Fylecs panted heavily, still adjusting to his added heft, and belched loudly. “Okay,” he breathed, petting the sides of his massively engorged gut and inching back slightly toward the couch. He was sitting rather helplessly on the floor of his apartment, weighed down by his distended belly, which was so full of struggling humans that its wobbling girth nearly covered the entire length of his legs.

When his back touched the front of the couch, he sighed and ga

The Carnival was by design a place of magic and wonder, an ephemeral place whose delights belonged to the same rosy corner of memory as fantastical dreams. The design in question was that of Emery Till, the so-called Ringmaster.

Truth be told, he could not rightly be called the master of the traveling band of performers and attractions so m
uch as the overtaut twine that somehow kept them all together. His hair, when not hidden under a gaudy hat to keep u

The sun was crimson along the crest of the hill, rays spreading into the rosy dusk, and Warner and Elisha stood apart from the rest of their company. The ungroomed crest of his feathered head towered a few feet above her messy braids, half undone over her elven ears. The raptor-man’s left wing was tattered and crooked, and his talons pierced the ground, clinging to the earth.

Beyond the hill lay the road to battle—the last battle of a war they had been fighti

A woman from the village was wandering through the woods, foraging for herbs and mushrooms. The clouds peeking through the branches overhead were dense and gray, and with the first drop of rain, she decided to head back for the day. As she turned, a small green frog hopped in front of her and croaked loudly. She stopped, astonished as the frog peered up at her with large, golden-brown eyes. “Good day, madam,” it said in a small, throaty voice.

With a cr

The wood-framed pane was
heavy in Kera’s hands as she cautiously lifted it from the windowsill. The night was quiet, even through the howling gales that circled the upper tower of the palace, and she listened vigilantly to the slide of wooden parts—a single hitch or splinter could disturb her meticulous cloak of silence. But Kera was not afraid.

As soon as she had opened about a foot of space, she gently released the pane, testing its stabil

Cydris grunted at the sound of a low rumble in his ear and stirred awake to find his face pressed into
a slimy nook of flesh, his awkwardly-bent arms pinned to his sides and his legs scrunched up tight behind him. “Oh, shit.”

He jerked his body to the side, jostling the stomach lining as it rippled down in leisurely waves. The sound of gentle breathing was undisturbed, and he tried a few more cramped kicks before he paused to evaluate his pre

Harold had been a cat for a few years, and he still appreciated the idle hours he was granted despite his stolen freedoms. He had gotten himself on the bad side of a witch, and he could blame himself for that chapter of his misfortune. But he had a wry sense, given that the witch had taken it upon herself to punish him with a feline existence, that he could hardly be held accountable for the errors of the human beings around him.

The witch’s apprentice, Lilah, had

Walking
along the poorly lit cave tunnel, Hailey relied more on the traipsing footsteps ahead of her to orient herself than the vague shadows of the uneven terrain. A rock caught her by the toe, and with a silent scrabble, she lost her footing entirely. A hand grabbed her arm before she met the ground, and she looked up at her friend as he righted her.

Even in the darkness, she could see the shape of Ray’s smile. “What?” she asked, anno

Sylvester had been driving for hours, but although his headlights shone over a long stretch of road through flat, empty fields, he was not tired. His hands were gripping the steering wheel tightly, and his eyes kept drifting to the dimly moonlit grassland. Clouds masked the sky, but he did not need to look up to know how densely they shielded the heavens.

When a lonely figure caught the light of his beams, he slammed the brakes immediately. Pulling up beside the stranger

Her lips brushed his, and as naturally as he drew breath, his jaws parted over her head. His lower lip was tucked under her chin, his fangs sitting against the soft flesh under her jaw. She stood without moving, and for a long moment he could not feel her breath against the back of his throat.

“Hey,” she said softly, voice trembling slightly. He could hear it vibrate under his palate as saliva pooled under her chin. He slid his tongue to the side and licked h

“Alright. Stay safe,” Harriet said before she hung up the phone and turned to her friends. They
were all standing by the wide window, watching the heavy snow fall by the dim light of approaching sunset. The lights in the rustic ski lodge were all down apart from the scattered candles and the crackling lounge fireplace.

The badger joined the others and reported, “They’re stuck in town, so we have the place until morning.” Sh

Stephen sat against the pillows of a four-poster bed wearing only his briefs. Beside him was a naked woman who looked far paler than usual thanks to the coating of powdered sugar that she had agreed to put on as long as the bed was protected with plastic sheeting. It crinkled when she moved toward him.

“Ready, Steve?” Daisy cooed, tucking herself close to him. She rubbed his belly teasingly, and it growled loudly. She giggled, “It sure sounds like it.&