For the kids,
Dominic, Kierra, Kiah, Tulia,
Siena, and Dan-Dan
He descended from the clouds like an angel, enveloped in a ray of light so brilliant that Sabrina and Daphne had to shield their eyes. When he landed nimbly on the ground, the light dimmed just enough so that they could see his face. Aside from his smile, the man he had been just moments before was gone, his flesh replaced by shimmering crystal, his eyes by blazing fires, like two small suns shining down. He stepped toward them with extended arms, and they stumbled back in fear. His smile quickly turned to a frown.
"What are you doing?" Sabrina demanded. "I'm granting myself a wish," he answered.
"I'm giving myself the power to make the people I love happy. I've been miserable. Happy is better. You can be happy, too. Wish for something, Sabrina. Anything. I can make it happen."
"But look at the cost!" Granny Relda said as she hovered over Mayor Charming's rapidly aging body. His beloved Snow White lay next to him, reaching with bony, arthritic hands to touch his wrinkled face. Everywhere Sabrina looked, Everafters lay struggling against the sudden onrush of old age. Many were in the final throes of death.
"Don't cry for them," the glittering being said to the old woman. "The Everafters have had their day in the sun, and it was a long, long day. With their power I can re-create this world as a paradise where 'happily ever after' isn't just for a bunch of bedtime stories come to life. It's time for all our dreams to come true!"
