Storybook - Dancing Children

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Fairy Tale Collection




Volume 6 Dancing Children



Once upon a time, when the Tower broke and fire rained from the sky, a little village east of Poeta plunged into famine.


The Cataclysm had damaged their harvest, and now there were no grains in the ground nor fruit on the trees. The people of the village worried, but knew they had enough stored food to last a while.


Villagers went once a week to get their grain ration and tried to live as normal. But it wasn't enough. People and animals grew thinner and lighter. The old and sick began to die.


And still no plant took root in the earth.



Young Marcus lived in this village with his mother and two brothers.


One day, his hungry eldest brother said, "Let's go tonight and take more grain from the storage house. Then we can make more bread."


The second eldest agreed, but Marcus looked to his mother who asked, "If we take more grain now, how should we eat later?"


The older boys grumbled, but said they would not rob the storage house.


The next day, though, some of the village's grain was missing and Marcus's brothers sounded less hungry than the day before. No one in the village could figure out the theft, but all felt the pain as their weekly rations were cut.


Marcus's family grew skinnier and lighter and their stomachs rumbled even more loudly than before.

One day, the second eldest brother spoke out. "Oh, the pain!" he cried. "We should never have taken that extra grain! I need to keep my mind off the hunger. Let us dance to distract ourselves."


The eldest agreed and stood to join the middle brother in dance, but Marcus looked to his mother.


"Do not dance, my sons," she said. "For if you waste your energy today, how will you survive tonight?"


The older brothers grumbled, but said they would not dance.


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That night, Marcus heard his brothers moving outside the house and went to see what they were doing. The two older boys linked hands and twirled, dancing around an empty bowl.


"Come on! Join us!" they called when they saw Marcus. "We are having fun, and we don't feel hungry at all."


Marcus refused to dance. "Stop!" he begged his brothers. "Mother said..."


"Don't you think for yourself, Marcus?" asked the eldest. "Come dance with us!"

But again Marcus refused.


The boys danced till dawn. As the sun peeked over the horizon, a great gale came up and blew across the brothers' dancing ground.


Marcus shouted and reached for them, but he was too late.


The wind had come and blown his brothers away like feathers, too light to stay firmly on the ground with Marcus.



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The children danced the day the North Wind blew.


A strong wind blew up on the hill.


The children floated into the skies like feathers and disappeared with the wind.


And they never returned again.