Jennifer M. Zeiger's Blog

Happy Thanksgiving to those in the U.S.! Wow this year disappeared while I wasn’t watching! And somehow, we’re already to the time when I pause to reflect and remember the blessings from this past year. What a perfect day for it .

In many ways, 2025 challenged me. There’s nothing like moving to a different country to upend what a person thinks she knows. Everything from doing laundry to driving or ordering food became both a struggle and an opportunity to learn and experience. In such times, perspective is everything. I wish I could say I kept a great attitude like the bunny from Zootopia, and sometimes I did, but often I found myself just tired and surly. My poor husband. He was going through the same life upheaval, and I wasn’t much help. 

It’s in hindsight that I see the good that I was just too overwhelmed to appreciate or notice at the time. 

Germany is a beautiful country. As I sit here writing, I’m looking out over the walking path and the thick trees behind my house. If you know anything about me, you know how much I love the forest. And Germany has a lot of forest. 

The fall colors have been vibrant and various. Deep ruby shows in the vines growing up the house at the end of the street. Bright yellow covers the hillsides, broken by the occasional orange or red and still lots of green. When we follow the walking path, some of the leaves are small splotches of color. Others are bigger than my hand. 

And that’s just talking about this fall. It doesn’t touch the deep, rolling green of summer or the flowers in the spring. Or the winter. I’ll talk about the Christmas Markets next year after I’ve had a chance to fully experience them, but when entire villages decorate and celebrate for weeks, I have to say, the Germans know how to keep the winter blues away. 

I could ramble about castles, museums, tunnels, and towers. I could rave about the slower pace of life and the gentle encouragement to be social. This could be a very long post. 

But there’s one thing that really stands out from this last year above the beauty of Germany and the adventure it is to live here. 

It’s a subtle thing, seen in the dance my husband and I do in the one-person kitchen while we’re cooking. Felt in the regular conversations we have about work, doctor appointments, and whatever weird thing the Writing Sidekick’s doing now. A thread woven through the small gestures. Prepping his lunch before he leaves for work or cooking my breakfast for me because the Sidekick’s sleeping on my lap. These are the everyday details that are easy to overlook, to take for granted and treat as normal. But they’re reflections of something deeper. 

And it’s always in hindsight that I see it. When we’re challenged. When we’re stretched and it’s hard to be kind. When I want to cry because somehow, my husband and I can’t seem to communicate. In the midst of it all, I know from experience that God’s working, but I can’t see it. Only afterwards can I look back and see the golden thread keeping us going and teaching us. God’s gentle hand carrying us through and, through the struggle, making us stronger. 

This isn’t the first trial my husband and I have faced, and it definitely won’t be the last. I sometimes dread them. But I also know, such trials are where we grow the most. Where our marriage becomes stronger. Because we keep trying, keep praying and trusting, we come out the other side even closer. 

I hope this is an encouragement. Struggles happen in relationships. Especially in marriages. Trust that those struggles in the end will form in you and your spouse something precious beyond description.

That’s what I’m thankful for this year. That’s how I’m blessed. And now, stronger and still growing, my husband and I can explore together and navigate the unknowns with just a tiny bit more grace.

Blessings,

P.S. December is a hiatus month for me. A time for family and reflection. May you have a wonderful Holiday Season, and I’ll see you in 2026.

The post On the Doorstep of December 2025 appeared first on Jennifer M Zeiger.

It’s time to finish the Gargoyles of Sergi Adventure!

If you missed the previous weeks, you can catch up: 1. Gargoyles of Sergi, 2. Split the Force, 3. Steal a Club.

Or here’s a quick recap:

You’re a gargoyle protecting the Sergi Cathedral. As morning arrives, a huge storm rolls in that you recognize as a prelude to an ice giant attack. You send Ana, a small gargoyle, to protect the organist. Then you take some gargoyles inside in case the giants also come up through the floor of the cathedral. Instead of giants, however, goblins boiled out of the basement. You stole a club to fight them and were doing well until you noticed a goblin stealing the scriptures and six others kidnapping Ana.

Readers voted to save Ana. Let’s see if you succeed!

Ana twists and lurches, fighting the goblins carrying her. They stumble before regaining their feet and one of them thumps her with a club. A small chip of stone flies off her shoulder. 

