'"Stand and deliver!" The cry would sound, in a small squeak from the ground, and any passerby would be obliged to stop and stoop and pay the passage so demanded. They were harmless, no matter their manner, but all obliged. After all, they only asked for crumbs and berries.' https://t.co/CsyxxOkWsA
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 21, 2020
'It was a wizard's grave, the grave of the last wizard to ever live. They had forged a world of wonder and of terrifying magnificence, but they had forgotten their own limitations in the forming and the magic of the world had strained and cracked, and the world crumbled with it.' https://t.co/SmHhm97Hfb
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 21, 2020
'From the ring cities in the distance, rescue came as it always did. They had traveled too far from the comforts of their upbringing, from the safety of their society and technology. That had been the point, but no matter the risks they took, nothing seemed challenging anymore.' https://t.co/u6x646VqLv
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 21, 2020
'The dust storms were a hassle to be sure. The sanctuary seemed almost purpose built to collect as much of the airborne dirt as it could in the worst spots to clean. Still, while the acolytes of the key grumbled, still they swept after every storm, chanting the hymn of the lock.' https://t.co/D3u7wNprVv
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 21, 2020
'The frog of good luck was a small god, and never popular. Austere adults thought it small and silly, and it rarely blinked. For when it blinked, some small child would find a coin or score a goal. Unpopular, and fairly useless, still the frog was adored by luckless children.' https://t.co/wZgOV5p4F8
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 21, 2020
'Whimsy and joy and the laughter of children had brought her into this world, and every night the dream princess cast forth the grandest and happiest of visions, to dance in the heads of all who were young or young of heart. She was a dream creating dreams, and she did it well.' https://t.co/RAFm5ODjPP
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 21, 2020
'Secret societies and clandestine cults across sickened societies and corrupt countries in all ages had slaved arduously and with no small amount of innocent blood to open the night gate. The why had been lost long ago in the quest, only to be asked anew as the demon emerged.' https://t.co/1hDK4Q64uW
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 21, 2020
'At last she had found it, this relic of mages past, long since lost to common knowledge. This could be the answer to all her people's troubles, or perhaps give her the powers of a god. Still, as she studied and contemplated her prize, she wondered why the mages past had passed.' https://t.co/1SdBCsdUpU
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 21, 2020
'Oh how frightened the whole world had been when they had first arrived, these unfathomably massive creatures from the depths of space. But beyond an interruption of air travel soon adapted around, they had proven gentle, playful, benign. Now, the sky whales were treasured.' https://t.co/FnzlMPAyiR
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 21, 2020
'At first, few believed the tales of the maiden of the depths, dismissing the wild tales of those who had seen her as diving fever or worse. Yet, as more saw her, floating eerily among the ruins, always seeking, always searching for those she had lost, they began to fear her.' https://t.co/hmXxlFB01D
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 21, 2020
'Life was unfair, it was true. Some days you would eat, some days you would be eaten. Some days you would feed on life some days you fed another in its fairer days. Life was but the one sort of day until it was the other. This thought served no comfort for the firefly today.' https://t.co/EuAaC0od6k
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 21, 2020
'Another day without a meal. This was normal now. Soon it would have to leave its homeland or starve. Every week there were fewer rats to catch or carcasses to scavenge as the air grew hotter and dryer. The plants had died long ago. Now their roots were dry. His home was dead.' https://t.co/wBu1xLq1B6
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 21, 2020
'He almost screamed. Some did loudly. He stayed still though he felt like struggling. It was odd, eerie, and unnatural, but he could not think of what to do next. Panic was coupled with passivity. As they floated higher all he could think was how he had forgotten his phone.' https://t.co/VglYxq954M
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 21, 2020
'She did not need the colors of the sea beneath her skin, she was already one with that world, she was as part of it as it was part of her. No, she did not need to write its mysteries upon her, but still she added more with each passing season, out of love of her domain.' https://t.co/TLSRzuwZNO
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 21, 2020
'The evening sun always cast such an alluring hue upon the world. The hottest hours of the day were also the most colorful, when crimsons danced with deep oranges and vivid greens. Golden hour was more than just beautiful though, it was also when all sprites arose and played.' https://t.co/TZdQzZN56I
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 21, 2020
'Storms often broke upon the spire, built for far fiercer forces than mere turbulent weather. Or so they thought. Never had this land seen such a storm as was unfolding, and they were soon to learn that siege engines and grand dragons are not the worst the world could summon.' https://t.co/7nMvOlVT0j
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 21, 2020
