The howls begin at the same time every night. When the guttering candles have flamed their last, when the boys are sleeping and my husband is sharpening his axe, I hear their screams. Tonight, it is our turn to hunt the spindle beasts and for that I am thankful. I nod at my husband and… Read more The Spindle Beast

A Siekopai Myth from Ecuador This happened when God, Nyanyuh, was living on Earth. He had a wife named Umewá. Umewá cooked dinner for them both, little wild plantains baked on the embers of the fire. They reclined in their hammocks as they ate. Hers was hanging directly above his. He smelled something better than… Read more Why It’s Hard to Harvest Chonta Palm Fruits

Once a very long time ago, before all the words that mean what words mean today were thought of, there was a man who lived in a house with a wonderful garden abounding in flowers and ferns, almost all of which had different names, forever lost to us. But in the center of that garden… Read more The Juniper Tree

One day all the songbirds gathered in the forest to complain about crow, a cheeky bird, a bully bird, a bird so bold as to even challenge the two-legged ones who walked on ground. Crow, complained the robin, is dark. None of us can see him in the night. He steals whatever he covets, the… Read more Crow and the Songbirds

The oil lamps belched soot, staining the temple’s ceiling black. Their flickering flames caused shadows to dance upon the thick marble columns. A lone figure sat on the cold stone floor facing a statue of Apollo. She did not see the man enter the temple.  She did not have to. “You’ve returned,” she said. It… Read more All Rhodes

On their first night in Heorot, Athaulf was awakened, not by Grendel, but by a fleabite on his toe. He opened one eye and scratched at it with a stockinged foot. If this was to be his last night on earth, he’d not go out with a stubborn itch. A great creak sounded from the… Read more Eadric

“What’s wrong with your arm?” Gwendolyn asked, stepping back and regarding Richard curiously. Richard sighed, resigning himself to another awkward scene, which happened every time the family members of important visitors were obliged to socialize with him and his little sister Rose. “Tell me your story,” Gwendolyn said. They sat down on the garden bench,… Read more The Seventh Brother

The sun shines differently now, from that day. En, his name was. The people of this small country have all but forgotten the past tradition, but still mention his name daily. Enjte, Thursday. But the gods of this story are not that high up in the pantheon. The gods of this story were brothers. “How… Read more The Tragedy of Mountain Gods

The change begins each eve with a crack of bones and wracking pains, wings emerging like sprouts from soil before unfurling and hardening in the night air. Finbarr’s móraí warned him as a child about the dangers of accepting the gifts of the faerie-folk, that their promises have a cost. And he did, to his… Read more The Gifts of the Fae

‘Wait here, I’ll return soon.’ The exact same message that he’d left on the other side of the pillar. The handwriting of the note was identical, as was the paper it had been written on. Even the part of the paper he’d chosen to write on was the same. Another futile move made by his… Read more The Pillar