Advent Story poll

It’s coming up to December, which means it’s time for me to start working out what my advent story is going to be this year. The collection poll is below and I’d appreciate input on how the stories should be structured this year. Last year I did five 5,000 word stories in the Thear collection (which I’ve kept out of the poll this year), so I can do the same this year or I can do something different, like 25,000 words of one story or focusing on two characters and halving the words between them. Just let me know your ideas.

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Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.

The Fae World: Aeron: Creating the Dragons

Aeron was certain they were making a huge mistake. He glanced at the souls that were sitting in crystal jars on the side, trying not to let the sight of them get to him. Under normal circumstances they would have used second-hand souls, who had already lived at least three lives, from fae who had volunteered. Making a whole new race of people wasn’t normal circumstances, because the new Queen was family and wanted to experiment with her abilities, so they’d created new souls too, which was… He shook his head. It shouldn’t have been done and he no longer wanted to be part of the experiment, but he had no choice. His Queen had given the command that it was time to try to place a soul within one of the newly created dragon bodies.

Thankfully Aeron wasn’t working alone. One of his companions picked up a jar and walked towards the body, smiling, because she didn’t have doubts about what they were doing. The body was that of a male dragon, based on a picture the Queen had picked up during one of her journeys to Earth. If he had a choice he would destroy all the bodies they’d spent the last year making, set the souls free, and walk away from everything he was beginning to hate. He didn’t want to know what the other fae would think if they knew about the dragons, but he could imagine what their reaction would be.

“Are we ready?” Enna asked.

Everyone else answered in the affirmative, so Aeron did the same. He couldn’t help hoping that it was going to go wrong, but he had a horrible feeling that it was going to go right, and when it did something unexpected was going to happen. After taking the final three steps towards the body Enna opened the jar. Most of the older souls could somehow feel if there was a body that needed it and would move by themselves, but the new soul needed help. Gently Enna coaxed the soul out of the jar with her hand and guided it towards the head of the body.

It took the soul a few minutes to enter the body, as though it didn’t understand what it was supposed to do, and Aeron felt a bubble of hope well up within him. Normally his intuition was always right, but he wanted this to be the one time it was wrong. Once it was where it was meant to be the only thing they could do was wait. Most of the time a body would move within an hour after the soul had entered it. The last time a new soul had been used, Aeron had read, it had taken just over six hours for the body to move, but in the end the experiment had failed. Sighing, he lent against the wall, watching the dragon the same way everyone else in the room was, wanting to know one way or another what was going to happen.

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.

The Fae World: Adrian: The Coffee Shop

To begin with Adrian stood, looking through the window of the coffee shop. It was well known as the place where humans with fae magic went if they hadn’t got into the school and he from what he could see he was beginning to think the elders really had made a huge mistake. At least three people had real wings, not just glamoured ones, there were more people with shapeshifter blood in there than he’d ever seen before, and thanks to his cousin Naida he could see a half-mer too. Sighing, he dropped his glamour, knowing it was how it would be accepted, before using a lightly shaking hand to open the door.

By the time Adrian had reached the short queue seven different people had smiled at him. Normally when he was showing his shifter blood no one smiled at him, apart from his friends, and they were total strangers. He didn’t know if anyone would still be smiling at him when they found out he was full blood fae, but Queen Willow had been correct. The elders were too focused on keeping the half bloods out to realise what was happening. She hadn’t been sure the elders would care even if they did find out. After a long conversation with her, Alder, and River, it was obvious that she cared.

Trying to seem nonchalant Adrian lent against the wall, taking in the different groups of people. The half-mer man was sitting with three of the shifters, a winged female, and two others who were using their magic to create illusions on the table. It wasn’t strange to see someone with fae blood creating illusions, because it was something they often did for fun, but to see the others there was. Most of the winged fae wouldn’t be seen dead around someone with mixed blood, even though having wings meant they had mixed blood themselves. He couldn’t stop himself from smiling.

“Hi,” a female voice said, startling him.

Adrian turned to look at the girl who was in front of him. “Hi,” he replied, taking in her cat ears and tail.

“I haven’t seen you here before.”

“It’s my first visit. Are you a regular?”

She smiled. “I’ve been coming here since before it became known as a coffee shop for mixed bloods.” She held her hand out. “I’m Phoebe.”

After a moment of worry Adrian took her hand and shook it. “I’m Adrian.”

“It’s nice to meet you. What brings you here?”

“I heard it was the place to come if you were a bit different,” he replied, finding a truth he could tell her. “I…” He trailed off, biting his lip. “My family aren’t comfortable with me being a half blood and I thought I might find people here I could relate with.”

