The Good Vampyre (522 Words)
‘You knew she was a vampire.’
‘I swear I didn’t.’
She met his wild glance with pain of her own.
‘Then why are you here?’ she asked. ‘Robin? What are you doing?’
‘I found out as you did. If I had known, could I have kept it from you? Have I hidden anything from you? Sissy?’
Thinking Stone (516 Words)
The day after her eighteenth birthday, Princess Tana’s parents told her that it was time to marry. Because their daughter’s happiness was everything, they promised she could make her own choice with one caveat.
“If you aren’t in love within three months,” they said, “we will choose your husband for you. It is for your own good, Tana. You don’t want to die alone.”
Painting in the Window (280 Words)
I always wondered who put the picture there. It had been hanging on the bedroom wall when we moved in, and neither Cal nor I seemed to want it down. It surprised me that Cal didn’t complain. He was always a little impatient of art, calling it frivolous and fanciful. As an artist myself, I took his criticisms in stride with a few remarks of my own about the ship models that were all his pride and joy.
Water Prints (427 Words)
She didn’t live in town. The island population, a little under five hundred residents, was limited mostly to farmers and fishers. The moment Davie saw her sitting on the sand, looking out to sea with her knees pulled under her chin, he knew she didn’t belong.
There was something unusual in her quietness and poise. Something in her eyes was strange and deep, wild and unafraid like the sea itself. Davie was a little afraid of her. But even though he was afraid, it comforted him somehow to see her every morning. People gossiped about her but he never listened to what they said. There was a mystery about that young woman he was satisfied to solve himself.
Kites and Galleons (200 Words)
It had been a little over a year. Every morning Clare sat at the cliff ledge overlooking the sea. She would sit there with her chin resting on her knees, gazing west, watching the ships on the far horizon. The Rover had been lost months ago, but she refused to believe Evan, Lan, and Kate were dead.
Goblin Tree (92 Words)
Once, a goblin stole whatever he could from a human village, jewels, apples, and buttons. He was lean-limbed with fierce gold eyes, but his hands, though slender, were like talons.
South for the Winter (233 Words)
The air was cold, but with the morning sun softening the clouds in pinks and grays, it looked like it should be warm.
“I have to go,” Lanna said out loud.
