Storyfeather

A humble seahorse reconstructs his form by studying his fellow fish, and emerges as the most magnificent creature to grace the sea. Genre: Mythology, Fable   Excerpt : "We are only one of many different kinds of horses," his mother said. "And all of us, the ones who fly through storm, the ones who canter on land, the ones who wander in dreams, we all came from one place, the sea. We all came from...

A turtle of great renown receives a great gift, and with that gift, a terrible burden no other turtle has ever known. Genre: Fable, Mythology   Excerpt : When Gaharalil slipped into the water, he was seized by a sensation. It rippled across the surface of his body, his skin. The spark of sensation bolted through his skin to his muscles, his belly, his heart. It flooded him with joy. It raised him...

The unlikely encounter between a river fisher bird and a slug of the sea inspire both to strike a bargain to explore the powers and limits of their forms. Genre: Fable   Excerpt : Halceyx cocked her head. "I've never encountered a poisonous river slug before. This is most adventurous." "I am not a river slug. I am a slug of the sea. I am called Irsid. And I have come to the river to explore."   Th...

On the verge of death, a penultimate god leaves behind a terrible enemy and an unexpected legacy. Genre: Mythology   Excerpt : "If the tunnels aren't dangerous, why would anyone close them on purpose?" "I didn't say they weren't dangerous."  I nodded. Of course. Knowledge was dangerous. And knowledge was what we would find at the end of this tunnel.   The Wheel of Fiction Turns. What did it land o...

The Ace of Pumpkins is invited as the guest of honor to a peculiar dinner at the High House of Clovers. Genre: Fairy Tale   Excerpt : The Pumpkin Ace did not know whether to expect favor and praise or horrific humiliations. She only knew that any who left the table may not return. She only knew that the price for leaving the table before her host might be a terrible one. Might be. Her triumph or h...

Two ordinary transport technicians, working their first shift together, are assigned to drive a high-profile prisoner. Genre : Science Fiction   Excerpt : "Proximites and humans are both relatively fragile species—no offense—when it comes to space travel. But here on solid earth…well, you're still fragile, but you have certain qualities that come in handy should there be any problems with this par...

A self-help instructor helps himself to the most dazzling part of his newest protégé…her soul. Genre : Fantasy, Horror, Mystery   Excerpt : This 'man who dazzles' seemed to be the real deal.   Under the smoothed down hair, and the pressed suits, and the glinting gold cuff links, the rings, the chains, and that slight brush of coppery glitter just at his temples, there was substance.  There was a m...

Three siblings created their own game to play each year at winter solstice, a game that has grown and changed as they have, sometimes in unexpected ways. Genre: Fantasy Excerpt : No one knew anything in the beginning of their journeys. They only started knowing things by going on the journey. By making decisions before they even knew what the right decision was. And they told me that it was better...

While investigating a murder, a single-celled detective encounters bacterial filaments, proto-multicellular colonies, and a new concept called "love." Genre: Mystery, Science Fiction   Excerpt : "It's not an accident," Dina said. She spun out a flagellum to wave to him. Harry sighed. "I wouldn't be here if it was." He glanced over at the couple of uniformed diatoms who were keeping any floaters-by...

Six kids explore the possibility that dogs have been trying to warn humanity about a terrible enemy in their midst…vacuum machines. Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy   Excerpts : They were right all along.  "What do they know that we don't know?"  "What are they trying to protect us from?" "This is my home too! And it is in danger…"  "If the law won't help us, we'll have to turn to…the outlaw."   Wh...

The most popular wrestling show in five galaxies is in danger of being shut down, unless the wrestlers jump into action to save it. Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy   Excerpt: "Sentient entities of the cosmos!" the announcer spoke, her voice booming through the arena that floated in free space. "Welcome…to GROWL! The audience cheered, waving their flags, waving their extremities, and shouting the n...

A hunter dedicated to keeping the world safe from monsters has one final monster to fight. Genre: Horror   Excerpt : Curses and cures. Curses and cures. I've tried everything.  …flecks of blood in my eye. My joints have started to ache... My vision has started to flicker. And…now I'm finally afraid.   What story or stories am I revisiting in this episode? Each Season 8 episode is a standalone stor...

What starts as a curiosity, a light on the bedroom ceiling that seems to have no source, heralds the appearance of a huge eye that just watches and watches. Genre: Mystery, Science Fiction, Horror   Excerpt : I yelled out.   The hazel iris shifted toward me.  I slowly slid off the bed... dashed to the door, flung it open, and pulled it closed behind me.  Okay, okay, think. I have to… I had cried o...

