The happiest day of Rylan’s life abruptly turns into the worst, when she begs her petition to join the god of the man she loves. Instead of bowing to the Animal Lord, she is taken by an angry rival. Can Kirs find her in the Great Forest and help her before her transformation is complete, or is the woman he loves gone forever?
(approx. 40 min read)
Where had her brother found this one?
Willow sat at her little table and stared from behind her menu at the well dressed man who had just stepped into the cafe. He wore a single, pink amaranth pinned to his lapel, a match to the one her brother had given her just this morning.
“This is how you’ll recognize each other!” He’d said excitedly, pinning it to the front of her dress with one of her straight pins.
“How silly, why don’t you just introduce us?” She’d fussed, even though inside she thought the idea deliciously sentimental.
(approx. 16 min read)
Beep.
The one and a half meter tall, slate-green roboid rolled quietly across the floor. It collected the dust that had settled since it last cleaned this area – exactly ten cycles of the fifth moon.
Beep.
Roboid Methyl-Capable-Alcohol-Combination-Sanition roboid, generation 6, unit 9 – known by the four other roboids in the complex as M-09 – hushed to a stop and popped open its collection tray. As every cycle at this stage of M-09’s work, it barely contained enough dust to cover the bottom of the tray yet.
Beep.
M-09 clicked the tray closed and switched to liquid functions. It turned exactly one hundred and eighty degrees, and whisked back across the tiles it had just swept. The tiles of iron-gray, moon-set pink, and slate-blue and -green – this last the match of M-09’s own metal facing – gleamed after its passage.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
(approx. 9 min read)
“Gorgeous, isn’t she?” I startle out of my reverie of studying the perfect folds of marble fabric around an angelic face. I spin, looking for the source of the voice. A soft giggle disappears around behind the statue and I lean to follow it only for the voice to come from the other side.
“I can almost always tell the folks who aren’t from around here from those who are, but you just give me all kinds of mixed signals.” Her smile spreads, open and inviting, gleeful with childlike sincerity. A cascade of big, chocolatey curls explode around her shoulders, barely held behind her head with a straining ribbon.
/Damn, she’s cute! And she looks to be making the first move./
(approx. 12 min read)
Toby’s arms seized up, a jolt running his body and freezing every muscle in turn. The dark had fully enveloped him. He couldn’t find a single sliver of light to interrupt the blackness. Blood pounded through his head so fast it made the heat and pressure on his skin sky rocket. A few drops of sweat burst forth on his nose. The shaking started in his fingers, curling them up against the wood mere inches from his face. He couldn’t shift back more than a few inches, he ran into a wall, same to the sides.
/Too tight! Too close!/
He bit down on his lip to contain the keen that clawed and battered at his ribs for escape.
(approx. 13 min read)
Amanda Writes 