You’re charged with protecting the cathedral and its people. You’re not sure if that includes the other gargoyles but as the goblin raises his club again, you decide to interpret the oath that way. You veer away from the broken rose window, vault off the marble baptismal, and land directly behind the goblins carrying Ana.

The last two spin around to confront you with high pitched screams. That leaves four carrying Ana and they wobble under her stone weight. She starts to twist even harder. 

You roar back at the two confronting you. With a swing of the club, you smack the feet from beneath one and then catch the other with your tail. That leaves the others exposed. Taking advantage of the opening, you take out the next two in another tail-club combo. 

Ana hits the floor, still hog tied, as the front goblins shriek and scramble for the door alone. You let them go, standing over Ana as their companions also flee. 

Ana smiles a tentative thanks and then looks at the rose window over your shoulder. It’s already too late to retrieve the scriptures as that goblin just disappeared riding on the palm of the giant outside. 

Lukus follows them out, his heavy wings creating a gust of wind in the sanctuary as he tries to gain speed, and then the ice storm you can see through the window catches him in a sudden side gust. You hear his heavy grunt as he’s shoved the wrong way. 

“We just lost the scriptures,” Ana says, shrinking in on herself once she’s free of her bounds. 

“We’ll retrieve them,” you assure her, keeping your misgivings to yourself. You’re just about to ask about the organist when the woman peeks her head from beneath the alter. “Well done,” you tell Ana, nodding toward the woman, and the small garogyle lights up.

***

The mountain peaks rise in jagged vertical walls around you. The valley you stand in is the fifth location you’ve looked for the giants. But just like the last four trails, this one disappears on the rocky ground. 

Somehow, the ice giants have vanished. Their city is empty. The goblins who helped them have gone back to their regular forest village life, no sign of the scriptures or their allies. The mountain trails that usually bare the giants’ huge footprints show only old tracks. 

You want to slump, let your wings hang in dejection, but there are five other gargoyles with you, including Ana, and you refuse to let them see you lose hope. It’ll be six years before your cathedral can get a new set of scriptures. 

Six long years. 

“This is all my fault,” Ana says. “We’ve lost the scriptures for good.” 

“This is the giants’ fault,” you say again, holding your wings and chin high. “And we haven’t lost them until we give up. Now, tell me the first psalm.”

Ana and the others respond, reciting the psalm together as you continue down the path. Although the texts are gone, the words aren’t. Until a new copy is received or the old copy retrieved, you determine to remember. And you determine to keep looking. As you’ve learned over the years, protecting the cathedral and its people comes in many forms. 

The End

Yay! Not a bad way to finish this adventure. Thank you for joinging in the fun this last month. I always love to hear readers’ thoughts as they cast their votes each week.

Until next time, many blessings,

Jennifer

The post Gargoyles of Sergi – Save Ana appeared first on Jennifer M Zeiger.

Welcome back to the third part of the Gargoyles of Sergi Adventure where readers voted to steal a club!

If you missed the beginning of this story, you can read Part 1 and Part 2 or here’s a quick recap: You’re one of the gargoyles protecting the Sergi Cathedral. As morning arrives, a huge storm rolls in over the horizon that you recognize as a prelude to an ice giant attack. You send Ana, a small gargoyle, to protect the organist. Then you decided to take some gargoyles inside in case the giants also come up through the floor of the cathedral. Instead of giants, however, goblins boiled out of the basement.

Readers voted to steal a club to fight them off. Let’s go fight goblins!

Although goblins fear fire, the chance of burning everything down isn’t one you want to take. There’s a thin goblin in the mob ahead who’s hauling a club twice her size. She must be new to this sort of thing because there’s no way she can swing the weapon. 

She must feel your gaze because she looks up and meets your eyes. You grin and roar. The sound shakes the cathedral’s solid pillars. 

Shrieking in terror, she drops the club and flees, climbing overtop her comrades to do so. That’s goblins for you. 

Retrieving the club, you wade into the mass of goblins alongside Lukus. The impact of your attack reverberates through the stone walls. Clubs and flails chip away at your shoulders and hips but you were made for this and you find yourself grinning as you send goblins flying with your stollen club and long sweeps of your tail. 

Then a shattering filled with delicate pieces and sharp edges washes over the sanctuary. You can barely force yourself to turn around to look. 

