Tealya

Day 12 I think I am becoming more accepted by the covenant. The obvious side eyeing has stopped and the witches are giving me direct glares. I believe my new found silence is helping. They seem less annoyed by my presence when I do not try to communicate with them. My hope is that by this time next week they will cease their glaring as they will have fully acclimated to my presence. Day 23 I have finally had some success. One of the witches allowed me inside though I am not sure it was completely intentional. She is very elderly and seems forgetful, but when she noticed me, she did not shout and wave her arms at me until I left. That is progress. She did mutter something at me but as I have yet to translate their language I am unsure of what she said. Still, she did allow me to observe one of the regular witch rituals: potion brewing. All the witches seem to brew and ingest potions on a regular basis. I am uncertain what each potion does but their behavior often changes for a time

Gorlog the giant blue ogre had just settled down to a nice cup of tea when there was a timid knock at his door. It was so quiet that he wasn’t sure it was a knock at all at first. The second rap rap at the door convinced him it was a real knock. With a grumble, the massive ogre pushed himself to his feet and shuffled to the door. Just before opening it, he stuck his bottom teeth out and put on a scowl. He yanked open the door. “What?” Standing there, shivering was a short man wearing armor that was at least two sizes too big. The helmet was drooping down in the poor guy’s face and he had to hold it up with one hand. In his other hand was a mace that Gorlog was pretty sure this small guy couldn’t lift. There was a small trail behind the guy that looked like he had dragged the mace the whole way there. Gorlog was used to literally looking down at people, but this was ridiculous. This guy couldn’t be more than five feet tall and looked like he was fifteen or sixteen. There were

It was neon yellow, and I hated it on sight. The tag insisted it was a dress, but its length suggested otherwise. At least the designer had included the most ugly neon yellow leggings in the world so it was school appropriate. I wanted to say no. I wanted it’s awful. I really wanted to set it on fire and toss it in a dumpster. Then she looked at me with those innocent brown eyes. “Please Mom. I love it.” Those perfect pools of sunset shadows begging, pleading. “I love it too,” I said and added it to the cart.

“Weee, yay, and also wohoo!” “Noooooo! Make it stop!” “But this is so much fun!” “We’re going to die!” “It’s just a roller coaster, calm down.” “No, it’s a death machine.” “Little kids ride this roller coaster. It’s fine.” “One was not meant to move in such a rapid fashion.” “Cars go faster than this and you have no problem riding in them.” “Cars are secure with built in protections — Ahhhhh! We’re going over a cliff!” “Relax. It’s just a hiiiiiiiiiillll! Yeah! Wohoo!” “I hate you!” “Don’t care! This is fuuuuuun! Weeeeee!”

Fairies stoke strong emotions in all of us. They are small. They are cute. Their wings are gossamer and dew in vibrant colors. Few can resist their dainty charms and the chance to be sprinkled with their euphoric fairy dust. Fewer still know that fairies feed on the newly dead they have spent years carefully seasoning.

“Say, so you have any peanut butter?” Winta asked. The gnome was fiddling with the ancient stone door built in the mountain side. Despite our best efforts, it just wouldn’t budge. He, Kelli the elf, and me had been hired to get into some ancient ruins to look for some small ancient holy text or tablet or something like that. We didn’t really care about anything except that the job paid really well. Too well. I cocked my head to one side. “Peanut butter?” Winta nodded. “Yeah. Warm it up and it’s pretty slippery. Seems like just the thing to open a door like this.” “It’s not booby trapped then?” Kelli asked. Winta shook his head. “Doesn’t seem to be. Just stuck real tight. Probably ’cuz it’s so old.” “What about the magic?” Kelli asked as she placed her hand on the door and her eyes glazed over. I’d heard stories about elves being really sensitive to magic but didn’t realize just how sensitive until I started working with one. “Not a trap,” Winta supplied as he tried shimming his

