I carried my father's post on my left shoulder as I walked back to the front of the property. I took care to avoid the golden post, though I knew it would not harm me. It was merely an omen, a message from the gods, but it was better not to tempt fate. In…

I don't know how I made it through what came next. The next days were a blur of pain, both physical and emotional, and fever dreams, in the rare moments when I slept.

My first task was to split the figure of my father in half, carefully using the tools o…

I grabbed our wagon, pushing it over to where my father stood, forever carven in wood. Carefully, I tipped him into the wagon, the bent steel post in his upraised fist clanging against the sides. Then I wheeled him to our workshop behind the house.

I had…

The group of three turned the corner slowly, as to not disturb whatever was making the heavy breathing sounds they had heard from down the hall.

"I don't think we woke it..." whispered Lynnia, putting her dagger back in its sheath. "... what is it?"

"Le…

Fijit was a teenager. And an orphan. And hadn't exactly been hanging out with the good crowd.

She was kicked out of the orphanage last week and hadn't seen any of her "running mates" since. Once you are out of the protection of the nuns, you are on your …

Reina browsed through the “curiosities” sure that everything in the store was junk. Wandering down an aisle between shaky-looking shelves, she heard the sound of a whisper, like a gentle shush or a snake sliding among tall grass but all she saw was an emp…

She heaved, great, gasping, shuddering sobs, still clutching the sword in her hand. Her tears that fell on the blade glistened and glowed blue, etching fine, dark lines into the metal as they traveled along it. She was oblivious of the carnage she had lef…

The forest lay in perfect stillness around her, the bodies of the beasts she had slain strewn haphazardly all about. She stood, head tilted forward, listening for the next attack. It never came. She held the sword aloft, the blue raging flames towering ov…

Malika danced. Creatures emerged from the darkness all around her, and she whirled among them. Her steps were light, quick. She never remained still, never allowed the beasts to reach her. She was driven by need, fueled by the sword's own desire.

Blood …

Malika stepped back, spinning to her left as another creature lunged out of the darkness. The sword in her hand sang with need, and she swung it up in a swift, arcing motion, ramming it into the creature's chest. Its momentum as it slammed into her knocke…

There's a creature that lives somewhere between my ribs. Small, wild, a lover of the moon. Shaped like a lily and glowing like the warmth of a single lit match.

It was born when we met. A spark amongst tinder.

It stumbled onto its feet like a newborn la…

Devynne had broken up with Carl a few weeks back, and had decided to rearrange her furniture. Startled, she stared at the fork. Her surprise quickly turned to rage. She wasn't going to clean up a single more fucking mess that that asshole made!

Devynne g…

Devynne was out of town, and Carl was apartment-sitting for her. Carl plunged Jeffrey teeth-first into some Chinese take-out. Over and over, Jeffrey fetched glistening pieces of glazed chicken until, at last, Carl was full.

Carl set the take-out box down…

Jeffrey was a shiny little fork, part of a full set. For a fork, he was relatively content. His owner, Devynne, used him often for a variety of foods and kept him nice and clean. He even had a boyfriend, a knife, Xavier, with whom he often hooked up for m…

Malika paced steadily deeper into the woods, sword out to the side. Pale blue flames, barely visible, licked along the blade's length. Near the base, just above the hilt, the only space not utterly consumed by rust, was etched a single word. Truth. It was…

The little girl entered the forest, armed with nothing but her courage, her grim determination, and the rusty sword strapped to her back. There were monsters in those woods - she could hear their howls, their cries to one another - but she was not afraid.…

“When we walk, we put one foot in front of the other. Each step forward we take is one that matters. If you are able to advance a yard, a foot, even an inch, then congratulations, you're still alive and doing us proud. Holding the line is good and it has…

"Take care of her, Woost," said the faerie, lifting off from the pillow and flitting to the window. "She's important in ways only she will be able to understand."

"I will be the very air she breathes," the elemental promised.

"I know you will." And then…

"What happens now?" asked Woost.

"Nothing," said the faerie, landing on the pillow next to the infant's head. "Now we wait. And make plans. And hope for the best. Nothing can happen until the child comes of age, anyway, not now that she is bonded and sea…

A spark of green faelight flitted through the nursery window as the last rays of day faded from the sky. At its a center a faerie, no bigger than a single mote of dust. It flew around the room once, twice, three times, before finally settling on the edge …

Damaran wove through the crowd with a thumb in his belt and glare for anyone that would meet his eye. It was a calculated posture designed to ward off would-be thieves. The sly ones would note the proximity of his hand and the apparent thinness of his mon…

He is a tiny man. Under four feet tiny. Balding pate. Small eyes. Round, tortoiseshell glasses. Tattered brown suit. Nothing to look at, certainly, not that anyone is looking.

He glides through the crowd, clearing a path without word or gesture. People m…

As the shade drifts by one particularly large oak, its glow momentarily illuminates a small, bulbous husk. There's just time to see a seam in the husk pucker before the shade glides by, returning the husk to darkness.

But then, a low, sustained intake of…

Story is marked as mature

Story is marked as mature