The gorgeous rose window that graced the front of the cathedral now opens into a jagged hole in the wall. Colorful pieces of glass dust the floor and rear seats like drops of sharp dew glittering in the torchlight. Through the hole above, a giant reaches his huge hand inside where a tiny goblin races to meet him, clutching something against his chest.

When he starts to climb the wall up toward the window, he drops a page and familiar flutters to the floor. It’s the scriptures. 

You roar. Those pages are painstakingly copied at the monastery on the mountain. It takes years to produce one copy and only a few cathedrals in the valley have them. You suspect you know where they’re taking the pages, but the storm alone might destroy them. 

You only get a step before other movement catches your attention. A group of six goblins are carrying a different trophy. Ana, hog tied and raised over their heads, is being carried out the side door. She’s a gargoyle. Made to withstand attacks and made to cause her own kind of destruction. But she’s also untried and you have no idea how capable she is. 

Do you go for…

The scriptures?

Or

Ana?

Thanks for joining the adventure! Leave your vote in the comments below and we’ll return next week to see how this adventure ends.

Until then, blessings!

The post Gargoyles of Sergi – Steal a Club appeared first on Jennifer M Zeiger.

Welcome back to the Gargoyles of Sergi Adventure!

If you missed the beginning of this story, you can read it. Or here’s a quick recap: You’re one of the gargoyles protecting the Sergi Cathedral. As morning arrives, a huge storm rolls in over the horizon that you recognize as a prelude to an ice giant attack. You send Ana, a small gargoyle, to protect the organist. Then you debate whether to join the other gargoyles already in the air or to take some gargoyles insideinside in case the giants also come up through the floor of the cathedral.

Readers voted to head inside. Let’s see if all’s quiet inside or if something’s sneaking in!

“Half to me!” you holler at the airborne gargoyles. You don’t wait for them to respond before diving off the front of the cathedral. They’re a well-trained force and you know they’ll follow. 

Instead of using the updraft to carry you upward, you slant your wings to slice through the air. A moment before you hit the ground, you flare your wings and set your feet gently on the flagstones. A lot of the stones will probably be broken in the coming fight with the giants, but that doesn’t mean you want to add to the damage. 

Barely a second after you land, a dozen gargoyles do the same. No stones broken. 

“Spread out inside,” you order, and they scatter for the various cathedral doors. You and Lukus, a burly creature with tusks, go through the front. 

Stepping into the cathedral is always like stepping into sunshine after wandering the dark woods. There’s something warm and soul brightening about it. You wish you could pause to enjoy that sensation today, but there’s no time. 

You head straight down the center aisle. At the far end of the sanctuary steps lead up to the alter. Splitting those steps into three sections are more stairs that head downward to the ossuary below. If the giants plan to come through the floor, they’re likely to come up in the underground chamber and then up those steps. 

You’re only halfway there when something else boils up the stairs. 

Goblins. Dozens of green, ape like beasts with long pointed ears, multi-knuckled fingers, and a cackle to send shivers down your stone spine. They carry heavy clubs, axes, and flails. Weapons often used against gargoyles because of their breaking power on stone. Even still, one or two goblins aren’t a concern for a gargoyle, but dozens can do a lot of damage. 

Lukus gives a startled shout and rushes forward. You’re right behind him, already forming a plan on how to counter so many creatures. 

Fire’s one option, but that’s always a risk. Much of the cathedral’s ornamentation is wood, cloth, and other flammable materials. 

Speed and stealing a club might work better, but if you get too many creatures attacking at once, you might lose any advantage. 

Do you use…

Fire?

Or

Steal a Club?

Thanks for stopping by this week. Leave your vote in the comments below and we’ll return next week to see how this story continues!

Until then, many blessings,

P.S. If you enjoy adventure stories like this one, you can be a dragon in Discarded Dragons and Zap Dragon.

The post Gargoyles of Sergi – Split the Force appeared first on Jennifer M Zeiger.

Welcome to a brand new adventure story! If you’ve never participated in one of these before, first, thanks for stopping by, and second, here’s how this works.

You get to be the main character in the story below. At the end of the post, there will be a choice on what you should do next. Leave a comment with your choice. I’ll tally up readers’ choices on Monday and then next Thursday we’ll explore whichever one gets the most votes. This adventure will run for four weeks, so you’ll get three chances to vote, one each week, before finding out how the story ends. Choose carefully, for some paths lead to fame and fortune and others to danger and even death!

