#TalesByJulie

[cimmeriantales]

La Rana y La Reina

The queen was but a princess, her parents lost this year past, one to war and one to childbirth. The child, too, was lost. He would have been heir. When news of the Queen mother€™...

[cimmeriantales]

Dragonheart

This is the bottom, I think, getting up the nerve to leave my car. The old woman, Madame Ming, is standing at the end of the block in the afternoon sunlight, right where the email told...

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[cimmeriantales]

Read Part I

The Cathedral, Part II

I wake myself up coughing. I'm lying on my back and there's something heavy on my chest: a small pile of stones that shift with my breath. One of my feet is twist...

[cimmeriantales]

Feathers

Attilles warned me of the destruction the leggers would bring to the land. As I fly south, smoke from their dying fires chokes me. The sky is still deep gray, though if I squint I can see ...

[cimmeriantales]

The Cathedral

"Chiz, don'€™t go in there."€ Decker is tugging on my arm. His dark eyes are so wide the whites show all around.

"Calm down." I peel his fingers from my sleeve. "It"€™s just for a look. I...

[cimmeriantales]

Black Snake Magic

When I was 12, Momma stopped the truck because of a dead snake in the road. The stale, hot air felt like it was closing in on me, so I got out and followed her. We were five minut...

[cimmeriantales]

Blood and Ice

I was swimming leisurely toward the ice when it happened, following the patterns in the cracks with my eyes and spinning myself in dizzy circles with my tail. Breaking season wasn’t far off; soon the ice would be patchy, and mothers would surface with their new calves for a first breath.

I kept an eye out for shadows above and a surfacing hole. It had been about eight hours since I’d come up for breath, and I didn’t want to waste energy breaking a new hole. Surfacing holes were also dangerous places: Sometimes birds dove in for fish, or seals or bears lunged through. I had seen my wakefriend, Nela, attacked by a bear when we were just outgrowing the pup stage. She had scars that ran like ice fissures from her shoulder to her belly and across her face, leaving her blind in one eye and a lopsided swimmer.

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[cimmeriantales]

  Bone White

I'€™m cradling him in my arms, but at my touch he shrinks away, though his breath comes in shallow, pained gasps. I thought I saw a glimmer of recognition when he first beheld me, then ter...

[cimmeriantales]

The moon has set, and the Pleiades; it is midnight, the time is going by and I recline alone.

Disaster

The world turned over and it'€™s just me, lying here, holding my belly while pain splits me apart. My voice is hoarse from crying for Mama and Jodie, Enrique; for anybody, really. The child ...