Posts Tagged ‘Fantasy’

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Camp Myth: Phoenix Watching (Chapter 1)

Camp Myth: Phoenix Watching (Chapter 1) is a Cast of Wonders original.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 7:33 — 7.0MB)

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Show Notes

Camp Myth: Phoenix Watching is a Cast of Wonders production brought to you by Wolfsbane Publishing. It features the voice talents of Kate Baker, Adam Black, Tina Connolly, Graeme Dunlop, Christiana Ellis, Marguerite Kenner, Alethea Kontis, Alasdair Stuart, Ian Stuart, and Barry J. Northern. You can learn more about the world of Camp Myth at our website, castofwonders.org.

The Camp Myth theme music, “August”, is by Cast of Wonders’ favorite musical artist Alexye Nov, at MusicAlley.com.

Camp Myth: Phoenix Watching (Chapter 1)

by Chris Lewis Carter

Hello campers! Are you ready for supernatural summer camp? We’ve been so excited getting this story ready for you, we hope you enjoy it! Welcome to Phoenix Watching, the first Camp Myth novel by Chris Lewis Carter.

Don’t forget to check out the Camp Myth section of our website where you can find links to all the episodes each week as well as artwork. You can even buy your own copy of Phoenix Watching or the Camp Myth role playing game.

Now listen close campers, we’ve a tale to tell! And it all started like this…

Each week in addition to a chapter of Phoenix Watching, we’ll share with you a piece of art featuring another camper at Camp Myth.

This week’s camper spotlight is Kaelan, the Centaur Inventor.

Felix says “So what if Kaelan needs a brace on his back leg? He’s without a doubt the smartest Centaur I’ve ever met! In fact, his backpack full of spare parts always manages to have the right tool for the job. He’s even working on a special GPS program to help Minotaurs with navigating their labyrinths. Talk about innovation!”

Kaelan was invented by Andrew Webster. You can find the picture of him on the Camp Myth webpage.

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Cast of Wonders 96: Gift Cards of an Ex-Goddess

Cast of Wonders 96: Gift Cards of an Ex-Goddess is a Cast of Wonders original.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:39 — 24.5MB)

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Gift Cards of an Ex-Goddess

by Melissa Embry

When the child in Mrs. Chaudray’s womb turned a somersault, Mala knew her time as an avatar running out.

“So, do you think this will be the one?” Mrs. Chaudray asked, turning from side to side to catch a glimpse of her reflection in the silver votive images, “do you think this will be the one?”

She had come to the temple to consult the avatar, as had dozens of other pregnant women and mothers of young daughters. Everybody could see Mala becoming more nubile daily, and by the custom older than the memory of anyone on the holy mountain, the goddess must soon seek a younger maiden to inhabit.  So the women lined up at the temple doors, each asking if her baby would be the new avatar, the girl who, instead of being a burden to her family, would be supported by the temple until ready to marry in her turn.

Some avatars might take this rush to name their successor the wrong way, Mala thought, contemplating Mrs. Chaudray’s glowing face. It wasn’t like people were rushing her into her grave. Just out of the only life she could remember.

Despite all the hopeful women she’d seen lately, no other of their flaunting bellies sent a chill run down her back like this one did.  No others had given her a queasy feeling in her own belly.

That night Mala stripped the temple of its treasures.

By the light of the temple’s butter-filled lamps, painted eyes of gods and demons watched her survey the offerings accumulated in the thirteen years of her tenure.  Or was it fourteen? Maybe she’d ask the guardian how long she’d been her. The guardian was good with numbers.

They’ll miss me when I’m gone, she thought. I dare the next avatar to do this good.
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Cast of Wonders 95: You Bet

You Bet by Alex Shvartsman originally appeared on the website at UFO Publishing in 2012

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 16:32 — 15.3MB)

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You Bet

by Alex Shvartsman

Joe stepped through the door and found himself in a cramped, smoke-filled card room. The players paused their game and turned toward him, five and a half pairs of eyes studying the newcomer.

Seated around the green felt table were a robot, a witch, a vampire, an alien Grey, and a fairy. And looming behind them was a pink mass of scales and tentacles topped off with a bowler hat. It regarded Joe thoughtfully with a single bulging eye the size of a dinner plate.

“Hey there, new guy,” said the fairy. Despite her two-foot frame her voice was sultry rather than tinny. “And what are you supposed to be?”

Joe tried to answer and realized that he couldn’t. He remembered nothing of who – or what – he was, except his first name. He felt strange, empty, as if someone had sucked everything out of his head through a straw.

“I know that look,” said the witch. “Everyone has trouble with their memory in the first few hours. It’ll go away. Unless you’re an amnesiac spy, that is. But we already had one of those.”

His memory problems were selective, Joe discovered. He recognized the sounds of a Frank Sinatra recording crooning in the background, yet couldn’t recall a reason for arriving at this place.

“You aren’t anything obvious,” said the fairy. “If you figure it out quickly, don’t say! I’d rather guess.”

“Well I’d rather play poker,” said the Grey, the kind they usually depict abducting cattle and probing things indiscriminately. This one was dressed in a three-piece suit, and his almond-shaped head was topped off with a cowboy hat. He caressed a large stack of chips with his three long fingers. “It’s your turn to deal,” the alien said to the fairy.

