The Angry Tables of Tablia
I went through this phase where I wrote fairy tales after a person gave me a word to base it on. The word some one gave me for this was "killer chair."


Once upon a time, the stork was on a daily routine, delivering babies to kingdoms in the lands and across the seas of eternal blue. He was on his way to the most magnificent castle to greet the king and queen with their bundle of joy, the prince. However, the stork was a little tipsy on this day. He had been partying with a few bards the evening before and drank a little too much. Suffice to say, his flying wasn't all that graceful and he was getting a bit sick to his stomach. Feeling even more dazed by the moment, he quickly searched for the castle. In his drunken state, he flew over the wrong kingdom and swooped down to a small stone house at the edge of town. He entered the house, squinting his eyes as he looked around the empty place.

"Looks like the queen and king have been renovating! A bit tiny this place has -hiccup- gotten, eh? Well, I'm sure your parents will be home soon anyway. No need to worry," he slurred drunkenly to the baby, placing him on the floor.

With that, the stork flew out of the house and left the baby boy behind in this kingdom. What was so wrong about it was that this kingdom was ruled by living and breathing tables. The tables were like people very much. They could run, walk, talk, eat, and sing if they wanted to. However, one thing was outlawed in the kingdom, and that was making things out of wood, because to do that it would be like killing a fellow table.

At that moment, the child started crying and the only other human in the village (a young woman who also got left there by a drunken stork) walked into her home and looked down at him. She sniffed the air and sighed heavily when she smelled the aroma of alcohol. She knew it was another drunken stork. From that day forward, she took care of the boy who they both never knew was a prince.

As he grew, she taught him many things, even though she did not have a lot of possessions herself. You see, the city they lived in was called Tablia and the tables did not take a liking to humans at all. They even built a high wall around their kingdom to keep the humans out. They had one main reason for that. What were to happen if the lands surrounding Tablia did not have enough supplies of tables? They would surely come to Tablia and use the tables there as slaves. So, they shut out the humans. They did want to get rid of the girl and boy living there, but the two lived in the smallest house and no table was able to walk through their door.

The most important thing the young girl stressed to the boy, whom she named Matthew, was proper table manners at dinner time. In her house, she only had a few things: a television, a freezer, and a pillow. In her freezer, she had a carton of sherbet there that she never ate. She told Matthew that sherbet was such a delicacy that you had to eat it at a table to properly enjoy it. She even made him promise to eat it only when he could leave Tablia and eat the sherbet on a table. So, he made this promise to her, and just in time, for the next day when Matthew had turned seventeen, the woman died sadly. Matthew was left in the town of Tablia without a clue how to get out. Security was very tight around Tablia. There were soldiers guarding the wall day and night, defending it from humans at all costs might they come. Matthew did not know what to do and over the next few days, he became depressed at being alone now.

One day, he was sitting in his empty living room watching the television when there was a sudden announcement on the daily Tablia news.

"This just in Tablia news. There has been reported an escaped killer chair from Chairalie. Please be on the look out and sharpen your the ends of your legs."

Sharpen the ends of your legs? the boy thought. Now what did that mean?

So he got up and walked to his window and looked out. Then he blinked a couple times in disbelief. The tables had been sharpening their legs into points to protect themselves. Normally, they would trample over the invaders, but this was a killer chair. With pointed legs they could fight the killer chair off successfully and if they wanted to, they could chip away at Matthew's door and break it open so they could fit in finally.

It was then that Matthew really had to live in fear. Not just because of the tables, but because of the psychotic chair that was on the loose from Chairalie. He sighed and got up and looked at his sherbet for a long time and hugged it. Then he put it back in the freezer with a sigh as he contemplated the troubles of his life. Things seemed very grim after all.

That night, he startlingly awoke, hearing something wrapping at his window, banging on it. So, he got up quickly and ran over to the window. He then blinked a couple times, for clear in his sight trying to get in his house was the killer chair! If he were to go out of his house, the tables would kill him, but then there was the chair at his window. Then the chair getting frustrated, dive bombed into his room and broke the window. The chair quickly flipped up and looked at Matthew, who backed up against the wall of his house, scared out of his wits.

However, the chair started speaking gracefully to a panicked Matthew and he became less frightened. The chair started to explain how he was not a killer chair from Chairalie, but a messenger from Matthew's kingdom. Seems the king and queen had found out about the incident (after that, they outlawed drinking alcohol to storks) and set after their son. They sent the most skilled mercenary, the chair, to rescue Matthew from Tablia. But, even if it seemed like he was to be saved, how would they leave Tablia? Surely the tables had heard the crash and would be on their way any minute now.

Just then, the chair started telling the prince not to worry because he had hidden wings (this is a fairy tale, after all). So with that, they walked right out of his house and in front of the gathering tables. Next, the chair spread its wings and Matthew hopped on. They both laughed and started to depart and it was then that Matthew tried to leap off the chair, because he had forgotten his sherbet! But if he went back now, he would be killed by the riot of angry tables below him, so he had no choice to leave it and his promise behind in Tablia.

So, they went back to Matthew's kingdom and all was well. Matthew made friends, which he had never had before. One of them was a girl named Adria, whom he talked to all the time and she would show him things about his kingdom. He also visited the chair and found out the chair's nickname he had earned was "Killer". But, something was missing. He had gotten sherbet, but it didn't seem as good and sweet as he had expected. Maybe it was because he had broke his promise to the woman that made all sherbet taste bitter from there on out.

So, Adria saw that Matthew looked a little depressed and she wondered what was wrong. Now strangely, her aunt was a table from Tablia, so she wondered if her aunt might know. So, she snuck into Tablia and visited her aunt. Her aunt was actually a nice table, but Matthew would have never known, since he never left his house. While Adria was talking to her aunt, her aunt explained how they had destroyed Matthew's house, but before they did, she had found a carton of untouched sherbet in the freezer. Adria thought that must have been it. So, with that, she took the sherbet and went back to the castle.

Matthew was very surprised when Adria came back with the sherbet and she told him all about it. He was so happy to see the carton of sherbet, that instead of hugging it, he hugged Adria. With that, he found the best table in the castle and ate the best sherbet in the whole, entire world with his best friend.

Promises, Matthew thought, can be so sweet and rewarding.