CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

From urban fantasy, we move to fantasy – and from pixies and unicorns to vengeful druids and their swamp creatures. This story forms the March 1 in 366 Days of Flash Fiction , and is one of the longer pieces in that collection. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tiramar and Druid Helovak lived in the swamps of Jevnovar, working with the lizard people to preserve the swampland, as vile as it was. Some call Jevnovar The Reeking Swamp, but no wise man did that where Helovak the Druid could hear them. The swamp might be vile, but Helovak’s temper was worse. He was known for keeping a grudge. He even had a list. A merchant had once called him a ‘hopped up lizard jockey’, and not one of that company’s caravans made it through, or past, Jevnovar from that time on. Helovak’s list was difficult to be crossed off from. Rumours said it was written in blood on the skin of a dark frog. The truth might have been less colourful. The merchant’s ...

Last week we had a a piece of science fiction set in the oceans of our home world. This week, it’s an urban fantasy look at the war on drugs, and the illicit trade in fantasy creatures from the February 22nd entry in 365 Days of Flash Fiction . ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- When Pixies Dance the Storm Dance The pixies danced in the stormlight. They danced with steps that shook with anger, making the leaves tremble and curl at their passing. They danced until their passage burnt a circle in the grass, and then they stopped and raised their hands to the sky. The dust runners didn’t stand a chance, but at least the local chieftain thought enough of me to warn the strike force away from the warehouse. We couldn’t stop them, but we could bear witness. What the dust runners had done to the rest of their clan, deserved something of what they wreaked, and the pixies could not let the remnants of those unicorns run through the city u...

Last week we had a very short piece of military science fiction. This week, it's a piece of science fiction much closer to the oceans of our home world, and it forms the February 8th entry in 365 Days of Flash Fiction . ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Del Marina Betrayal In the laboratories of Santos del Marina we saw many things: sea cows that gave milk humans could drink, leafy dragons that breathed a storm of sharp, poisonous shards, puffer fish able to propel spiral shell-boats, and sea jellies the colour of rainbows, which tasted like strawberries and peaches. We didn’t see what Santos was doing to the whales, and we really shoulda seen through his quiet smile and calm façade. Twenty-eight days after he’d started, the first whale dared approach us for help—the only one who didn’t think we already knew of Santos’s mischief and condoned it. At first we recoiled, and then we struck. We visited the del Marina laborato...

Last week we had a short joined-worlds fantasy. This week, it’s a very short piece of military science fiction that forms the February 8th entry in 366 Days of Flash Fiction . ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Face “Do you want to live forever?” If I never heard that phrase again, I would be a very happy girl. For now? For now, I shouted ‘Sir, no sir!’ with all the rest, and ran right out into the ambush. When I went down, it was under the Sarge, the machine-gunner and the comms carrier. It was a good thing the tiktaks left the dead where they lay. A good thing, and almost the end of me. By the time the rescue team arrived I was having trouble breathing; the smell of carrion surrounded me, and the weight of the dead bore down on more than my soul. They all thought I was crazy when they dug me out and I picked up the nearest rifle, sedated me before I got fully to my feet. Dayum—I wasn’t crazy; I was mad. Some dumb son...