Tealya

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

It was a hot day in July when all the golden dead grass suddenly turned purple. It happened right after a rainstorm that should have greened it right up but instead turned it violet. It certainly gave everyone quite a fright. It puzzled world scientists day and night. Why did it happen and What did it mean? Why was it now purple and not green? Was it something deadly but unseen? Besides the color the grass didn’t change at all. It wasn’t suddenly tall, nor was it small. It didn’t start to flower or burst into flames. It hadn’t changed in any other way. It didn’t happen everywhere of course. It was only where it rained. It left a purple streak across the great plains. For lovers of purple, it was violet bliss. For everyone else, it was quite a mess. People debated this strange aberration. It was a sign of the end of our nation. Religious leader screamed it was time to repent and the sinners would soon be punished as they wept. Others thought it was a heavenly sign of something

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 were only three rules for being an alpha. 1) Take more than you give. You’re an alpha and she should be grateful you are giving her your time. 2) When she has nothing left to give, leave her. She is only as good as what she can give you. 3) Never ever say you love her. The second you do, you lose your alpha status. Aiden had learned these in a pick up artist class years ago and put them into practice for the past twenty years. They had been ten great years of sleeping around and being a man. Well, maybe not great, but better than in high school when none of the girls talked to him. Sure there had been girls he really liked and wanted to keep around longer, but all of them wanted a commitment and he knew better then to give that. Not like all the losers at his reunion. All the guys he used to hang around with in high school were gathered around the buffet, eating from those dumb cheese and meat and veggie platers you buy at the grocery store bragging about their kids and

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

Ian didn’t come home that night and Father was worried. He saw Ian pull up and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the car. Alex was having one of his fits that only Ian could solve. Father never knew what to do with his severely autistic son. Alex couldn’t talk and often spent hours stacking and sorting his blocks. When something was wrong, no one could calm him down except Ian. Then Ian pulled back out and drove away. Father first thought maybe Ian had forgotten something or was going to the grocery store for something. That was several hours ago. Father is worried now. He isn’t sure what to do. Alex is still melting down and is now in a corner rocking and flapping his hands. Father tried everything he saw Ian do to calm him but none of it helped. Father texts again but still no answer. He is confused. What is wrong? Part of him fears Ian is hurt or worse. Being the youngest, Ian was always his baby. He always worried about Ian. He was such a good boy. Always kind and helpful.

When first contact with an alien species was made, it was incredibly exciting. Everyone was abuzz with interest. It didn’t come in the form of an alien ship as it turned out they weren’t anymore advanced than us and it took 60 years for their little drone ship to reach us. The fact that they were over a hundred light years away and it only took 60 years to get here seemed impressive until you realized it was because a wormhole at the very outer edge of our solar system led to the outer edge of theirs. It took about 30 years just to reach the wormhole and then another 30 to get close enough to Earth to send a transmission. Still, it was first contact and that was exciting. The only information contained on the little drone ship had a strange coding language on it which took scientists two years to figure out how to read and translate into data we could read. When the finally did, they found a wealth of pictures, recordings, and videos of all of the aliens’ home world. And it was