"TALES OF GHOSTS"
about Love and Death from the Land of Mists
a collection of short stories
in the “Playing Another Reality” series
"The OLD LANTERN's DREAMS"
4. ENCHANTED LAKE
Once upon a time, at the edge of an old wise Wood, there was a wonderful Lake, surrounded by high mountains.
On holidays, when the weather was warm, people used to swim in the Lake with the mermaids and learn from them the latest news of the Underwater Kingdom. At sunset, they danced with the fairy nymphs to the sounds of the flutes played by the elves on the shore, and then they made a bonfire and talked with the dryads about the Future. The dwarves gave people magic stones to cure illnesses, and the kind-hearted trolls treated everyone to their divine ale, the elixir of immortality.
One day the Evil Wizard inspired people that neither mermaids, nor fairies, nor elves, nor dwarves, nor trolls, nor dryads existed, as if all these creatures were only fruits of their imagination. The Wizard said that anyone who believed him would be able to see for oneself. And, for some reason, people believed the Wizard immediately. They came to the Lake, ridiculing their ‘stupid fantasies’ in front of each other, and the mermaids instantly disappeared into the depths of the Underwater Kingdom, the dryads hid into the trees, the fairies became invisible, the elves’ flutes stopped making sounds, the dwarves tightly blocked the entrance to their caves, and the trolls, upset most of all, forgot the recipe for the elixir of immortality.
Finding none of their former friends, people shouted cheerfully, “The Wizard was right!”
They went home and, resentful of their own ‘stupidity’, abandoned the place.
Soon the Lake bloomed and covered with greenery, and all the paths leading to it were overgrown with impenetrable weeds so much that no one, even if they wanted to, would be able to get to it. So the Reality became a Fairy Tale…
1989–90