Now on to the adventure!

Frost covers your horns where you sit in the spire work of the Sergi Cathedral. Another quiet night has passed as you guard your sacred home although you would never say that aloud. Speaking such things has power and inevitably brings chaos. 

But you can feel the peace in your bones, and you savor the sweet stillness. The organist is warming up inside, her music gently vibrating the stones. Her footprints in the frost on the flagstones below lead to the side door she entered by. Soon, those footprints and the frost on your horns will melt with the morning sun promised in the glow on the horizon. 

A contented hum comes from inside your stone chest. Its mirror sounds from the other corners of the cathedral where your siblings keep watch on their spires. 

“It’s been a quiet night, hasn’t it?” asks a bright, feminine voice at your elbow. 

You groan. “We don’t say such things aloud, Ana.”

“Ooops.” The tiny gargoyle ducks behind the spire to your right. Her club tail, however, still sticks out from its sandstone base like an added ornament. “I always forget that,” she whispers, peeking back out at you for forgiveness. 

You’re not even sure where she came from. Usually new gargoyles are commissioned by the priest and show up when the sculptor is ready to unveil him or her. Ana just appeared one morning about three weeks earlier. 

Refusing to let the comment ruin your peaceful morning, you close your eyes to enjoy the first rays of sunshine and smile. “All is—” 

The words die on your tongue as the sun disappears. Your eyes pop open to find the formerly clear horizon boiling with clouds. 

“Brace yourselves!” You shout and take your own advice by ducking behind the spire next to Ana. Unlike her, your larger body doesn’t fit and the roiling cloud bank hits your shoulders, wings, and sides. Your exposed tail curls down the side of the cathedral. Sharp ice chinks into the stone coils. 

You cringe but know it’s just the prelude. The ice giants will follow, bringing another heavy cloudbank with them. 

Inside the cathedral, the organist’s music stops.

Beside you, Ana shivers and actual tears flow down her stone face. “Not again. Not again,” she mutters. “I can’t do this again.” 

There’s no time to question what she’s talking about. “Go inside.” Ana’s face falls as you speak. “And protect the organist,” you finish. 

Instantly her face brightens like you handed her a flower and she zips off through the spires. 

That taken care of, you notice your siblings gathering to confront the oncoming cloudbank, their heavy wings creating their own wind down the face of the cathedral. You spread your wings to join them and then hesitate. 

The giants are often straightforward in their attacks, but not always. Sometimes that mass of clouds that precedes their advance hides different tactics. The last time that happened, they came up through the floor of the cathedral. 

One word from you and the force in the air will split in two to cover both areas, but if you’re wrong, that also weakens the defenders. 

Do you…

Join them in the air?

Or

Split the force?

Leave your vote in the comments below We’ll return next Thursday to see how the story continues.

Until then, many blessings,

P.S. If you enjoy adventure stories like this one, you can be a dragon in Discarded Dragons and Zap Dragon.

The post Gargoyles of Sergi appeared first on Jennifer M Zeiger.

Last week’s post on the Paris Catacombs and its eerie inspiration for writing was a little heavy. Let’s go with something a little lighter this week 

“What’s your name?” the vet asks as I make an appointment over the phone.

“Jennifer Zeiger,” I answer. I’m beyond relieved that she speaks English. German’s hard enough when I can’t see the other person’s face.

“Jennifer siga?” she asks. 

I frown. “Z-e-i-g-e-r.” I spell it out. 

“S.”

“Z.”

“Sorry, what?”

I thought in moving to Germany that it’d be easier to say and use our name. It’s German, after all, meaning “pointer” or “sign maker.” In the U.S., we often get extra letters added—an extra L is particularly common—and get all sorts of pronunciations.  

In Germany, we have different problems all together and the above example has become a regular occurrence. 

What I didn’t realize is that the German pronunciation is very different from the English and the alphabet has different names for the letters. “Zee” isn’t a letter in their alphabet. They call that letter “set” and it sounds like a “ts” not a hard “zzz”. 

It’s like doing brain acrobatics just to give my name over the phone. Healthy brain acrobatics that are probably making my thinking muscle stronger, but OWWW!

“Set-a-ee-geh-a-er.” I spell it out. 

“Ahh, tsIgah!” she says.

