The August Fables began as a writing challenge among friends. For each story, a roll of the dice assembled a character, setting, conflict, theme, and point of view. From those pieces, we each followed the story wherever it wanted to go.
Some remained in our world. Others found their way to fantasy, until the cities began connecting stories that were never meant to share a map.
The final story was the only one that began without a prompt.
It did not remain that way.
(Story summaries and word counts below)
The Grandmother in Every Cottage
A winter folktale about loneliness, dependency, and the dangerous appeal of being perfectly understood. Invite an old woman in from the cold. Count how many grandmothers is too many.
Word count: 1048
The Pigeon Oracle
A tender little love story about prophecy, sacrifice, and a divine messenger with very undivine feet. Consult a pigeon about your future. Occasionally befoul the comforts of stagnation.
Word count: 1139
The Prince Below
A political comedy about an illiterate teenage prince, a kingdom’s stolen paperwork, and the alarming power of being taken seriously. Misread government records. Accidentally improve public policy.
Word count: 1450
The Seer of the SEPTA Ruins
A quiet post-apocalyptic love story about omens, abandoned train platforms, and the danger of becoming too good at interpreting everyone else’s future. Read meaning into freight trains and mourning doves. Leave a light on anyway.
Word count: 1362
The Blacksmith’s Daughter & the Mechanical Horse
An alternate-history tale about forbidden knowledge, stubborn teenagers, and one deeply unattractive feat of engineering. Build something the Guild says you aren’t allowed to understand. Try not to explode the forge.
Word count: 1556
The Bell for the Missing
A historical tale about the difference between one disappearance and a bell that keeps ringing. Be troublesome in 1721 Bristol. Make a town count what powerful men would prefer to keep separate.
Word count: 1556
The House of Borrowed Gods
A dark political fable about empire, stolen gods, and a priest who treats sacred history like a private collection. Rename a few deities for administrative convenience. See how well that goes.
Word count: 2100
The Beast Beneath the Solar Fields
A future-fantasy ecological tale about a city powered by sunlight and the living earth it forgot to ask permission from. Arrive with twelve degrees in destructive magic. Listen to the maintenance worker.
Word count: 1754
The Levittown Copy
A suburban horror story about identical floor plans, borrowed memories, and the suspicious authority of a house key. Measure the furniture. Stop measuring the furniture.
Word count: 2403
The Museum of a Country that Never Existed
An epistolary political fable about a museum devoted to a country that never existed, and the people who disagree with that wording. Bring impeccable scholarly skepticism. Watch authenticity become a moving target.
Word count: 2189
The Troll under the Unbuilt Bridge
A totally NOT romantic fantasy about structural engineering, civic infrastructure, and a troll with sixty-three years of justified smugness. Build a bridge. Discover that “offensively adequate” is, apparently, a love language.
Word count: 2474
The Story Without a Prompt
A traditional fantasy mystery about a methodical investigator called to examine a house that should not exist. Catalog the anomaly. Follow the paperwork. Try to determine why the documents inside seem to know more than they should.
Character: educated, woman, methodical, skeptical. Setting: a̵l̷t̵e̷r̶n̵a̸t̶e̶ history, fantasy. Conflict: vs. supernatural. Theme: t̸r̴u̶t̴h̸. POV: protagonist.
That seems right.
A̶ ̶t̶r̶a̶d̶i̶t̶i̶o̶n̶a̶l̶ ̶f̶a̶n̶t̶a̶s̶y̶ ̶m̶y̶s̶t̶e̶r̶y̶ ̶a̶b̶o̶u̶t̶
POV: shared.
a̶n̶ ̶i̶m̶p̶o̶s̶s̶i̶b̶l̶e̶ ̶h̶o̶u̶s̶e̶
POV: first person.
a̶ ̶m̶e̶t̶h̶o̶d̶i̶c̶a̶l̶ ̶i̶n̶v̶e̶s̶t̶i̶g̶a̶t̶o̶r̶
Character: the writer
Conflict: vs. the stor̷y̵
W̶h̶o̶ ̶w̶r̶o̶t̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶?̶
about authorship, creation, and █████████████
Finish the stor̴y̸ befo̷re it fin—
F̵̼͋̊̏i̶̢̳̳̅̎͊n̵̥̯͙̆͊͂i̴̞͙̒̍̀s̴̜̤̋h̷̭͔̞̎ ̵̼̙̪̓̇ṱ̴̓͛h̵͓̹͊̽ḙ̷̈ ̶̜̓s̸̳̓t̸̫̱̖̓̌ơ̴̥̘͔r̷̻̐͆y̵͓͓͔͑̊
Character: educated, woman, methodical, skeptical. Setting: a̵l̷t̵e̷r̶n̵a̸t̶e̶ history, fantasy. Conflict: vs. supernatural. Theme: t̸r̴u̶t̴h̸. POV: protagonist.
That seems right.
A̶ ̶t̶r̶a̶d̶i̶t̶i̶o̶n̶a̶l̶ ̶f̶a̶n̶t̶a̶s̶y̶ ̶m̶y̶s̶t̶e̶r̶y̶ ̶a̶b̶o̶u̶t̶
POV: shared.
a̶n̶ ̶i̶m̶p̶o̶s̶s̶i̶b̶l̶e̶ ̶h̶o̶u̶s̶e̶
POV: first person.
a̶ ̶m̶e̶t̶h̶o̶d̶i̶c̶a̶l̶ ̶i̶n̶v̶e̶s̶t̶i̶g̶a̶t̶o̶r̶
Character: the writer
Conflict: vs. the stor̷y̵
W̶h̶o̶ ̶w̶r̶o̶t̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶?̶
about authorship, creation, and █████████████
Finish the stor̴y̸ befo̷re it fin—
F̵̼͋̊̏i̶̢̳̳̅̎͊n̵̥̯͙̆͊͂i̴̞͙̒̍̀s̴̜̤̋h̷̭͔̞̎ ̵̼̙̪̓̇ṱ̴̓͛h̵͓̹͊̽ḙ̷̈ ̶̜̓s̸̳̓t̸̫̱̖̓̌ơ̴̥̘͔r̷̻̐͆y̵͓͓͔͑̊
Word count: 3718