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Fairy Upside-Down Tale, a bonus fic for Patreon

May25
Because I asked for a prompt on Mastodon, and ran sort of sideways (and long) with it… and also because it sort of fits this month’s theme.👸🏻

They lived happily ever after.

But that’s not the tale, is it?  First you have to have the wedding – a posh affair, because he was a prince and she was a…

Well, anyway, he wasn’t all that much of a prince.  You could ride across his princedom in a leisurely day, even if you stopped to take a nap around noon, and it was mostly rocks and the wastes of what had once been a fine land. But he was still a prince, son of a king and a queen – and because of the nature of this little area where our story is, both of them had royal blood. He had a cousin who’d been eyeing him speculatively since he’d reached his full growth – but she has her own story.
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The Garden – a story of the Faerie Apocalypse for Patreon

May23
When I posted The Gardener I was asked (and now I can’t find where, sigh) about Damkina and the apocalypse.  So here is Damkina and the apocalypse, considerably longer than I’d intended. 🙂

 🏡

The sky was black and red, and in the distance an unearthly howl echoed through the city.  But the squash would not forgive her skipping their bug treatment and the weeds in the pepper garden were unseemly.

Damkina muttered wards against bugs as she slammed her hoe into the ground with more force than was strictly necessary.  They had been here, the week before last, asking her to fight.  She had pointed at the ruins of Chicago, smoking on the television.  “That is what happens when you fight.  Like every other time.  When you have remembered how to banish them, come find me.”

They had called her last week, asking her to fight.  She had pointed to the mess they had just made of Minneapolis.  “You’re doing more harm than good.  That was no returned god that shattered their downtown, that was your warriors.  I am a gardener.   I have always been a gardener.  Leave me to my garden.” Continue reading →

Inordinary Date – a Patreon Story

May17
After Beryl and one Specific Boy, which is  after B is for Beryl and her Boys .

🌙

“I know,” Jake admitted, “a cemetery isn’t really the ordinary sort of place to take a girl on a date. But I figured, you’re not an ordinary sort of girl, and, really, I’m not really all that normal myself, so why would we go on an ordinary date?  Besides,” he added, with amused candor, “there’s nothing good at the movie theatre, my friends can be a pain and they tend to eat at the diner nights like this, and if I’m going to go for moonlight and stars, the park’s more likely to have kids smoking weed and the cops like to check out the playground.”

Beryl grinned at him and made sure he saw it.  “That sounds like very good logic.  What would you have done, though, if I was the sort to get creeped out by cemeteries?”

“Apologize profusely for misjudging you and take you out for ice cream?  And then maybe down to the creek.  It’s pretty this time of year, too.” Continue reading →

The Gardener, a story of Fae Apoc for Patreon

May12
This is one of those that wandered off from the prompt, but I didn’t notice until I was done.  So have at. 🙂

🏡

The cherry trees needed extra buds plucked and the wisteria needed trimming; the dwarf willow in the tiny garden needed to be convinced back from the bench and the tomatoes in the vegetable patch needed weeding.

Damkina was humming. If the rain held off until past noon, it would be a good day.

Gardens, like people, came and went, Damkina had long since learned, albeit in a slower, more vegetal manner.  This one was young, not even a century old yet, and the people who believed they were employing her to maintain it had no idea who she really was.

That was fine with her.  She preferred anonymity to notoriety.
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Inconvenient Magic – a story for Patreon

Apr20

I have discovered that Asta might be my favorite Aunt. The more I write about her and her “placeholder” status, the more I like her. 

This takes place maybe 5 years before Evangaline becomes Aunt, so in the 2000’s.   We have not met Will before. 

✨

“Oh, dear.”  Asta patted her nephew’s shoulder gingerly.  “Not again?”

Will sighed and looked out the window. “Again.  I managed to cover it up, the way you showed me…”

“But if this keeps happening, eventually the grandmothers and the mothers and the fussbudgets down at church are going to figure it out, no matter how small-minded they are,” Asta finished with a sigh.  “And then they’re going to give you Willard’s choice.” Continue reading →

The Wall- a story for Patreon

Apr13
History and memory did not go past the wall.
It was as tall as anyone could imagine, an unknown width, and it surrounded the Community, giving them room enough to live and grow but no more.

It could not be climbed, being smooth to the touch and unpleasant to be in contact with for any length of time.  It could not be drilled through, nor broken.  It could not be dug underneath.

The people of the Community asked themselves what the wall was for, and they came up with many stories in answer: it was to protect them from something big and deadly outside.  It was to protect something small and fragile from them.  It was the edge of the world.  It was a portal into another space.
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