Tale 79- The Painter and the Snowflake

 As the Traveler traversed the path further, she was suddenly startled by a frightened yell, as a boy whizzed down the mountain path on his bike, unable to brake and slow himself down. The Traveler ran after him, soon becoming out of breath but unwilling to let him get hurt and deal with injury alone, and watched in fear as he crashed into a tree, falling down and hurting his knee, but luckily not having any serious injuries. Pulling a torn piece of cloth from her dress under the cloak, she tried to wipe his knee and he tied it with the cloth, grinning. “Check out how cool I look!” he laughed, the Traveler giving a giggle and helping him stand up. They decided to walk to the next town together, the boy asking what he could do as thanks for the aid, and the Traveler made her usual request, the boy smiling and telling the tale of ‘the Painter and the Snowflake’

‘Once upon a time, there was a painter on the shore, who was drawing a hand whilst listening to the crashing of the waves and the breeze rushing through the trees. He painted each detail finely, before wondering what such a perfect hand should hold. He decided that the hand should hold the world, and thus tried to fit everything in the world into the hand. Every person, every animal, every flower, every possession, every building…it was all too much. One person could not carry the entire world, and thus the painter had to repaint everything, for nothing would fit in the hand otherwise. Instead, he began to think of other things the hand should hold, and eventually decided on a small snowflake. The way he saw it, it was up to the viewer to decide if the world lay inside the snowflake or not, as people see the world in different ways through their imagination.’

The Traveler liked the story, writing it down when they finally arrived in the town, the boy hopping on his bike and meeting a group of friends further along, all of them chatting and laughing together. With a smile, the Traveler walked in a different direction.

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