Jinnie the Spinning Dancer

        On an open ground, a maiden danced. She vigorously jumped, trying to reach into the sky. Even after she landed, her body remained spinning; her long and beautiful hair and her thin dress rotated along with her movement. The maiden held a horse-head staff in her hand, the whip-like reins on the horse head tightly strapped to the maiden. Every time she was about to stop, she would swing the staff hard. Then, she would repeat the jump, the spin and the dance all over again.

        At first, the maiden had worn a smile on her face, but she gradually realized: no matter how many circles she had spinned, what she wanted never came. The maiden hoped that time could turn back to the happy and carefree moment when her parents were still alive and stay there forever...

        To fulfill her “wish”, the maiden lost her Human body and was turned into a top. She existed like a merry-go-round just as she had wished. However, even she spun her new body, what she saw would never truly be unchanged; time would never travel back to the past. But the slender change and silent flow of time were so slight to be easily noticed.

        The maiden finally stopped her movement and stood against the staff, her smile faded. Her eyes seemed to have lost focus but still lingered on the ragged merry-go-round. Woodbury walked behind her and said...

        “Why did you suddenly stop?”

        “This is not what I wanted...This body...This is not my ‘wish’...What I wanted...was my parents. I want to stay with them forever!” Her emotion escalated as she spoke. Yet, though she felt sad, as a top now, she could not cry.

        “No...that is not your true ‘wish’.” Woodbury walked in front of the maiden and said.

        Woodbury’s words shocked the maiden, prompting her to raise her head and look into Woodbury with confused eyes.

        “Your true ‘wish’ is to be able to see your favorite scene forever, so you will remember the happy moment with your parents. Therefore...”

        The maiden fell back into her thoughts and failed to notice the change in Woodbury’s expression. Woodbury waited for a while before saying with an eerie smile...

        “Your ‘wish’ has already been fulfilled.”