Joaquin shuffled after Geoffroi in the Willow Palace. Sunrays broke through the roof woven from tree branches.

"Stop."

A calm voice halted the intruders in their tracks. They looked up. The Queen of the Forest was sitting on a round root, her ebony hair draping down her shoulders, floating weightless, as if underwater. Birds, butterflies, bees, and beetles rested on her linen cloak. Delicate gold...

Iridial hovered in the astral plane, forwarding through the timelines of the universe. He looked up into the face of a fellow time guardian who had just settled next to him.

“Bromio! I hope you are well.”

Bromio’s misty figure bowed in a nod. They sat in silence for a few moments. In the astral plane, moments are years in human time. Millennia feel like minutes to Iridial. Immortality warps your ...

Red!

Red!

Make the world bleed!

Punch those in need!

Knives to the weak!

Rid

Rid

myself of them

Weaker than me!

Heal!

Heal!

Wounds I must seal

Hand everyone a meal

Curb the fear we feel

Keep

Keep

Keep them alive

Some day we will strive....

A rotten tomato fell out of Marcus’s hand. He stood in front of his compost pile. Or where his compost pile should be. Usually, his ten-year-old son, Tom, was tasked with taking out the kitchen scraps. Marcus hadn’t seen the compost corner in weeks.

Now, big sunflowers were growing from the mountain of kitchen garbage, and pumpkin vines with yellow trumpet blossoms covered it. Coconut shells serv...

“Why are your ears so sharp?”

I asked my cat, Minky.

“It’s because of the carp,”

she meows while biting my pinky.

“What do you mean?”

I ask. Her mouth forms a grin:

“I see him, I leap in the stream,

and pierce with my ears through his fin!”

“You have never done that,”

I say, looking at Minky aghast.

“I have many tricks up my hat,

you didn’t see because I’m so fast!”...

Snowflakes settle on Heather’s coat. She steps forward onto the street, squinting her eyes to make out the figures at the end of the sidewalk. The snow crunches under her boots. She rolls the straps of her coat in her hands, twirling them intensely, rocking on her feet as she steps.

She takes out her phone and looks at the time. 11:15. She’s a bit late… hopefully she isn’t sick. Heather turns on ...

Ruby knocked on her grandmother’s door, her red hood wet from the rain. Droplets of water glistened on her basket of bread and wine.

“Come in,” a raspy voice answered.

Ruby entered the hut. A distant whirring, like static, filled the air. The vibration resonated in her hair, making her shudder.

“Come here, my dear…” At the end of the hallway, light shone from the bedroom. Ruby followed the voic...

His sword came down, and in its polished surface I saw the faces of my people.

Dwarven silver, smithed by my ancestors, pried from their cold, dead hands.

Clonk.

My iron bar slams up, catching the sword in flight.

I grin. A true dwarf knows: those fancy swords are for show, not for war.

The metal rod meets his skull.

The crack is deafening.

It’s over....

On the wires a lone sparrow sits

sun warming his fluffy coat,

wind ruffling his feathers gently

stroking him like a soft hand.

He died ten years ago -

well, he was meant to die.

But he turned into a sparrow

escaping death in the sky.

From the wires, he watches life pass

friends moving on with their day.

loneliness gnaws at his tiny heart

He is close, but worlds away.

The sparrow glides down ...

“Hush. They’re coming.”

Autumn rises from their chair. They take the fruits from the plates, tear down the garlands of colored leaves, and tuck the little plants beneath blankets of foliage, frantic.

The door opens.

A cold gust bursts in, scattering Autumn’s last leaves.

A breath of ice sweeps through the room, burning the fruit with its chill.

Winter steps inside.

Autumn bows.

“You’re early th...