"Here's the wager, my young friend." he challenged. "I'll give you my balls, and you give me yours. Whoever drops last is the winner."

"And what does that mean?" I asked. I knew I could out juggle him, or anyone else for that matter, on only three balls. I also was still young enough not to be able to turn down a challenge.

"We'll decide as the balls fly." He tossed the gray ball at me. I caught it in the same hand as the blue one. When the two hit a bit of water splashed up onto my tunic. The new ball was cold, very cold.

"Agreed, my aged acquaintance." I bent down and threw three of my sawdust sacks at him at once. He caught them all while throwing his last at me. I started a fountain before it arrived and it fell right into my palm. It was hot. I immediately threw it back into the air, high, so I could compose myself. It felt like handling coals from the kitchen's hottest stove. My competitor was tossing my balls with ease.

"What will I win?" I asked as I prepared for the yellow ball to come back down.

"I understand you want a girl. Is this correct or shall we have to look elsewhere for a prize for my handsome, eternal comrade?"

I couldn't answer right away as all my concentration was, on my burning hand. I arranged the toss so the blue, wet ball would follow the yellow one and be followed by the gray cold one. As soon as my circle became stable I resumed the conversation. "And if you win?"

"Which I'm sure due to your arrogance is highly unlikely. If I win, you lose. And if you lose, you come with me. And the two of us go back to where I'm from."

"You're from here?" I asked as the blue ball came up in the cycle.

"Yes. From deep inside."

"Why do you want me?"

"My king doesn't like it when people live a long time. And you, my ageless courtier, are slated to live longer than most. Getting warm yet?"

The yellow ball was getting hotter every pass it made. But I was too young to admit defeat, especially if it meant not entertaining at the pageant.

"How do you live inside this ball?"

"It's larger than it appears. Would you believe me if I told you you held a world in your hands?"

'This is a world?" I asked. I was amazed. I realized he was a magician when I felt the balls, but a world? Incredible!

"Yes. That is a world. Like your world." "Do people juggle with my world?" "No. I only have one set of balls." He looked as if he could juggle my balls forever.

"Then I change the bet. My balls for yours." I said it simply, as if it was already a fact, which in my mind it was. I couldn't see a whole world being juggled for the pleasure of a single King.  My statement took my opponent off guard and he bellowed, "What?!"

He looked at me hard and I could feel the yellow ball, which was next to hit my hand, getting hotter than the sun. I gritted my teeth, caught and tossed it.

Then I heard the slight tinkle of something striking a glass shard. I risked a glance down to see one of my multi-colored balls leaking sawdust from a slight puncture it received as it landed on the floor....

"I won."

"And did you get the princess?" The children asked me eagerly.

"Ahh... That is another story, for another day." I said as I got up and readjusted my ever-present juggling pouch. Even through the thick leather I could still feel the heat of the sun, the cold of the moon and the wet of the Earth.                                                

Jaq Greenspon is a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America from Venice, Calif, who has published short stories and screenplays. He is also managing editor of a motorcycle magazine in the Los Angeles area.