Storyfeather

For as long as she could remember, Frieda had been haunted by a general trend of weirdness. Genre: Science Fiction   Excerpt : I'd lock myself up if I thought I was really a danger. I'd have myself committed to a psychiatric hospital. I would. To keep from hurting someone. I don't want it to come to that. But I'd do it.   CREDITS Story : " Flickering Frieda " Copyright © 2018 by Nila L. Patel Narr...

A researcher studies a common-looking flower with an uncommon origin. Genre: Fairy Tale, Science Fiction   Excerpt : Does the flower remember who built it? Is it trying to tell me? Is that why I've kept having these dreams whenever I consumed the formula? The dreams of the man who made the flower? I never thought I would be one of those scientists who experiments on herself, but after all, it's ju...

A magician creates for his empress a powerful elixir that can only work on one person, but the empress desires to share the power with her people. Genre: Fantasy   Excerpt : It is said the magician imbued the empress's soup with a secret elixir that granted strength of mind, of body, and of character. The soup had to be eaten once a day. Its effects would grow, until the one consuming it obtained...

A floundering molecular biology researcher is captivated by a seemingly common creature in a marine biology article…a sea slug. Genre: Mythology, Science Fiction Excerpt : "They live in the mysterious depths," I said. "The deep depths." "That's pretty deep."   CREDITS Story : " The Mythical Slug " Copyright © 2018 by Nila L. Patel Narration, Episode Art, Editing, and Production:  Nila L. Patel Mus...

A sheriff investigates the mysterious quakes that have beset her small town. Genre: Fantasy, Mystery, Science Fiction   Excerpt : The rumblings were so quiet at first that official records conflicted on the date they actually started. People thought they were imagining them. They only happened at night. And they were only felt in their town of Acton.   Influences : Elements of this story are homag...

In our first excursion into the greater cosmos, humanity may have stumbled upon an epic discovery, one so rare as to be mythical. Genre: Mythology, Science Fiction   Excerpt : Did it give off useful energy, that dark glittering rock? Did it hide astounding beauty? Was it anything we could make use of? Or should we let it be?   NOW AVAILABLE! Storyfeather-themed merchandise T-shirts, mugs, stickers...

The crew of a salvage trawler comes upon a hundred-year-old satellite and must determine if it is a piece of space junk or a valuable artifact. Genre: Science Fiction   Excerpt : "From this far out, it looks to be about…a hundred or so years," Jiang said. "Largely intact." Thurston turned to her. "And no one else has claimed it yet? That's unlikely." "What should I do, boss?" the pilot asked.   NO...

A team dispatched to a tiny island to investigate the source of a strange signal makes an unexpected discovery. Genre: Mystery, Mythology, Science Fiction Excerpt : "That volcano was supposed to have consumed everything, including itself. But we're seeing something. Something is giving off enough of an energy signature for several terrestrial and even a few orbital detectors to register the signal...

A captain and her crew investigate the fate of those who set out on a mission to study an intriguing cosmic chemical. Genre: Mystery, Science Fiction   Excerpt : I heard someone calling…calling to me. "Captain?" Is it the voice of the woman on the other side of the airlock window? "Captain!" Or is it the voice of the ghost that's trying to possess me? "Captain…"   NOW AVAILABLE! Storyfeather-theme...

An ordinary mouse was once chosen to receive a great honor that came at a great cost. Genre: Fable   Excerpt : I could not see the edge of the knife, but I felt the promised bite of the blade at the base of my tail. Courage is a strange thing. For when you think you have it, you are wrong. And when you think you don't have it…you are wrong. When I stepped ever-so-carefully onto that dais where the...

A medical doctor, a supernaturalist, and a philosopher investigate mysterious tracks that appear in the snow. Genre: Mystery, Science Fiction   Excerpt : The three special investigators arrived a few weeks after the tracks were first seen. They each hailed from a different part of the country. Each had a different expertise. The supernaturalist. The medical doctor. And the philosopher. And each ha...

A mother uses myth to teach math and math to teach humanity to her three children. Genre: Mythology, Science Fiction Excerpt : Isra stood before the whiteboard in the drawing room, or as she called it after repurposing, the lesson room. Or as her three children had designated it, Room Seven. Their friends always talked about what room they were in, or how so-and-so teacher was in charge of a parti...

