Ash Gray

She snuggled close, nuzzling her hair beneath his chin. __ever leave me,_ she whispered back. The siren chuckled sadly, the sound vibrating up through his chest and pleasantly against her ear. __ut I must return to the sea every now and then or I will die._ He sighed. __ome part of me believes it would be a good death.

Miriva refused to believe that human decency should be a privilege given only to a small few, and when she complained to her mother that she did not want to be a broodmare for the sake of alliances between the villages, her mother slapped her and sent her to the fields to pick mehazi beans

Parmida had never believed in unicorns, not until a stroll through the forests of Sunneth Dol convinced her otherwise. She was a young human woman living in a world where magick was dead and magickal creatures a myth. Elves and fae and magickal beasts had long ago shed their skin and left their bones. It was a world where humans alone now existed, walking in the dark of night, always looking over their shoulder for their inevitable extinction, as if nature were waiting to absorb them next back into her soil.

:Wait for me here?: :Until the moon crumbles into the sea,: Shadowmane whispered. Wareska laughed again. :Always so eloquently dramatic.:

Growing up learning of distant lands and their bloody histories, Wareska had quickly noticed how pointing to someone else as unquestionably worse was a widely common justification for many atrocities.

Yes,_ Lisa said with the usual blank honestly. She frowned. __as that a sincere question? Or a scolding rhetorical question akin to Harilotecca__ speech patterns?

The first time I saw Cricket, I loved her. Little did I know that skinny, goofy girl would one day grow up to be a great dragon slayer. I would have pegged her for a shoemaker.

I made a noise of disgust, and I think I would have stormed out if I knew how to open the door.

Spent my whole life,_ Morganith went on, staring miserably into her drink, __hinkin_ that out there somewhere was ah woman who would love me incredibly and I would love her incredibly. Like ah fire consumin_ the very air. Then I meet her, and she leaves me._ Morganith snapped her fingers lazily. __ust like that.

He knew in that moment that falling in love with her would destroy him, and so he decided at once that he would do his damnedest to despise her.

You can always tell who a writer subconsciously/consciously dislikes/hates/discriminates against in real life based on who they don't write about more than who they do.

Yeah!_ Quinn said defiantly. __nd I__ about to destroy your sick little plan here! And when I__ done doing that, I__l tell the humans how your people are planning to betray them --!___s if that will make much difference,_ said the general calmly. __umans can__ agree on how to run individual countries, let alone their entire planet. When the harvest begins, they won__ stand a chance against us. I__e already given Dr. Zorgone permission to execute his plans for abduction. He has also been given strict orders to return you to me alive. Both of you. You must simply walk outside. There is nothing to fear.___eah, I bet,_ Quinn muttered sarcastically.

I was sitting on the couch in the living room, pouring through an old sci-fi novel I__ found in one of the ruins, and I could hear the water bubbling as he cooked. The spaghetti smelled good, but I knew he__ probably put something crazy in it like popcorn or marshmallows, so I ignored my rumbling belly.

Quinn dropped her hand and avoided Thalcu__ eye. __ . . . I don__ want to kill you,_ she said to the floor. __ot if I could save you.__he woman smiled gently at Quinn, her lips curling behind her oxygen mask. __ will not really die,_ she said, drawing Quinn__ surprised gaze. She looked at Quinn contently a moment and went on, __o you know how worlds are born? From the first breath of a star. We are made of starlight. We can not bear to look into the sun, into the thing that birthed us, anymore than we can bear to look upon our parents in the throes of passion. It is our point of origin, and to it, we all must return.

He stood over her for a time, simply looking at her as he willed himself to climb into bed, and he knew doing so would make it utterly impossible to hate her. She looked so innocent and vulnerable as she dreamt, and it was difficult to hate someone once you had seen them sleeping.

Drop. Your weapon. And. Come quietly,_ said a robotic voice. __iss. My ass,_ said Zita, mocking the robot__ tone.

Incase the title was misleading, this is the story of Qorth. He was an alien, but he was more normal, more boring, more goofy, and more ho-hum than any human I__ ever known . . . to the point that I sometimes wonder if he was really even an alien. To be fair, he did have __agical_ otherworldly powers and some weird traits, like pointed ears. It rained when he was sad. His eyes were solid black, which really creeped me out in the beginning but, eh, I got used to it. He had weird tastes in food, like he would put ketchup on pancakes, and animals were sock puppets to him. The night I found him, it was the animals who led me to him.

Zita shrugged. __ wouldn__ hold it against ya, kid. You__e asking if you should choose war or love. Hate is easy, everybody does it. But most people go their entire lives without really loving. Miora__ gonna tell you that you can__ love her because she__ zonbiri, but if it__ really love . . . you won__ be able to help yourself._ Zita smiled and went out.