"In stories, when someone appears in a poof of green clouds and asks a girl to go away on an adventure, it's because she's special, because she's smart and strong and can solve riddles and fight with swords and give really good speeches, and...I don't know that I'm any of those things. I don't even know that I'm as ill-tempered as all that. I'm not dull or anything, I know about geography and chess, and I can fix the boiler when my mother has to work. But what I mean to say is: Maybe you meant to go to another girl's house and let her ride on the leopard. Maybe you didn't mean to choose me at all, because I'm not like storybook girls. I'm short and my father ran away with the army and I wouldn't even be able to keep a dog from eating a bird."
The Leopard turned her prodigious spotted head and looked at September with large, solemn yellow eyes.
"We came for you," she growled. "Just you."
Catherynne M. Valente, from The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, 2011
4 comments:
Oh I have always wanted the leopard to say that to ME. I suppose eventually he did.
just when I was thinking to myself 'I wonder if Amanda will ever post anything ever again? I miss when Amanda posts things' I wake up to the very best thing.
I have never read this book, but now I'm so curious! Might have to find myself a copy :)
thewildestofdreams.blogspot.com
you give really good speeches.
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