Homebound for the Horizon

He opened his eyes. The world was a great big place, fulls of strange shapes and colors he had never seen before. Although, to be fair, he had never seen anything before. The young sapling looked around with bright-eyed wonder. He fixed on another small, green being that looked a lot like he thought he himself probably looked. It was rubbing it's eyes and searching around nervously. He got to his feet, stumbled, and tried again, determined to say hello to his companion. Before he could make it very far though, a shadow fell over the two tiny beings. He fell down, while the second Sapling squeaked and dove to hide in some grass. What was casting the shadow was a third creature, though he wasn't green and he seemed to be missing his leaves. Was it fall already? "Hello little ones" The Giant said warmly. "Welcome to the Green Groves." The Sapling felt like he should say something to be polite, but discovered he did not know how to speak. So he settled for sitti...

Babylon was a beautiful city. It built on the side of, on top of and beneath the mountains. It had begun as a single fort, built up layer by layer over the many long years. It was like a massive apartment complex, only the balconies and hallways were city parks and highways. Babylon was once a mining settlement. It had many levels, most of them abandoned now, beneath the surface. It also had many levels built not on the ground at all, but supported by earlier layers. In some places, the higher level had a small “lip”, where houses jutted out into the air, with nothing beneath their floors. Not for the weak of heart. Nor for the rich, these houses as a rule were small and cramped. But, Ash Book thought to herself, the rich and the fearful were missing out. The young woman of fourteen sat in a window frame, one leg dangling out and one hand holding her bowl of cold cereal. She looked out at the World. Ash could see the roofs of many houses below. She could see tall towers and...

The Shepherd was awakened from a deep sleep, by what he wasn’t sure. Then it came again: a loud knocking at the Temple’s front door. Glancing out the window, he saw that the snow was still coming down in sheets. “I’m coming, I’m coming!” The Shepherd said in answer to the continuing knocks. He threw on a cloak and hurried across the sanctuary, muttering to himself as he went. He fully intended to give this late night visitor a harsh piece of his mind: no one had any business being out in this weather. But when he pulled back the lock and opened the door, a weatherbeaten figure stood on his doorstep, so pitiful looking that no one could feel angry towards it. She was tall and had half a dozen eyes. But she wasn’t scary, not while she shivered in her boots and had icicles hanging from her hair. “Good lord! In in in!” The Shepherd ordered, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her inside. The wind chose that moment to kick up a notch, making the Shepherd struggle to clo...

From a distance, it looked like an incredible star phenomenon. Lights bursting into existence, flaring brilliantly and then winking out. A rainbow of sparkling colors, standing out against the black scape of space. Any closer, and the trained eye would realize they were in fact witnessing a fierce struggle of life and death. A mile-long behemoth, with a blood-red and space-black hull, single handedly battled three smaller frigates. The smaller green-and-white ships constantly bombarded their foe with rail cannon fire, but it’s armor seemed unbreakable. The blue planet below rotated lazily, unaffected by the pitched battle in the void above. The trio’s plight seemed hopeless, as one of their number was cut clean in half by the behemoth’s own weapons. But as debris and escape pods plummeted into the atmosphere, the behemoth finally shuddered. Her engines sputtered out, the shields failed and the entire thing swung towards the planet with a groan no one could hear. Ab...