'Alas, that was not the spell to toast his bread, the old wizard realized slowly, his now smaller brain only allowing for such thoughts with great effort. Well, it could be worse, he thought over the next hour. He could have turned himself into a worm like he did last year.' https://t.co/GQEoLQDJSV
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 20, 2020
'The nightbeast would not give ground until the sun's rays first struck. Until then all held their ground and braced for each attack, each attempt to drive them from its lands. They had come to give battle to the brute and they would sustain what losses they must to see it dead.' https://t.co/cX61bwjm2n
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 20, 2020
'Oh little worm, how you churn the rocks to dust and turn the world asunder! Your eyes are blind to all mankind and all his wants and woes! Will you stop your onslaught before there's naught but dust and death? Bit by bit you grind to grit all that this world has." https://t.co/Vb3WkUHlsI
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 20, 2020
'She had sacrificed so much for power. Her appearance, her youth, her ability to see purple. She thought she was invisible in her cloak of no color. Still, they ran from here and her needles. She could stitch the madness away, she could mend the world, if only they'd let her.' https://t.co/1FKPpwOyx2
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 20, 2020
'The day of the celebration, the streets were all decorated, festive but empty. The siren had sounded and the houses emptied all life flowing out of the village. Their homes, their businesses, their world now abandoned. The town was silent, dressed for a party no one would hold.' https://t.co/nSqPjYqJeT
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 20, 2020
'It did not take long in a manner of speaking. A month at the most and the would had lost all vision. Smell had left long ago. Now all it could do was hear, so it sat still, listening to the world it no longer understood and would soon be leaving. At least it was painless…' https://t.co/xlvSgUNB4R
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 20, 2020
'"A tall glass of… what?"
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 20, 2020
"Of life! Of that certain something any world needs to become… lively! Will work a charm!"
"Do… Do I drink it?"
"Certainly not! No, just pour it into any ocean, wait a epoch or two, and bam! Instant megabiome! And at a cost any god can afford!"' https://t.co/1H5vdvlV4Y
'The behemoth scared many when first it appeared, emerging slowly from the melting ices. Then, they thought it was dead, so slow did it move. Then, as ages wore on and no danger arose, the dragon was worshiped and then ignored. One more benign feature of the land around them.' https://t.co/qPHZSnWoHV
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 20, 2020
'"Hello, friend rabbit! I am a small furry forest creature like you!", lied the serpent.
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 20, 2020
"No, no, no! You do not fool me, foul snake! We do not have horns nor antenna! You've got it all wrong!"
"Curses!", cried the viper as it crawled away to look for more skins to try again.' https://t.co/wE84saLCz8
'Though the path ahead was treacherous, tried and failed by so many before, the seeker would find a way through and at last be before the throne of the gods themselves! At last, mankind would have answers to all the questions, asked and unasked, at last they would have meaning.' https://t.co/PusveRiAQE
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 20, 2020
'Tempest above, foment below, yet amidst the fury was the greatest woe! Caught between heaven and the abyss when angels and leviathans wage wars of winds and waves, the unfortunate few betwixt the blows bow and pray to any who listen to see another day.' https://t.co/ZtDigWgA6X
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 20, 2020
'Here was safety, here was home, here was family and some secure forage. Here among the berries the bunnies could dwell in peace. Here, in the garden of an elder groundskeeper who no longer tended the bower, no longer chased them away from his vines, here they were at home.' https://t.co/4jYWh4ggmJ
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 20, 2020
'The question, the quandary, the mystery he knew not the answer or the meaning of, though it haunted his every waking and sleeping moment! No peace, no haven, no escape from the nagging enigma of his whole life! He could not sleep, could not think, could not know the answer.' https://t.co/Ic90CLjlwX
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 20, 2020
'The towers of man and the pillars of nature blended one upon the other, until the simpler folk supposed they were the works of ancient gods. Braver youths would climb the sides, to find but empty husks of stone inside. They were ancient, but were built by men, men of hubris.' https://t.co/ktNrRvYEf1
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 20, 2020
'The land was lifeless, laid barren by the burrowing beast. The wyrm was fierce but did not strike any. Nay, the white wyrm of the salt sands was alone in the arid slopes. For, it did not feed on beast or plant, but the soil itself. The salts were a world of its own digestion.' https://t.co/EhfM5UKNSV
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 20, 2020
'The power and might, the clash of wings and snap of talons shot through the skies, terrifying the watchers. Some thought it would be sudden, surely the one was outmatched by the other, larger brute could not be beaten. But speed and wit let the little one harry the larger…' https://t.co/UkoBSl9KwG
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 20, 2020
'Ahah! Stop! Look! Listen, friend! Behold a king, like your king! Watch and stay quiet, good friend! This king, like all kings, but not your king perhaps, will punish all who speak out, all who stand up, so stay silent, friend, and stay safe! Not all kings are so small or silly!' https://t.co/JqGO8VO7Fm
