Category: Fantasy

Fantasy, poem, poetry, Shayari, Sonnet19 Comments

Flash Fiction Challenge – Zombies vs Healer

Melinda Kucsera

   The Necromancer vs the Healer The necromancer raised them row by row, ripped from death’s sleep, the zombies sprang from graves. An army shambles bent on overthrow, its mauve-robed leader can’t ever be saved. Drawn by death’s cold touch and stench of decay, a healer comes with life’s power in his veins. His touch turns zombies to dust, and waylays the necromancer’s plans. No innocents slain, no kingdom overthrown–Necromancer faces Healer, but life always prevails. One touch removes un-life, Necromancer falls, his mauve robes puddle, his bargains fail, for power he swapped salvation, enslaved himself to Death, but he can still be saved. ~ ~ ~ … Continue reading Flash Fiction Challenge – Zombies vs Healer

Fantasy, poem, poetry, Sonnet5 Comments

The Road Calls – Writing 101 Assignment 4

Melinda Kucsera

The Road Calls I watched the sylvan world fade away. Through my long watch, cities rose up and fell. Ancient magic no longer holds sway. Now comes the day to bid a fond farewell. My watch is done when this day ends in night. Weep not, my friend, the sun’s last glimmer leads me home. Over hill and dale, through passes tight, over ice-crowned mountains where my road leads. Back to lands that still dream, where magic dwells. The road is now calling, silver streams sing. My feet itch to dance my way in its swells. Say farewell. The road calls. Your blessing sing– I … Continue reading The Road Calls – Writing 101 Assignment 4

Curse Breaker, Fantasy, Mount Eredren, poem, poetry, Sarn, Shayari, Sonnet3 Comments

Poetry 101 Rehab: Father

Melinda Kucsera

Blocks Ran sat used Papa as a backrest while he stacked blocks woven from wild reeds. Magic rushed ’round under Papa’s skin; it beguiled the child listening to its rhythmic music. Magic beat with his heart and sometimes in counterpoint. Ran’s hair stood up; Papa’s arm draped across his lap securing him in place. Green sparks raced across his father’s arm, leapt over Ran’s head outlining a loose sphere that winked in and out of view. Ran pushed blocks at the peak-a-boo curtain of power there. The block stopped mid-air within the sphere locked. Ran laughed and pushed on Papa’s magic wall that had become a new … Continue reading Poetry 101 Rehab: Father

Fantasy, poem, poetry, Sonnet12 Comments

One Word to Hold in the Gray Between – Writing 101 Assignment 3

Melinda Kucsera

The Gray Between There is a place between, a gray between life and death, a place where all crossroads lead. Darkness hangs there and shadows lay the scene. No light goes there unless kindled by need. Hope, love and faith ignite a soul with fire brightening the Gray Between. As you walk, the darkness stalks, it feeds on emotions. Hold your hope tight, its your torch, and don’t balk. Cling to your love. Sing hymns while in motion, Don’t pause or the Gray Between’ll suck you dry, leave a darkening husk trapped in the woods with no path to follow. Cold you will die, never … Continue reading One Word to Hold in the Gray Between – Writing 101 Assignment 3

Curse Breaker, Fantasy, poem, poetry, Sarn, Shayari, Sonnet1 Comment

The Sky Cries Rain Tears

Melinda Kucsera

The Sky Cries “Why’s the sky cry?” asked Ran who walked beside. His question aimed at his somber father. “It’s raining not crying,” said Sarn, who tried not to look back, not to decipher her last words, not to dwell on things now ended. His eyes followed the lake’s curve to her home. But she’d gone back to a life upended— without a freak with a magic syndrome. Ran pipped up suddenly, “I know why it cries.” Sarn regarded his son for the answer, “Because you don’t cry, so for you, it cries.” Ran squeezed his father’s hand, looking wiser than his scant years. “You can cry, it’s okay. ‘Cause when I’m … Continue reading The Sky Cries Rain Tears

Curse Breaker, Fantasy, poem, poetry, Shayari, Sonnet

Photo-fiction Challenge #6 – Upended

Melinda Kucsera

Upended Keysta leaned against the upended couch wondering what to do now that they’d gone. He had turned the house upside down, that grouch, but he’d not found her. Her bro went to pawn a trinket that wouldn’t fetch enough to pay the men off or make a dent in their debt. despair crushed her, ground her down, left no way to recoup or energy to try. Threats still echoed when her bro returned. Coins clink, his boots scrape to a stop at the scene, eyes scan for signs of his elder sis, then blink to take it all in. He moves fast and … Continue reading Photo-fiction Challenge #6 – Upended

Fantasy, Jacora, poem, poetry, Sarn, Shayari, Sonnet4 Comments

Photo-fiction #10 – When Words Fail

Melinda Kucsera

When Words Fail Words shifted on the page, jumped up, rearranged. Sarn wrestled them, tried to glean meaning from the handwritten letters so estranged from their spoken counterparts. Divining nothing from it, he looked out at the street but felt no desire to go abroad until his son climbed up and took a seat on the table. Sarn felt less like a fraud with the closed book pushed aside by his son. Ran fingered the book. “Why you look so sad?” Sarn wanted to read stories to his son, the ones he’d loved most,  like a proper dad. He opened the book. Each word he sounded out; his son sat … Continue reading Photo-fiction #10 – When Words Fail

