The River Nirthal

The River Nirthal From border to border it runs swift, clear. Through mountain pass, down Osrailten’s shoulders, into Neverthrall’s inland sea, then tear off across valley and hill. Smooth boulders, babble at the enchanted trees standing on shore, dark and disapproving of its watery foe. Still onwards its running the mighty Nirthal River. Here it lazes as it widens, giving shipping more lanes to ply its calm waters. Despite the haze, its navigable west from Hero’s Bane, east to the salten sea, Shayari’s end. Its freshwater soothes thirst; lets children play in its spray; fills fishermen’s nets each day. ~ ~ ~ The … Continue reading The River Nirthal

Frontiers – A Pic and a Word Challenge

Frontier Mountains frame my home. They ripple across the dark horizon unable to cage the enchanted forest which spills across its flanks, spreads o’er the land. Magic wages its own war within that dark wood; explore it at your own peril. Misted mountains’ vista shows a hundred valleys and more melting into that last frontier. Explain why that blue haze lays o’er all obscuring your edges sweet Shayari? Your border hides itself; its secrets are alluring. What lies beyond on that vast continent? If I leave you will I find contentment? prompt courtesy of Pic and a Word Challenge #10: Frontiers Continue reading Frontiers – A Pic and a Word Challenge

Friendship

Friendship Saveen regarded Ran in that open, trusting way of his; slow-witted they said; stupid, they called him, those orphan children, the Foundlings that mama had raised and led. Ran understood him even though Saveen was big like his uncle. His mind was small, which made him the perfect friend for one green eyed boy who didn’t want to be watched at all. They played knights and dragons. Creeping about from shadowed nook to pile of clothes, they slunk, stalking imaginary prey. Lookout! A monster’s rising–they pounce using spunk to defend ’cause no weapons are allowed, their foe fades to shadow and they stand proud. ~ ~ ~ Scene from … Continue reading Friendship

Secret Admirer – A Daily Post Sonnet

Secret Admirer She fingered the course cloth of his green cloak. Her savior–a man with green eyes that burned with magical fire. Course fabric she strokes, feeling arms carrying her, unconcerned by the enemies still fighting. Three shafts bloomed in her attacker’s neck, her savior’s work, before he’d rescued her. Danger still loomed as he ran through forest where shadows lurk. Sudden impact–she’s falling; one raider’s accosted them. She’d hit her head, missed the fight; vile unconsciousness betrayed her. She has his cloak, his presence it insists. Her savoir’s face in good lighting she yearns to see, to give her thanks and his name learn. ~ … Continue reading Secret Admirer – A Daily Post Sonnet

Photo-Fiction Challenge #3 – Travelor

Travelor He dreamed of enchanted trees that spanned from earth to sky, heard its call in his marrow. To the Holy City, Morfane, he’d come but its cathedrals’ hope for tomorrow couldn’t ensnare his heart. That organ belonged to Shayari’s green valleys. Her siren song pulled him from inn to road, where he belonged. On wards he trod to that place where all wrongs were righted. Where good men dwelt in green dreams. Past urban wonders his peasant eyes scarce noticed. For they had fixed on that seam ‘tween dreams and waking where the boundary scarce existed and one might pass unhindered the magic … Continue reading Photo-Fiction Challenge #3 – Travelor

Shayari – Where I Write – Writing 101 #6

This is my place to write (in my mind but not in physical reality) Shayari A rolling land, with mountains tall and mist shrouded, whose snow capped peaks launch eagles high, where old forests roam, intelligence-kissed by magic writ by a mage who was high, where Guardians ride, crystal swords flashing in the sun and villages perch in trees tangled up in magic and true knowing, where cities sprawl in valleys blasted free of trees by ancient weapons, now barren those crater-cities where nothing will grow despite rivers that flow through the warren to the inland freshwater sea that knows a secret hides … Continue reading Shayari – Where I Write – Writing 101 #6

One Word Photo Challenge – Summer

Squash Blossoms Squash blossoms bloom one day, then crumple, fade before morning next comes. He watched it sit amid squash vines, orphaned babe in lap, spade in hand, motionless as the vines. Sun lit its face giving it a feminine cast. The sword slung at his hip hummed with magic and he wondered what a plain man who’s passed his prime ought do with such a tragic crew. It saw him standing there, came to him, babe cradled in its arms, with squash blossoms in its hair, all of them spent, just like him, their life done, their pollen gone, a handsome bit of bright decay … Continue reading One Word Photo Challenge – Summer

Flash Fiction Challenge – Zombies vs Healer

   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

Poetry 101 Rehab: Father

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

The Sky Cries Rain Tears

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

Photo-fiction Challenge #6 – Upended

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

Photo-fiction #10 – When Words Fail

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

Trick or Trick: A Daily Post Sonnet

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

Fright Night – A Daily Post Sonnet

Fright Night Dead hands claw at earth’s oppression, shove dirt from bodies rotted to bone, levered the remnants of their forgotten spirits up from yawning graves that death delivered. Far this cemetery’s blight, all’s cracked and broken in the world, ’cause balance is broken, life’s wheel is smashed, nature is backed in a corner, cowering at the crisis. ‘Till the Guardians ride, their swords raised high, their helms agleam in fading starlight, their armor bright in lines they stand, face the eye of death they do and vanquish its corpse there at the cemetery gates. To their graves the dead do flow, for the … Continue reading Fright Night – A Daily Post Sonnet

If You Leave – A Daily Post Sonnet

If You Leave If you leave, I’ll follow,  Ran thought as he spread his short arms in a hug. He didn’t say any of this to the father whose knee he sat. His father held him, but didn’t say how this parting hurt him; how he wanted to take his son with him on a journey far to find the woman, who in dreams, haunted him. In her own tragedy, she now stars. His father left; Bear’s button eyes regard Ran from his rucksack and courage they give. Pack on back, he sneaks past sitter, door guard, and Rangers on patrol. He wouldn’t live one day … Continue reading If You Leave – A Daily Post Sonnet