vicorva – Victoria Corva

Boss Monster

14th November 2019 vicorvaLeave a comment

‘It’ll be simple,’ he said, voice barely shaking. ‘Run in, grab the treasure, run out.’

‘What about the monsters?’ she replied. ‘What about the dragon?’

‘Well … we’ll move too fast for them, thanks to this.’ He hefted his newly purchased spellbook. ‘And you have the sword if anything goes wrong.’

‘I do not feel confident I could take on a dragon!’

‘We won’t have to!’

They clasped hands and he cast the spell, again and again. Walls crumbled before them to reform behind them.

All manner of twisted beasts and grasping undead howled at them, but they were gone each time before anything could be done.… Read more

Slow Awakening

12th November 2019 vicorvaLeave a comment

It started slowly, as most Awakenings do.

She would hum as she brushed her sisters hair, and sparks would fly from the brush.

She would whistle to her hounds, who would race to her side with the speed and silence of ghosts.

She would gaze across the stormy sea and scream her frustration into the wind.

Then came the song. And the feathers. And the fury.

But when she sang people to throw themselves into the crushing tides, only the cruel ever listened.

—

Image by Noupload from Pixabay.… Read more

Vigilant

7th November 2019 vicorvaLeave a comment

A high-pitched howl woke her before dawn. She sat up, rubbing her eyes, as the desperate cries continued.

‘Mara, darling?’ she called.

The howls stopped. They were followed by short meow.

She sighed, and climbed out of bed. As she shuffled into the other room, she rubbed the sleep dust from her eyes.

There, bathed in silver light from the window, was a cat-like creature of enormous size, tabby fur, and an oddly human shape.

The creature turned wide eyes toward the human.

‘Did you see another cat, darling?’

Mara nodded, then looked back out the window.

The woman smiled tiredly and came to stand beside her.… Read more

The Curses We Leave Behind

4th November 2019 vicorvaLeave a comment

She stared hard into the enchanted pool, trying to recognise these new features. Smooth skin and tumbling curls, wide eyes with long lashes. A human face she had yearned for for long years.

But it had been her goat face that had laughed with friends. Been lion hands that first clasped Janna’s tightly. It had been her serpent tail that had saved her from the cruel knight.

That body had been pain. It had been torturous. A curse she had never wanted or deserved. But it had been all she had known for so long.

As her tears fell into the pool, she felt hands at her shoulder, at her arm, taking her hand.… Read more

Spirited

31st October 201931st October 2019 vicorvaLeave a comment

This is a serial fiction posted in one toot daily (ish) during October on Mastodon. It was unplanned and experimental, and I’m pretty happy with the result. I hope you enjoy it. (original format)

—

I’m a ghost but I never died, or at least I don’t remember it. Memory and shape are both unfixed concepts to me. The only time I ever feel real is when someone sees me.

I have no power over who can see me or what they’ll see when they do. Human minds do something with my aether, project onto it, give it a form it doesn’t really have.

Tomorrow, Perhaps

31st October 2019 vicorvaLeave a comment

Every day, the hound watched the sun set over the graveyard, walking between the headstones, nose quivering in search of a particular scent.

As the sun vanished behind the mountains and the mist descended, wispy figures pulled themselves up from the graves.

They never shied from the hound, though he was large as a wolf and black as tar. Though his eyes pierced the night with a luminous glow.

Instead, they crowded around him.

They stroked his nose with phantom hands and whispered praise with distant voices. They watched his progress with milky eyes filled with sadness.

When at last he came to that particular grave, the headstone long-since pitted and overgrown, he would take up his guard and wait for a misty shape that never formed.… Read more

Unexpected Attacker

30th October 201930th October 2019 vicorvaLeave a comment

He hurried home across the park, hands thrust deep into his pockets. The moon was too sickly to light his path, leaving the lake a looming void.

‘Quack.’

The sound startled him. He tripped over a root and barely caught himself.

The duck waddled to his feet and glared up at him.

‘I don’t have anything,’ he told it. He’d had no notion that ducks could be nocturnal. He turned away, only to come up short when faced with another pair of beady eyes.

‘Quack quack.’

‘Shoo. Go on.’ He waved it away with his briefcase. He liked ducks, normally. Found their brazen begging endearing.… Read more

Terror by Moonlight

29th October 201929th October 2019 vicorvaLeave a comment

Every full moon, they locked their doors and shuttered windows. They barricaded, they barred, they held their children tight.

And listened for the crystalline ringing of silver hooves.

In the morning, they would always find the unfortunates gored through the heart by a long silver spike.

Nobody looked at their daughter too closely, because everyone knew that a unicorn wasn’t born from nothing.

First, there was a maiden with murder in her heart.

—

This microfiction in response to the microfiction poll winner: ‘evil unicorns’. Image by M. Maggs from Pixabay.… Read more

He Reads the Birds

24th October 2019 vicorvaLeave a comment

There is a boy who can read the birds.

He throws crumbs to the town pigeons and in the pattern of their pecking, sees illness coming to his school.

He spreads seed across the garden and watches garden birds flit in and away, and sees that his mother will get a promotion.

He watches a plume of rooks rise from the trees below and sees that though folk think he is strange now, the world will one day have need of him.

It is good that the birds taught him kindness as well.

—

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay.… Read more

A Fearsome Guardian (+ illustration!)

22nd October 201922nd October 2019 vicorvaLeave a comment

The dragon lowered a rainbow-hued head to sniff the small, furry morsel. To her surprise, it hissed and puffed up, and swiped at her with surprising aggression.

Perhaps it was more dangerous than it looked. She withdrew, curling her tail around her pile of gold.

The small creature stared at her, yellow eyes wide and suspicious.

Later, she found it batting at a stray piece of gold. She tried to take it back, and was again met with a hiss and a swipe.

In the night, she woke to something rumbling on her back. The creature again, now asleep and curled up in complete, purring contentment.… Read more