Stories tagged: nature
12 stories with this tag
The Lighthouse That Moves
When the foghorn moans, the lighthouse is already on the move. It rolls on hidden rails along the cliffline, deciding where to shine like a hound catching a scent. Tourists think it is a gimmick. Fishermen know it is temperamental and must be courted...
Time Capsule Pen Pals
In fifth grade, four friends bury a metal box with notes, comic strips, and a mixtape. They set a date: open it in twenty years. They add a cheap watch so time will not feel lonely. Years pass. They drift apart. Decades later, Jules receives a photoc...
Forest of Echoed Promises
The forest whispers everything it has heard. Anyone who makes a promise beneath its canopy hears it repeated whenever leaves stir. Lovers vow forever; the trees murmur "forever" with every breeze and storm. Children swear to never tell; cicadas chant...
Train to the Unwritten City
On Track Thirteen, a train without a schedule waits for passengers ready to step into somewhere that does not exist until they imagine it. The conductor wears no badge, only a pin that reads, "What do you want to see?" Nora boards with a notebook of...
The Cartographer's Daughter
Eda grows up tracing her father's maps, learning the muscle memory of borders. One morning his latest map is wrong. Lakes change shape, rivers curve unexpectedly, and margins fill with notes like "joy spike" and "anger plateau." He confesses he has b...
Gravity Black Market
In alleys behind dance studios and construction sites, dealers sell pockets of lesser gravity sealed in vacuum jars. Dancers buy them to float longer during leaps. Thieves use them to lift safes. Malik, a courier, moves jars at night. He never opens...
The Orchard of Lost Hours
On the edge of town, an orchard grows fruit from hours people lost scrolling feeds and waiting in lines. Trees bear luminous apples, skins shimmering with paused seconds. Farmers tend carefully, pruning regret. Visitors harvest lost time for a price....
Puppet City Revolt
In Arlo, marionettes perform daily in plazas, controlled by skilled puppeteers. Tourists love the shows. One stormy evening, strings dampen, and a puppet named Finch jerks free. Without the hand above, Finch explores, limbs clumsy but curious. Other...
The Sea That Remembers Names
Sailors whisper names to calm storms. Most think it is superstition. But this sea listens. When Elena, a marine biologist, tags whales, she hears the ocean murmur names back—old, forgotten names. She tests the phenomenon, saying her grandmother's nam...
Postal Code for Parallel Worlds
A glitch at the sorting facility assigns a new postal code that routes mail between parallel worlds. Letters meant for 1407 in this world reach 1407 elsewhere. At first, recipients are confused: postcards from unfamiliar cousins, bills in currencies...
The Sleep Tithe
City council passes a law: every citizen must tithe one dream per week to the State Dream Bank. Dreams fuel public works, powering streetlights and buses. People line up at kiosks, pressing foreheads to glass, exhaling dreams into vials. At first, it...
The City that Dreamed of Forests
Heron City keeps waking to saplings sprouting from concrete. Blueprints on planners' desks are covered with leaf prints. Architects panic; designs mutate into parks. Scientists blame a fungal bloom. Poet Imani suggests the city itself is dreaming of...