Jo Axolotl

“The poet and the sea” by Jo Axolotl

Submitted to Contest #282

"I'm so sorry... I can't let you in." The captain said firmly.He was getting too old for his trade. He’d been on this ship for a month— and he was already far too tired of eating salted pork, tired of the landlubbers he’d been forced to ferry, and tired of this insufferable youngster, who’d spent the past week insisting to speak with the captain’s most important guest—who’d expressly demanded never to be disturbed."I apologize, sir," said the young, well-dressed courtier timidly. "but I have urgent business to discuss with the poet... and th...

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“A Kind Voice” by Jo Axolotl

Submitted to Contest #277

There was an art to it— to letting go— and Regina had lost her touch. She no longer enjoyed it, this luring in hearts, treating them softly and then pushing them away, leaving an ache— or sometimes a wound—  as one leaves a parting gift for a childhood friend. She remembered the last one, a trickster god centuries older than she was. What a smile that one had; it still made Regina laugh to think of it. It made her laugh to remember how they used to dance among the stars, his joy coursing through Regina’s veins like fire. Regina stood up...

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“The party” by Jo Axolotl

"The parties at this cemetery are just like all the other cemeteries... a hot, fractured mess. Except that, here, everybody's rich." Dolores' voice hung in the still air of Joan's sealed dovecote grave, bemoaning, not the banalities of heaven or hell, but the terrible tedium of having to attend yet another of the cemetery's frequent social functions. "Oh, come," laughed Joan. "It's not so bad." "Easy for you to say." Muttered Dolores. "You were cut in two parts, not four. I can barely hold myself together as it is, and all these prim and pro...

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“Succession” by Jo Axolotl

Submitted to Contest #103

The Heartsmith’s chest ached. She had not slept well the night before. Now her tired limbs dragged her down, and her skin felt dry like old parchment. She was ancient now, and she could say that it was the void in her chest that dragged her back to her swamp, to her heart. She could say that the parched dirt of this underground city was to blame. She could say that her faraway home- her abandoned post- was the source of all her unease. But the Heartsmith never lied to herself. As a matter of principle. Though this city was too crowded, too l...

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“The Same Ground” by Jo Axolotl

Submitted to Contest #99

  Sunsets were shorter on this moon than on Gaína. Everything had moved too fast since he'd woken up, healed but weaker. Since he had told Jaya she would be better off without him. Jaya had crossed the doorway of his hospital room and left him alone on a planet he did not know the name of. He had made it to the Intergalactic Academy after three months of... three months of work. It had gone by like a blink, like a nightmare. He has no rights beyond the basic right to life. No right to the money in his pack, no right to the passage he bo...

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“Gladiator Bait” by Jo Axolotl

Submitted to Contest #94

“What makes you think I’ll get any sleep at all tonight?” “Because I said so.” Septimus answered. He scratched his stubbly chin, and the sound reached Primus as clearly as his own voice. “That’s what.” Dark had fallen. Cold bore down on Primus, making him shiver, heavy and painful as the animal dread in his chest. A few yards away, a bony tiger slept in a cage of its own. On Primus’ other side lay Septimus, wrapped up in his cloak. The shock of his braided white hair stuck out at one end, and his leathery feet stuck out of the other. “It is ...

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“Of the North ” by Jo Axolotl

Submitted to Contest #73

The night bites, bitter cold. Five hours of daylight, five men asking for my hand. Each praying he’d have more luck than the last. I clutch my bear coat tighter around myself, fight to move through the snow. The moon lights my aimless way; no ghostly lights grace the sky tonight. I wonder if I’ll die out here, buried beneath the snow. A storm stalks me, threatening in the wind, more fearsome than any bear or wolf. I breathe a sigh of relief, and it chills me down to my bones. -The first one’s name was Uruk. I sat on ...

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“Electric” by Jo Axolotl

Submitted to Contest #72

Day 1Süssday, 3rd black moon, 20 New Age RevoI’ve arrived!I stepped out of the spaceship into a marvelous, clear, jungle-like wilderness. I did not even have to disturb the blue trees with their silver trunks and the soft, thick bushes with yellow stalks like tentacles as I walked. The Sestry have carved a stone path that winds clearly across the blue, just wide enough for a creature to walk on. I wanted to stay where we landed and observe my surroundings for hours. But I must rest.I can even breathe the air here.The planet welcomes me. I lo...

