14 July 2006
Prodigy: Part 17
Toybels Illtot planted his feet on the ground and reached up for the sky, which hovered above him, soft and serene. The fairies tugged at him, pulling him deeper into the forest. Toybels could not resist. They led him to a rock. Toybels touched the rock. They led him to a brook. Toybels felt the presence of his mother. He tilted his head up and cupped his ear. The fairies bowed before him, kissed his cheek with their wings, then flew up into the sky. Toybels blinked and looked at his skin, which was now as green as new moss.
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13 July 2006
Prodigy: Part 16
Toybels Illtot heard many voices. They were all his own. A chorus of them, harmonizing in the air permeating the forest. Toybels coalesced into a single being over the next few thousand years. The forest rose and fell too many times to count. The fairies recognized him, growing in the womb of darkness. They waited, protecting the forest as though it was a mother’s sheltering body. As Toybels clumped together, his vision returned. Fairies fluttered around him. Their wings buzzed pleasantly. They smiled at him. Toybels reached, leaving his hand open, and waited for fairy wings to tickle his palm.
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12 July 2006
Prodigy: Part 15
Toybels Illtot swarmed into the ether. He was subdued awareness, many points of consciousness connected by invisible threads. The sound of bees were everywhere. Toybels got eaten by a great flock of crows, millions strong, easing across the sky. The flock tripped gears into action. The sun resumed its course. The wind gusted again. The crows descended on a forest, covering the trees with a deep blackness. Toybels was there, a fragment in each crow. The crows expelled all his bits from their bodies, then rose from the trees. Toybels remained behind, a hive mind clinging to leaves and branches.
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11 July 2006
Prodigy: Part 14
Toybels Illtot, now little more than a floating head, tipped over so his scalp was in the broth. He still had his eyes closed, but heard the sound of the fairy wings everywhere and felt them swarming over his disembodied head. They began singing a song. Toybels could not understand the melody, but the words described feasting and dancing. He thought he heard something about a wedding, but could not be sure. His ears sunk into the broth, muffling the sound. Toybels separated into his component parts. Consciousness was a mere nuisance now. He found comfort in thinking of dust.
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09 July 2006
Prodigy: Part 13
Toybels Illtot was soon beyond pain. The water heated up. Chunks of his flesh cooked off and floated around him. The fairies added potatoes, celery, onions, and carrots. Toybels studied the liquid, thickening with his own fat, like he was observing an artist completing a canvas. His face and consciousness remained above the bubbling. The fairies, arrayed around him like beads strung on a hoop, licked their lips and brandished their spoons. Some dipped into the broth and tasted. They fell over in a swoon, littering the surface like dead mosquitoes. Toybels closed his eyes and waited for the end.
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08 July 2006
Prodigy: Part 12
Toybels Illtot could not have made things worse for himself if he had tried. The fairies were done fooling with him. They pulled away his protective wrapping and flung him into a large cast iron pot filled with water, which stung his bare flesh. Toybels cried out. The fairies ignored him. They arranged wood under the pot and added some of the sun jewels, which they yanked out of the gears like they were rotten teeth. Flames crept up the side of the pot. The water began getting warmer. Toybels reached for the rim. It was a million miles away.
Labels: Prodigy
07 July 2006
Prodigy: Part 11
Toybels Illtot covered his face with his hands. His skinless flesh was turning black with the bruising. Why are you doing this? he said. We have a different moral code than you, said the fairies. I hurt, said Toybels. Please stop hitting me. The fairies groaned. Please stop hitting me, they repeated in a mocking voice. I hate my life. You’re mean to me. I’m going to cry. Boo hoo hoo. A red fury rose in Toybels. He reached out blindly and grabbed several of the fairies and began squeezing the life out of them. Their bones popped like toothpicks.
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05 July 2006
Prodigy: Part 10
Toybels Illtot had nothing else in him. The fairies waited patiently. For about five seconds. Well, they said, was that it? Toybels opened his mouth. No sound emerged. The fairies hit him with their oil cans. Toybels blinked. We stopped the universe for you, said the fairies. You better make it worth the effort. They hit him again. The oil cans were getting dented from repeated contact with Toybels’s head, chest, legs, arms, and back. The fairies worked methodically, covering his body with bruises. How’s this working for you? they said. How do you like the universe smiling upon you?
