My autumn piece for Enchanted Living magazine.

Once upon a time, the god of the sea found himself lonely. Gazing upon the mortals with a weight in his stomach, seeing their love, their affection, he wondered…What would it be like to experience such tenderness? Was there no one who might share his life with him? The gods were unkind, obsessed with power, cruel to their fellows. So the Ocean God resolved to create something that was both of the earth, and of the divine. He reached down from the storm clouds and plucked a grain of sand from the earth, then blew upon it.

As it floated down to the ground, it began to expand, lengthen, turn white. What landed was no longer a speck of dust, but a fully formed woman, dressed in blue priestess robes.

You’ll never see her.

She will, of course, be right in front of you, eyes alight, smile bright, a joyous laugh upon her lips. She will, of course, be reaching out her hand, inviting you in, inviting you down, down the rabbit hole, where all of the best games are.

You are tired. Of course you are. That’s why you’re here.

My summer piece for Enchanted Living magazine.

My spring piece for Enchanted Living magazine.

My Winter 2023 piece for Enchanted Living Magazine.

Once upon a time, the freezing cold had been sitting in his bones for so long that he was numb. Beneath his folded legs, the stony ground cut into the skin. He didn’t notice. His eyes were closed, not that it mattered. The darkness was nearly complete. Only the shadows on the horizon separated the night from the endless field of rock that was his prison.

As the night never ended, he had no way of knowing how long he had been there, but as there was no escape, it didn’t matter. He had resigned himself to a lifetime of sitting in this abyss. This was, after all, the place he deserved. His choices had led him here, to the end of the universe, and an empty silence.

Once upon a time, there was none, for to bones time is only a memory. Bones notice neither hours nor days, sun nor rain. They exist in tribute to what was. With enough time, even memory fades, and bones become dust once more.

But not yet.

Once upon a time, she had been sunshine. She had been joy and light, a laughing whirl of flowers in the breeze. She had been the beginning.

But that was long ago.