[ WP ] A fairy tells it 's children a human tale before bed

*'' …and reports continue to come in from the Flower Court that the Lily Kingdom champion has, in fact, been poisoned. We have no confirmation yet as to whether King Frumpus will be able to replace him in time for the quest to continue, and as a precautionary measure, all citizens south of Gumdrop river are being urged to evacuate pending…'' * 
 
 Fiddlequick sighed, and muted the news. The kids didn ’ t need to hear this. Not yet. 
 
 `` Say,'' he said, forcing a smile, `` how about a story?'' 
 
 The twins grinned. There had n't been much time for stories, lately. 
 
 `` Tell us about Grothar the strong!'' cried Flip. 
 
 `` Ooh, tell us about Jasnah and the quest for the Amulet of the Golden Sea!'' said Flit. 
 
 Fiddlequick glanced quickly at the concerned faces on the silent screen, and shook his head. 
 
 `` No,'' he said softly. `` No more history. Tonight, I'm going to tell you the story of a strange and exotic land. A land called Earth.'' 
 
 `` Like the element?'' asked Flip. 
 
 `` Just like the element,'' nodded Fiddlequick, `` But this earth is a place. A world as vast and varied as our own, hidden just beyond the mists. And once upon a time, on earth, there was a great trouble brewing. You see, earth had a dark lord too. A tyrant, who—well, you know the type. And he was growing. At first the lords of earth said `` wait, he will tire, and we will be safe.'' But the dark lord did not tire. He only grew stronger, and more ambitious as the years passed. Eventually, the lords of earth grew worried, as the dark one took more and more land for himself.'' 
 
 `` And they fought him! The great lords of earth rode out and fought the tyrant, and defeated him!'' said Flit. 
 
 `` No,'' said Fiddlequick. `` They did not. For this was earth, and things are done differently there. Instead, they sent out word across all their lands. They sent words to their people high and low. They called to farmers, and craftsmen, and doctors and scholars. They made for them all the finest weapons they could craft, and gathered them together into a great assembly.'' 
 
 `` And they had a contest, a tournament to choose the greatest to go defeat the dark lord!'' said Flip. 
 
 `` No,'' said Fiddlequick. `` There was no contest. They all went.'' 
 
 `` They *all* went?'' asked Flit. `` But thousands of people would have died!'' 
 
 `` And they did,'' said Fiddlequick. `` Thousands of them marched, and fought, and died. No, not thousands. Millions.'' 
 
 The twins eyes went wide with wonder. 
 
 `` The battle would have lasted for days!'' said Flit. 
 
 `` Not days,'' said Fiddlequick. `` Years. It spanned oceans and continents. Their cities burned. Fire and death fell from the skies. And yet they kept coming. The farmers, and doctors, and craftsmen; even as they died, more went to take their place.'' 
 
 `` But they eventually found his weak point, right? The dark lord? They found his weakness, and they—'' 
 
 `` The dark lord had no weak point,'' said Fiddlequick. `` And even if he had, it would n't have mattered. You see, on earth…'' 
 
 Fiddlequick went on to describe in great detail the terrible war of this place called Earth, and the deeds of bravery, and sacrifice, done not by champions and kings, but by ordinary men and women, en masse. He described feints and ambushes, logistics and supply lines, and the twins listened with rapt attention as he spun the tale of this, the greatest of all battle. A battle, a world, where children like they had not one, but millions of champions. 
 
 And the sun grew low in the sky, as Fiddlequick described the hard-fought Allied advance on Japan. By now, the twins were enraptured. 
 
 `` And then they made a landing point, right? Rushing up the beach while the men in the steel birds protected them from the sky!'' said Flit. 
 
 `` No,'' said Flip, `` They needed to secure a staging point first, right dad? Before they could move on the mainland?'' 
 
 Fiddlequick glanced at his watch, and at his wife, long since sound asleep. He sighed. 
 
 `` No,'' he said. `` The Americans made a magic bomb that blew up a whole city at once, and the Japanese gave up. The end.'' 
 
 He sighed. He hated to rush the ending like that, but they had a long walk north to the gumdrop river in the morning, and the twins needed rest. As he tucked them away, his wife placed a hand on his shoulder. Not so soundly asleep after all, then. 
 
 `` I wish it were like that, sometimes,'' she said wistfully. `` The real world, I mean. More like the Human Tales. That we could all be our own champions. You know the gumdrop river wo n't stop him.'' 
 
 Fiddlequick shook his head. 
 
 `` No, I do n't expect it will.'' 
 
 They sat in silence for a time. For a moment, he considered… but, no. That was just a children's story. The real world just did n't work like that. 

