Story is marked as mature

I joined my papa at the top of the hill. Intertwining my fingers, I stretched again, slowly pushing the sky away, reminding my muscles that they too must wake and ready themselves for work. The pleasant ache started in my upper arms and flowed both up and…

I stretched out, hand reaching languidly for the sun. I wanted to pluck the bright golden ball from the sea of blue and cup it in my hands. Having just woken up, for a moment I was a child again. And in that in-between of dream and wakefulness, reality s…

The awkward heaviness of the sword, made his swing go wide. The flying creature closed the distance between them, diving at Ian's face. Up close all Ian could see were the violent movements of wet membranous wings and chawing mouths. He threw up his left …

As I turned right at the old adobe building, Carmen's voice piped up from the back seat. "Grandma, where are you going?"

I was surprised that she had noticed. Usually her head was bowed over her phone, oblivious to the world around her.

"The Iron Skille…

All signs pointed to a rather violent end. The lights were off, the windows smashed. Curiously, the internet had been disconnected. Why would someone disconnect the the computers if they were going to blackout the house? I suspected that the intruder was …

Story is marked as mature

Driven by a promise, through the dark and twisted tunnels of the Dewar and the misty mountains of the Jian, through shrouded wood of the Elhu and the gray hillocks of the Hob, I have come. Step by heavy, faltering step I have traversed such distance and b…

Grims pulled the corpse of the kid from the post, allowing it to flop to the ground. There was no dignity in death, not that the Korpskys had any dignity in life, either. Once again he heaved the body over his shoulder and made his way among the weeds and…

Jimmy set his lunch down on the break table and plopped down in a chair, heaving a huge sigh.

"Man, what a day," he said, picking up his sandwich and taking a bite.

"Uh..." Frank said, looking at Jimmy then glancing quickly away to catch Seth's eye, sha…

"There is blood in the rain," stated the Deep One, matter-of-factly. He stood at the deck railing, staring out over the city spread out below.

"What do you mean, sire?" Kolster asked, looking up at the imposing figure looming over him.

"There is blood i…

Story is marked as mature

The thing that spoke to me had the face of a dead god but used the voice of my father. I had known to expect this. It was a by-product of the bonding ritual that gave a semblance of life back to this former deity. Not that any of the gods ever truly died,…

Jacqueline made a sour face. “You mean to keep an eye on me. I hate having someone watching over my shoulder.”

“We're both in the industry, spying is what we do.” Emily replied.

“I'd rather be the spy-er than the spy-ee.”

Emily cocked an eye at her phr…

Grims reached the outer fence, a rickety wooden thing with a large gap in between the top and bottom beam, that kept in the dumbest of the livestock. The gate was clear on the other side of the property and he didn't feel like circling the house just to u…

It closed its eyes and roared.

"Sacrilege! Blasphemy! Desecration! The Aldergods will destroy you utterly for this. You will be fodder for their entertainment. Perhaps even the Gilder- and Bolgurgods will--"

"Enough," I replied mildly. Its mouth clamped…

I held that piece of flesh up before me, bitter distaste filling my mouth. If what my father and I had done before had been blasphemy, this was surely something far worse, to desecrate the body of a god in such a way.

And yet it was necessary. This war b…

A child. Barely out of diapers. He stands stock still on the busy sidewalk as hundreds of grown-ups walk quickly past him.

The child stoops, plucking a key from a crack in the sidewalk, even though the crack isn't nearly large enough to accommodate such …

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…

It would be quicker to go through town but Grims didn't want to carry the corpse through the streets of Eggtown South. He already had a reputation, hard and bitter, but there was a difference between being rumored as a child-killer and toting a dead one d…

Grims slung his rifle then bent to the body. Blood dribbled from the kid's mouth, but not much. Three shots center mass had assured the kid died quickly.

A little blood, but it was enough. The yips and yowls sounded closer. Death was on the air now, and …

Grims surveyed the horizon moving only his eyes. He held a long butted rifle against his shoulder, barrel hot enough to warm the air near his neck. Nothing moved. The jamperscamps and mooncats had vanished at the sound of the first shot. In the ruddiness …

The fire rain came again last night, driving holes in the already pitted metal over our heads. Cossa and Sandry caught some splash drops with their faces and woke with permanent tears. Fire rain burned but everyone in our holding catches what they can to …

Jacqueline signaled the bartender for another mojito. “It's not obvious to me.”

“Since your attack on Isla Quiribi, F.A.C.E. has split and some enterprising splinters are exploring a kind of freedom that didn't exist under Dr. Whitman.”

“You need me to …