Whispers in the Pumpkin Patch
The Lantern Opens Autumn had clicked its amber dimmer switch to “moody,” and the forest complied with cinematic enthusiasm. Leaves rehearsed their slow-moti...
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Standalone Tales
Fifteen illustrated stories appear on each archive page, newest first.
The story archive
Standalone Tales
669 published tales
Fairytales in the Making
The Wand Chooses the Whisker The evening arrived the way good stories do: with a thunk. Specifically, the thunk of an ancient spellbook landing on an even o...
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The Hatchling Companions
The Day the Twins Discovered Trouble (and Each Other) On the morning the mountain sneezed, two baby dragons blinked awake beneath a quilt of warm moss and qu...
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Guardian of Winter Blossoms
The Tiger in the Snow They said the forest had a keeper. Not a ranger, not some crusty hermit with a beard full of frozen squirrels, but a tiger. A big, whi...
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The Raindrop Rider
The Elf Who Wouldn’t Stay Dry Once upon a drizzle, in a forest where the ferns gossiped louder than drunk pixies and the moss had an opinion about everythin...
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Dragonling in Gentle Hands
The Morning I Accidentally Adopted a Myth I woke to the sound of something humming on my windowsill, a note so small and bright it could have been a sliver o...
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Hatchling of the Storm
A Hatchling’s Complaint The rain had been falling for hours, and if you asked the little dragon about it (which no one did, since no one else was brave—or f...
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Inferno on the Branch
If you ask the birders down at the trailhead what a Pileated Woodpecker sounds like, they’ll give you three answers: a jungle monkey on espresso, a carpente...
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Rage from the Egg
Shards, Smoke, and a Bad Attitude The egg didn’t so much hatch as declare war on complacency. It split with the sound of a wineglass meeting a tiled floor af...
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Siren of Silk and Bloom
The night the tide forgot itself, the sea laid out a runway—glossy, blue, and just a smidge dramatic—so I could make an entrance. I am Lyris, the mermaid wh...
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Riders of the Chromatic Veil
Arrival Beneath the Veil The first time the veil split open, it was barely a whisper. It came on the seventh moonless night in a row — a night so unnaturally...
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Petals & Pavement
The Night the City Sprouted Heels I was three blocks deep into a rain-polished evening, the kind that makes every taxi light bokeh look like a gold coin thr...
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The Agave Whisperer
The Barrel-Bottom Prophet It was said in the whisperiest of taverns — between shots of regret and beers of poor decisions — that somewhere deep in the grove...
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How to Lose a Dragon in 10 Hugs
The Hug Heard 'Round the Forest There once lived a gnome named Brambletug who had two core beliefs: that all creatures secretly longed for his affection, and...
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The Sweet Decay
The Hive Beneath The smell hit her first—sweet, but wrong. It clung to the air like the scent of a dying flower dipped in syrup and left to rot in the sun. T...
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