Added£1.29Add to basket(A short story of 2209 words)
Tales Told Before Cockcrow
Fantasy
by Cherry Potts
A fairly tale for adults and older children - Sybil tries to get Amelia to sleep - a long, long sleep.
Amelia couldn't sleep. She lay in petulant discontent; eyes fiercely open, just daring sleep to lull her into unconsciousness. Sleep, naturally, had more sense than to tangle with her.
‘Count sheep, darling,’ her old nurse, Sibyl advised, trying for a reasonable tone despite her intense irritation.
‘That makes me hungry.’
‘Don't be perverse. You are only awake because you ate too much in the first place.’
‘Tell me a story, Nana,’ Amelia whined, doing her best to sound as though she thought Sibyl's stories quite the best in the world, which, coincidentally, she did. Flattery always worked on Sibyl, and anyway, she hadn't anything better to do. The other option would be to join the gathering of younger adults, who had no interest in the tales of an ancient nanny. Amelia appreciated her where the others, with their thin veneer of uncertain sophistication, despised.
‘Very well,’ Sibyl said contentedly, settling beside her charge, ‘but you must promise not to interrupt.’
The sun sank slowly below the whale humped cliffs. The bullfrogs joined the cicada's continuo. As the shadows merged into dusk, a lone figure on the cliff top turned in valediction to the red stained sea. Below her on the wave caressed strand the others of her kind waited in silent anticipation. Her liquidly beautiful voice rose into the waiting air...
Amelia couldn't sleep. She lay in petulant discontent; eyes fiercely open, just daring sleep to lull her into unconsciousness. Sleep, naturally, had more sense than to tangle with her.
‘Count sheep, darling,’ her old nurse, Sibyl advised, trying for a reasonable tone despite her intense irritation.
‘That makes me hungry.’
‘Don't be perverse. You are only awake because you ate too much in the first place.’
‘Tell me a story, Nana,’ Amelia whined, doing her best to sound as though she thought Sibyl's stories quite the best in the world, which, coincidentally, she did. Flattery always worked on Sibyl, and anyway, she hadn't anything better to do. The other option would be to join the gathering of younger adults, who had no interest in the tales of an ancient nanny. Amelia appreciated her where the others, with their thin veneer of uncertain sophistication, despised.
‘Very well,’ Sibyl said contentedly, settling beside her charge, ‘but you must promise not to interrupt.’
The sun sank slowly below the whale humped cliffs. The bullfrogs joined the cicada's continuo. As the shadows merged into dusk, a lone figure on the cliff top turned in valediction to the red stained sea. Below her on the wave caressed strand the others of her kind waited in silent anticipation. Her liquidly beautiful voice rose into the waiting air...