Fantasy, Mount Eredren, poem, poetry, Sarn, Shayari, Sonnet2 Comments

Trick or Trick: A Daily Post Sonnet

Melinda Kucsera

Trick or Trick The simplicity of it convinced Sarn that Miren’s plan was sound. The trick appealed to his sense of justice and what a yarn it’d make if they could pull it off. Afield he searched for leaves of three. That poison ivy which Nolo had warned him never to touch. He gave his babysitters a lively chase. Dashing back to the barracks, prize clutched in gloved hands, he rushed to rub the leaves’ itch on the beds of his tormentors. Task done, Sarn ran back to the minders that he’d ditched to pretend he hadn’t left. That night begun with … Continue reading Trick or Trick: A Daily Post Sonnet

Fantasy, poem, poetry, Sonnet8 Comments

Lady in Red vs Fate’s Queen

Melinda Kucsera

Lady in Red In red she fled, lost her shoes on shifting sands. Towards the land of Phare, Fairest of lands, where Fate’s Queen, that dark beauty, is caring for her clan. In Mori Kana’s rust sand desert her palace lies ‘twixt life and dreams. A place Lady Red knows well. Into Fay’s hands she places her woes. Fate’s Queen now beams, at the challenge in her hands. She revels at the chance to teach a marauding beast some manners. Her children, most grown, rebel at her facing on her own such a beast. But in a blink she’s gone, in a trice, she’s made … Continue reading Lady in Red vs Fate’s Queen

Fantasy, poem, poetry, Sonnet11 Comments

The Despairing Ones

Melinda Kucsera

The Despairing Ones Her thoughts black, bitter-tasting from despair. Darkness had smote her, changing angel kind to demon ranked. Gnarled, wrinkled, her form pared from shadow. Sunken eyes like coal remind of the truth she’s now embraced. This fallen thing, this harridan, this once glorious being who once shined from within, awakens with terrible purpose. Bat winged, scabrous, she drips pestilence from her fingernails. Bent, stuffed into a sack of skin-looking material whose translucence showed nails securing it in place. She’s cowering, because that nightmare woman’s blinded by sight of my angelic soul’s cascading light. ~ ~ ~ There are 12 Despairing Ones and they are the villains … Continue reading The Despairing Ones

Fantasy, poem, poetry, Sonnet8 Comments

Storm Tamer – One Word Photo Challenge: Winter

Melinda Kucsera

Storm Tamer A snowy road he took cross bridge to isle in the sound. No crunch of snow heard he this deaf traveler, this storm tamer, not while wind-weaving, cloud reading, snowshoeing his way home. For Serensalia he’s bound. He writes ice messages that melt come spring. He’s snow dancing, weather tracking around the mount’n paths. Through gales he leads with daring traders heading north past storms in safety kept by magic shields that hold cold that kills at bay. He channels lightning with piety down paths inked on his skin, yes he’s got skills. He’s your best bet if north your travels tend. With him, you’ll  live to reach your journey’s end. ~ ~ … Continue reading Storm Tamer – One Word Photo Challenge: Winter

Fantasy, Mount Eredren, poem, poetry, Sarn, Shayari, Sonnet2 Comments

Talk – A Writing Rehab Prompt Sonnet

Melinda Kucsera

Talk “Talk, tell me why you’re here. Will you just talk? Open that mouth of yours and talk, say some- thing, anything. Don’t just stand there mute, talk to me, spit out words about any thing…” Sarn stayed silent, kept the truth penned in where it couldn’t hurt him, prisoned behind teeth set ‘gainst speech, caging words that want to tear free, expose a secret with eyes and teeth… A secret he’d rather die to protect, a secret life he longed to return to but the Ranger facing him might detect the boy his silence protected, who through it all crouched behind a … Continue reading Talk – A Writing Rehab Prompt Sonnet

Fantasy, poem, poetry, Shayari, Sonnet2 Comments

Spring Send Off – A One Word Photo Challenge Sonnet

Melinda Kucsera

Spring Send Off Everywhere he looked spring had sprung green, gold and clear running streams no longer ice-choked. Nights still froze his balls off, but leave the wold he would to see Shayari ‘fore he croaked. Nothing tied him here now that his wife had gone. His children grown no longer wanted him around, an inconvenience he’d become. He set off that morn adjusting his brim, to hide the tear tracing his grizzled cheek. He put his home of five decades behind and headed for the last time to that creek which marked the end of home, no time to whine about loss, giving … Continue reading Spring Send Off – A One Word Photo Challenge Sonnet

Fantasy, poem, poetry, Sarn, Shayari, Sonnet8 Comments

The Scribe – A Prompt Sonnet

Melinda Kucsera

The Scribe: Miren The quill scratches, making marks that record the deeds of Sarn, his beloved brother, who can’t see his worth. That task never bores Miren as he sits writing of his brother by lumir light every night. How many words must spill on journal pages before he finds the spark for an epiphany? Every day his brother fetches food for orphans then works to earn his bed, his bread and his brother’s education so that Miren won’t have to work until he’s dead. Sarn sacrificed freedom to an autocrat. Miren’s still writing, recording the deeds of a life sacrificed in love and need. ~ ~ ~ Mired was feeling left … Continue reading The Scribe – A Prompt Sonnet

Fantasy, poem, poetry, Sarn, Sonnet

A Dream Out of Reach – A Daily Post Sonnet #2

Melinda Kucsera

A Dream Out of Reach On the field of glory, his armor bright, the knight sat his white steed ready to ride. He extended his hand, asked if Sarn might: “Ride for truth. Ride for one and for all. Ride for justice and peace. Ride out now with me.” The sun gilded the knight, made him too bright. He shined with all Sarn had wanted to be. Take that hand and his life would be so right… A tug on his pant leg, a whispered word, “Papa,” interrupted the dream, breaking the dream on his son‘s face, that had captured … Continue reading A Dream Out of Reach – A Daily Post Sonnet #2