Kenden

Kenden

It had been years since the last passage of Letilum, and Higsen had only vague memories of days of revelries, smiling faces, and colors. Colors adorning every surface of the village, balanced with one of the worst bellyaches he’d ever had from all the candy he’d gorged on. Yet still vivid among these was the…

Hulsent

Hulsent

The last trickle had flowed away, leaving stranded drops clinging to now uncovered pebbles and roots. A nutboat wobbled, then gently settled on its side, to rest on the bottom of the gorge. All had gathered on the upriver side of the branch, and a silence had fallen. Some turned away, eyes tightening. In the…

Frelper

Frelper

“Try it again.” Yursen obliged and crawled under the dark mass, only his legs sticking out now. He grunted, did something and the beetle vibrated a couple of times, its shell starting to unfold, the delicate wings under briefly appearing. Then it suddenly stopped. “It started fine yesterday, but this morning nothing.” The beetle turned…

Numen

Numen

“Plup”, went the cork as Genis opened the bottle of Hevel syrup, a rare delicacy. She poured two cups, handed one to Umon, and settled back against the fluffy moss. They both gazed up into the reaches of the tree, in comfortable silence. The last of the sunlight picked out the topmost leaves, and distant…

Gershalt

Gershalt

The morning forest is still, in that small moment between the last night prowlers going to rest and the next shift taking over. No birdsong yet. Even the rivulet is muted, joining in this minute of calm. A door scrapes open, lonely in the silence. It is soon followed by a long clearing of throat,…

Teshel

Teshel

Teshel Bridge spans a gap between two rocks, one of the only crossings over the stream for meters around. Falner’s ancestors had made a pact with the toad charmers clan decades ago, their beasts’ strength crucial in placing the branch now bridging the rivulet. The toads had also helped bury the ends of the newly…

Dulhans

Dulhans

Pelk dropped a ball, and they watched it roll towards the eastern wall of his living room. He looked up to Wimeril and silently gestured, scowling, to where the ball had come to rest against the peeling plaster. Other objects lay touching the same wall, whose shapes had let them roll with the slope: a…

Kernot bridge

Kernot bridge

It had started as one shack, a tiny stall for the busy months of summer, put up by Leptin as a traveler’s eatery. She enjoyed being away from any village, and loved the lucrative spot she had found. She sold berry pies, vine juice and mushroom custards. Her following fortune was not lost on a…

Mirnen

Mirnen

Kelof whistled tunelessly as he headed for the well, his pail slung across his back. Today he would just drop the bucket as fast as the rope would allow. Some days he liked holding the rope just tight enough to feel his hands heated almost to a burn, as the little pulley squealed and the…

Wyslion

Wyslion

He felt it before seeing it, an instinct making him look up from his gathering, towards the canopy. A leaf in the branch above him jerked down suddenly, gray sky visible for an instant, and a drop fell through the gap. Clinster was frozen, eyes fixed on the incoming translucent pearl of water accelerating towards…