Surely, a beautiful old house sold at a bargain must have a sinister history.   One new homeowner is about to find out. Genre: Horror, Mystery   Excerpt : "If afterlife spirits are real, they're real whether I believe in them or not." I shrugged. "And if they're real, I'd rather not stir them up." "So…she felt something?"  "She said the place had a weird energy."  "What does that mean?" I shook my...

An apartment resident is recruited for help by four kids who claim that a demonic creature has just laid eggs in the laundry room. Genre: Horror   Excerpt : "It's like the thing from the poem that my first grade teacher told us about. 'There Lived a Crooked Creature.' Do you know the one? It lives in a corner—" "—and it can touch us but we can't touch it—"  "'In a corner it did lay; fourteen eggs...

There is a tall tower to the north. A warlock once lived there. Now the tower is abandoned. But that does not mean is it safe.   Genre: Horror, Mystery   Excerpt : There was a story told…of a little girl who went into the tower and came out unscathed... The bard who told the story sang in sweet and rising notes of how the girl was protected by her innocence.  But when in the history of this tricks...

When Anushka was cursed to only repeat what others said, her only hope of escaping the curse was the only person who seemed to remember the curse. Genre: Fantasy   Excerpt : Because Anushka could not convey her thoughts in any way that others could understand, it seemed to many that she did not have any thoughts of her own. But Mitra always told her cousin. "You are the bright one. And the quick o...

The living do not belong in the underworld. But all the paths of escape are horrific, save for one…the mushroom. Genre: Mythology   Excerpt : There were a number of ways for the passage to be made—flesh-wrenching spells, maps that could only be read by those who had spent a lifetime studying magic, or aid given by the sovereign's own siblings to some favored mortal, all of which were giving way to...

To rescue her brother, a woman jumps into what she believes is a dimensional rift generated by a device that he has invented.   Genre: Science Fantasy   Excerpt : "You come from within the margins.   Where there are well-defined boundaries... Reality." "Isn't this also real?" "It is for now."   What story or stories am I revisiting in this episode? Each Season 8 episode is a standalone story, but...

Using alchemy and electricity, a man builds a doorway that's meant to isolate the mind of anyone who passes through it. Genre: Horror, Mystery, Science Fiction   Excerpt : "A whole twisted into a new shape that does not remember the old. A whole slowly sliced into pieces that do not know how to come back together. And so they move farther and farther apart. That is what your doorway has done to me...

Once, a colossal egg floated in space.   It was the size of a planet, and it orbited the twin stars of a system somewhere in a galaxy far from our own. Genre: Mythology, Science Fiction   Excerpt : Many things have hatched from many eggs. Some terrible. Some wonderful. Some massive.   Some minuscule. Was there not a poet that spoke of the egg's perfection as a container?   No hinge, no edge, no ke...

An astrobiologist gathers and assembles clues from across time to help solve a cosmic mystery that threatens to doom Earth.   Genre: Science Fiction, Mythology     Excerpt : From the depths of the cosmos they come…warping all around them as they go. Time. Matter. Energy. Will. Shifting between the unknowable and the knowable. Per our current understanding, the entity moves through the cosmos and t...

A merchant vessel enters a system with rigid laws about visitors, and almost succeeds in making a lucrative delivery, when it encounters a potentially deadly obstacle. Genre: Science Fiction     Excerpt : We had obtained the means of shielding certain sections of engineering and the crew quarters. Cargo, I was happy to be transparent about. But there were things aboard my ship that I needed to hid...

An excited apprentice attempts to make a planet for the first time, having watched the making of hundreds. But watching is not the same as doing. Genre: Science Fiction, Science Fantasy   Excerpt : Nebulous gases shimmered as they swirled past me. Particles crashed and fused. Vapors thickened into plasma and then into liquid. Specks became pebbles. Pebbles became rock. Rock collided with rock… The...

Following their queen and captain into exile, the crew of the Echidna build an experimental engine, to keep surviving and striving, and to one day establish a new colony.   Genre: Science Fiction THIS IS EPISODE #400. I have put out 400 podcast episodes by my lil old self. Mwahaha! Tell me this means I cannot be stopped!   Excerpt : "Queens growing old without growing wiser. That's not what we nee...