Folksburywoods

Malik stood in his grain field and wondered how fast the summer passed. Now, as the days shortened and the night bit with icy fingers, the time of gathering was at hand. Lore spoke of this time with a sense of reverence, one that should be honored with festivals and…

Nubert sat on the bench in the afternoon and waited for a friend. He was past middle age, and in all those years of trying to find that special someone, he had never even come close to conversing over tea. His grandma once told him she met her husband while…

Legends tell of the sounding of the horn of Fortuna in times of great strife. The great horn is hidden in the Motress Abbey caves, and its location is known only to a few. The last time the horn was used was three hundred years ago when the northern Horde…

Pavia was her parent’s only child, and because they loved her so much, they overprotected her and never allowed her to play with other children. Life was lonely for Pavia, but she had a secret friend she would visit when she could sneak away from home. Hucho lived in a…

Mátyás thought himself the best thief around. His method was surprisingly simple. The robber waited high in a tree until an unsuspecting victim walked by. “HO! I am the Dark Wood robber. Hand over your silver and gold or lose your life,” shouted Mátyás, perched on a limb. The travelers…

Theodore Gossamer was a woodsman in the village of Stoke. He would wake before dawn, head to the forest, and fell timber to earn his meager daily wage. When the seasons turned cold, the woodsman earned extra money by collecting wild honey or buried truffles if luck was with him.…

“I wonder where this water goes when it leaves the forest?” asked Edwin to his friends Franny Fox and Jrika the wood elf. “I once followed it to the far side of the meadow when I was a pup, but my mother caught me and gave me a thorough shaking…

Nufel Ardox grew up hearing stories of the boneyard, a place of rest his grandfather called it. When Nufel turned sixty, he decided to find it. After a lifetime of back-breaking labor in the mines, the man who once dreamt of being a world explorer woke up and packed his…

“Oh my darling, why oh why did I have to die and leave you alone? Only the gators know the reason why. For it was they that did not stay in the muddy swamp as I dreamt of you. So if you can hear this lonesome tune, send me a…

“I look at them and wonder, are these the hands that worked all those years? Are they the same ones that play the fiddle, the same that held my late wife as she passed over last winter? I look Gojeck, and it’s as though they belong to another man,” said…

“Well, I know it’s your job, but could you at least think of me and all the work? I mean, it will be Winter soon, and my workload will go through the roof,” pleaded Death. The giant sat thinking about what Death had said and offered a compromise, not wanting…

Whose woods these are, I do not know The sound of specters fills the air While horse and I dare not stare We must not dilly and certainly not dally For promises, we must keep And miles to go before we sleep So steady on and mind the path  There’s…

Come closer, friend, and I will tell you the mad hermit’s tale—no need to fear. I have already eaten today, so you are perfectly safe. Not long ago, a monk was sent to spread the word among the flock and be their shepherd in times of hardship. The folks liked…

It was a long time ago, longer than it seems, when the Airmen of Poosht ran with the wind atop Mt. Mignone. The airships were filled with the tastiest fruit, finest linen, and precious jewels each morning before the sun broke the horizon. When the breezes danced across the mountaintop,…