Work Text:
With the pages spread between my hands, I need not heed the warnings. I swim with the mermaid and know she will never drag me under; I dance with the fairies and lose not a moment to them; the dragon’s fire leaves me unburnt. Our mundane fears are broken down here, transformed into something just close enough to recognize, just distant enough to be safe.
In this way, we learn to appreciate it, to see the beauty in the things that frighten us. Mere words indulge our curiosity and echo these feelings, and in this way, we escape our fears.