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The forest was dark when the cave troll crept behind him. It raised a club as huge as the trunks of the surrounding trees and aimed at him. Joriah’s eyes have not yet adjusted when his instincts told him to duck. He heard a swooshing sound made by the club as it struck the tips of his hair.

He automatically unsheathed his sabre. The troll was slow, but its swings were deadly. He whispered an enchantment and his sword lit. The troll was mesmerized by its radiance – it froze. Joriah charged at the giant and hurled his sabre into its heart. It was too late when the troll snapped out of its trance. It fell.

“Well done Joriah,” said the voice. Killing the cave troll was your last task. You may now claim the jewel of the Eastern Sky.

Image rights to Alkan Chaglar

Laylay and Josephine knew each other for a short while, yet they felt as if they knew each other for a lifetime.

It was raining that night when Laylay heard a knock at her front door. It was indistinguishable whether Josephine’s face was soaked from the rain or from her tears.

“He- left- me-,” cried Josephine through sobs from her chest, she was like a fish out of the ocean gasping for breath.

Laylay hushed her friend and embraced Josephine tighter. “Don’t worry, you still have me. We’ll take care of each other.”

It took a few more minutes before Josephine calmed down. She stopped sobbing and gently sat on the floor with her best friend. She was looking at her tummy and caressed it with her trembling hand.

“Don’t worry Justin, mom and auntie Laylay are here for you.

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Maihla dropped the final ingredient of the potion. She climbed on her gossamer vessel and headed for Awuhk Mountain. She saw a warlock in pursuit. It was Giordwahn from the Mwadamuhn tribe.

“Maihla stop,” Giordwahn commanded while pulling at her vessel with an unseen rope.

She threw an enchantment, then her vessel pulled away from Giordwahn’s grasp.

Giordwahn blocked her way to the altar.

“Let me through. This is the only way,” Maihla said. “Don’t you understand?”

“I know but, you would lose your –,” Giordwahn was cut in mid sentence.

“My bloodline?” Maihla retaliated. “I’d rather lose my inheritance, than to lose you.”

Her words pierced his soul. Giordwahn let her pass. Maihla stepped out of the altar in her mortal form and reached for Giordwahn’s hand. The former heiress of the Pwuluk tribe finally joined her beloved warlock.

Image rights to Alyssa L. Miller

The panic in the emergency room simmered down like an expertly cooked dish on the fire.

“I will leave you soon,” Eddie said while looking intently at his wife.

“How do you know that?” Lourdes asked while hanging on to each of Eddie’s words.

“I just know, but I am ready now,” Eddie answered her question. These were the words that Lourdes played again and again inside her head while the doctor was telling her that they did all they could for her beloved husband. He lay on the cold stretcher covered with a white blanket.

She unveiled the blanket and reveled her husband’s tranquil pale face. There was a faint smile on his paper white lips.

“Thank you for the ten happy years you spent with me,” Lourdes whispered in Eddie’s right ear then gently kissed his cold forehead.

a minotaur

Genu turned into a Minotaur, a mythical beast. In that form, he deflected the high priests spells.

In frustration, the high priest summoned a rampaging troll. It swung its club wildly toward Genu. The troll’s attacks were tireless.

From afar, Genu, saw his younger brother, who was frozen in Pegasus form from the distance. The high priest was about to stab him with a knife.

The troll swung its club, but Genu dodged it. With its other arm, it knocked Genu down. As he fell, he saw the high priest plunged the dagger to his brother.

He came about in his brother’s gorilla arms.

“What happened?” Genu asked.

“I escaped his spell and turned into a thunderbird. In that form, I threw a lightning bolt at him. He underestimated us,” Olin narrated. Then showed the blue hyacynth to his brother.

image credit to pareeerica

An ocean of leaves restlessly moved in unison at the approaching trolls armed with axes and torches. These mischievous creatures were never welcome in the forest of Bahn.

Gladin, the dwarf lord that lead the trolls, commanded to burn everything to the ground. But the forest was not defenseless. In an unforeseen signal, it rained spikes that bore through their thick skins and the fruits spitted saps that extinguished their torches.

The surviving trolls ran amok to the surrounding plains.Gladin looked back and saw the silhouette of Charla, the mistress of the forest. Her diamond eyes blinked at him once then he instantly expired. The roots pulled his remains and those trolls that fell on the ground into the earth.

Charla retired in her cocoon, satisfied with the result of the battle. She laid dormant until the next assault.

image rights to Loelle

“Come back to me” were words Jordan remembered. The memory of his wife’s face was drawn in the smog of the city district.

He swung a sledgehammer and started to demolish a wall of an apartment building on Forty-eight Street. A picture of a young couple fell on the floor. He picked it up then brought the wall down.

It was late when he got home, but his daughter waited for him.

“I made dinner dad,” said the teenager.

Jordan sat down with her and tasted the meal.

“Jane, your pot roast is as good as your mom’s,” he remarked.

“Thanks dad, but mom’s is better,” sneered Jane.

Jordan stared blankly at the empty chair beside his. Jane instinctively walked behind her dad’s chair and hugged him tightly.

“She would have came back, dad, if only she could,” Jane said.

image rights to Zorlone

In the land of Tah, a mighty warrior, Zoran won battles for his powerful, yet greedy ruler, Avarus. His only desire was for the love of his master’s daughter, Maan. Since Maan was Avarus’ most beautiful possession, he vanished her to the night sky and became the moon.

For years the warrior and his beloved were separated. But because the warrior was known throughout the land for his kindness and righteousness, a hermit came to him one day and said,

“Wait for the starless night sky with fertile clouds, your beautiful Maan shall walk upon the land with you for seven days and nights.”

The warrior climbed Mt. Luere and waited for such night. The moon shone through the clouds then Zoran passionately called out for his Maan. When the clouds engulfed the moon, Maan appeared silently at Zoran’s side.

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Rene had been working overseas for the past three years, a couple of months more, he would be able to come back to his home land.

“I’ll be there when you graduate, Kit,” said Rene on the phone.

Kit heard his father hushed a child’s voice in the background, but disregarded the thought from his mind and said, “That would be great, dad. Mom and I can’t wait to see you again.”

“Take care of your mom until I get there, bye,” Rene replied then hung up.

“Renaldo, be sure to leave us money when you go home and you’d better come back,” a woman snapped.

Rene looked at the young woman holding his child then retorted, “I’ll come back for my son!”

The toddler simply looked at him, perplexed by the look in his father’s face, but smiled back.

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Olin and Genu reached the land of the prophets. It was a desolate place that sucks the life out of mortal men. The brothers had to be in their beast forms.

An old man appeared in front of them wielding a staff. “We have been expecting you,” he said.

The ground shook and caved in beneath them. Olin flapped his Pegasus wings and flew, while Genu shifted into a king cobra and clung to Olin. The old man pointed his staff and threw lightning bolts at them. Olin maneuvered just in time for Genu to jump off towards the man. He bounded his body then hissed, “Take us to the blue hyacinth.”

The man reluctantly replied to Genu, “The blue hyacinth can never be taken, only won,” he said.

“So be it,” Genu replied. I shall fight for its possession.