Datadump
Renamon woke to the smell of soil and gardening tools. She found herself bound and gagged, arms tied together behind her back. Her legs bound at the ankles kept her trapped. And sitting in front of her, jerking himself off, was Impmon. “Oh, you awake,...
Little Riotous Joys
“Your hair is getting so long,” Srei said as she combed out Esmal’s curls with her fingers. Esmal sat at the desk in his room—Srei helping him get ready for his dinner with Sisbul. “I’ve actually never had it this long before,” Esmal said. “It’s...
In a Rut
Pittsburgh was all winding hills till you reached downtown. Then it was cracked pavement, people in suits walking up Boulevard of the Allies. Service workers with blue-tooth speakers playing in their bag waited at the bus stops. Homeless shared...
The Price of Knowledge
Cathka's wings ached from flight—shoulder blades burning from beating her way here. Ahead of the king's soldiers, lest they make a mess of things by trying to invade the tower. She saw the monolith rising in the middle of a wheat-field long before she...
Opening That Door
Carnelian took a table with a view of the door to Cardinals, a coffee shop that had opened up the year before. It was midmorning on a Tuesday, and the place was only half-full at the moment. A drone of quiet conversations played over the college radio...
Breaking the Mare: Abraham
If a centaur ever snuck up on a human it would entirely be the human’s fault. You did not see the centaurs coming, but you saw the cloud of dust thrown in their wake as a group of them sped over the plain in your direction. October light slanted into...
A Peacock's Blossom
Mira needed out of her life. The peacock just broke up with her longtime boyfriend, and just everything was in the air. Friends, the workspace they shared, the apartment whose lease was only halfway through. She did not tell her boyfriend where she was...
With You Till the End
Esmal fluttered awake, hand prickling with pins and needles. The one Shkhanna had been holding when the fog came in. There was no fog. There was desert heat soothed by a late summer rain outside. Slowly he collected his senses: He lay in the library...
A Shark's Lover
Elly heard Marshall's door open. She called from their shared kitchen, "I'm making breakfast!" The smell of already brewed coffee called to her, but she managed to keep her attention on the pancake she just flipped on the griddle. Already strips of...
What Dodos Do
“Oh, traveling again, Mike?” The human villager approached the counter of his island airport. Things were quiet and empty at the Dodo Airlines airport. They usually were. Behind the desk of the kiosk sat a tall, chubby dodo named Orville. He had a...
The Accursed Pt 3
Shock. Grief. Confusion. Kemly did not know why this confusing mixture poured through him. But it began to haul him out of his state of bliss and back to his senses. First, the soft, fine warmth of Illeb's body against his, next the musky scent of his...
A Good Smell; A Nice Voice
Sylve hugged the collar of her dusk-colored traveling cloak closer. Her summer coat felt mismatched to the alpine climate the Pitri lived in. She waited before a pair of wooden doors carved with a relief of a tree large as the mountains its trunks...