The Third Sister
It was fall in the north-central region of the kingdom of Jigsaw, when sensible, less hardy dragons migrate to the southern jungles, fires from festivals honoring the harvest gods climb into the sky almost every night and illuminate the forest treetops in a warm glow, and if you are not quick to harvest the years crops, they might just do the job for you.
Come back here!
Rose, grab it!
Umph! Cockatrice feathers!
Not all of them, of course. But enough that farmers generally only could handle a single crop a year of plants that didnt have the courtesy and patience to wait to
Pandoras Cookie
You may be familiar with the phrase, Id have to see it to believe it. Well, in the kingdom of Jigsaw, people say, Idiots believe in the impossible, but only fools refuse to believe in the very, very unlikely. And impossibility has been found to be incalculably rare. For, in Jigsaw, simply refusing to believe in something increases any individuals chance of actually encountering it. Sea monsters, dragons, vampires, ghosts, free lunchesthey all exist.
The point is, most people from Jigsaw see at least a few impossible things before breakfastexcept, of course, fo
Tea Leaves
The trees in the peaceful angel city of Sabynne blew with a soft restlessness that day, as if with the knowledge that something was in the air, but with the unwillingness to share that knowledge, should someone inquire into it. Perhaps it was in the way the leaves seemed almost to wish to escape from their branches, despite the certainty that they would eventually shrivel up and die should they accomplish the feat.
Sabynne is a capital city, of sorts, for angels, nestled in well-cared for forests that seemed to have a light about them even on the darkest of nights. As the rest of the world is mostly inhabited by (by angelic stand
Today had not been a good day. It really, really had been a downright unpleasant day. Not that the past few days hadn't been equally unbearable—to be fair, I'd been having a horrible time throughout our entire trip through Merid's Mark. It was notable, however, that that particular day was not any better. The only body of water in the Merid's Mark canyon is Demon's Blood River, and its red, brackish water tastes awful. Even at my thirstiest, I could barely stomach it.
I stumbled to my sore feet after nearly gagging on another mouthful of water. "This place is—fascinating." I was about to remark my dislike for our current situation, but I kne
A sore ass really takes the fun out of any adventure. We'd been sitting in 'the cave' for about an hour before my rear started to get sore. Our hands had been tied securely behind our backs and we had immediately given up on the idea of trying to untie each others' knots as our bindings had been tied to cold, rusty metal rings that had been installed in the wall at about three feet from the floor—put here for just such a purpose, I imagined (but they could have easily been used to hang things on). We hadn't been bound at the feet, but it was nearly impossible and useless to try to stand up anyway. Not even Aleric was strong enough to break fr
Desert Phoenix
After the drought hit Aldis, the tiny desert village seemed to be beset upon by the elements almost without pause. In isolation at the edge of the Sandy Sea, Aldis had always sustained itself with a series of wells and springs that had supplied it with sustaining water for hundreds of years. But a few days ago they'd begun to dry up, and the sun seemed to shine even hotter and the blinding white of the rocks most of the homes of Aldis were made of became unbearable. A wizard who could conjure water had been sent for, but this would prove an expensive and temporary solution, and the Silver Mountains stood between Aldis and the
"But is green really a heroic color? Or even a dignified one?"
I blinked, and raised a hand to point indignantly—the tiny clatter of my ale almost tipping over as I bumped it made my heart jump like getting kicked suddenly in the back. I moved the thick green tunic from the abused splintered tabletop onto my lap. The saturated earthy green turned almost black in the shadow of the table. Yeah, I hadn't put much thought into it. About as much thought as we'd made deciding which tavern to stop in—how long would I be wearing this thing? I scratched a bit of grit off the folded sleeve. May as well keep it presentable for as long as I could, I tho
Aleric's Birthday Scramble by reannaking, literature
Literature
Aleric's Birthday Scramble
Aleric's Birthday Scramble
By Reanna King
"A-le-ric!" a cheerful, familiar voice intoned.
Aleric groaned and opened his eyes. "Ugghnn…" After mustering the energy to do so, he promptly closed them and turned over on his other side in bed.
"Aleric!" the voice repeated as if the name was the chorus of a song.
"Mmph…" Any intelligible reply was covered by Aleric's pillow.
"Hey!"
The world turned around on its side for a brief moment before Aleric hit the floor with a dull thud.
"If my life isn't in immediate danger, I'm going to be very disappointed," muttered Aleric.
"It will be if you don't listen to me!" Tione frowned down at him on
Wake Up for a Moment from this Dream of Me
Most students I knew at the Sela magic school went through a quill pen in about a week. I tended to need to buy a new one every few days. Many students liked to boast of their pegasus or gryphon-feather quills, but the size of the shaft made the line so thick as to be nearly illegible. A goose feather suits me fine, especially since I tend to write small.
"Shani?"
I always wrote my notes in a small clothbound blank book. While I could afford it, paper was not a common commodity so it was often bound into books to keep sheets organized and easy to find. It was the quick-ink-drying spell that was th
The Treacherous Truth
I'd always thought that the world was a bit twisted. In a world supposedly watched over by benevolent gods, creatures that were evil, feeding on the suffering of the innocent, existed wherever they couldn't be beaten back by mortals. The teachings and legends were simple: evil existed, and good existed to vanquish evil. It was something I rarely concerned myself with. I was a simple man and nothing had ever been called forth to question what I knew to be true.
I'd never lived anywhere but Eddin, nor did I feel any desire to leave the village of my birth for anything longer than a brief visit to the towns nearby to see