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 20, 2020
'Another year, another bundle of books studied, another frustration. Again and again he circled the world, searching, seeking, scouring endless libraries and collections for the secret he knew he needed, even if he did not yet know why. He was immortal, but the world was not.' https://t.co/nP0jWa2AH6
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 20, 2020
'Red sky, red sands, red blood, red death from above. The western wastes were home to but fools and food for the merciless hunters from above. Few saw their own demise from the skies, swift and sharp and savage. Red scales stained redder still, from each and every kill.' https://t.co/roUWlCCxyi
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 20, 2020
'He had names, they gave him names, each people in every age named him again. There were other spirits of the forest, each more terrifying and fearsome than the last, but the great stag of new life was the oldest, and the wisest, and the only one who mankind honored as king.' https://t.co/5IfIBa7Jmb
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 20, 2020
'The volcano had left grave scars upon the land, and in some places life had yet to return. The corpses of copses still lined the ridges where ash and clay had smothered the air. It had been many years and would be many years yet before the land recovered, but recover it would.' https://t.co/eQPzluzGE6
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 19, 2020
'Always in awe, always his breath taken away whenever he reached the valley of the rivers of mist. The birds knew no master in this domain, and only goats ever dared descend, but still men came to the valley, some from wonder, some from boredom. He came to worship nature.' https://t.co/slUJgd0NxY
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 19, 2020
'It had looked better on his father and his father's father. He did not like the colors or the cut, but every year he still wore the shirt just as they had. It was a tradition and he was always mindful of tradition. He was still a young owl but he would wear the shirts he hated.' https://t.co/vchsxCny75
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 19, 2020
'The sunburst came at midnight. Most were asleep but not all. Some saw the light that should not be shatter the darkness, some saw the illumination of the horizon that foretold their end. Alas, even those with eyes wide open had but a moment between the light and the apocalypse.' https://t.co/C5tGxKxCmU
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 19, 2020
'"Is this what you wanted? Is this what you sought? You have broken the seams of the world and shattered the boundary with the heavens! Is this what you have been searching for all these decades?"
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 19, 2020
"Aye, this is what I was looking for, but this is not the god I expected."' https://t.co/2oY69hU28K
'Nature knew no boundary, at least where nature could take hold. But on alien world and under alien sun, mankind had to fight and forge the periphery. They sought to harness and bind the wild, but in the end, long after men had died, nature would grow unchecked upon man's glory.' https://t.co/FaNQoW1xOd
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 19, 2020
'Her sorrow was endless, never could she cease. The other gods forgave her grief, for she mourned for all life and its fated end. Still, she was not just mother to the dead and dying, she was mother to those just born, and with every tear and sorrow she let another flower bloom.' https://t.co/rFumfzZDNU
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 19, 2020
'The solemn march of the mourners neared the lost temple. The sacred rite was held every year, and every year was marked by the procession. None knew the dead god's name, nor the people who worshiped him, but year on year the mourners held the rite, bringing the next year to be.' https://t.co/7mR9dEv6xt
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 19, 2020
'Spring, summer, autumn, winter, the cycle starts anew and renews forever. The more life grows, the more it dies, the seeds it sows grow where it lies. What was is no more, what will be was before. Summer, autumn, winter, spring, death and birth, the next cycle bring.' https://t.co/BoD1u5fhuY
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 19, 2020
'The tree of all men's dreams stood alone, far from any other, but it stood safe from ax or blight. The tree of the day and the night gave both grace and nightmare, but none dared do it harm. By dawn or by dusk, by spring or by winter, none would slumber except the tree allowed.' https://t.co/08SbTjVpMu
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 19, 2020
'In light of day, she stands eternal, a face toward her subjects, their worship toward her. There is no limit to her power, no limit but that of nature, and her own mercy. Never should power be thrust upon any who would use it fully, and she was no monster, this day or the next.' https://t.co/LD5bF5IjDq
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 19, 2020
'All that glitters is not gold, all that rots is not old, all that sparkles is not gem, though we may still value them. Time shatters stones and crumbles thrones, murders kings and dusts their bones. All that shimmers is not treasure, and all that lingers has no measure.' https://t.co/AzZUIB5fda
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 19, 2020
'Dragons, why was it always dragons? Why couldn't his kingdom be plagued upon occasion by something simpler, like dire-wolves or wights? He would kill to have to kill a lich lord or a zombie horde. But no, it had to be dragons, day in, day out. He was weary of slaying dragons…' https://t.co/JzPMs21IfB
