Welcome to Issue 10, May 2009
Welcome to Issue 10! We’re a little later than usual getting this issue out, much to our chagrin. We’ve had a ton of new submissions these last two months — deciding among them has never been more difficult! We’d like to thank our readers and contributors for making AFIA what it is, and we hope to see many more great stories in the weeks and months to come!
Happy reading!
Featured Artwork: Awaiting Benediction
| by Michael Schuler |
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Featured Fiction: Caribou House
| by Stace Dumoski |
(7 votes, average: 4.57 out of 5) Loading ... |
Domar the Potter squatted on the floor of the mission house, his hands clenched together in an empty prayer, and asked to hear once more the tale of how his bride had been stolen by a god. It wasn’t that he needed to hear the tale again–the details were already ingrained within his mind. What he needed was time, time the telling would allow him, time to consider his course before taking action.
Sirc told the tale, his grief-thick voice barely audible over the mourning of the women. Called by an early-morning chore into the darkness before dawn, he was the only witness to the departure of his sister Antea. None but he saw the sled that glided out of the shadows, drawn not by dogs but by wolves–four wolves the size of horses, with silvered fur that shone with an unearthly light. The sled moved noiselessly, gliding upon a track of snow it cast before itself onto the summer ground, and as it passed the trees shivered and bent as if laden with snow and ice.
Only Sirc saw the sled that came to rest before his parents’ home, and only Sirc watched as Antea emerged from within, to climb without hesitation into the waiting, driverless sled. Only Sirc saw the wolves speed off, pulling the sled and his sister away into the night. Into the north.
Stumble it!