July 2023 – Tyrant King Press

[Fiction] The Hunter

The yurgovuch no longer feared the upright, tailless animals. It had taken some time, getting over that fear; it had been wired into his avian brain, an instinctive response to the sight of any creature walking on its hind legs with its back perpendicular to the ground. For as long as he remembered he’d had this fear, but no longer.

[Fiction] The Wall

The wall was old. Even its more recent sections had stood for centuries, weathering the elements, wind and rain, plant and beast. Many miles of its length were covered with vines and other plant growth, so thick that a man could plunge his arm in up to the shoulder and just barely brush the stone with his fingertips. The wall held the memories of thousands of years, silent witness to great battles, famines, plagues, and revolutions, to times of peace and times of war. It had been a distant backdrop to the Cult Wars, and had been crossed during the Age of Explorers nearly six hundred years later. No one knew who its original builders were, or why they had felt the need to erect such an improbably vast structure, enclosing over a tenth of the supercontinent’s landmass within one continuous ribbon of stone and masonry. Some claimed it had been erected as a deterrent to hostile tribes inhabiting the lands outside, citing as evidence the remains of what looked like ramparts on some sections. Others claimed it had been built to manipulate the weather, or to serve as a highway along which passed vital messages. The theories were as numerous as the bricks of the wall itself, but none were any closer than the rest to unraveling the mystery of the Barrier’s origins, lost to all seekers deep in the mists of ancient history.

[Fiction] The Guardian

Urzuk tilted her long, crested head and watched the akh calf with one opened eye as it gamboled awkwardly up to her and reared up, waving its forepaws as though trying to strike her and somehow managing to miss every time. When she didn’t move the young Altirhinus grew bolder, tapping her on the side with its compact, heavily padded paws and bounding away before stopping and looking back to see if she was going to pursue. Urzuk simply yawned and rolled over onto her side, stretching her legs and neck before relaxing in the late afternoon sun.

[Fiction] The Crocodile Tamers

Feyza Okur woke to the deep ringing of the temple’s bell, calling its faithful to morning prayer. All around her, other travelers were beginning to stir. Looking around in the gloomy dawn light she saw wandering Jardhu ascetics, sprawled leisurely on the floor without any worldly possessions or, in some cases, clothes to keep track of. She saw less seasoned travelers stretching stiff joints, their packs still dented in the middle from where they’d rested their heads during the night. And she saw those like herself, seasoned roamers and sellswords, who’d slept sitting against the wall with their belongings clutched protectively in their laps, ready to leap awake and deal with any would-be thieves. They surely all knew as well as she did that the chances of being robbed in this place were so low as to border on negligible, but old habits were hard to break.

[Fiction] The Silver Pipe

The girl laughed. It was a mocking sound, but free from any malice. Beside her, her friend was laughing as well in a high-pitched giggle. The two girls were holding court outside their tents, smoking kanab out of a long silver pipe and entertaining a group of boys from Aud Sheri. The city’s walls rose up beyond the tents, a hard, sharp line against the flaming sunset sky. All around them were the sounds and smells of the caravan: cooking meats and spices, the music and bells of the dancers, and a multitude of voices, singing, laughing, haggling, arguing.