The sky was burning. The Hobus star had gone supernova, then accelerated into a Hypernova that was tearing across space at super-luninal speeds. Dozens of planets had already been swallowed in the cosmic fire, scores of ships that weren't fast enough littering with their atoms, and whatever few spare parts had managed to survive the atomic furnace.
One planet, though, it hadn't reached. The crown jewel of a vast and proud empire, and one of the few true paradises in all of known space. Ch'Rihan. Romulus. From afar, it looked no different from any other blue-green world, aside from it's rather large neighbor and moon. However, this facade of
She trembled. She'd been so close and then... she just couldn't. The past few months hadn't been the best for her. Her crisis over who she was had interfered with all of her life. Her worries compounding with the stress from college, from work, from family, until all those things just seemed to fall apart.
But she had been moving on. Resolving the issue of what she was, deciding who she wanted to be. She started talking to family again, her coworkers, and even had sent some e-mails to her professors, apologizing for having done so poorly, and expressing the hope that they'd let her try things anew in a semester or two. When she did this, she
Andria walked through the florescent bleached white of the general stores isles. Outside, she carried a look of apathy as she picked out items and set them in her basket, moving on through each isle, eyes mostly staying on her list as she tried to figure out where these things were.
Inside, she was anything but calm, and it took almost everything she had to keep from falling apart into a nervous, bubbly wreck. On the one hand, she was so incredibly happy with herself for being out like this that she could almost skip the whole way. On the other, she was scared to death, because this was her first time going out alone in public as a woman ra
Morning: Damned Wizard. That spell of their's dropped me off in the middle of no where, I don't have anything to help me. Nothing but the cloths on my back. The good news is, there's alot of fresh water near by, so I should be ok.
Mid Morning: Found some Clay. If I can find some fuel and make a Kiln, I might be able to turn it into bricks, and that'll mean a nice sturdy structure to use as shelter. Speaking of wich, I aught to go find some. I don't want to get caught out in the rain. It'd really suck for my only change of clothes to get wet.
Noon: Found a nice cave on the side of a hill, it should serve as a nice place to rest, keep the wil
Sing, O Muse, or speak, or dance,
and so your audience entrance:
For voice, or step, or gilded phrase -
each art shall mortal minds amaze.
But Muse, ensure whatever work
is safe from harmful law and clerk,
the legal hounds who howl at we
who honor creativity.
Who honors more an artist's skill?
The fan who will the soul distill
from artistry, and so conceive
new tales from what that art achieved?
Or one who simply reads a book
and even if their heart is hooked,
tells none, nor lets their minds be swept
to lands where untouched tales are kept?
But yet let needful words be said,
which still I treat with grief and dread:
I own t
Breathing steadily, I focus on the tiny orange dot nestled amidst the brush. I close my outside eye, then open it, then close it again, trying to get a good judge of distance and position. I steady my breathing, trying to get it to the rhythm of the sway of my hands. I lift my head up to judge it a little better, then settle it back down, jet-metal cool against my cheek.
Inhale-exhale-inhale-exhale. I wait until I have settled into the rhythm I want. The rest of the world seems to tunnel away until all that is left is the slightly bobbing orange dot. Inhale-exhale-inhale-exhale. I let go a breath and squeeze the trigger at the same time. B