In the third generation after we’d colonized the Douzaines Moons, the gems started appearing. A sort of shimmering blood-blister, growing under a fingernail, usually, though about one in a five get it under a toenail, becoming a full-fledged gémmoire a few years after the first flush of hormonal puberty has settled in. The First Ones
So, Marge says to me, she says “Hey, Bill– you wanna try something new?” I mean, we’re talking about dinner, and I figure she’s about to ask me if I want the Yukon Gold or the Idaho Russets in the pot roast– because it’s Sunday and we always have pot roast on Sunday– or at
In an anthropology of the world, twins are usually regarded with some combination of suspicion, mystery, magic, and awe. So it should be fitting that we close our tales of Gaia’s misbegotten monsters on a happier and altogether more magical note with the story of a twin fox named Moonshadow. A creature so pure and
Not all of nature’s demons are animals, you know. Sometimes it’s not just the gremlins that glower in the grove, but the greenery itself. You’ve probably all heard of the butterfly-eating cobra lilies in the Oregon boglands, or the common venus flytrap in North Carolina’s Green Swamp, or even the tree mushrooms that live in any
Of all the horrors of the Forgotten American Backcountry, the Fredericksburg Sheep stands apart, being neither horrible to look at, nor reeking of decay, nor creepy, crawly, or otherwise frightful in any manner. The Fredericksburg Sheep is, in fact, a lovely specimen: a full coat of tawny locks, a face and ears the color of warm
