Quietus: A Fairy Tale in Three Parts (1)
_Mistah Kurtz... He dead A penny for the old guy._ Those who have crossed With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom Remember usâ€"if at allâ€"not as lost Violent souls, but only As the hollow men The stuffed men. * * * Once upon a...
Chapter the Tenth: History
Under the wide and starry sky Dig the grave and let me lie. Glad did I live, and gladly die. and laid me down with a will. This be the verse you grave for me: _Here he lies where he longed to be; Home is the sailor, home from the...
Chapter the Ninth: Families
Yet when the sickness was sore in the land, And neither planets nor herbs assuaged, They took their lives in their lancet-hand And, oh, what a wonderful war they waged! Yes, when the crosses were chalked on the door- (Yes, when the terrible...
Chapter the Eighth: Sojourn
_With my hair slicked back with Carrion Shellac; With the blood from a pheasant and the bone from a hare Tied to the branches of a roebuch stag Left to wave in the timber like a buck-shot flag, Go away you Rainsnout. Go blow your brains out, ...
Chapter the Seventh: Ambitions
"The Mumgatu drove us out" the aging fox lamented, "They came in droves and attacked in erratic, and unheard of tactics. Their brutality is simply...unthinkable." Couric listened to his account of the war with the jungle tribes, and wondered at what...
Chapter the Sixth: Dreams
Brodry sighed deeply as he lay restlessly in the cool inn bed. He always was a little uneasy in these rooms. The locks were never secure, and you never know what manner of parasites the previous tenants may have left for you. A taper flickered on a...
Chapter the Fifth: Youth
Riadne sat cross cross-legged on a chair sipping water from a cup as the sun burned oppressively overhead. Her freedoms to run the property with her sisters had yet to be restored, and she pouted constantly that she was confined to the fenced in yard...
Chapter the Fourth: Ghosts
"Derek!" The small kit sat somberly staring at his father. Riadne called his name again, but he didn't even acknowledge hearing her. By now, she would have assumed her voice would become hoarse, but it didn't. It just swam hauntingly through the...
Chapter the Third: Different Stripes
Couric watched excitedly as the soldier men of his village, and their slaves marched solemnly into the city. He stood arm to arm with many other children of the community as they and their mothers looked anxiously on for their lovers, fathers, masters...
Chapter the Second: Swords of our Fathers
Laughter rang out across the village as children cavorted near the vacancy at the edge of the market. Young fox boys ran circles around each other, whooping and swinging sticks, or tiny wooden swords. Some wrestled and fought the way children often do...
Chapter the First: Wheels
The sky burned crimson in bright tapers with the setting of the amber colored sun, and Adrian stared absently out across the oddly hued grass and trees. Below him at the base of the hills, trees swam in gentle breezes and grass rolled across the...
Draper's Cabin
**I. Central State Hospital** It was warm the night we chose to take a walk down to Draper's Cabin. I remember it was a strange sort of evening in the late fall. The leaves were curiously still thick on the trees and the moon hung slightly...