The unlikely encounter between a river fisher bird and a slug of the sea inspire both to strike a bargain to explore the powers and limits of their forms.
Music: “Dwarven Settlement” by Benjamin Carr
[Video Description: “River Fisher and Blue Dragon” Trailer. Duration, 46 seconds. Music, “Dwarven Settlement” by Benjamin Carr. Digital drawing. At center, a bird in right profile, head tilted up, beak slightly parted and holding a slug-like creature. The bird is perched on a patch of earth, at bottom left corner, along the shore of a river. At top of frame, glowing balls of light float through the air. The bird appears to be a river kingfisher of the Ceyx genus. The bird bears feathers of many different colors. The front half of the slug has the shape of a garden slug, with streaks of many colors. The slug’s eyes are directed toward the bird. The bottom half of the slug appears like a blue dragon sea slug with blue coloring and plume-like appendages. Both are speckled with sparks of light. Title card with the words “Short Story” and “Genre: Fable,” is displayed at top. Tagline is displayed at bottom. It reads: “The unlikely encounter between a river fisher bird and a slug of the sea inspire both to strike a bargain to explore the powers and limits of their forms.” Title card and tagline fade. A watermark of the word “storyfeather” appears over the image. Lines from the story appear in sequence: “Halceyx cocked her head. ‘I’ve never encountered a poisonous river slug before. This is most adventurous.’ ‘I am not a river slug. I am a slug of the sea. I am called Irsid. And I have come to the river to explore.’ ‘I am not a bird who swims and dives. I have been trying to teach myself. But being underwater is daunting.’ Irsid’s colors seemed to brighten to a soft glow. ‘Perhaps we can help each other.’” Site URL appears at bottom center throughout and fades at end. As the last line disappears, the image blurs, the story title appears at center, and a text card appears at top that reads “Available to Read Now storyfeather.com.”]
Welcome to Year 9 of Storyfeather
Every year’s short stories (mostly) follow a theme. This year, I will turn the Wheel of Fiction to help me decide what to write. There are thirteen spokes on this wheel. Eight are occupied by the eight themes from the previous years of stories. One is a prompt to turn the wheel again. One is a wildcard (hmm…curious). And three are covered only in question marks. I suppose I’ll find out what’s beneath those questions as we go along.
Welcome to the WHEEL OF FICTION
The Wheel of Fiction landed on Prompts. So I found a drawing prompt in one of my books that simply says to draw “something that sparkles.” At first I thought of fashion, sequins and make-up. The next thing that occurred to me was animals, so I searched for the most beautiful animals. And I came across the blue dragons and colorful little kingfishers. I haven’t written a fable in a while, so I choose that as the genre, and then it was about figuring out how and why these two animals would encounter each other, and what happens next.
Source: 500 Creative Prompts, Published by Piccadilly (USA) Inc.
[Video Description: Duration, 7 seconds. Choice wheel made on the Spin the Wheel application. Thirteen spokes or slices in various colors, labeled as follows, clockwise from the top: Objects of Power (the “of Power” is not visible), Prompts, Definitions, Turn Again, Elements, Creatures, S.T.E.A.M., Wildcard, Revisitation, Music, Challenge, Draw!!!, Traveler. The title at top reads “The Wheel of Fiction V4” and below that the words “Spin the wheel.” Below that is the date of the spin, 6/25/2022. At top left corner is a flag icon labeled with the letter “F.” This represents a function of the application which interferes with true randomness by reducing the probability of receiving the same choice twice in a row. The wheel turns and lands on PROMPTS. As the wheel stops spinning, a cartoon kingfisher bird appears at center, above the pointer, and hops up and down, and a cartoon slug appears and swims around the pointer.]
Genre: Fable
Tags: BALANCE, BIRD, FRIEND, HALCEYX, IRSID, METAMORPHOSIS, RIVER, SLUG, SPIRIT
JUMP INTO THE PORTAL BELOW TO EXPLORE MORE STORIES