The fairy pouted.

“We do nothing but play cards,” said the witch. “Let her have her fun.”
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Cast of Wonders 94: The Drove of Maris-Charlottes

Cast of Wonders 94: The Drove of Maris-Charlottes is a Cast of Wonders original.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:38 — 27.2MB)

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The Drove of Maris-Charlottes

by David Turnbull

Ida spat dirt from her mouth as she rode her weevil through the dust cloud churned up by the drove. These were healthy potatoes, Maris-Charlotte cross breeds, not a hint of blight on their creamy brown skins, none of them with a circumference less than three feet. Good rolling stock too, each one amply rounded so that their tumble was sufficiently smooth and uninterrupted, allowing them to gather a swift forward momentum.

There had to be at least four hundred head. They were feral and stubborn – not used to human contact. Managing them was going to be a challenging prospect, however, with Ida’s father and most the more experienced drovers felled by influenza it was imperative that she tried. A drove this size could make all the difference. If the potatoes could be enticed to settle in the three-acre field that had been cultivated in anticipation of their arrival there would be sufficient food to see her community through the winter.

Astride the speckled shell of her weevil, Ida maintained her position centre back of the rolling, tumbling drove, eyes constantly peering through the dust for signs of any attempted break away by rogue potatoes. She could see that her crew, most of them inexperienced teenagers like herself, were tired, but she knew she couldn’t afford to slow the pace – at least not until they were within sight of the settlement.

This expedition had originally been her father’s idea.
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Cast of Wonders 93: Little Wonders 2

Cast of Wonders 93: Little Wonders 2 is a Cast of Wonders original.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:01 — 21.2MB)

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Show Notes

This episode marks the second time Cast of Wonders has aired poetry. Our first was the excellent Eggs Under Moon from Episode 29, where three different narrators brought you their interpretation of the one poem.

Golly

by Laura DeHaan

A girl and a boy stood at opposite ends of a clearing in the woods. As the girl’s family lived nearby, and she felt it was therefore her clearing, she spoke first. “What’s your name?”

He was a handful of years older than her, with knees and elbows and eyebrows he’d eventually grow into. “Raff,” he said. “What’s yours?”

“Goldilocks,” she said, and looked it.

“That’s a dumb name,” he announced without deliberation. “I can’t take you serious with a name like that.” Indignation made her sputter. He went on carelessly, “Want to play?”

Goldilocks’s family was one that had fled the Eastwise Kingdom after the Bad Enchantment had settled there, and she hadn’t met any other children since. “All right,” she allowed. “But I’m going to call you Ruffian.”

“I’m going to call you Golly,” he said, and Goldilocks needed no other enticement to follow his cry of, “Catch me if you can!”
(Continue Reading…)

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Cast of Wonders 92: Snakes and Campers (A Camp Myth Tale)

Cast of Wonders 92: Snakes and Campers (A Camp Myth Tale) is a Cast of Wonders original.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 22:37 — 20.9MB)

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Snakes and Campers

by Chris Lewis Carter

After nearly twenty minutes of trudging through the Forgotten Forest in silence, Zerra plops down on a rotting log and says, “It’s official. We’re lost.”

“That’s impossible,” Drew says. He removes a crumpled sheet of paper from his bag and studies it intently. “I’ve mapped out this entire area. We just need to get back on course.”

Natious grunts. His steel blue eye scans their surroundings for any sign of danger. “And what does the map say, exactly?”

“It says that we’re lost,” Zerra replies.

Before Drew can respond, the trees part and two more centaurs join the group. Kaelan, lugging his overstuffed backpack, and Pointa, trying to prevent any branches from swatting his girlfriend, Kuru, a Kitsune who sits perched on his back.

“Come on, guys, arguing isn’t going to help,” she says, in her always-upbeat tone. “There’s got to be a Phoenix around here somewhere. We just need to stay positive.”

Pointa nods and brushes a stray leaf from his beard. “She’s right. Let’s just take a moment to regroup, then keep moving.”

Kaelan hobbles over to the log, his leg brace squeaking slightly with each step. “Do you think the other group we saw heading into the forest are Phoenix watching, too? I wonder if they’ve found one by now?”

“Those three?” Natious snorts. “Not a chance. They’ll be lucky if they make it back to camp at all.”
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Cast of Wonders 88: Dragon Art

Cast of Wonders 88: Dragon Art is a Cast of Wonders original.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 17:54 — 16.4MB)

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Dragon Art

by Christopher Partin

“Wow,” said Charles as he put down his pencil and looked at the picture before him. It was the best drawing he had ever done. It was so detailed it was almost as if it was alive.

It had scales like glistening river rock, eyes like opals, a snout like some fierce alligator, wings like a horrible vampire bat, a tail like a stegosaurus. It had legs like tree trunks and claws like bald eagles.

It had taken Charles most of the day to draw the dragon, but now it was finished. And boy was it great! It was more than worth all that time spent making it just right.