I face palm my forehead but internally am proud that I got it right enough for her to understand. “Ya,” I answer. “That’s correct.”

Blessings,

The post Say How? appeared first on Jennifer M Zeiger.

For the last month I ran an adventure titled Ossuary Music. It’s fun and fictional, but as with all stories, there are seeds of reality woven into the fabric of the story. If it carried a creepier feel than most of my adventures, that’s the ghost of my experience bleeding through. 

Not long ago, I had the opportunity to walk through the Catacombs in Paris. Those tunnels don’t need wendigos or ghosts to bring chills. Millions of people are buried there. The empty eye sockets of so many skulls demanded a quiet reverence that every breathing person felt. It spoke in the scuff of our feet and the hushed murmur of our voices. I learned as I walked that this was the burial of the poor. In the past, only the rich received their own graves. The poor received mass burials. And I wondered what their stories were. Who were these people holding up the city? How did they live? Would they even recognize the city above them? 

They ended up in this final resting place for two reasons. One was because the Paris cemeteries were overflowing, causing not only a stink, but also a major health issue. The largest cemetery in Paris housed over 2 million bodies alone. 

The other reason came from the infrastructure of Paris itself. The city is built primarily from limestone mined from below it. After a while, too much limestone had been removed and the city started sinking. So, they filled in the tunnels with waste rock from the mining process and with bones.

It struck me as sad that these people don’t even have head stones. That we know next to nothing about them. Maybe the message they pass on to the living is an honor in and of itself. A reminder of where we’ve been and that, beneath all the trappings of life, we all eventually come to rest as just bones. 

Some might find that morbid. I find it humbling and motivating. There’s a story of a monk who kept a real skull on his desk as a reminder of how fleeting our time on earth is. It gives perspective to all we do. For those of us who believe in God and scripture, we don’t view those bones as the last act. It’s only the changing of the page. But this act right now has purpose. And as I said about the monk, in perspective, our chance to fulfill that purpose is now. 

And I digress. I could run down that rabbit trail a lot farther, but I won’t. 

To honor the poor of the Catacombs, the “you” in the adventure last month is a street urchin. I originally began writing the story as though you entered the ossuary to play music for a recently past friend but, when I started writing that, things became too heavy and dark. So, I kept the poor aspect overall but changed the purpose to something a little less gloomy. 

The other seed that got woven into the adventure comes from a story of an illegal concert carried out amidst the bones in 1897. A group of amateur musicians snuck into the tunnels and played music such as Chopin’s Funeral March and Camille Saint-Saens’ Danse Macabre. The bones are eerie enough, but the idea of classical music carrying through the tunnels for miles…yup, chills.

As I think about all this, maybe the final earthly resting place for these millions of people isn’t so terrible after all. They fascinate people, presenting perspective, inspiration, and a touch of reality rarely seen. They offer something to millions of the living that a single headstone doesn’t. It’s a legacy spanning hundreds of years. Although we don’t know individual names, we know life is precious because of their exposed faces and eerie countenances. 

When my page turns, I can only hope for a fraction of that kind of legacy, but even if it’s just that the adventures help people enjoy reading, or that my musings encourage people to consider that there might be more beyond this life, that’s enough. 

Is yours enough?

Blessings,

Jennifer

The Unbelievable Story of the Paris Catacombs – I don’t always remember specifics well. This site was wonderful for refreshing my memory if you’re interested

The post Inspiration from the Dead  appeared first on Jennifer M Zeiger.

Welcome back for the last installment in the Ossuary Music Adventure!

If you missed the first three weeks, you can read them (Ossuary Music, Ossuary Music – Play, and Ossuary Music – Play Again) or here’s a quick recap. 

Recap: You were promised money to buy shoes if you dared sneak into the ossuary and play your flute. This is dangerous both becasue there are guards and because there are monsters, the most notable being the wendigo. You snuck in and found an alcove in which to play but heard a noice. Deciding to play anyway, you drew the attention of a wendigo. But strangely, you also drew the attention of some ghosts who, although freezing the air, protected you from the monster. Playing again, the ghosts drove the monster away and, just before they faded from view, a young girl pointed for you to go deeper into the ossaury.

Readers voted to follower her directions! Let’s see how this adventure ends.

Curiosity wins out over the warnings in your head, and you tuck the flute into the soft carry case that’s slung over your shoulder before following the tunnel farther into the ossuary. Even Alex, the one who dared you to play music amidst the bones, would call you crazy. 

