The Tale of Mortibe from the Song of Hannari
Now it came to pass, when the generations since the Time of the Shears when life became mortal were fourteen thousand, four hundred and sixty-three, that the Gods of Old became as mortals, indolent and corrupt in their ways. Dai Yel, He of the Highest...
Creation Story from The Song of Hannari
In long-past time, amid the eternal darkness of chaos that lies beyond the beyond, there was the Great Truth. And the Great Truth chose to be, and it was. And the Great Truth grew vast and fecund, and its fecundity abounded that it would be as good...
Torchlight International Part 2: The Initiation
I arrived at the Regent's Suites hotel downtown just a few minutes before 6:30. After checking into the hotel (which, fortunately, was covered in the price of the workshop), I was directed to a row of tables where smartly-dressed volunteers sat...
Torchlight International Part 1: The Grand Road
I was never management material. They could see it in my eyes. I was always on time for work, it's true. I always enforced the dress code, trained new employees, stayed for opening and closing, and kept a sharp eye on the computer and...
The Pleasure Chair
"What's the matter? You look surprised." The fox looked around the room astonished. "It isn't like I'd expected," he said, looking at the minimal and modern yet warm and organic furniture that gave this small, windowless chamber a...
Decontamination Day
Darrin was afraid. The young civet sat restlessly in the iron-clad basement of his suburban home, sitting on an uncomfortable wooden bench across from his mother and sister. Silence. Deathly silence. Most of the thinking people in the land...
Aurora Vera
Gone now the thrush, her night song to rest And on her rowan post, the sparrow In renewed behest, Summons her sire the sun from his chamber, A tawny young daughter, a father of amber. But his eyes open not for the quarrelsome...
Play On
I sing in a voice weakened by shouting, A voice weakened by hunger, By tears, By sickness; Hear my song; I shall sing in spite of these. I dance with feet wounded by asperity, Feet blistered by marching, By wandering, By hard...
The Ride to the Function
I once rode with someone I knew to a function. That is, by someone I knew, I mean someone I had never met once in my life, and by "function," my meaning is inconsequential to the story and the reader need know nothing more about it. I sat across from...
Rite of the Full Moon
Teteu sniffed the smoky air nervously. Clad only in a loincloth, with two red streaks of face paint under each of his eyes and a long braid ending in a feather dangling from his headfur, he...
A Weekend By The Lake
_ **Friday** _ "Nnngh! Almost... there!" Pepper grunted as he strained to bend the stiff carbon-fiber tent pole just enough to fit into the small ring at the base of the tent. The end of the pole finally met with the brass...
The Surprise
Pepper busied himself with the last few details. Candles? Check. Carry-out dinner? Check. Romantic movie? Check. Chilled champagne? Check. There was only one last detail to sort before Chrys arrived. He went to the bedroom, his tail...