Posts Tagged ‘hunting’

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Cast of Wonders 701: His Voice is a Beast, Wild it Runs

First published in Frivolous Comma in January 2024

fist-fighting, hunting scenes, domestic violence

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His Voice is a Beast, Wild it Runs

by Nathan Susnik

I.

Berit’s voice is a beast. Cunning and clever, it runs on sinewy legs. He has only ever glimpsed it once – barely a breath long, not enough time to have raised his bow. He pictures it now in his mind’s eye: sun penetrating the spruce and oak, glinting over its black fur. Its four paws hide long talons as sharp as fishhooks. And in a flash, it is gone, disappearing as silent as lightning.

He hunts it, or it hunts him. Berit is never sure. His stomach turns, exhilarated as a predator, as apprehensive as prey. He and his voice share a connection, an adversarial kinship through which they are drawn together, bound to destroy one another. (Continue Reading…)

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Cast of Wonders 421: We Sang You As Ours

Originally published in Issue 49 of The Dark Magazine, June 2019

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We Sang You As Ours

by Nibedita Sen

The new egg was going to be a boy.

Cadence had overheard Mother Reed and Mother Piper saying so in the kitchen, last night, after they were done singing to it. She didn’t know how they could tell–it looked just like her little sisters’ eggs had. Maybe a bit bigger than theirs had been at three days old, but otherwise the same: fat as a pumpkin and ribbed like one, flushed with the faintest hint of venous blue. It looked like the dead jellyfish that would sometimes wash up on the beach, plump and gelatinous, clear near the surface and fibrous white at its heart, making you want to dig your fingers in, or maybe take a bite. (Continue Reading…)

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Cast of Wonders 179: The Mothgate

Originally published in Shimmer, Issue 25

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Show Notes

Hello everyone. Here in England the seasons have completed yet another quarter turn. The leaves are falling, the wind is gusting, and the pumpkin spice lattes have been packed away faster than you can say Christmas sales.

To accompany the longer nights and contemplation of the cycles of life, this week we’re proud to present The Mothgate, by J. R. Troughton, originally published in Shimmer.

The Mothgate

by J.R. Troughton

19th September

“This is your most important lesson.”

It was a rifle she handed me. Long and cold, ornately decorated. It was heavier than I’d expected, heavier than the one I had practiced with. She laid the barrel on the low wall before us and that helped.

“Watch and wait. No mistakes, Elsa. I know what is coming,” she had said, staring off into the trees. “Look for the butterflies. See them, and you’d best be ready to shoot what’s coming behind.”

We knelt behind the crumbling wall, rifles balanced over its brow, peeking over the moss-stained stone and into the dense trees that lay beyond. I tried as best I could to stop my teeth from chattering, but the winter night was bitterly cold. Mama Rattakin didn’t seem to notice. She was staring toward the tree line, pointing with her black and withered hand.
(Continue Reading…)