that generosity comes in many flavors.

"Wild Pony Day" - It's hard to teach when something wild runs rampant in your classroom.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Camille LaGuire
• Release date: Aug 17, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301374090

Book preview

Fables and Enchantments

Fantasy and Fairytales for Children and Adults

by Camille LaGuire

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First Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2013 Camille LaGuire. All rights reserved.

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Table of Contents

The Enchanted Tree

The Hero and The Weaver

The Greatest Treasure

When Good Stories Go Bad

The Princess Who Would Not Smile

The Hot Bun Man

Wild Pony Day

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back to Table of Contents

The Enchanted Tree

A magic tree has touched the lives of a whole town, including one lonely girl who needs some help at Christmas.

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THEY CUT DOWN the enchanted tree the other day. Sad, but it was old. Most of the branches were dead and we all admitted it was becoming a hazard.

We stood on the sidewalk across the street from it and sang songs about Coral Simmons, and about other people touched by that tree. We didn’t sing a song about me, but then nobody knows how the tree touched me.

Some people say that Coral Simmons was a runaway slave who’d almost made it to Canada when the slave catchers caught up with her. Some say she was just some white farm girl being chased by drunken loggers (or soldiers or trappers). Some even say her name wasn’t Simmons at all, and that she was a Chippewa girl running away from the French or the English or warriors from another tribe. Whatever she was, she was running for her life when she came upon a leafy young tree. She hid among the leaves and spread her arms among the branches, and wished herself hidden. The bark spread over her arms and body, and the tree absorbed her.

So when you have troubles, you go and tell Coral, because she knows troubles.

I went to the tree one Christmas when I was thirteen. There was a terrible snowstorm that year. I was in foster care, and I waited for my mother to come visit for the holiday. I kept telling myself that the storm had delayed her. Then the day after Christmas the present came. If she’d have been coming, she’d have brought it herself. She wouldn’t have mailed it.

It was wrapped in a grocery sack, postmarked from Las Vegas. She did not live in Las Vegas, so she must have gone there for Christmas rather than visit me. Still, maybe she got a job, you know? So I opened it.

It was a little kid’s makeup kit, the kind with glitter eye shadow, smelly perfume, and red lipstick–all bubble packed to a piece of cardboard. I hated makeup, and she knew it. She even made fun of me because of it. She really liked make up, though, so I might have forgiven her if it had been good make up. I held in my disappointment and started to open it. But then I saw the price tag on the back. $2.95 crossed out with a big red marker. It had been marked down to fifty cents. She had got it out of a remainder bin.

I just knew she left that price tag on