Everlasting

The Little Boy and the Little Muse

A lonely young boy sat in the garden. He had no friends. 

A little girl approached him, "What's your name?"
"I'm no-one" he said. 
The little girl giggled and replied "That's a coincidence, my name is no-two".
The boy smiled.

The little girl continued her introduction.
She revealed that she was a muse, the youngest of the muses in fact. 

As the youngest muse, she was very immature and bratty. She hadn't learned how to use her powers accurately and responsibly, for this reason she would channel her creativity into practical jokes. 

The little muse felt pity for the boy that had no friends so she recklessly attempted to enchant him with everlasting inspiration.

Needless to say, the enchantment was flawed due to the little muse's inexperience. To make matters worse, a spell of everlasting inspiration is too much for a little boy to handle. 

The spell led the boy into an obsession for painting. 
He often refused to eat, sleep or do anything that would keep him away from painting.
He was in constant tears and would often faint.

Fortunately for the boy, humans are more rational than muses. He quickly learned that starvation and sleep deprivation only hindered his artistic abilities.
In time, his crying ceased and he honed his craft, creating beautiful paintings every day with ease. 

The little muse was rife with jealousy at the boy's artistic prowess; she offered to be his first ever friend on the condition that he would teach her human rationality. 

They became very good friends, they would play together as children do but as the little muse's intelligence increased, so did her tricks.

One account of her tricks involved trying to cut the boy's hair in his sleep.
She hadn't yet learned that her loud footsteps may wake the boy and thus he awoke in time to protect himself. 
The boy forcefully took the scissors out of her hands, to which she cried.

Despite her mean behaviour, he was glad to have a friend. This was special for him so he kept the scissors with him wherever he went. Plus, who knows what she might get up to with those scissors. 

One day as they relaxed in the garden together, the little muse pushed the sitting boy and exclaimed "let's play kite! I will dance in the air and you will hold me forever".
She transformed into a kite and the boys right hand was made inseparable from the string. 
As a right-handed painter, this was an issue. 

The boy knew a way out of this, he reached into his left pocket for the scissors. 
This was revenge for all of the mean things she had done to him. 
He cut the string.

The little muse feigned happiness and mocked the boy, "Jokes on you! Now I'm free!".
What she really felt was betrayal, as she wanted to be held forever by the boy she had become fond of.

This feeling of betrayal was soon accompanied by fear as it seemed the little muse lacked enough power to resume humanoid form, let alone land safely. 

Meanwhile, an elder muse was sitting on a cloud, playing the lute. Having witnessed all that happened, she had to intervene. 

The elder muse knew the little muse and her constant desire for chaos.
She cursed the little muse to remain a kite and drift aimlessly in the wind until she were to mature into womanhood, a time when hopefully she may have grown out of playing tricks.

The elder muse proceeded to scold the boy for taking revenge on the little muse.

"Mortal, don't you know when little girls are mean it is because they like you? Little girls and particularly us muses are emotional creatures.
Affection is all she wanted.
Typical human, you do not understand passion."

In her anger she cursed the boy, rendering him unable to use a paintbrush. 

"As a muse, I create tortured artists - I sense in you however a loneliness far beyond what I have ever created."

"Allow me to reassure you. Your friend is not lost and I promise your reunion to occur in an unknown time, in an unknown form."

"Your ability to paint with everlasting inspiration remains, but not with a brush"

She gifts him the lute.

"With this, you may paint dreams and visions.
When you restring a lute, the ends of the strings must be trimmed. Judging by those scissors in your hand I see that you are prepared".