The Stone Shepherd's Son
By James Comins
()
About this ebook
A shepherd made of stone had a son. Today the boy is old enough to set off to seek his fortune in the big city.
But the big city is abuzz: the tin princess and the silver queen have gone missing, and the golden king is desperately worried. He offers a bodacious bonanza to the one who rescues the royal ladies. So the stone shepherd's son begins his quest.
Only neither of the royal ladies is exactly helpless, thank you, and both of them have their own lives to live. Which is not to say they've got it totally under control, either. A shepherd's son with the world's smallest violin, a rare windflower seed and a piece of ever-burning charcoal might come in handy in averting a war between two imperial grumps.
And just such a war needs averting ...
James Comins
James Comins is the author of Fool School and Fool Askew, formerly available from Wayward Ink, "Notes Found Inside the Body of the Convict Clarence Skaggs," published in CrimeSpree Magazine #48, and other stories. He currently lives in New Orleans.
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Book preview
The Stone Shepherd's Son - James Comins
The Stone Shepherd’s Son
by James Comins
Smashwords Edition
Published by James Comins on Smashwords
Copyright 2012 James Comins
This book may not be reproduced, copied and distributed without permission from the author. Your support and respect for the property of the author is appreciated. This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons living or dead, places, events or locales is purely coincidental.
If you enjoyed this book, please visit the author's Smashwords page at
http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/jamescomins
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Five
Chapter Ten
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Twenty
About the Author
for Channa, with kites for Raiya
always for you
Chapter One
Once upon a time there lived a shepherd of stones. Every day he'd wake up at dawn to tend to the stones in his fields. He’d collect the morning’s stone eggs, shear the stones for their stone wool, and milk them for their stone milk.
It goes without saying, of course, that the shepherd was also made of stone, a stone man living in a wooden house. Why a wooden house? Because the stone man was too sentimental to kill a single stone.
The shepherd of stone had a son. When the boy was old enough, he told his father, Dad, it’s time for me to go out into the world to seek my fortune.
But my son,
the shepherd said, look around you. Stones in every direction. The only thing you know about in all the world is stones. You don’t know anything about the world out there. You should stay at home and help me on the farm.
Until when? There’s a whole world out there,
said his son, pointing. "I want to learn all about it. I’ve got to learn about it."
The shepherd sighed. Very well. Stay one last night in your home, help with the morning chores one last time, and then you can set off into the world.
That evening, the shepherd told his son a story.
"My son, once there was a man who was afraid of stones. All his life he stayed as far away from them as possible. He wore extra-tall shoes, just to keep a little further away from the stones of the earth. And when he found a stone on his land, he’d pick it up with long tongs and set it in a pile at the far edge of his land.
"Over time, the pile of stones grew larger and larger, and the man grew more and more afraid. He went hunting for stones that were hiding in his land, digging deep into the earth for them, pulling them to the surface and adding them to the growing wall that surrounded him.
"Eventually the wall of stones grew so high that they knocked the sun out of the sky. But still the man piled up every stone he could find.
"At longest long last, the man had cleared his land of stones. But as soon as he had finished, he fell ill from his fear. He knew a doctor who could heal him, but the doctor lived a village away. With such a tall wall around his land, the man couldn’t climb to the other side. He shouted and shouted for help, but no one heard him. He tried pulling the stones down, but there were decades’ worth of stones. Too many. He tried knocking the wall down,