
The Queen Who Remembered How to Laugh
In a coral kingdom that has grown quiet through a long season of worry, an ailing queen rises from her bed and a bumbling pufferfish musician begins, badly and beautifully, to play. As the reef gathers to sing and circle and drum on scallop shells, the queen understands that joy is not something added to a life but something a heart returns to when it finally stops bracing.
Retold from Japanese Fairy World, by William Elliot Griffis.