The old man is always sunny, his toothless mouth agape in a constant smiles. He wanders the winding roads of the city and the countryside, relying only on his noisy canine companion. His eyelids are closed over two empty sockets.
On market days you can see the clever and charming man, out with his exotic and eclectic wares of spices, silks, and weapons. He is always interested in the coins he gets. Every time he receives his pay, he examines every coin with a hopeful eye, sighs, then tucks them away with the rest of his earnings. Then he goes back to awaiting patronage, a smile on his face.
If you enter her tent and gaze into the mirror she guards, they say you can glimpse the day of your death.
When the virtuous wife of the local lord, laid up in a coma these past few years, starts growing big with a child, the retainers and servants fall into a quiet panic.
Ever since the king died, there is a rumor that his shade makes an appearance every new moon night on the eastern watchtower. However, everyone who waited there turned up dead in the morning.
On the ring of keys on the priest's belt are two large ones that he has never used. One day he is summoned by his superior, instructed to bring those two keys.
The young one, who could have had the city with but a word, leaves it in threadbare garments without a backward glance.
The people's morale is high even in the midst of the long siege. The maiden who comes out every day to fight and to encourage them assures them their liege will come to save them.
When the oracle said that only a child sacrifice will stop the spread of the plague, the city drew lots. The doomed child is the king's five-year-old son and only heir.
The isolated mountain village is cut off from the outside for weeks by the snow. With food stores running low, one young person volunteered to brave the snow to go ask for help.
When his half-brother, praised by all for his bravery, was laid low by injury, the command fell to him.
The wealthy man, who does not have long to live, wants to get a package to the wife he abandoned long ago in his home village.
The quiet, cheerful street seller visits the gallows every night whenever he is in town and returns to his lodgings only at the break of day. One night, a child trails him on his visit.
A white flower lies before the coffin of the young life too soon extinguished. In the candlelit dark, a hand picks up the flower.
Tensions run high in a city overrun with refugees from the war.
A handsome and well-spoken seducer whose age is hard to place.
When he looks back in the midst of his flight, all he can see is the flames from the tower against the night sky, a monument to his folly and defeat. The way ahead is dark and perilous.
The young woman, stumbling alone through the deep forest, stops and carefully drinks from a spring. Then a brilliant light splits the darkness. She hesitates, then steps cautiously toward it.
The noble asks if she is certain. The fortuneteller tells him it is assured, he will be the next king. Outside, only the moon shows her pale face in the deep of night.
The young men ride confidently into the forest under the bright sun. They have no idea what perils await.
He smiles, looking down at the bloodied form of his brother at his feet.
The priests who pray, burn incense, and perform holy rites in the holy inner sanctum know not what lies beyond the curtain.
When the young person first came to the city, living in one of those shining mansions became a lifelong dream.
The king's only child is casting seductive glances at the young person, who has a lover back at home.
She runs desperately toward the ship gliding into port in the dawn light.
The magician's mountaintop fortress is solid and almost impregnable, even against old ghosts.
The aged king's children compete and fight endlessly for their father's seat.
Even amidst the triumph of the victory march, the general looks over his shoulder in search of the shadow of death that follows.
The fall of the tyrant was the beginning, not the end. The revolutionary force is tearing itself apart with internal strife.
The old astrologer knows that a child will be born who will be the king's downfall.
The man, eyes burnt out and exiled for the crime of speaking truth to the tyrant, lives quietly in the countryside with his daughter. The daughter is sometimes away from home for days at a time.
The king trusts no one for fear of losing a grip on power, and grows wearier every day.
The family is in a panic after the young heir left home and disappeared.
The confident young person shows a treasure map, looking for employees to brave danger together.
They say the real power in the house lies with its ambitious and beautiful lady.
The monarch leaves, shining and proud, at the head of the expedition.
The young man, drawing the sword from his father's body, swears vengeance again and again.
The woman is silent and patient in the face of her drunken husband's mistreatment, but the anger never leaves her eyes.
Aghast, he drops the blood-soaked weapon from his hand at the sight of his dead friend. The woman sitting by the corpse says nothing.
After the hard-fought battle, the badly wounded warrior awakes in the hermit's abode.
The confident young person easily prevails in games of skill with peers. There is no doubt in the young one's mind that the monarch will be calling for them soon.
The wise person crossing the water looks confidently upon the approaching city. Here, without a doubt, the secret to immortality lies waiting to be found.
A rival's assassin awaits in his path. At the palace, they are ready to proclaim his death and discuss the next steps.
The prisoner, locked like an animal in a cage that leaves little room for movement, raises tired eyes to the late-night visitor and listens silently to an offer.
The rich person, always afraid of thievery and cheating, contracts with a malevolent spirit to guard the vault against those who would meddle with it.
The tree is haunted by spirit of someone who died in misery and pain and was buried under it.
The very clever, eloquent child and the child's strict guardian.
“It doesn't matter,” says the sharp-eyed warrior. “We have no time to waste. Wipe them out.” The warrior's gaze already runs past the roofs and walls to the open fields beyond.
A graceful, refined woman in red is said by some to have inauspicious powers.
The only thing that can ruin the man who has everything is his own suspicion and paranoia.
It all began in the moment when two children swore friendship beside the bubbling water.
The young person has been searching for years for someone met once at a fete.
The celebratory feast, for some, is salt in the wounds of defeat.
The rich man's wayward son is always on the search for some new stimulation. He is determined to get his hands on a nectar that is said to give heavenly dreams to whoever drinks it.
The young parent whose partner was lured away by another is in dire straits with a young child in tow.
The secret of their birth lies in old, faded love letters.
The young person is ecstatic at the advances of someone far more attractive than their current lover, without any idea of the new suitor's true identity.
The prophet who spiritually revived the city is reborn in a humble hut on its outskirts.
He stopped by the tavern only to run into the very one he searched for all these years.
The young husband, taken prisoner after being called to war, is offered release in exchange for being a spy.
In the midst of battle, the monarch receives word that his child is in danger and commands a reckless rescue.
The young stablehand was imprisoned for loving a noble maiden and will be killed in the morning.
The kindly grandmother showers her grandchildren with delectable food and fascinating stories whenever they visit. But she never tells them what is in the locked closet drawer.
The prophet blessed with mysterious powers is far from tolerant of dissenters.
When the farmer digs out an old gold coin while working in the field, the spirit trapped in the coin promises great wealth in exchange for release.
The clerk, deluged with an endless stream of papers, misses the release papers for an inmate who has served their time.
The ascetic plans to destroy as a blasphemy the painting that a rising artist is commissioned to create.
When the stingy rich man insults and turns away an old woman come to beg, the woman lays a curse on the house that his bloodline will be severed.
The old, sick beggar was once a powerful man in the city.
The child who was starving in the street survived through the help of a benefactor. The child grew to return to the childhood city at the head of a conquering army.
The dead king's young heir shows a potential for brilliance, but is still a young child.
The artisan must start over now that the work of a lifetime has been burned.
The rich widow rarely leaves the house. One day, a suitor arrives at her door.
After years of searching he finally discovers a lode of gold, not knowing that a band of bandits are right behind.
The king's clever and pretty daughter is beset with offers of marriage. She proposes a test to choose her future husband.
The young man puts the last of his fortune into this merchant excursion.
Sensible and virtuous, her only flaw is in her infertility.
Wealthy and powerful, he is ever restless at the memory of wrongs he committed in the past.
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