Sir Gilbert wasn’t anything special. Or, if he was, at least not in the good sense, and this was an agreed upon fact between every knight that knew him. Even Glibert himself agreed.

He was born to nobles, granting him the chance to become a knight despite the fact having him near so many sharp things was inadvisable at best. Yet, he made for an excellent page.

When Gilbert became a squire, his...

As he crept along the hall, Leo remembered his Captain demonstrating a takedown for him once.

He was silent as he entered that same Captain’s room, the knife barely swinging by his side, just as he learned.

“The first step is making sure they don’t even know you’re there,” his Captain had said once, standing a bit too close to him.

Then Leo struck— he crushed his captain’s knees under his...

Marina Gray disappeared one day, and she didn’t leave a bloody trail or a tornado path behind her— she just quietly sunk away one afternoon.

She was a cheery girl. Her legs and arms were always covered in band-aids from scraping them against the pavement, or from other… accidents. Laughter seemed common with her. Her hands were always open, ready for others.

It was a very neat departure. One da...

Somehow, Goldilocks lost her family. Again. The bear one— not that one of vicious sirens or the group of thieves she called hers once. Usually it was because of some grand thing, abandonment, death, or dissolution— but this time, she simply lost them. Perhaps it was abandonment, but they seemed to rather like her despite the fact she broke into their house. Lovely folks, those bears.

She suppose...

As the blood from her boyfriend’s neck ran down into Camille’s mouth through her greedy fangs, she couldn’t help but already miss the taste. The particularly woody sweetness that she couldn’t allow herself to taste anymore if she wanted to protect him from herself.

Alexander hummed a waltz as he ran a hand through her short hair. She withdrew her teeth from his flesh, and instead lapped at whate...

Finding a way into tricky situations has never been a problem for me— although I still hadn’t learned the art of getting out of them.

“The police will be coming soon,” the art museum security guard said to me, and I glowered from the chair I was shoved in after being tackled and handcuffed. Quite rudely, might I add.

I tried my restraints. They did not yield for me, which was really a shame.

...

When the blindfold had come over her eyes while she was on one of her daily walks, Princess Rosemary had been more annoyed than terrified, even as she was lifted into the air kicking and screaming. This was rather par for the course, all things considered. Her father had been kidnapped before, her mother had been kidnapped before— it wasn’t anything unusual for a royal. What was unusual was that i...

Quorum Vos knew before seeing the scene that it was hivemember Squorus Noxium who crashed his damn ship into the Arctic. Mainly because Squorus Noxium was the only void-damned fool in their ranks who ignored warnings, but secondly because of multiple past incidents with humanity. Vos thought the Council should’ve expelled him the moment a poor human was found onboard as an accidental stowaway, but...

When we learnt the ocean was almost entirely salt, we didn’t question it. We didn’t wonder if all that salt was there for a reason. It was simply there— just another facet of nature that we worked to destroy for our own betterment.

When our ancestors needed a way to ward off shadows and wild beasts, they did as we’ve always done— they returned to the water, to the home of their own ancestors’ a...

“Are you sure this is the only path?” Bartholomew peered into the tunnel dubiously, lantern swaying in his quivering hand. The unicorn hair and harpy eggshells felt heavy in his satchel. Beneath him, his small horse Edith nickered and backed away, ears pinned back.

They were heading for the grand kingdom of Drosengary, home of magic and of bustling trade. They were traders and adventurers. Thoug...