Phoebe’s eyes filled with sympathy. “There are a lot of people who come here that have the same problem. A lot of them don’t have a home any more because they’re obviously not entirely human and no one seems to want to do anything about it. To the humans we’re the faes’ problem, but the fae think we’re the humans’ problem.” She sighed. “Matt, the mer-dude, lived in an orphanage until he was sixteen and then they kicked him out.”

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.

The Fae World: Aidalis: Travelling to Earth

Aidalis breathed a sigh of relief as he passed through the doorway. With every moment that passed the mer could feel the magic of their world draining away, because of the fae, but thankfully Earth had enough magic for them to survive. He knew he was lucky to have survived. There were so many who had died, most of them being the mer who were unable to shift into human form, and as he wasn’t able to shift he’d known that it was possible that he wouldn’t survive. After burying so many members of his family, including his younger sister, he hadn’t been certain he wanted to survive. On Earth he finally felt grateful.

If Aidalis hadn’t know that there were others following him, all terrified, he kept moving, even though he wanted to stop and look around his new home. Over the years the mer had created maps of the seas of Earth, so he’d had some idea of what to expect, but the world felt very different to the one he’d left behind. For the first time in a long time he felt like he could breathe. Until that moment he hadn’t realised how close it really was, because he was certain that if they hadn’t left when they had he would have been dead before he could travel. He shivered.

Groups of Aidalis’ race were coming together, but he wanted to be alone. After glancing at them, seeing the relief in every face, he pulled his copy of the map out of his bag. Leaving in a rush had meant that no one had time to claim any ground and he knew that the land he wanted would be in demand once the relief had faded. Silently he started swimming, knowing that no one would notice him, and let himself glance around for the first time.

The seas were quiet, which was understandable. Eventually the creatures who lived in the seas would become accustomed to the merpeople, but until that happened most would avoid any places the mer chose to live. Aidalis guessed the dolphins would be the first to make a move, because they would be curious about the new arrivals, and then other creatures would follow, although there were those who chose to stay away. In that case it was probably best for both sides, as some creatures weren’t going to be friendly.

After swimming for some time Aidalis found himself in cooler waters, which were more comfortable for him than warm waters. Most of the mer were the same. He was aiming for the English Channel, in part because he knew the fae were going to be in England and he felt it was going to be the safest place to live. There had been stories told about merpeople who got caught in nets or hurt by fishermen during their travels, and he’d seen the scars on some, so the fae had given their word that they would do everything they could to make the seas safe, which would be easiest around the country they were living in.

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.

The Fae World: Willow: Travelling to Earth

Breathing in deeply Willow watched the fae who had chosen to join her walk though the door she had created. On the other side was Earth, a world the fae had always been fascinated by and visited regularly, but living there had never seemed an option. Now there seemed to be no other choice. The fae needed magic in order to survive, Earth was a world with magic, so it made sense that her people would travel there, but that didn’t stop her from worrying that she’d made the wrong decision. Unfortunately she didn’t have anyone to talk to, because her father was still in a coma, she didn’t trust any of her so-called counsellors, and the only person she thought she might be able to trust was on the other side of the door.

If there had been more time Willow would have made more preparations, both on Earth and on the world the Dragons were travelling to, but her father wasn’t the only person close to death. Other families were taking through ill members, mostly the elder fae, hoping that they would survive, even though it seemed unlikely. She knew that she would probably become Queen much sooner than she’d anticipated, because her father was getting weaker with every day that passed and she didn’t think that Earth had enough magic to drag him back from the brink. That didn’t stop her from hoping he would survive. She needed him.

Willow knew that living on Earth wasn’t going to be easy, for the humans or for the fae. Technically the fae were invading Earth, even though they didn’t plan on taking over, and she didn’t know how the humans were going to react. It wasn’t as though most of the fae would ever leave the places of magic, but taking over the places of magic was going to affect the humans. They didn’t even know the places of magic existed and, according to Alder, were planning to use the place of magic they wanted to live as a housing estate. She sighed, feeling a little sad that the humans didn’t understand how important the places of magic were, but when she compared that to the selfishness of the fae…

With her fingernails getting too close to her mouth, Willow forced herself to turn around. The fae were going to destroy a world because they didn’t know how to live without magic, so she had no right to judge the humans. She wished the meeting had worked and she’d been able to convince everyone to follow her, but at least she’d been able to help the Dragons and the Shifters. A number of the Shifters had chosen to travel to Earth, including a large family of Selkies, while others were travelling with the Dragons. It was, unfortunately, exactly what she’d been expecting to happen, because she was young, she was female, or they had some other reason not to listen to her. Even some of her own people had stayed behind.

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.

