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Author on Reedsy Prompts since Feb, 2024
Submitted to Contest #303
“I didn’t have a choice,” said the man with the staff. “I need these spirits for a dire ritual. You understand, ignispawn.”Chiaro Arkenraye looked up at him through a haze of red. He felt Éabha’s last shuddering breath, held against him as she was. The only thing stopping him from leaping up and strangling the man with his own fancy robes. The only thing that had kept him tethered to this life up to this point.Well, the good news was he had a new tether.He blinked the ashes of sleep from his eyes and sat up. His nightmare–a memory, really–ha...
Submitted to Contest #294
Anatolius’s home had been destroyed. Apart from the crackling of fires still eagerly munching at the dregs of what used to be beautiful greenery, the island was silent. Anatolius might not have noticed the army behind him, were he marching on an adjacent kingdom. This kingdom, his kingdom, had been razed. Every home they passed was either a pile of ashes or the blackened husk of a stone wall. Anatolius pressed on. Nefeli had to be okay. She’d been alone with Anakreon for six years. He still had to apologize for that. He remembered the linen ...
Submitted to Contest #255
"Run, little wolf, run!" Lupe could still hear its voice whispering in his ears as if carried on the roar of the flame. The thundering of his boots were drowned out in the cacophony of dying screams and cracking buildings. He was lost, but he didn’t care. He just had to get away. "You can’t get away." He shook his head, trying to dislodge the phrase before it could take root. He just had to keep running. This maze of fire, stone, and bodies couldn’t extend forever, could it? “Break.” Startled, he stumbled over a newly formed crack in the roa...
Submitted to Contest #253
(Glossary included at the end) Sable trudged down the hall. Is this what being a grown-up feels like? she wondered. She felt as though gravity was working about twice as much as usual, pulling down on her ears, her whiskers, her tail. She could feel the cool sandstone under the open soles of her sandals, taste the dust in the air–more from construction than age, considering this citadel had been built on top of the one that had been crushed by the Sciftan’s spaceship four cycles prior. She couldn’t say she wasn’t disappointed, but when she ...
Submitted to Contest #251
“That shouldn’t be there…” Wren let the Stardrake cruise to a halt…well, as “halted” as anything could be in the shifting void of the universe. The impulse engine purred in its stasis, creating a soothing background noise as the old adventurer checked the readings on her screens and instruments. The sector she’d found herself in was devoid of any nearby celestial bodies, apart from asteroids that reminded her of driftwood in the ocean. Useful, sometimes, if collected from properly, and sometimes with bits of fishing line–in this case, thick,...
Submitted to Contest #247
(Glossary included at the end)I am a shadow within a shadow.Dusk pondered over the words he’d scribbled in the margins of his worksheet. The stone pulp of the paper had absorbed the ink of his idle hand easily enough, but now he was having trouble absorbing it into his brain. What had he just done? He’d been starting to draw something–a stick figure, maybe, of an Ortuxan with a sword. Or one with a spear. But what had flowed from the ink was instead a picture of a different kind; one that he hadn’t learned from–“Duskauger,” said a voice from...
Submitted to Contest #245
(Glossary provided at the end of the story.)Frræ looked up.The red eye of Wau peered down at him, Her solar rays beaming out somehow brighter than they usually did. Below Her, hanging low in the sky, Rau’s eye was encroaching.Frræ narrowed his eyes. The two celestial bodies rarely came so close together–it had been cycles since Rau had even been visible during the day. With His shadow toward the world, no one could tell the color of the moon’s surface. Everyone knew it was periwinkle, but right now it was black.“What?” Muræ asked behind him....
Submitted to Contest #243
(Conlang glossary included at the end) Guavato was drifting. The expanse around them was black. Their fingers, enclosed as they were in the airtight gloves, brushed against something jagged. Not sharp enough to pierce their suit, thankfully. But rough enough to feel a vague texture. They couldn’t see anything. After a moment, they realized it was because their eyes were closed. But lifting their eyelids was too difficult, so they left them closed. Everything hurt. Their head pounded, arms ached, legs burned, tail…well, they couldn’t feel ha...
Submitted to Contest #242
Figarro wrinkled his nose, the scraggly whiskers threatening to poke him in his droopy orange eyes. His tail twitched as his vision wandered over the canvas. A moment passed, and he gave a derisive sniff, shaking his head.“Nope. Can’t see it.”Standing beside him, the half-Ortuxan ran his hands through his hair, giving a disgruntled groan. “You’re not supposed to see it, Fig,” Daybreak said. “It’s an interpretation, not a depiction. One would think a gib so interested in abstract concepts would be interested in abstract art.”“This one a’ your...
Submitted to Contest #241
“Hey, Trish? Who’s this? He looks like Aunkie.”Purrtrice looked up from her book, over the frames of her glasses, at the calico kit that had just spoken. She had found an old platebell and figured out how to unlock it while Trish wasn’t paying attention. Her fingerpads had scored lines through the dust as she looked through the pictures saved on it, and the hologram screen was displaying a photo Trish had forgotten existed.She kept her face straight as she looked at the kit, inwardly noting the page number she was on and closing the book.“Da...
Submitted to Contest #240
The crowd jostled Tsiella like its own localized hurricane, and she wasn’t yet sure how she felt about that. It seemed like the whole of Tsaurre had turned out for this one show, though logically she knew that if that were the case no one would be able to move. She pushed through the crowd, then rolled her eyes as that got her nowhere. Well, nothing else for it. She turned her gaze upward, willing the wind to carry her upward. She heard a couple of gasps–were ñæchiæ really so unheard of in Tsaurre?–and continued to sail into the sky, eventua...
Tsiella stood at the fo’c’sle, one hand on the running line. Scraggly rope pressed into her fingerpads. She took a deep breath of the crisp night air, reaching out her other hand. The wind seemed to take hold of it, squeezing it gently like the grip of a new lover, fingers of the breeze blowing troughs through her long fur. She smiled. Then she stepped off into the clouds. Sky-swimming was best done at night. She dove upward, gripping updrafts and pulling them around her. Her eyes were closed, but she felt the wind guide her along. A new w...
Submitted to Contest #239
The crystalline shard of ice arched up, catching the light of the fluorescent bulbs for one dazzling moment before dipping back down and dissolving into nothingness. Snowflake, his gray muzzle wrinkled in a frown, sighed and put the flute down. “I can’t focus on it,” he said. His bandmate, Rossco, set her face indignantly. “That was still better than last time,” she said. “Keep trying, I’m sure you’ll get it.” “And hey, at least you can do magic.” Yono, to his credit, didn’t look bitter about his own statement. He rolled his wheelchair ar...
Submitted to Contest #238
Guavato sat at the edge of their bed, staring into their pajama-clad lap.They still saw it sometimes. Felt the metaphysical claws piercing into their eyes, tasting and smelling the viscous, green, almost glue-like ooze that had leaked into their mouth and nose. The rage from back then bubbled up once more in their gut, but they shook their head and squeezed their eyes closed.The thought crossed their mind to call Daybreak, but they’d just called him yesterday. For the same night terror, no less. No, their sibling deserved his rest. They coul...
Submitted to Contest #237
Daybreak looked down at the scratch stick pinched between his titanium digits and almost imagined he could feel the wood grain between his fingerpads. In the grand scheme of things, giving his arm to save the world felt…menial. Especially since he could still do recreational things like paint. But at the moment, the word “could” was doing a lot of heavy lifting. He frowned at the canvas. Its bare white expanse reflected his thoughts. He had no ideas. In concept, creating an art piece for the two people he cared most about should be easy. B...
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