Figment

To Whom It May Concern,

You thought they weren’t real.

You thought the fairytales and folklore and fables were just plain silly; something adults tell their children to entertain their feeble, ever growing minds.

But what you didn’t know is that they are all around you.

Mostly, they lie in the deepest part of the wood, where their own fortress awaits visitors. There you will find everything that you remember reading about in your old book of tall tales-the leprechauns, the angels and demons, the vampires and werewolves, and, if you’re lucky, you’ll spot a dullahan with her intimidating grin. You’ll even encounter peculiar, nameless creatures that are unheard of in the human world.

The naked human eye is not trained to see these things. This is why no one else knows about it. But I am here to tell all. I am here to set the record straight.

One fateful day, in the lush green forest we call home, there held a revolution of sorts. The headmaster of our world, a cyclops, and the jury full of ogres held a hearing on whether or not we should make ourselves appear in every dimension, for we know the ins and outs of going through them. The cyclops thinks it is past time to let everyone know that we exist abundantly. All of the ogres, however, disagreed, and they reached a verdict.

“You can’t do this!” exclaimed one of the mermaids from a nearby pond, “Besides, the ogres do not speak for the rest of the creatures that dwell here!” Everyone else agreed in unison. The ogres were not having it. So, a war was declared.

Only some of us made it out alive. One of them being me. But after everything that happened, the last thing that everybody wanted to do was make the long journey to the multiple alternate dimensions among us. So, I suppose that just leaves me…living here and telling the tale you would’ve never thought would come true. However, there is no need to fret. The remainder of us are coming soon to move into the house next door to me.

All I ask is this: Do not do any harm to me or my friends. This includes telling anyone who will give us up to the CIA and perform experiments on us. We do not want to cause any chaos. We just want to live our lives as we once were before you all cut the trees down and put a shopping center in its place. You destroyed our home. Do not make us return the favor and destroy humanity.

Best Regards,

Your Neighborhood Centaur

P.S. Don’t ask how I wrote this with my hooves; it was a complicated process.

—By Kaitlin H.