Deirdre flitted about Janet's breakfast table, looking for stray bits to nibble on. A loaf of bread sat in the center of the wooden table, surrounded by some smaller plates, a tall glass of milk, and a jar of red jelly. Morning light steamed in from the window and fell on the table, making the fairy feel like a spotlight shone on her. She looked around at the simple spread with portions fit for a giant – or, in reality, her human roommate.
Deirdre pondered how she would partake of a human-

The space race hit a wall.
Not literally, of course. No spaceships were plowing into Dyson spheres because captains were scrolling through cat memes instead of watching where they were going. Instead, engineers ran up against the laws of physics. Innovators found solutions that allowed the colonization of Mars and human bases on the moons Titan and Triton, but interstellar travel simply required more energy than humans could generate with current technology. Humans could only build better tools

Fontana rose out of her favorite pool to bask in the morning sunshine. She pushed her long white hair out of her face. Water droplets stuck to the exposed deep blue skin on the titanic naiad's face, arms, and top of her chest. She wore a waterfall dress draped over the rest of her body – it appeared like the white spray of a waterfall and seemed to be cascading down. Fontana reveled in this blissful time between the morning fog burning away and the blistering heat of the midday.
All wasn't

Chelsea shuffled down the sidewalk of Nessus, keeping her head down. She had two bags of groceries from the black market – she bought them from a friend of a friend – and was trying to avoid drawing attention. She hated doing this; aside from the risk, everything cost three times the price of the government stores, but when government stores ran out, it was do this or starve.
Pedestrians crowded the sidewalks of the afternoon around the time of a shift change. Chelsea carefully blend

The witch Tsukiyumi screwed up her face, glaring at the flopping goldfish she held by the tail. "I don't want to do this..." she murmured.
"Tough." The fighter Octavia crossed her arms. "You're the only one who can cast the spell to identify that magical bustier." She pointed to the black silk top decorated with white stylized turtles and snakes laid out across a tree stump. "For all we know, it's cursed. You're the one with the identify spell."
She looked at the fish in disgust. "But I have to

Gwen adjusted her antennae. The bee girl wasn't used to the big crowds here in downtown Theria, but she seemed to be making out all right. The little table she had set up at the edge of the park facing Echidna Street was moving a lot more merchandise than she expected. On a hot day like today, people were willing to spring for cold drinks from her coolers and some sugary snacks to go with them. At the rate she was going, she would sell out her whole stock today and head back to the Hive with emp

Melanie looked around as she stepped off the bus, one of several passengers disembarking. She squinted at her phone, trying to make out the map of the city from the tiny, cracked screen. She hadn't wanted to come to the big city of Theria, the City of Predators, like this, arriving on the last bus just as it had started to get dark with no guide.
She had hoped that Grace could show her around when she came to visit, but Grace was the whole reason for this particular visit. Melanie hadn't heard f

Leilani looked around to make sure that she was alone. The sun had almost sunk below the western horizon, painting the sand and the high tide alike a deep golden orange. Leilani closed her eyes for a moment. She felt the gentle breeze on her face and heard the repeated soft crashes of the waves calling to her. Able to wait no longer, she pulled her dress up over her head and stashed it near a patch of sea lettuce. She enjoyed the cool of the evening on her bare skin, but she hadn't undressed jus

Emmeline's eyes sluggishly opened. The last thing she remembered, she was trudging along the rocky path, nearly freezing in her dress. It was sewn from heavy cloth, but the cold reached through it to sap the warmth from her body. She sat on a soft blanket rather than bare ground, and she felt something warm nearby – a fire? Opening her eyes, she saw a fire burning and the morning sun lighting up the landscape of white trees and hills from the east.
“Are you back with us?” asked

Hilda Stonebreaker glared at the wall surrounding the bandits' camp. It was well-made, and even the ridiculous strength of a centaur standing over a dozen feet tall would take some time to hack through it with an axe. In that time, who knows what could happen to the two halflings being held captive?
That's why she jumped straight over the wall, leaving her traveling companions to deal with the wall themselves. All four hooves hit the ground with a mighty crash on the other side, drawing the star

Kaviel's stomach grumbled. As the angel in charge of minding the temple, she was supposed to fast. Normally going without food didn't bother her, but today the hunger was gnawing at her from the inside. There was plenty of food here, of course – fruit, nuts, honey cakes – but all of the stuff in the storeroom downstairs was for sharing with pilgrims, not for Kaviel to stuff her face.
Kaviel tried to keep her mind off her hunger by keeping herself busy. She checked the fountains outsi

Silveo's Detour into Felarya
Silveo Nar stumbled through the tangled brush, looking over her shoulder as she slowed down for just a moment to catch her breath. She had her rapier in hand, but she didn't intend on letting her pursuers get close enough for her to need it. If they had caught up to her at night, this confrontation would be one-sided in her favor, but as it was, the roof of the forest above didn't cast enough shadows to let her uses her powers.
The vampire half-slid down a steep hill

Did he truly deserve the same fate as her? After all, he was one of those who fell for her trap. And storms are unpredictable. Sometimes people get out of them when you wouldn't expect it.
A handsome young man washed up on a shore during a storm, battered and bruised but alive. All he could remember of his former life was being in a terrible storm for who knows how long: hours or years or decades, he knew not. All he had on him were a harp which told him that he may have formerly been a musician

The Bard Lysander
Lysander the Bard was always gifted with dreams. He learned things from dreams he could not otherwise possibly know and spoke with beings in dreams that no other human being could ever have a chance to speak to. With his special gifts, Lysander knew that he was not just an ordinary man, but a true hero destined for greatness.
With his dreams, Lysander had seen where the maiden Rhea was: Typhon's Rock. Yes, it over a month's away sailing even with the winds on their side, but th

Prologue
A woman floundered in the water.
She had been kidnapped by the forces of the Warlock, stripped of everything, dressed in a white robe, then thrown into a strange pool of bubbling black liquid. But none of that was her most important concern. She and her two sisters had magic rings to protect them and she certainly didn't want hers to end up in the Warlock's hands. To that end, when the Warlock's minions were still preparing her, she secretly slipped the ring from her finger into her mou