An old joke retold. Shuttlepilot inspired this farrago, but you can blame me for all of it. "Mother-fucker!" The pencil slammed into the glass panel of the office wall, point-first. It fell, rapidly joining its brethren on the floor. No problem, Kali had a lot more pencils. Although all her work was done on the computer, she still ordered pencils by the ca...
Prologue 2 Seventeen weeks ago Three hours passed by turns of the hourglass without any sign of the fog's end. Three hours spent in a fog bank a hundred yards long. Only sorcery could explain it, but that made no sense; the Elves had us dead to rights. Why use magic to send us off into the unknown? Assuming it was them, of course, but who else would care a...
The Witch's Trail: Week 1 No one could say who said it first. Who heard "herbalist" or "healer" or "wise one," and said the word. In the end, it didn't especially matter. The word was spoken. Soon every ear in the town had heard it, then every ear in the Rhone valley: Mont Clare was bewitched. What followed was inevitable. When there is a cry of Witch! the...
This is the second in a series of stories about two neighbors getting to know each other a lot better. They can be read independently, but are probably better read in order. Feedback is always welcome! ***************************************** Sarah had installed the shower as her one major extravagance. It was huge, with an open entry, deep cobalt tiles a...
Man, every time I ran into her, the song "She's So High Above Me" starts in my head. I hope I'm not going crazy or anything. My name is Jalil Akbar. For most of my life, I've seen myself as the son of two worlds. My father Mohammed Abdul Akbar was born and raised in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. And my mother Aisha Tabaan hails from the great nation of Somali...
Anessia was a half-elf. Or as the elves called her, half-human. Either way she was shunned by the elves, and she didn't really care. Her Elvin mother ran away from the beautiful land of Tithenost to be with the handsome human warrior. They married and Anessia was their only child. Anessia left home at 18. The proper age for a human, but still an infant by...
Bobby and Mrs. Parker made love several more times that afternoon, stopping mainly because both of them were exhausted. Mr. Parker didn't return from playing golf until after dark. He'd lost several games and a considerable amount of money and had drowned his sorrows in quite a bit of alcohol at the country club bar after the game. Fortunately, his golfing b...
When Charis returned, she was carrying a basket of pastries, their warm smell appetising. We sat side by side on one of the couches to eat, quenching our thirst with more of the fruit juice. "There is wine still for tonight," Charis observed. "I have my audience with Pharaoh," I confided. "But afterwards..." She smiled, leaning over to rest her head agains...
The holy ass of Antioch was the most protected ass in the Nine Kingdoms. Eunuchs trained for twenty years just to have the honor of guarding the holy ass from unwanted intrusion. The ass was attended upon by a squadron of vestal virgins who made sure that it radiated with raw sexual energy and power. The ass was the important symbol of Antioch and it was sai...
In late 2017, the modern world reacted with horror upon discovering that African migrants trying to get to Europe by boat got kidnapped on the high seas and brought to the shores of Libya, where they were sold off as slaves to the highest bidder. When the news hit CNN, RDI and other major news outlets, a lot of people were shocked, but Alia Sammad, a woman i...