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Posts tagged edge of the world

Six things that may be found close to the edge of the world

1. The clouds are low and thick near to the edge of the world, and a determined person may climb up into them and squelch around (although it is very wet up there and there is not much of a view). There are several species of trees that grow upside-down, reaching roots into the air in the hope of snaring a passing cloud.

2. The houses at the edge of the world are low and made of light wood, and when the wind rolls in from the edge they sometimes lift up and float; a stout rope being required to make sure that they do not blow away. They say the people who live there have light bones, like birds, and their skin is very dark.

3. Some days the forests catch all the clouds, and on these days the sun is bright and low and fierce and burning, and the beaches and deserts of the edge-world are a syrupy pinky-gold in the light and too hot to walk on.

3. There are birds who fly out to the edge of the world and keep on going, as if they have set their compass by a distant star. These birds never come back, but fortunately there are enough birds in the world to bear their loss.

4. There is an ancient postal service there which uses trained turtles to carry letters. In theory, I believe, one could send a postcard to the edge of the world and back, although it would need a sequence of addresses to make it though all the postal systems in between.

5. The mountains out there, such as they are, lean away from the edge. They have the appearance of low and worn teeth. Sometimes, when the edge-wind blows particularly strongly, rocks roll up their slopes and launch into the air from their summits.

6. Sometimes the earth creaks on its unnatural axis, out by the edge, and the sound is deafening. Great flocks of tawny gulls rise up from the beaches when this happens, and circle over the edge-waters (which are shallow and fast-running) for a day or more until they feel it is safe to land again.

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