The Boy Who Walked On Air

Once upon a time there was a Boy who walked on Air. He walked not high on air, only a couple of feet. He walked not high on air, for it was only because his beloved, the Earth-Princess, would not let him touch her.

Others touched her. All the other people he had ever seen walked on her up and down in fact. However, the Earth-Princess told the boy: “You are special, you are my chosen. But as you may not touch me until we are wed.

And so the boy went, into the world, that he might find one to teach him what it was to be a man, and have a man’s work.

The first creature the boy found looked like a man, and worked on an anvil, hammering out golden horseshoes. this creature had many wives, all twisted and chattering and ugly, drooling all, and all surrounding him and fawning on him and even interfering with his work to gain his attention, though his work was to make the very gold horseshoes that fascinated them.

The boy told the creature his story, and the creature said, “If you would be like me, then you must provide practical services! See how many horses stand in my stable to be shod!” The boy looked, and saw horses that stretched in a waiting line all the way up to a far mountain, and beyond which the boy could not see. But most of the horses appeared old, and very old, as if they had waited long.

And the first creature swung his hammer, and gold exploded in thin flakes as he struck the horseshoe, and his blow exposed the dull, rusty iron he had plated. The boy saw the creature’s wives scatter as they realized what little gold he actually had, and the creature wept for awhile. But then he rose and started to plate his horseshoes with gold yet again, only to have scores of new wives drawn by the glitter, and the horses neigh outside as they paced in the cold, unshod.


The boy went on and found a second creature, who held a parchment tablet. With careful measurements the second creature was examining drawings of horseshoes. The boy told the second creature his tale, and asked why he examined drawn horseshoes.

And the second creature replied: “If you would be like me, then you must understand the essence of the gold horseshoe. You must understand the essence, for even the most solid gold horseshoe you may cast is but a pale reflection of the essence. Then, when you understand the essence of the Gold Horseshoe you may manipulate any base metal, even lead, even any object, yea black soil itself. You may manipulate it into the form of a gold horseshoe, and you will be a man, whose wives will never run away.”

But the boy looked about and saw no horseshoes, nor wives. He spoke of this to the second creature, who said that he could create a golden horseshoe at any time he pleased. He said that he could make a gold horseshoe, and attract many wives, and he simply chose not to at this time.


The boy went on to a third creature, whom he found poking a finger into he sand. The boy told the third creature about the first two foolish creatures, and the third creature said: “Those two foolish creatures! The golden horseshoe indeed has a pure essence, but the essence cannot be captured. And because the essence of the gold horseshoe cannot be captured it can only be reflected by the humble hand of an artist. See how I have drawn a gold horseshoe in the sand?”

The third creature told the boy to try this, and the boy drew a horseshoe in the sand. He drew a horseshoe, though it did not look much like one, and reflected that this artist’s drawing did not look like a horseshoe at all. But the boy felt better and said: “At least I can do this."

More, he soon found that, unlike this rather bumbling artist that the boy still knew he must call master for now, the boy was quite good at this. "I can do this, and now I am a man with a man’s work, and may wed wives, or at least the one wife whom I love.”

And though the boy had but whispered the third creature rose, red with anger. “Wives? Wives? Do you not know it is bad to be a Man, and that those who are Man walk all over Princess Earth’s face? They walk on her face and defile her, and should be ashamed.”

And the boy said, “But are you not as a Man, creature, and do you not walk as all creatures but I do, upon Her?” And the creature said, “Yes, but I am properly ashamed.”

“All I wanted to do was touch her face,” the boy said, and walked away, doomed to trod only upon the air.