“They want me to step up and do something, make peace, redeem the Giant’s lost civilization; I don’t feel like I’m that guy. I’m a journeyman wizard; I stay out of politics, and keep to my own business.” Juan sat with his back against a tree, hat in his lap.
Trevor and Gogmagog had left him a few hours ago. He had ventured deeper into the forest to find Ingrid, his lost lady love. She sat across ...
At night, the forest becomes alive with the spirits of the dead; human and animal spirits take their exercise along the trees. Many humans and as animals roam here. I come to gather their wisdom and counsel, and visit old friends, human and non human.
Orlando brought me. when I was a boy, to get to know them and learn their ways. I bring offerings when I come, biodegradable tokens to let them kn...
There’s a rumor going round that the king got replaced. The guy we see on TV is too tall. They never show his eyes close up, which is how you can tell when they’re wearing a hyper realistic mask- it sags at the eyes. His voice is wrong, too, a little high pitched and goofy, like an imitation of how he used to sound.
I heard it from one of the palace guards, who sees him all almost every day. Those...
I don’t believe in magic. I test it, and rely on the results. It’s my experience with magic that guides me, not my belief.
Strolling into the field, I opened my umbrella and waited. Ether rained on me, and if I absorbed any more I’d succumb to intoxication. Now I had reached equilibrium, and wanted to stay there.
Soon, the puffs of purple smoke heralded the invisible train. Right on time, for on...
Every day is the same. We have to block out the windows every night and put on blindfolds. Earplugs and white noise machines are used a lot. Without the night, people aren’t synchronized to begin and end activities in a predictable way, so lawns get mown and dogs get walked at all hours.
It’s safer than when we had darkness. No dark alleys for muggers to hide, no menace lurking to prey under cov...
Every day I’m out in the fields, searching for prey. Today I spent the morning crouched over a hole, scarcely breathing. Can they smell me, the way I can smell them? The scent fills my nostrils and his neck is in my mouth before I realize it. I shake and he thrashes; he’s gone in an instant.
I munch on this one for awhile; his meat isn’t what the boy deserves. Too old, too many bones; the boy nee...
I was beating him in the head, again and again, again and again, the wet thump of fist on flesh and bone, the bite and tears of the concrete into him. Blood spurted from what was left of his face as I growled, my vision dim and red. He wouldn’t hurt anyone ever again. He’d be an example for everyone like him.
Strong arms lifted me off his shattered frame, and I was flipped over, cuffed roughly, a...
Foxes live in the mountains and sleep in dens. I am not a fox, and I don’t have a place to sleep. Nor do you, my son. We must find and build our own place, our own safety. Such is our lot in life.
The tower at the ridge waits. We will scale the walls and go through the windows. It will belong to us; it will become our fortress. No one will conquer it once we have made it our home and our strongho...
The space between stars, the blackness, isn’t nothing. It’s potential space, and held together by gravity, the accumulated force of the weight and motion of all the bodies rotating and ricocheting through space. It positively thrums with energy.
Before Einstein, it was believed that this blackness was the Aether, the invisible force which sustains the universe. Einstein and others disproved this ...
My coffee needed something. I wasn’t feeling sugar, and black coffee didn’t agree with my stomach. Cream it was. I found the small container at the back of the fridge, and enjoyed the resulting tan brown beverage.
The phone buzzed in my pocket. My girlfriend was calling. She never called, she always texted. This was ominous.
“I’m pregnant, Brandon. I took three tests today and I’m sure of it.” E...