Havok Publishing

Tag - curses

Seaflash

Most who sail the sea are afraid of enduring a storm. I’d not be anywhere else for all the gold on all the islands, because I only see him when lightning strikes the ocean.
Raindrops plummet down my neck, each dying quick deaths in the jade-dark waves. Night thickens around me and my coracle

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The Fountain of Youth

Peter chose a table in the back of the tavern, giving himself a wide view of the entrances. He ordered a drink and instinctively scanned the room. He noted a frail old man watching him across the way. He avoided eye contact, but the man continued to watch him. Was he being followed?

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Taming the Dragon

I scrambled up the jagged mountainside, the indifferent wind numbing my face. Why don’t dragons prefer tropical islands?
The thought of my bedridden mother and hungry siblings spurred me onward. Just a few gold coins from the dragon’s treasure. Easy in, easy out.
I glanced down at the valley. Our dwindling flock of sheep…

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The Purple Parrot

The green sun of Lilen rose over the city of Shooshun. Its warm rays pierced a certain upper-story window of a certain stone house near the outermost edge of the city’s innermost ring. Soft green light shone on the face of a young Lilenite as she slept among piles of silky-soft furs.

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Man Nor Beast

“Help!”
The voice is desperate. Wild. It cuts through the screaming winds and lashing sheets of rain that pound you and the earth. You lift your lantern, peering into the blackness as you attempt to steady your pounding heart.
You see naught but the driven rain at first; even the ground is murky…

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Rebirth

“The giant python—she’s gone walkabout,” Steve stammered as I strode into the expansive Reptile Exhibit Hall.
I couldn’t run back into the drizzly night. Wildlife professionals don’t run, especially not the bloody founder and director of Australia’s Threatened and Extinct Animal Sanctuary.
And this big girl—my escaped snake—measured longer than five meters.

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Perdita Danville, Gorgon Slayer

Miss Perdita Danville crept along the moonlit heath, trailing the large, fluffy cow that guided her, its rope clenched in her fist. A bag of dead mice dangled from her belt. With a sword buckled at her waist and her pocket mirror safe in her travelling coat pocket, she was more than suitably armed

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In the Shadow of Ol Doinyo Lengai

In northern Tanzania, almost to the border of Kenya, lies a lake shrouded in mountains and mystery. Petrified birds stand on our shores as silent witness—a warning to all who would enter.
Grass plains surround our lethal lake, a place where rivers come to die, their only escape through evaporation. With water temperatures

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Unending Knowledge

Some people never come out of there,” Jabril said.
Daniel gave him a flat look. “Do you really believe that rumor?”
They stood in front of a neglected library sandwiched between a bank and a corner boutique. Cracks and water stains spread across the faded yellow facade.
Jabril secured his long black dreads

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Pumpkin Head Passion

“S-s-sir, please!” Malcolm hunkers low in his chair, hiding behind his notebook. “We’ve talked about this! You have to remain calm—”
Fire spews through the hollow eyes of my pumpkin head as I tower over him. “I am completely calm, Malcolm!”
My butler, currently acting as my therapist, cowers deeper into his chair.

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The Wick of Anger

While a shuffling inside a crypt would terrify most people, Christopher DeSalle listened to the corpse’s awakening movements with anticipation. Sparked by injustice, his longing for the resuscitated cadaver had led him to this moment.
The last rays of sunset bathed the headstones and stone façades in golden hues. It reflected off…

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Master the Beast

The warmth of the stew steamed up my glasses and the taste of it cut through the bitter cold of the highlands. But the conversation behind me drove all thought of food away.
“It was headed straight for the coastline. I had to let it go—the curse has passed from me,”

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