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“In The Dark” by Jo Axolotl

Submitted to Contest #70

Before the sun rises, Natalia bathes in the dark with cold water. She dresses in silence. All her clothes are plain-black pants and blouses, grey turtlenecks in the winter. Her father buys her clothes. Natalia has no time to pick them out herself. She doesn’t mind. She and her father are, after all, still in mourning. And this way, she can dress in the dark without risking a fashion disaster. Today, however, she left her clothes out hanging on the wardrobe door. Today she wants to wear a dress. Natalia gets ready and does her ...

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“The Duchess” by Jo Axolotl

Submitted to Contest #70

The duchess’s hands were covered in blood.She hid them under her shawl, but the shawl was bleeding too, dripping blood from the beating heart it was wrapped around. The duchess ran out of the king’s bedchamber, stumbled down one of the servants’ passages to the kitchen and ran out one of the back doors where the king’s horse was waiting.The duchess’s white hair, usually up in a tidy bun, trailed behind her. It too was stained.The duchess climbed up on the horse, ignoring her aches and pains, not caring she must ride without a saddle. The hor...

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“Stones from Earth” by Jo Axolotl

Submitted to Contest #67

Gaína(Planet)Gaína was the center of the so-called Intergalactic War. It’s nearly barren of vegetation and its fauna is feral and aggressive. Gaína is the only known source of the metals and minerals necessary to build vessels strong enough to tesser in.Gaína’s only so-called rational race are locally called Sestry. Outside their planet they are known only by the name of said planet, as are all other intergalactic travelers.The Gaína as a race are incapable of emotion and empathy. Their unnatural intelligence enabled them to build the first ...

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“A Coward” by Jo Axolotl

Submitted to Contest #66

“It doesn’t count if you’re already planning your defeat.” The commander says.“Death is not defeat, sir.” The strategist retorts, leaning forward on the desk. “One man is not an army.”Commander March-a tall, square-set man in his early forties-checks the urge to roll his eyes. He looks up from their plan. He’s spent too much time in this room, too much time with the cocky, disrespectful man in front of him. The past three days have drowned March in grim reports from the watchmen and snark from the strategist, who acts like it’s the...

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“Cempasúchil” by Jo Axolotl

Submitted to Contest #65

Cempasúchil have a particular smell; and it isn’t until you’re dead that you can appreciate how different it is from absolutely everything else. That’s what they say, anyway. I myself spent an absurdly short time in the lower world, so I wouldn’t know what cempasúchil smell like for the living. But to me, they smell like adventure. From far off they look like cotton bolls, perfectly round and full. But instead of cotton they’re packed tight with tiny orange petals, and the green stalks and leaves seem too skinny to hold the bright, round flo...

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“Financially Yours” by Jo Axolotl

Submitted to Contest #64

Dearly Detested,I write this letter to thank you for saving me from the fire. Hopefully, the ship that carries it will be overtaken by pirates and you never receive this proof of my abysmal humiliation. The Dean says I must thank you, because that’s what people are bound to when they’re saved from a fire. No matter that I would rather have gone down in flames than be saved by your ridiculous, arrogant, infuriating self.My report card is on the line. So here we are.You denied me my destiny, you dumb, square-jawed, dark-eyed, beautiful gobermo...

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“Candy Corn Latte” by Jo Axolotl

Submitted to Contest #63

“Discontinued?” What do you mean, discontinued?” She shrieks.Laura has waited all year, as she does every year, for autumn to come. She’s waited all year to come to the local coffee shop, Lus Córdoba, and drink the Candy Corn Latte every Saturday, for as long as autumn lasts.For the rest of the year, it’s too painful for eighty-year-old Laura to come to Lus Córdoba. Ever since her husband, Beckett, died of a heart attack coming out of the shop twenty years ago, Laura can’t stand the sight of it. She can’t stand entering the coffee shop that ...

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