The Book of Saints and Friendly Beasts

by stephen leggett

THE SHEPHERD'S DAUGHTER

She had long hair that fell to her knees. When she touched things they flew open. Her friends lived and died in a stone at the edge of her hands. She was like a window to them. Her knees were hidden.


THE WOLF

When she left him his heart grew hard and refused to answer any mail. No-one could believe he loved her. When he opened his mouth the words wouldn't come They backed down his throat and became skulls.


THE SHEPHERD

He has found a stone with eyes sleeping in the field. How can he tell his neighbors? They will refuse to understand.


THE MAGIC STONE

Its eyes moved like bats across its face. Nobody knew what to do with it but they knew it was magic. They held it in their hands.


THE MAN WITH THE DANCING BEAR

He changed his name and no-one knew. He spent his life staring into hands. Whenever he found something growing just under the skin he would smile and begin the story.


THE FIVE THIEVES

She showed them the stone. It had eyes like bats. When she turned her back they took it. It was good business.


THE MONK

He died in his sleep. The next morning the man with the beard found him hunched like an old car beside a dead fire.


THE BLACKSMITH

He had never seen anything like her before. Her teeth looked like they were made out of salt. As she turned to go he felt his hands commit suicide.


THE UNICORN

One morning she wandered out of the forest and into the blacksmith's office. She asked him for directions. She thought he looked like a moth with eyes instead of wings.


THE LAST WOLF IN THE WORLD

They held a public enough funeral for the last wolf in the world. It was a nice enough funeral. Everyone wore dark. All the foxes came.


THE MAN WITH THE BEARD

He would not tell her his name. He told her he was from another story she had not heard. She told them what they were saying about him. The bones in his face collapsed. His eyes floated off.


THE DANCING BEAR MEETS FOUR OF THE THIEVES

He was running east. They were running west. They ran right through each other.


THE HUNTER'S WIFE

Her fingers were useless. They did not know how to make a fist. Every evening he would come home. She would ask him how his day had gone. He would answer and she would already know.


THE HUNTER

He is proud of his hands. They fling themselves at the sky like geese. Moving through the dark they hear only what they want to hear. The air clicks into place behind them.


THE FOX SEES IT ALL

He was not sure what he saw. He kept telling himself that. The wine was leaning against his eyes. He really couldn't see anything.


THE DANCING BEAR

He knows by heart the meaning of blood. He was born into it like a thorn. At night sometimes he remembers. His teeth move out into the darkness.


THE DEER

Halfway over the fence his lungs exploded. All night long he sang upside down between the earth and the sky.


THE WOMAN

They say she lives in a burrow by the river. Each full moon her eyes change color. They nail everything to her soul. Her sleep clogs with stones.


THE FOX

His family knew. He never told them but they knew. Their questions clung like ribs. He had never lied before.


THE HANGING

Suddenly his feet were gone. He felt his throat grow dark.


THE MOTHER OF THE DEER

When he did not come home she knew what had happened. She leaned back in her chair. She spread out his face on the table and looked at it.

    

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