She dug around in the various sacks and satchels, bags, gourds and little wooden lockboxes that hung from her person. “No,” she muttered. “Not that…” pulling a softly glowing stone orb from one bag, putting it away again. “No. No. No.” A piece of soapstone with scratched snake-shapes all over. A lifelike little mouse that…
Update
Hi there. Just another quick post to let you know that I haven’t given up or stopped. The contract work I took on keeps getting extended. It was supposed to finish mid-2022, and is now running through to the end of March 2023. I’ve been very clear though that I can’t keep pushing on with…
Just a quick update
There aren’t many readers checking in at the moment, but for those who are: I haven’t given up. I’m inundated with work as part of a short-term contract I’ve agreed to. It has another 3 months to run. However, the pay is good enough that I’ll be able to take time away from work for…
A Charm for the Nameless Child #132
“So,” said the she-boggart, “you come before me. In this, I ought be pleased. I suppose. I s’ppose.” She waved a hand of tapering, knotty-knuckled fingers and long, hooked claws. “Will you sit?” Caewen returned a polite, if awkward, half-bow, half-curtsy. “We will.” She lowered herself into a cross-legged position opposite, and across the fire….
A Charm for the Nameless Child #131
They wended a path among the trees, over soft shushing pine needles, under the harsh laughter of wind in the branches above. It did not take long to find themselves thoroughly lost. Cliffs and ravines, dead-ends and blind rifts stood all about the flank of the mountain here. The sides were too sheer to be…
Just a quick update
Okay. So, I want to let the (few) readers here that I haven’t given up. I’ve been offered a 6 month contract, and that’s suddenly eating most of my time. I’m hoping that the contract work settles down to a point where I can at least be posting weekly. That should be viable, but I…
A Charm for the Nameless Child #130
The funerary rites of the hobbes struck the boy as both appropriate and horrific. By the time he was standing–watching it all unfold–his mind had grown dimmed. The sight of it all passed like clouds before the sun: fleeting, illusory and never quite blocking out a sun-brightness of guilt and grief beyond. Before they did…
A Charm for the Nameless Child #129
The boy looked around. There were a lot of dead. “Where’s Fleat?” he asked again, more worry in his throat than the first time. The little hobbe was nowhere in sight. If he had survived the fight–if he was alive and uninjured–then he ought have returned. One step out into the carnage. And another. He…
A Charm for the Nameless Child #128
Hobbes were now returning from their pursuit, and were changing back from their feathered owlish forms. It seemed that the chase had been abandoned. The shifting-of-forms meant that a thin cloud of many-hued feathers were falling, all twirling on the wind. Strangely, many of the hobbes were now standing about naked, or nearly-so, barring the…
A Charm for the Nameless Child #127
After a while sitting in the cold winds, Caewen stood. She stretched her limbs as if she had woken from a dream, and moved her attention back to the aftermath of battle. She turned her back to the north, and the shadow-lands of Sorthe. With a half-smile, she stepped away from the cliff. The boy…