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 19, 2020
'Be the girl nature loves, they always told her, and she always tried. She lived her life with kindness and with grace, and became the girl small animals would seek as sanctuary from the harsh world. Now, she was no longer a girl, but she was still the woman with butterflies.' https://t.co/GiWo7ek5Cz
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 19, 2020
'Avoid entanglements she had always told her daughters, her many daughters of the sea. Avoid entanglements, be they nets or weeds or the snares of mankind upon their minds or bodies. Yes, the traps of nature were dangerous, but the lures of the heart and soul posed as much risk.' https://t.co/0eS0o0OLcN
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 19, 2020
'The city of the night's eye was never asleep, not even during the persecution of the sun. They had dreamed large and they had built greater, and in the end their monuments to their own might served as both shrine to their wills and sanctuary from their weakness.' https://t.co/DqiVtEsg4D
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 19, 2020
'The magic of the morning mist can still the murmurs of the morning melody, can silence the sounds of the forest creatures, and can steal the imagination of any who stand still and listen for the sounds that are not there and look for shapes that never were and never will be.' https://t.co/QJ66VWziAM
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 19, 2020
'For untold ages it had dwelt in the depths few can fathom, for myriad millennia it had foraged and fed in underground caverns and supped from subterranean springs. But the springs had run dry and the food had dwindled and died, so the great salamander emerged upon the earth.' https://t.co/7jguVO0R9I
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 19, 2020
'"You know they hate us."
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 19, 2020
"I know, for that is their way."
"You know they fear us."
"I know, for that is their nature."
"You know they would kill us if they could."
"I know, but they cannot for we do not die."
"But we're still going to help them?"
"Indeed, for that is our way."' https://t.co/hW5NPLFL9C
'They built their cities upon the sands, the shifting sands, the still sands, the hard-packed sands that could be rock on another world, but for lack of gravity. They built their cities upon the sands for there was little else to build upon. Yet still they built, and thrived…' https://t.co/cdp7ZaCv5R
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 19, 2020
'"Do we eat it?"
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 19, 2020
"No child, we do not eat it."
"What about those?"
"No, not those either. We do not eat any of these creatures, that is not what we are. We do not eat any, we do not kill any."
"But what do we eat then?"
"Only their dreams, little one. Only their dreams."' https://t.co/t7aXePbr8s
'Life at this level, life at any stage in any age, is dark and brutal and bloody. Life is a struggle beyond a need, a driving force to survive and thrive, to strain and gain, to make it one moment more before there is no more, before the darkness of the void. Life is survival.' https://t.co/2bFYGupuyV
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 19, 2020
'Why does the wanderer wander, why does the scholar study, why does the seeker search? For some, it is a matter of need, of want, of an unspeakable desire for the new, for the undiscovered, for more. For some, it is a want of something they know they need but do not yet know…' https://t.co/3MFkKuvMVj
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 19, 2020
'They knew they did not belong, they knew they were an abomination of death given life, a form no nature could sustain or even endure, they knew for they were cursed not just with life where no life should be but also with souls they should not have. Still, they could not die…' https://t.co/a8EC3dTfD1
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 19, 2020
'Like so many over the ages, they knew not how to survive their own folly. Indeed, they would very likely perish this day at the hand of their own hubris. Yet, like so many over the ages, they had felt the risk justified for the chance of great glory, at a chance at greatness.' https://t.co/ngRbZIVr9K
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 19, 2020
'The golden forest was untouched by man or beast. Truly not even bugs or birds touched the pristine grove, said to be planted by gods themselves. None knew why, not now, not for thousands of years, why they never set foot in the wood. So it stood apart, serene, sacred, deadly.' https://t.co/vUkf6aaILX
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 19, 2020
'The cozy house with the happy little smokestack puffing out warm smoke into the waning winter night was so simple and homey. One could almost say it was the ideal cottage upon the lake, small, serene, safe. Yet, the locals kept away as it had not been there the day before.' https://t.co/5mc6yIMsyg
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 19, 2020
'It should not, could not exist! No creature, no monster, no god like this could possibly be real! The mind shuddered and gibbered and shut down, rejecting what it saw, what it heard, what it did not want to perceive. No, this could not be real, yet there it was all the same!' https://t.co/g2BcdFWUWu
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 19, 2020
'This alien world was all too familiar. The ground beneath their feet was solid, the clouds above still drifted in an oh so familiar manner, even the gravity was nearly the same as their homeworld. Yet, without the safety of their suits this world would kill them in an instant.' https://t.co/vYWK649HVF
— Duncan Wilson (@MrDuncanWilson) August 19, 2020
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