Upon the insistence of a loved one, a person decides to undergo a life-altering elective surgery. Genre: Mystery, Science Fiction   Excerpt : She says that I have always lived in darkness. But I'm fine with it. I don't need the light. I don't even necessarily want the light. I'm not doing this for me. I'm doing this for her. Because she wants me to see the world the way she sees it.   NOW AVAILABL...

A finalist in a cookie contest recalls a classic locked-in-a-bakery-overnight dream for inspiration. Genre: Fantasy, Science Fiction   Excerpt : Finally, I am there.  In front of the platter.  I can smell the soft scent of vanilla and brown sugar circling around and through the overpowering scent of the chocolate.  Butter, cocoa, milk.  I reach for one of the cookies, and find that they haven't qu...

Note of Caution : Episode contains heartbeat sound effects. The human heart becomes the supreme object of fascination for a race of artificial beings.  Genre: Mythology, Science Fiction Excerpt : They are not our creations. We did not build the androids. They came from the stars, and when they began to trust us, they pointed to the sky and showed us which star. And when we began to trust them, we...

A scientist finds a unique egg and eagerly awaits the day it cracks open and reveals the mysteries within. Genre: Mystery, Science Fiction Excerpt : Beneath the vault of the sky lies our entire world.  We know there is more world out there, beyond the sky, but most of us will never see or know that world, not for ourselves. We are contained within a shell of protection from the myriad forces and m...

Lachenhut flew out toward the creature first.  Overclock and Keo hovered in the air, at the ready, but hanging back as our red-capped leader had requested. I watched it all through that little drone's cameras.  Silly, I had called it, ever since Overclock overproudly announced he had built something for the team.  And yet, Max Speed was there for his team, when I could not be.  I was laid up at he...

Note of caution : This episode contains sound effects of real-world firearms (from minute 49 to end). "I'll need the ether regulator. Hand it to me, won't you?"   "Umm…" "It's the device with the controls for wireless manipulation of extraplasmic conductance." The young journalist's eyes widened and though he was afraid to admit to the inventor that he did not know which one of the devices laid ou...

Over the last three hundred years, elaborate guesses have been made about the nature of the treasure aboard the Arcadian. It was only after news spread of the ship's loss to a freak storm as it passed through open and unclaimed seas that the rumors of what it carried began to spread along with the news of the wreck.   Captain Stella and his deep diving crew have just accepted a mission to recover...

In the year 2025, humanity received an answer to one of its most fundamental questions: "Are we alone in the universe?" Only one thousand standard years later, unnoticeable and unfathomable to the greatly aged cosmos, a galactic alliance was formed, a coalition of inhabited worlds bound together in cooperation, friendship, and mutual progress. The Grand Unified Milky Way. The G.U.M. was protected...

It starts off dark, and all I hear is a low, subtle pulsing. Not as rhythmic and steady as a heartbeat, but more like, the whooshing and sloshing of a washing machine. Then I can make out the clicking. Click, click, click. Multiplied. Click, click, clickclickclickclickclickclick. I see myself. And I am myself at the same time. My shoulders are drooped. I can hardly keep my eyes open. My skin feels...

"What is that? On its head? Is that a hat or…a deformity?" "It's too hazy to see when it's in motion," I said. "We'll have to pause." "The lights are on. We can see everything. I thought he only comes when it's dark." "No, remember that mom who was taken when she was tucking her kid in. He was awake and his light was on." Jules and I were reviewing all of the preliminary evidence. I didn't want to...

A kid…in a costume. It had to be. Still, it was frightening. To think I almost hit the poor little guy. Maybe it was a good thing that the costume was so good, so convincing. The sickly yellow glow-in-the-dark contacts. The pro-quality fang fixtures. That tail that almost looked as if it were whipping back and forth on its own. I thought it was some animal I'd almost hit. That would have been bad...

He wore not a scrap of clothing as he lay on the grimy dirt within the coffin, so I could see that his entire body bore a ghastly green pallor. His toes and fingers were abnormally long and thin, and the toes even seemed to taper to points as the nails had grown back deformed. His ears too were long and tapered. The serene and contented smile on his face struck me as obscene.   She was watching fr...

Achievement Unlocked: 200th Episode! "Marisela!" Rigo cried out and Marisela came running into the boys' bedroom. He was standing before the left side of his bed, shining a flashlight on both the bed and the wall behind it. Alex stood beside him, speechless, clutching the cuff of Rigo's sleep shorts. With the lights off, the only thing easily visible was the part of the thing that his flashlight i...