A rat named Hatcher has hatched a plan that might save his king and colony, and might doom his own life
Music: “Immortals (seamless)” by Nicholas Jeudy
Video description
Video Description: “No Kings Among Rats” Trailer. Duration, 38 seconds. “Immortals (seamless)” by Nicholas Jeudy. Digital drawing. Eight rats arrayed in a circle with their tails tied in a pattern. The furthest rat is seen from the back. The rat in the foreground is facing forward and wears a small yellow crown. The other rats are seen in profile. They appear to be sitting atop a watery textured background, which glows where their tails meet. Watermark of word “Storyfeather” appears at an angle at bottom left. Title card with the words “Short Story” and “Genre: Myth and Fable,” is displayed at top. Tagline is displayed below. It reads: “A rat named Hatcher has hatched a plan that might save his king and colony, and might doom his own life.” Lines from the story appear in sequence at bottom: “‘I am tempted to ask you what is around the corner for my colony.’ ‘Then why not ask, and be prepared?’ ‘I am not a god. I may not understand what I am seeing. And in my ignorance, I may do something, decide upon a course that may doom my colony.’ ‘What if I show you anyway?’ the god of corners said.” Site URL appears at bottom center throughout and fades at end. The title appears at center. A text card appears at top that reads “Available to Read Now.”
Welcome to Year 10 of Storyfeather
Every year’s short stories (mostly) follow a theme. For the tenth year, every month’s stories share a genre or theme, some anchor point that the reader can rely on. But within that, there are strange concoctions brewing. The genre’s merge, archetypes collide, mythologies mash…welcome to the Year of Fusion.
May Base Element:
⚡🧜🏽♀️ MAYTHOLOGY! 🦉🔱
FUSION RECIPE
Base element for May: Mythology
Fusion Element: Eggs
This story was inspired by a drawing I did for an art challenge earlier this year. The prompt was “rat king.” So that helped with the brainstorm. And I thought, okay, what about this? There’s a god in the story. The trickster god of the rats, who has an uncountable number of tails. It is thinking about this trickster that gives the hero rat in the story the idea of tying tails together and spreading their bodies apart to float and keep all their heads above rising storm waters.
How I did the digital drawing for my story, “No Kings Among Rats,” from a sketch to the final image.
Video Description
Video description: Drafting of story image from Sketch to Final. Duration, 28 seconds. Digital drawing. Eight rats arrayed in a circle with their tails tied in a pattern. The furthest rat is seen from the back. The rat in the foreground is facing forward and wears a small yellow crown. The other rats are seen in profile. They appear to be sitting atop a watery textured background, which glows where their tails meet. Text at top reads “Digital Drawing for Short Story.” A fade animation displays a portion of the starting sketch. The words “Sketch to Final Drawing” appears at middle. All text and final image fade to show the full starting sketch. Video transitions through several images showing sketch, inking, laying down of base colors, addition of shadows, highlights, and textures, and finally the addition of a background to arrive at the final image. The story title, “No Kings Among Rats” appears at top. A watermark of “Storyfeather.com” appears bottom center throughout.
Genre: Mythology, Fable
Tags: God of Corners, Hatcher, King, Leaper, Rat, Storm, Tail, Trickster God, Waters
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