Sounds carry through the tunnel, as dry as the skulls around you. The scrape of dragging feet on the dusty floor, the brittle crunch of bones, sometimes the whisper of what may be voices. Goose bumps cover your skin. 

Up ahead, the tunnel T’s and you begin to wonder why the ghost girl pointed you this way. The only signage is a set of letters and numbers etched into a brick that’s tucked into the wall of bones directly ahead. You’re squinting in the dim light, hoping to decipher it, when there’s a gust of frigid wind that pushes you from the side.

You stumble, bracing for impact with the wall of skulls, but instead, you fall right through them, feeling the brush of what feels like a frosted curtain. 

“Ha!” someone shouts. “Just in time!” 

When you look past your raised arms, you see the ghost girl. Except she’s as solid as the bones and pointing behind you. 

Following the direction of her finger, you find yourself face-to-face with the drooling visage of the wendigo. His wide nostrils flare in both excitement and frustration. He throws his head back and howls, his foul breath fanning your face. 

You scream, stumbling backward. 

“It’s okay,” the girl says. “He can’t see you here.”

As if to emphasize her point, the monster flops onto all fours and starts snuffling at the ground and the wall where you disappeared. Then, flustered, it shakes its head and ambles away.

“Where’s here?” you ask, realizing you’re standing chest deep in bones and are surrounded by other people. You vaguely want to say they were ghosts when you played earlier.  

The girl looks at her toes, guilt writ large on her face. 

“May as well fess up, Jess,” an older man says. 

She shoots him an angry glare, but there’s no real heat in it. 

“Here’s death…kind of?” she says. 

“I’m dead?” 

“Yup. But now you can help us.” At this, Jess lights up and grabs your arm. “You can help us now!” 

You feel like the news that you’re dead should chill you but oddly, your body doesn’t seem to feel much. There’s a light pressure from the bones and Jess’s fingers where she’s holding your arm, but no chill. 

“Ya gotta explain that, Jess,” another ghost sighs in exasperation. “You can’t just expect a person to understand when you pulled them into the bones!”

Jess harrumphs but then begins to explain. “We protect people, you see. The wendigos—yes, plural monsters—they’re yeek.” She shudders. “So, we push them away. But it’s hard. So terribly hard, to be present on that side.” She gestures at where the wendigo stood moments before. “But your music, it makes it easier.”

It’s a lot to process. No one but Jess complains when you sit down on the spot. So many questions! Will your music work when you’re dead? Where did your body go?

***

A day later finds you standing in the same alcove you played music in before, watching Alex search for you. Warmth actually fills you that he’s come looking. But you wish he wasn’t the first one you get to try playing music to protect. 

It’s a wish that won’t go answered, however, because the wendigo already has his scent. As Alex straightens from inspecting the bone shards on the floor, the monster ambles its shuffling way into the alcove behind him. 

You raise your flute and begin to play. 

And Jess and the others go to work. At least this time, you can’t feel the cold, and as Jess’s group pushes back against the monster, you know Alex will make it out alive. 

The End

EEEK! You found the death ending.

When I first started writing these, I decided to always include one death ending in honor of the Choose Your Own Adventure books that I grew up with. Sometimes they’re just sad or sometimes I add a bit of heroism but, this time, I wanted to play with the idea that maybe death wasn’t the fade-to-black end that it usually is for the story. I’d be curious to hear your thoughts on how this ending played out.

Thanks for joining this adventure! Hope to see you next week.

Blessings,

The post Ossuary Music – Follow the Ghost’s Direction appeared first on Jennifer M Zeiger.

Welcome back for the third part in the Ossuary Music Adventure!

If you missed the first two weeks, you can read them (Ossuary Music and Ossuary Music – Play) or here’s a quick recap.

Recap: You were promised money to buy shoes if you dared sneak into the ossuary and play your flute. This is dangerous both becasue there are guards and because there are monsters, the most notable being the wendigo. You snuck in and found an alcove in which to play but heard a noice. Deciding to play anyway, you drew the attention of a wendigo. But strangely, you also drew the attention of some ghosts who, although freezing the air, seem to be protecting you from the monster.

Readers voted to play again and hope not to freeze!

