annual feat

every year he disappeared into the woods of his estate. the servants tracked him by the trail of clothes, then by the call of the horn he carried with him. when he was finally found, he would hand the horn to the one who found him, who would then be required to play the ‘mort’, or death of the deer. if he did not play it correctly the master escaped again.

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hitch

a freak storm caused a surge which overloaded the electronic locks on the building. there was stuff in there he had to get.he enlisted the help of a friend, and they broke in by driving a car through the doors.

forebear

As a school history project a girl decides to transcribe the journals of her deceased great-grandfather. They deal in large art with what seems to be a long-running battle with gypsies. He worked to drive them from his town and then visited other towns to help them do the same.

extract

Decades after the exodus returned with a exobiological and anthropological survey team and decided to search for my old home. I was surprised by the uses to which my old toys and household items were put. I thought they would be revolutionary when introduced back home, but they resulted only in passing fads.

revival

After mosquitos had been eradicated for several decades, one nation reintroduces a bioengineered strain designed to spread vaccinations against a pandemic breaking out in a neighboring country. Their uncontrolled migration sparks a war.

abstain

In high school, more and more of his friends were becoming anointed. He had decided long ago that he would not be. He had even gotten his parents to support his decision, after long and bitter argument. Now he was beginning to waver to peer pressure. To hold fast, he decided to disfigure himself. The physically impaired or malformed could not be anointed.

narcotized

An escaped convict is chased by hounds through the swamp. He comes across the shack of a voodoo woman, who gives him a potion that will put the dogs to sleep at his smell. Soon he finds out that if he sweats enough it will put a person to sleep as well.

coronation

It was said that the scepter diffracted thought – broke it apart and reassembled it into a higher coherence. After the coronation ceremony the newly crowned would go into a coma. about half of the time they never came out of it. We mourned for a year and then chose another. those who did recover had become wise, or so we trusted. 

overdub

After several failed attempts to change history, a time traveller settles for going back to arguments he has had in his own life, and with a special speaker system he drowns out a few of his own utterances to replace them with what he decided in retrospect that he should have said.

histology

An early biologist theorizes about micro-cellular structures which can not find under his microscope. Convinced that it is a limitation of the staining chemical, he enlists the help of an artist friend to concoct a new dye that will reveal the otherwise hidden architecture of tissue.