The Fae World: Liesel: The Griffins’ Choice

It was Torsten who broke the silence. ‘We have to make a decision.’

Liesel glanced at Torsten before looking back at the door. He was right, they did need to make a choice, but none of them knew what they’d find when they stepped through it. They could tell the world had magic and that was it. She doubted even the fae knew which world was on the other side of the door, even though they’d been the ones to create it, because they created so many doors. Every one of them used yet more magic and the majority of the fae didn’t know how to live without magic, so the shrinking amount that still existed was being drained faster than the griffins could cope with. As there was only twelve of them left their only option was to find somewhere else to live.

Until recently each of the couples hadn’t even known the others existed. Liesel looked at each of the griffins and could see the same worries she had in every face, even Torsten’s. Aleida and Hedwig had even more to worry about, because they were both pregnant. Thankfully the cubs weren’t yet fully grown, so they weren’t sentient, but it wouldn’t be long. If they woke before the move was made… Liesel didn’t want to think about what would happen to them. From what the two expectant mothers had said the pregnancies were unplanned, although they had been trying until they realised what was happening to the world.

‘I don’t want to go,’ Hedwig replied, sounding sad. ‘This world holds so many memories of griffins that are no longer alive and it’s…’ There was a silence, making Liesel think that Hedwig was trying to pull herself together. ‘I always wanted my cubs born on the same world I was born on, but that’s not going to happen.’

‘Sweetheart, the lives of our cubs are the most important thing right now,’ Hedwig’s mate said. Liesel couldn’t remember his name, even though they had been introduced, but she liked him. ‘I think the only thing we can do is take a chance.’

‘I feel the same way,’ Aleida said, ‘although I wanted to have cubs here, where my parents and siblings were buried.’ She shrugged. ‘My cubs must come first and I don’t think it will be long before they wake.’

Nodding, Liesel looked at the door. She didn’t know how she’d feel if she was pregnant, but she understood why Aleida wanted to put the cubs first, and it had been a long time since any griffins had been born alive. All of Liesel’s sisters had died after failed pregnancies, as had her mother.

‘I think we have to go,’ Liesel said, wondering if the other would even listen to her because she was the youngest of the group. ‘If we stay here then it seems likely that we’re all going to die, because the fae aren’t going to stop using magic. They don’t know how to. That world has magic and it doesn’t seem like it gets used, so we’re more likely to live to our full life-span there.’

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.

The World Walkers: Oonagh: A Pregnant Pot

This is easily the weirdest story I’ve written. Written for LJ user ysabetwordsmith’s prompt: the story of the pregnant pot.

One pot started walking. The fae got scared of the clay they were using and stored everything else they’d made, because they didn’t know what was going to happen. It was understandable. As a race the fae were terrified of anything they couldn’t control. If they knew that Athare was sentient they’d probably have left the world behind, but Athare understood the fae better than they understood themselves. Any changes Athare made were done over time, so they looked like natural evolution, and the fae never suspected anything.

It was the other races who realised that life clay was useful. They insisted that that fae took their pots out of storage, because a pot made from life clay could do anything. At first the fae resisted, but eventually, unhappily, they gave in, although none of them would go anywhere near the store. When the door was opened Oonagh was glad they hadn’t. Five pots had been made. She’d expected that the one that moved wouldn’t be on the shelf. She hadn’t expected there to be more than five pots.

The floor was covered in shards of pot. As Oonagh stepped into the room she tried her best not to stand on them. Six pots were walking around, each carrying another pot, looking very much like they were taking the pots to put in spaces on one of the shelves. Most of the shelves were full with a mix of different pots. Biting on her lip she looked around the room, trying to work out what had happened. It wasn’t until she noticed a seventh pot, walking towards another pot that looked… She tilted her head to one side, unable to believe what she was thinking. The pot looked pregnant.

Carefully Oonagh stepped towards the pots, trying even harder not to stand on any of the pots shards. If they were what she thought they were she didn’t want to stand on them. She wished she could simply ask the pots what had happened, but that was impossible because they didn’t have mouths, even though they were obviously more magical that the fae thought they were. Kneeling down she watched as the pregnant pot… It could only be described as giving birth, although it was very different to a mammal giving birth. While she watched she wondered why the pots didn’t give birth to eggs rather than live young, which was a very strange thought to have.

When she tried to describe what she’d watched it was the hardest thing to do. The mother pot seemed to literally squeeze the baby pot out of it’s clay. Oonagh had never seen anything like it before and she was certain she didn’t want to see anything like it again. It took almost half an hour for the baby pot to be fully formed, much smaller than the mother pot, which was when the walking pot took it over to a shelf she hadn’t noticed before. On it were twelve baby pots, each one a little bigger than the one before.

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.