Charles looked over at the clock and realized how late it was. He got up from his desk chair and got ready for bed. He was about to turn off the light when he realized that he’d better put his drawing somewhere where his cat, Mr. Hempleton, couldn’t walk all over it.

“Yeah, you,” said Charles, looking over at the brown and white tabby, which stared back at him with evil eyes that said, “I’m tired and you’re bothering me.”

Charles looked at the drawing one last time, still surprised at the detail he was able to create, opened his desk drawer, and carefully dropped it in. He closed the drawer and turned off the light and crawled into bed.
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Cast of Wonders 86: Ieia

“Ieia” originally appeared in the Winter 2012 issue of Tales of the Talisman, edited by David Lee Summers

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:11 — 24.0MB)

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Ieia

by S. L. Bickley

Even after seven years living out in the country, Palfi didn’t know how to sense the seasons. But she knew the autumn equinox had not come yet, for she’d had no visitors in a week or so. People always came flocking when the seasons turned.

Autumn and its pilgrims could stay away forever, for all she cared. She didn’t need donations: she already had plenty of shelfbread, and plenty of wine, and a good store of donated silver which she had few opportunities to spend. And the only things a visitor might give her, apart from bread and wine and silver, were irritation and trouble.

She sat at her devotions nonetheless — partly because someone was sure to arrive the moment she abandoned her façade, and partly because the grove was a pleasant place, and Ieia, the goddess statue, was better company than most real people.
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Cast of Wonders 83: The Dictionary’s Apprentice

Cast of Wonders 83: The Dictionary’s Apprentice is a Cast of Wonders original.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 36:12 — 33.1MB)

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Show Notes

Theme music is “Appeal To Heavens” by Alexye Nov, available at MusicAlley.com.

The Dictionary’s Apprentice

by Sandra M. Odell

The narrow streets of Gretchentown echoed with barking dogs and late evening front stoop conversations as Johnny-J made his way to the rally grounds. He circled twice to be certain no one saw him before hurrying to the burn piles. The air was bitter with sulfur and char. He breathed in through his mouth.

So little remained of the day. He hadn’t been allowed to stand with the adults in the front row at the purity rally, but had seen enough of the burn selection as it was brought in to regret looking. Johnny-J salvaged what he could of the Lessonkeepers’ fervor: a woman’s startled profile; a sooty hand clutching a rifle; a bouquet of once pink roses. Tucking the pieces inside his shirt, Johnny-J hurried back the way he came, avoiding the stern bulk of the Elder Hall on his way to the tarpaper-roofed shack beyond the west cistern. Breath came easier away from the killing grounds.
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Cast of Wonders 82: Mr. Scampers’ War

Cast of Wonders 82: Mr. Scampers’ War is a Cast of Wonders original.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:35 — 26.2MB)

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Mr. Scampers’ War

by J. S. Bell

An explosion of leaves, a swirl of dust and the fierce jungle cat leaps from the verdant forest and is on the gazelle in one bound. Claws rend and jaws clamp shut. The gazelle dies with a bleat of terror.

“Aw, Scampers, you’re such a cute kitty!” A baby-talking voice rattles the jungle cat, causing him to freeze. “Killing your toy mousy like that. Izzat a fun game?”

The small Lap Servant’s speech impediment continues, thinks the mighty predator. Perhaps it’s a sign of a significant mental defect. Doesn’t she know, this is no game. Life is balanced on a razor’s edge between the ready and the dead.

Mr. Scampers cleans a paw, slightly mussed by the trek through the jungle under the sofa, and considers how best to respond to the Lap Servant. He chooses his default action: Ignore the human.
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Cast of Wonders 80: Small Magics

Cast of Wonders 80: Small Magics is a Cast of Wonders original.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 37:47 — 34.7MB)

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Small Magics

by Alethea Kontis

Minna tried to stand still in front of the mirror, but it wasn’t working. Effie jerked Minna’s hips from side to side, trying to adjust the bustle of her sateen French cream walking dress. Minna stared at the print of the Luck etching she held, then closed her eyes and pressed it to her breast, wishing with all her might for the magic she had given it to seep back into her.

“Would you like some glue?” Minna’s eyes snapped open as her friend’s voice sounded in her ear, dark and exotic as the Greek gypsy girl herself.

“See, now,” said Minna, pointing at their reflections, “your head looks better on this dress than mine does.” Minna folded the Luck etching and tucked it inside her sleeve, desperate for its closeness.

Effie noticed. “Luck doesn’t always mean the good kind.”
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Cast of Wonders 79: Loma’ai

Cast of Wonders 79: Loma’ai is a Cast of Wonders original.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:30 — 28.9MB)

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Loma’ai

by Jessie Bishop Powell

When people asked about Johnna’s dark skin and hair and her grey-violet eyes, her mother Manda said, “She was my surprise baby.” Those traits, especially the eyes, belonged to the Auric tribe, whose standing with the ruling council was never stable. So the askers usually pretended to think Johnna was descended from her stepfather, even though she looked nothing like him or her younger siblings on that side.

Her father, when Johnna saw him once a year, was more honest. “Pfft. Accident,” he said. “The caravan leader had a fetching daughter, and I had a terminal problem keeping up my drawers.”
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