The fire had taken a toll on the woods. One that previous fires hadn’t. So many of the old trees were gone. Many of the animals were gone too. The humans also hadn’t come back either except a few who planted new trees. Humans did that sometimes. Gulump liked that about humans. Gulump was the spirit of this forest and had been for a long time. He wasn’t human, nor did he look much like them, instead looking like a tree stump imbedded in the ground that had grown legs. Like his forest, he was a little more bare this year than in years before. The fire had taken it’s toll on him too, but he was recovering thanks to time and a little help from the humans. He’d seen many people come and go. Some violently. Some peacefully. Some with greed in their hearts and others with wonder. The ones that had come to stop the fires had been determined but afraid. The ones that planted the trees had been hopeful. He was hopeful too. The fire had taken its toll but the forest wasn’t gone. New leaves

I knew this was all in my head but I was pretty sure this place wasn’t from my mind. I knew enough to recognize these were ruined buildings but not like any I’d seen before. These were … different. I’m not sure how to describe them. They seemed like maybe homes but they were only one story and the just looked off. The woman I knew. Sort of. I mean, I’d seen her before the last two times i should have died but back then she’d been wearing rusty, blood stained armor like she’d just come from a battlefield. This time she would as clean with her hair pulled up into a bun. Like the buildings, her clothes were off too. She still had a skirt on but it was way to short to be appropriate. She didn’t have a blouse of bodice either, just this undershirt without sleeves. She also had no eyes, just big black spaces where there should have been eyeballs. It was disconcerting to say the least. “You can’t continue,” she said in that cold, detached voice of hers. Last time she’d at least acted

Wishing stones were rare which was the big appeal for most people but most of them didn’t know how to properly use them. Most even considers them worthless because the wishes only lasted a few minutes so. Lina Inverse wasn’t most people though. She had the chance to use one once when she was only seven and had asked to know the location of the most powerful spell in the world. She only held that knowledge for a few minutes, but even at such a young age, she knew to write the location down. That was how she had found the gigaslave spell. She had plans for this stone too, but first she had to win it at this stuffy duke’s dance party/auction/fashion show/she wasn’t even sure what. They’d taken a piece of jewelry from all the women when they arrived and never explained why. Lina was still irritated by that but she wanted the wishing stone more than the cheap piece of jewelry. That irritation was made worse by the fact that there was some sort of hideous fashion show going on and the band

There is a bakery that you can only find by making two wrong turns when you are having a bad day and already running late. It isn’t a place you can direct people and if you try, you will quickly find you don’t exactly remember what street it was on or exactly which streets you took to find it. What you will remember is the sign written in an old english font that says “Harper’s Baked Remedies” and the enticing scent of cookies wafting through the air. With the day you have been having, of course you will be drawn inside the quaint little shop with only one table and two chairs by the window and a big display case of every possible baked goodie you can imagine. Each one has a strange name like ‘perfect day cake’ or ‘future pie’. If you were to ask the owner what each name means, and you probably will when your curiosity gets the better of you, she will smile and tell you, “Why, exactly what it says,” and ofer no further explanation. She will offer you a truth cookie though, and few

After several minutes of sitting in his car, Ian turned his phone off. Then he started his car up and left the apartment complex. He just kept driving and didn't know when or where he was going to stop. He had done a few one time odd job here and there, but none of the places stuck. He finally got a new phone and new number and threw his old phone in the dumpster. He used his new phone to find a place to stay that was “off the beaten path,” somewhere outside of the cities. He filled up his car and started towards what the phone pulled up as the closest place to him, Bryce Canyon in the high woodlands. He made it to there and found a campsite. When he was driving through the pay area, he noticed a “missing person” poster. It had a picture of a guy laying in a hammock at the campsite. There was also a “lost pet” poster with a picture of a yellow dog. He thought nothing of them when he was paying. Then he pulled in and found a campsite and parked. He got out of his car, closed his eyes

