“What will you tell them?”
Petra looked at me, her green eyes rigidly locked on mine.
“I — I — don’t know.”
I stood in the stale, empty bedroom, at a loss for words. I had come here in search of her, to see her one last time before she left. But I had not expected this. I had not expected what she would be, standing in this room for the last time herself. I had not expected to find standing in her bedroom a girl attached to the body of a brown horse, her possessions sold, her room bare, everything that I knew of the girl I’d dated gone, and in its place a centaur.
She
Klain walked down the stairs to the wine cellar. "Hello? Is someone down here?"
"Hello." The voice was female, and soft.
He continued down the steps to the stone floor. It was cold down here, and a little damp. "Velia, is that you?"
"Yeah." Her voice echoed on the walls.
"What are you doing down here?" He continued to the far back corner of the cellar where her voice seemed to be coming from.
He stopped, holding his torch aloft. There was a centaur girl standing in front of one of the wine caskets. She had a wooden goblet in her hands, and was drinking deeply.
"Velia, what are you doing?"
She lowered the cup, wiping her mouth with the back of
Every Species Finds a Way by phantom-inker, literature
Literature
Every Species Finds a Way
Lana woke. There was sticky white all around her. She stretched at it, and it started to tear. She could see through. It was dim beyond, but she was trapped in something, and she had to get out. Get out! She was only following instinct, the critical sense to not be trapped, to not be buried inside whatever she was buried in. She couldn’t remember what had come before this. All she knew was that she needed to get out, get out!
She stretched, and pulled at the fibers, and they gave way with a little effort. It seemed like they had once been stronger. She pulled and tore, and suddenly another pair of hands outside were pulling a
Yanna uncurled. How long had she been down here? Days? No, months. It could be years, buried deep in this dungeon of darkness and gray and green stone. It didn’t feel like a long time, but then she’d grown accustomed to this place, so maybe it had been a while.
What had woken her? There was some noise, over there by the staircase. Footsteps echoing closer. That way eventually led up and out. She distantly remembered it, what the surface had been.
She straightened up and ran one of her hands through her hair, straightening it out after her nap. It had once been short. It was cut short when she was up where she could se
The Sorceress's Summons by phantom-inker, literature
Literature
The Sorceress's Summons
When the summon came from the Sorceress, Taryn was quick to volunteer. Girls of age were needed, said the plea, to study under the Sorceress, to form an army of magic wielders who could finally stop the attacking monsters that had plagued their countryside for thirty years.
Thirty years... such a long time. The monsters had attacked every spring for as long as Taryn had been alive. Their tiny land had won the War of the Mages, but as soon as the Mages were gone, the monsters had arrived. Few had seen them and lived to tell about it, but they were said to be foul, twisted beasts, some clawed, some with swords, bloodthirsty killers all.
The Story of Centaurella by phantom-inker, literature
Literature
The Story of Centaurella
The old man at the roadside smiled at me. Sit down, boy, and you listen a bit.
* * *
Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Ella who lived in a small cottage with her mother and her father. Father was a kind man who loved his family very much, and Mother was as sweet and gentle as a summers breeze, and it was often said that Ella was as kind as her father and as pretty as her mother. They lived a happy carefree life.
Then Mother grew sick. And as she lay on her bed, her face pale, and the last of the doctors had left shaking his head, Father donned his coat and left, his face sullen and determined.
T
The Perfect Man
A Jennie of the Flashlight Story
George was having a lousy day. His girlfriend had left him last week, but that wasnt exactly news. Today, hed just been fired from his burger-flipping job, not that that was something worth worrying about, but when he came out of the restaurant, he found his car had been towed. It was hard to imagine the day getting much worse, but he knew these things came in threes, so here he sat on a park bench just waiting for the world to dish him up his last bit of suffering. With his luck, it would be a letter saying his tuition check had bounced.
But nothing was happeni