Once upon a time – neither long ago nor far away – it was Christmas and the snow was falling gently on to the Cold Stone Palace by the Great River.

The Dark Wizard, who had finally ascended the ruling throne after ten long years of waiting and brooding, found that the people did not love him as he thought they ought. He was ridiculed and pilloried and people laughed behind his back.

Now in the land of the Cold Stone Palace there lived a soothsayer – one of the golden elves with magic dancing feet from a smaller tribe. The soothsayer foretold of a debt bubble that would burst. He told of the need for the Dark Wizard to enter the fortress of doom and take the money-hoarders. For it was the money-hoarders whose greed and avarice had scarred not only this land but many lands. And when the Golden Soothsayer spake the people listened – for the Golden Soothsayer knew the future.

At the same time, there lived another tribe, led by the not so noble Blue Pretender. Now the blue tribe had been very happy when the Dark Wizard was being made fun of – but as the country sank into the slough of despond and the people were hungry and cold – they began to ask more and more of the Blue Pretender what his answers were. He was very eloquent and often said what he thought people wanted to hear – but in this time of great trouble and darkness – the people were scared.

And so they looked to the Dark Wizard – because for all his faults – and they were many – before he ascended the throne he had been the Chief Money Wizard and knew all the Money Wizards in every land and across the seas. And he was dour and gloomy and brooding and in such troubled times he seemed to offer a solidity which made the not so noble Blue Pretender seem shallow and hollow.

As the skies darkened and the icy blasts from the sub-prime land across the great water blew into this once happy land, the Dark Wizard took the Golden Soothsayer’s advice and entered the money-hoarders fortresses and took them over. And then he blew his magic horn and the Princes, Kings and Great Wizards from every land came together for the Great Discussion. And they all agreed that the Dark Wizard’s(but really the Golden Soothsayer’s) ideas were right. They would take the peoples’ gold and they would give it to the money-hoarders but the money-hoarders had to promise to then give it in turn to the people so that they could carry on their businesses and paying for their homes – and so the wheels of life would begin to turn again.

And the Dark Wizard was hailed as a great and wonderful wizard by them all – well all except a Witch who hailed from the Deutscheslands. Whilst the rest of the rulers realised that they needed to act as one – only she failed the Test of Ruling by agreeing with them whilst at the Great Discussion but secretly laying plans to undermine and attack the Dark Wizard.

The Dark Wizard returned and told the red, gold and blue elves who were gathered in the Cold Stone Palace that he had saved the world. A wave of shock ran through all the elves in the Cold Stone Palace as they realised that the Dark Wizard had fallen under a spell – the Spell of Grand Delusion. This was a spell that often fell upon leaders during their reign – and was a very difficult spell to break.

With no food and no work and no heat – and with a ruler fallen under such a spell – the people turned in their trouble to the Golden Soothsayer to ask that he tell them what the future would. And the Soothsayer told them of a long and difficult road ahead and warned that they should not heed the Dark Wizard any longer as his delusional state would guide them ill. And the people begged the Golden Soothsayer and his leader the Golden (and very handsome) Princeto take over the ruling of the country and save them from the hardships ahead.

Alas and alack – despite the wishes of the people – the ancient magic and law of the land dictated that only the Dark Wizard could name the time of the Great Choosing – and as he believed he and he alone had saved the world – he refused.

So the people took the future into their own hands. They stopped giving gold to the Dark Wizard and they built new, local and small money-hoarding halls who did help the people and lend them money.And the wheels of their lives began to be put back together. And the people also stopped thinking only about themselves.Those that still had work and a roof over their heads helped those who had fallen on harder times. And the people helped each other and whilst the Dark Wizard sat rocking back and forth all alone on his stone throne – the people held hands and shared the warmth of love and human kindness.

And I’m the Christmas Fairy!

(c) Lynne Featherstone, 2008