They couldn’t escape now. The harpies had already seen them, there in their ship, huddled for protection as those sweeping women came down with taloned feet and grasped at them. They picked them like apples, one by one. Skin here, a limb there, and dropped each gift into to the ocean. Those whose pieces were lucky enough to make it to land were dropped in a boiling cauldron that the harpies had pr...

“Order, order, we have a full agenda here and I need to get out of here on time to pickup Allie from basketball practice. First welcome to the Harkford Island Town Council meeting. I need a motion to approve last meeting’s minutes,” Mayor Stan Caldwell said.

A flurry of grumblings and a few hoots accompanied the motion. Every seat was taken in the large hall and the overflow stood in the back. Har...

This new land was supposed to promise hope.

But as their ship neared the harbor, the circling harpies painted a different picture entirely.

They wore their finery and precious gems, as though to remind all those entering the grand harbor that they were only here because of charity.

The whispers and rumors about the kingdom of peacekeepers were false. He could see it in the gawking masses. The ...

“I’ve got bad news, Capn,” the First Mate, Stubb, said.

Captain Bloodspoor bit into a lemon and spat a seed on the deck, which had just been freshly swabbed.

“It’s about those circling seagulls, isn’t it.”

Stubb coughed. “Upon closer inspection, Sir, they are most definitely not seagulls.”

The lemon worked its way about in the old pirate’s mouth as he thought. “Harpies, ain’t they.”

The F...

They had seemed like birds from far away, and at first had been a welcome sign of land - for where there are birds, there must be somewhere for them to nest. But as we sailed nearer, and the distant shore appeared on the horizon, green and brown and beautiful after so many days surrounded by nothing but blue and white, the "birds" continued to grow in our vision until they were larger than any bir...

“What did I say?” Chas said in a hushed voice, “Stay away from him!” He pulled his younger brother away and yanked on his elbow to sit back down on the wet wooden floorboards.

“Peyton? But why? He seems harmless enough,” Peter said, rubbing his nose with his dirty sleeve, “and he’s got bread. Look!”

The bearded man sat only a few feet away from them, keeping to himself as he had done the entire ...

Captain Murphy steadied his hands, his fingers angled around the brass of his spyglass. The curve of the ocean was far from view as he stared into the sky.

A slight breeze roused the ship's white sails, and the sun’s touch slicked his body, tightening his tailcoat around him like a second skin. Deep, admiral blue had brushed away the clouds and settled the sea to a mirror shine, yet as Murphy tw...