Homebound for the Horizon

Names & rank please -"William Noble, Captain" -"Arthur King. First Officer" -"Jack Noble. Voice of reason" Will: "Jack!" Jack: "Fine. Helmsman" -"Clarence, engineer" -"Victoria. I'm a Witch" Will: "Guys, come on" -"Elanor Sa Noble, Medical" How do you wear your clothes? -Will: "With dashing good looks" *wink -Arthur: "Like a Human" -Jack: "Like a professional, of course" -Clarence: "Well" -Vic: "Every day is casual Friday" -Elanor: "Lady-like" Do you have a catchphrase? -Will: "Charge!" -Arthur: "No" Interviewer: "Is that your catchphrase or are you just-" Arthur: "No" Interviewer: "Okay" -Jack: "Lovely (To be used solely in a sarcastic fashion" -Clarence: "Please stop trying to do impossible and dangerous th...

The townsfolk of Hilltop backed away as one from the two fighters staring each other down. The first was a sadly familiar face: Kibroth Black, bandit chief and raider of undefended villages extraordinaire. He was a giant of a man, with the towering build, scaly skin, crown of horns and trio of blood red eyes common to his race. He wore a suit of rusted armor, a tattered black cloak, a deadly sneer and carried a rifle large enough to pass as a small canon. His opponent matched his look of fierce determination, if not his imposing physical presence. She was a stranger going by the name of Rift, arrived in the town only the day before. Standing just under five feet tall, she would probably only come up to Kibroth’s chest, her snow white hair and bright gold eyes also not contributing to an intimidating look. She wore a dark purple duster over a black and white pullover, and had a series of artistic symbols tattooed around her eyes. The only thing that made her look remotely like a fighter...

Summer frowned. This was something she had been doing quite a lot of recently: the Markets of Tempest were a perfect spot for the sell of many wears, except, it seemed, things you actually wore. Located on a island in the middle of an Ocean, it was far outside the borders of any Kingdom, making it a perfect place to trade in goods that were frowned upon anywhere else. Of course, the complete lack of any official authority also meant there was a very real risk of being robbed blind or even picked up by slavers. Such unsavory activities were generally kept in check, however, by the knowledge that any major disruptions to trade would be frowned upon by the many merchants there, many of whom had their own small armies. As a result of both, at any given time, Tempest probably had more armed individuals than most military bases. The thing about Tempest, though, was that it was not a popular gathering place for Humanoids. The blistering temperatures, thin oxygen and horrid smell meant t...

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...