It was a windy day, and though the Little Wizard tried his very best to keep the garden clean, there was always some litter that flew in from elsewhere. Today, he was out in a little rowing boat, clearing up the lake. Crisp packets, chocolate wrappers, and even a couple of old plastic straws, it was amazing what blew in to float around on the water. “Prawn cocktail?” The Little Wizard said, reading the flavour off a packet. “Who even likes that?” He leaned over to fish it closer with his oar. Just as the Little Wizard leaned over the side of his rowing boat, a gust of wind blew his hat right off his head! The Little Wizard turned to try and catch his hat and the boat rocked so hard he very nearly fell right into the lake! “Oh no!” The Little Wizard watched his hat sail away over the reeds. “Now I’m the one littering!” By this time, the crisp packet had floated far out of reach. “Oh well. I’ll have to come back for the other ones anyway,” said the Little Wizard to himself. “I’ve

And waltz with us who guard the forest. Join us here in the moonlit glade as white dresses trail through the shadows, like an Elysian dove perching above the pits of hell. Feel the damp earth beneath your bare feet, where autumn leaves have lodged to sleep. When you smell the cold, let it come. Let the breeze entice your skin until it touches the core of your bones. When you taste ecstasy, swallow it whole. It is sweet, like pink cotton candy from the fairground, and it is bitter, like the lingering flavor of that first time someone dropped your heart. But don’t let that drive you home. Stay with us, and take these silken hands, and become one with the night as you traipse these holy lands. You can’t hear the music, but you shall feel it. The silence, like a weighted blanket, envelopes us all, yet the melody is inscribed in your very soul. It is there on the rugged barks, in the bare branches, in the whisper of our names. Wait, hark our secrets. Sing in the language of the trees

Eternity was a long time to be alone. Well, He wasn’t entirely alone. He had been assigned to look after the Earth, and when they came, watch over humanity as well. But until they evolved, His invisible orbit around the newly formed planet was rather uneventful. After all, land masses floating apart and together and apart is a long and boring process. And so He waited. And He watched. Things really started to get interesting when tetrapods dragged themselves from the oceans and began walking on land. It wasn’t long until they evolved to walk erect. It delighted Him to observe humanity, to see them grow from His place in the heavens. Though He knew it was only a matter of time until they inevitably destroyed themselves with their own inventions. And so He waited. And He watched. The world didn’t end with a bang or a whimper. If He had to describe it, He would probably say it sounded more like a trombone, a slow saunter downward. And just like that, He was alone again. He spun

Hi, friend! Up here! Yeah, up here on top of the pillar! Hi there! Hot day, isn’t it? Want a drink? I’ve got a water skin up here. I’ll lower it down in the bucket. There you go! Help yourself. Thirsty work walking the pilgrim’s trail, I know. Pretty far to the next monastery too. What am I doing up here? I’m a hermit isolating myself on top of this pillar for the rest of my life to escape the evils of the world and show my devotion to God! Oh stop that! I’m not a saint - not yet anyway! Gotta keep my eye on the prize! Ha ha! I’ve only been up here for 6 months, so I’m just starting out really. The monks bring me food and water - that's what the bucket and rope is for, and as for, er, bodily functions, well, I just kind of fling it towards that dune over there. Oh, well you know, I pray a lot, and I stand up or sit down, as the mood takes me. Sometimes I see how far I can spit if it’s not too windy. Done with the water skin? You can just put it back in the bucket and I’ll

Sir David clung to the wall, listening for any sounds of movement within the room. He could hear her breathing, but no footsteps. Slowly and cautiously, he peeked into the room. She was in bed, asleep, holding on to her captive. David frowned, doing his best to keep his own breath from coming too loudly. She had taken the little dragon through stealth and trickery, and he would take it back the same way. After a few quite moments of contemplation, he made his way into the room. It was carpeted, muffling his footsteps, but to him it seemed as though every little hushing whisper was a loud scraping, threatening him in his quest. He wouldn't let it get to him, though. He had to be brave if he was going to rescue the dragon, because there was a chance that she would wake up. Step by cautious step brought him closer to his foe and his target. At last, he reached the edge of the bed. Now if was time to make her let go. He had no true plan for this step, except but to hope she was a deep