The Mountain Spirit

She will marry the man who hides where she cannot find him. She has a glass that sees everywhere.

The gods know exactly how the world ends, who kills them, and in what order. They have known for a very long time. They go on anyway.

A king who kills a new wife every morning. A storyteller who has worked out that a story left unfinished at dawn buys her one more day.

Born from a stone, he learned every trick heaven had, ate the peaches of immortality, and got himself buried under a mountain for five hundred years.

A boy kills a hound and takes its place as guard dog. He is given a choice: a long life nobody remembers, or a short one they never stop singing about.