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04 July 2006
Prodigy: Part 9
Toybels Illtot looked at the fairies. There were hundreds of them, maybe thousands. Some stood, others hovered on their tiny wings. A few were stretched out on pieces of the sky. They all waited quietly for him to speak. The silence around them was vast. Toybels opened his mouth. His lungs tried to push out air. His lips, tongue, and teeth tried to form words. But he didn’t know how. What emerged was a roar, like the fury of an exploding star. The fairies's hair all went horizontal and momentarily wavered like flags. Not bad, they said, for a start.
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03 July 2006
Prodigy: Part 8
Toybels Illtot wiped the blood from his eyes. He looked at his hand. It was larger than he remembered. His whole body was bigger. It appeared he had grown up when he passed through the tear in the sky. This was so astonishing to him that he forgot he had no skin. The grinding sound around him gradually faded away. He saw the gears had all stopped. The fairies returned to him and wrapped him in a soft and warm material. Time is stopped now, they said. Tell us your story. Toybels blinked. He swallowed hard, looking for his voice.
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02 July 2006
Prodigy: Part 7
Toybels Illtot watched the fairies advance toward him. He briefly considered going back through the rip to where he came from, but decided he would face his future here. The fairies arrived in a few seconds. They clobbered him repeatedly with their oil cans. Toybels cried out and covered his face. They tugged at his skin. Soon they had torn off most of it in bits. They flew back to the gears where they threw the pieces between the teeth. Toybels reached for air. He was blinded by his own blood pouring over his eyes. Help me, he said. Please.
Labels: Prodigy
01 July 2006
Prodigy: Part 6
Toybels Illtot tugged at the rip in the sky, making it big enough to step through. He saw a wonderment: a vast confluence of gears turning slowly, teeth meshing in an intricate dance. Some of the gears had stars stuck to them. Others had pieces of the sun embedded in them like jewels. Everywhere fairies flitted about, lighting on gears for a few seconds, then moving on. As Toybels looked closer, he saw they held tiny oil cans. A great clanging noise erupted around him. Fairies turned to look at him. They gathered into a herd and flew toward him.
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30 June 2006
Prodigy: Part 5
Toybels Illtot was hungry and cold. He huddled against a mossy rock. A humming sound pervaded the air above him. He looked up but saw only a blurry sky. His throat tightened. He wanted air, but none would enter his lungs. Toybels’s vision went watery and pain shot through his eyes. The world grew darker. The humming sound got louder. Toybels watched the sky slip off its moorings and descend to his body and wrap him up. It was cold and spongy. Toybels pushed his hand against the sky until he tore through and felt warmth on the other side.
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29 June 2006
Prodigy: Part 4
Toybels Illtot heard the voice of his mother one night. He tried crying out to her, but his own voice would not carry. His mother called his name. Her voice faded as she passed by without seeing him. The fairies told him he was not ready to return to the world of his parents. We have stolen children for many years, said the fairies. We know what we are doing. Toybels felt blind fury. One night he escaped into the forest. Creatures tried to carry him off and eat him. Toybels fought them off with the hatred in his heart.
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28 June 2006
Prodigy: Part 3
Toybels Illtot did get better, although it took a long time. The fairies worked to make his skin a better fit. They walked on it with their little fairy feet, massaging and stretching it to a handsome texture. Toybels’s bones returned to their proper shape and proportions. The fairies told him that they often took children away from terrible situations to make them better. Toybels listened but did not understand. He assumed that the fairies were the same as he was. He loved their fairy skin and their fairy wings. He grew up, but so slowly that he hardly noticed.
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27 June 2006
Prodigy: Part 2
Toybels Illtot spent days curled up and immobile. The skin tightened around him. His bones deformed into bent claws and bowed arms and legs. This was no way to live. Toybels would most likely have died had not a herd of fairies chanced upon him. They took pity on his situation and lifted him away from ordinary existence and took him to a safe place in the forest, near a brook suffused with soft yellow light. That first night they all slept near him. Toybels’s eyes were glossy with fear and incomprehension. The fairies told him that would get better.
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26 June 2006
Prodigy: Part 1
Toybels Illtot arrived in the world completely naked. Someone with a hidden face handed him a brand new suit of skin. Toybels put the suit on before he realized it was much too small for him. He looked around for another, but found none. The anonymous person had disappeared too. Toybels decided he would have to make the best of things. He tried pushing his fingers into the glove of skin on the end of the arm. The fit was impossible. Toybels curled up into as small a space as possible. No one saw him. No one heard his cries.
Labels: Prodigy
