All Captured Tales

The story archive

Romantic

Fifteen illustrated stories appear on each archive page, newest first.

The story archive

Romantic

47 published tales

Whispers of the Luminara Bloom

Whispers of the Luminara Bloom

Audience: All readers

It started, as all ridiculous forest tales do, with a flutter, a sparkle, and someone complaining about pollen. “I swear to every sap-sticky deity in this w...

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In Mossbottom, adult gnomes Barnaby and Glimmer celebrate beneath heart lanterns as the Mossfather wakes beside an old birdbath.

Garden of Devotion

Audience: Grown-up humor

In Mossbottom, Barnaby and Glimmer plan a garden vow renewal that welcomes music, listening, and quiet corners alike. When a grumpy Mossfather wakes beneath ...

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The Keeper of My Love

The Keeper of My Love

Audience: All readers

The Lock, the Key, and the Gnome Who Knew Too Much The wedding was at exactly 4:04 PM. Because gnomes are not known for being punctual, but they are known f...

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The Howling Hat of Hooten Hollow

The Howling Hat of Hooten Hollow

Audience: All readers

The Hat That Bit Back By the time Glumbella Fernwhistle turned ninety-seven-and-a-half, she’d stopped pretending her hat wasn’t alive. It gurgled when she ya...

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Born of Flame, Breathed by Ocean

Born of Flame, Breathed by Ocean

Audience: All readers

The Split of Aeralune There was a time when the world breathed as one. Before the forests divided themselves from the desert, before thunder argued with flam...

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Soaked in Sunshine and Mischief

Soaked in Sunshine and Mischief

Audience: Grown-up humor

It was the kind of rain that made the world smell alive — damp earth, crushed leaves, and that heady perfume of mushrooms fermenting secrets into the soil. ...

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The Weight of a Tear

The Weight of a Tear

Audience: All readers

The Boy Who Stood Beneath It was not rain that soaked his shoulders, nor mist that clung to his lashes — it was the sorrow of someone much larger than him. ...

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The Ale and the Argument

The Ale and the Argument

Audience: All readers

It started, as most disasters do, with a pint too many and pants too few. Old Fernbeard — retired mushroom forager, self-declared “Alethlete,” and wearer of...

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The Elder of the Enchanted Path

The Elder of the Enchanted Path

Audience: All readers

In the heart of the Verdant Woodlands—just past the babbling creek that sounds suspiciously like it's gossiping—stood a moss-covered stump known only to a f...

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Shave Me Softly (with Terror)

Shave Me Softly (with Terror)

Audience: Dark or intense

The Prickle and the Peril There are few things in life as universally despised as the ankle nick. That one millimeter of skin you forget about until it’s ble...

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Koi of the Cosmos

Koi of the Cosmos

Audience: All readers

The sky had turned to water, or perhaps the water had swallowed the sky. It was impossible to tell. Stars shimmered beneath the surface of the river, and the...

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Ascension of a Broken Heart

Ascension of a Broken Heart

Audience: Dark or intense

A Love Torn by Fate The rain fell in an endless cascade, each drop a quiet requiem against the shattered headstones. The world was silent but for the weeping...

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