Leo: a fairytale about the Alberta tar sands
I wrote and illustrated this fairytale in response to my own grief about the short-sightedness and greed at the heart of the Alberta tar sands, and the greater and greater environmental devastation it's causing every day.
What story could I tell that would explain what is happening and offer a glimmer of hope for the future? The fairytale format allowed me to make believe and come up with a nice clean fix with my magic wand!
Scroll down to read the story.
The spell
Once upon a time, a
little boy, Leo, lived with his mother in a small village. For generations,
the village had been at the edge of a beautiful forest. But when Leo was
just a baby, the king was put under a spell by an evil spirit and became
exceedingly greedy.
After meeting a band of wealthy businessmen from another kingdom, the king decreed that the forest near Leo’s village be chopped down and the land cleared. The king’s minions then started to remove the oil from the sandy soil and sell it for great riches.
As time went on, the forest retreated farther and farther from Leo’s village. Soon the houses were surrounded—not by the sweet sounds of birds and night animals and the smells of spring leaves and summer berries, but by brown and grey muck as far as the eye could see. And the air smelled of oil and gas.
Day and night, all that the villagers could hear were the sounds of enormous trucks moving earth and drilling holes. Their water, which had been so clear and pure, turned strange dark colours and tasted horrible.
Leo’s dream
During this time, Leo’s mother became painfully ill. She had a mysterious disease the doctors could not name, let alone cure. She became sicker and sicker. And Leo started having dreams.
In his dreams, the forest animals told Leo about the evil spell the King has been put under and how he was cutting down all the forest to dig up the oil. If Leo could make the journey into the remaining forest, the animals would give him an elixir that would wake up the king and make him see the errors of his ways. Leo was their only hope.
At first, Leo was sceptical. But after many nights of the same dream, Leo gathered his wits and some supplies in his favorite backpack.
The journey
Early one morning, when the houses in the village were still and quiet, Leo set out on a journey to the forest.
Over days, Leo crossed the tar sands, avoiding the tailing ponds and trying not to get stuck in the muck or be seen by the workers in their enormous trucks.
Eventually, Leo met a beautiful white owl who showed him the rest of the way into the forest. The owl led him to a clearing where Leo met the other animals: a black bear, a deer, a family of snowshoe rabbits, a woodchuck, a gray wolf.
The elixir
The animals brought Leo the ingredients to make a magic elixir, which he mixed and carefully placed in a bottle. He wrapped it in a sweater in his backpack and set off again.
Leo travelled back out into the tar sands and across days of bleak landscape before he finally arrived at the king’s castle. The castle was surrounded by a moat, which Leo has no way of crossing. As instructed by the animals, Leo emptied the elixir into the dark, murky water.
The spell is broken
Bit by bit, the elixir transformed the toxic sludge into crystal clear water. After a little while, the clear water spread through the whole moat and entered the aqueduct into the castle. The clear water surprised the guards. They were so taken aback, they brought a sample to the king.
The king could hardly believe his eyes. When he placed his hands in the water, the spell was broken. He was immediately overcome by memories of what the world had been like when he was a boy: the land had been covered by forests and the people had been happy and healthy. The king immediately decreed that the natural order be restored.
The return
Leo returned home to his mother and poured the last drops of the elixir into their water cooler. After drinking the pure, clear water, Leo’s mother started to feel better and better. Soon her health was restored and the forest crept back to the village.
Everyone lived happily ever after.
The end