The wendigo lets out a huffing grunt of excitement and shuffles closer to your alcove. With him comes a blast of howling wind that sends shards of broken bones whirling in circles. Some of them cut your skin and trickles of blood leak from your arms. 

You’re shaking so badly that it’s hard to raise the flute again, much less settle your fingers over the frets, but it’s better than trying to climb on top of the bones to escape. You blow a tentative breath of air over the mouthpiece, and your wispy note gets lost in the wind. 

Trying again, you close your eyes and picture the morning sun over the cathedral and the music that wakes you each morning as the pianist practices. The song that comes to mind begins to play from your flute. At first it’s tentative and instantly lost in the howl. Then it becomes more firm, like the music picks up a shield and pushes back.

You’re not sure when the ghosts return as you keep your eyes shut, but you can feel them in the frigid air against your skin. You continue playing because you can also feel the wind still pushing and hear the howl of frustration from the monster at your door. 

The metal of the flute becomes painful against your skin. Then the pain turns numb, and you know you can’t play much longer because you’re losing the feel of the flute in your hands.

 Then suddenly, the pressure against your music vanishes and the melody flows freely through the ossuary. You stop playing and open your eyes, breaking the frost that’s formed on your lashes. You find the young ghost girl standing in front of you, her eyes strangely alive against the vague gray of her form. 

Her hands are halfway to your face like you caught her just before she touched you. Dropping her hands, she instead insistently points in the direction that would lead you deeper into the ossuary. Curiosity alone makes it tempting to follow but as she starts to fade, she appears angry that you’re not moving already.

She rushes you just before she fades completely and a gust of icy wind washes your skin in goosebumps. You duck, but then she’s gone and you’re alone again. As you consider, faint sounds come from deeper in the bones. Guards or wendigo? You’ve no way of knowing.

Follow her or leave? You’ve played your music and there’s no way Alex didn’t hear. At this point, all you need to do is get out and collect your reward.

Do you…

Follow the Ghost’s Direction?

Or

Head for the Exit?

Thanks for joining in the adventure! Even if you missed weeks one and two, feel free to join in by leaving your vote in the comments below Hope you have an amazing week and we’ll see you next Thursday to see how this adventure ends!

Blessings

The post Ossuary Music – Play Again appeared first on Jennifer M Zeiger.

Welcome back for the second part in the Ossuary Music Adventure!

If you missed last week, you can read it here or here’s a quick recap. You were promised money to buy shoes if you dared sneak into the ossuary and play your flute. This is dangerous both becasue there are guards and because there are monsters, the most notable being the wendigo. You’ve snuck in but have possibly heard a sound just before you started playing.

Readers overwhelmingly voted to play anyway and get out! I guess I need to make the choices more difficult next time =)

Let’s see how your music goes amidst the bones.

You run your shaking fingers over the cold metal of the flute while listening. Its frets are as familiar as the ratty clothes you wear, and the feel offers a small bit of comfort. Whether you move or not, the foreboding turning your stomach to acid probably won’t go away. When the ossuary remains quiet for several minutes, you finally raise the flute to your lips and blow a soft, mellow note into the silence. 

It carries through the dry bones like the brush of silk over skin. Goose bumps cover your arms and legs as you feel the world around you breathe. The shake in your hands is almost too much to keep going but you’ve started now, and you’ll never get the nerve up again, so you add a second note and then lean into the tune of your favorite song, a haunting melody you sometimes hear floating from the cathedral’s halls. You have no idea what the song is called. You learned it by ear, repeating what you heard carried on the wind. 

And like always, the music draws you in. The grinning skulls fade, the cold against your feet no longer matters, and the fear that clutched you moments before is replaced by a warmth that flows from within. You shut your eyes, letting the music carry your fingers. 

A spike of ice against your cheek halts your playing and your eyes snap open. Figures of opaque gray have joined you in the alcove. They remind you of clothes washed too many times. Thin, threadbare, and falling apart into whisps of gray mist. One in particular, a girl of maybe fifteen, has her hand still raised towards you. It was her icy touch against your skin. 

A sight beyond them—or rather through their transparent bodies—pushes a different cold, a terrified, heart clenching cold, into your chest. The long-limbed, salivating wendigo shuffles around the hall outside your alcove, its head swinging left and right like it’s scenting for prey. It growls in frustration, sending shivers down your spine.

The ghosts begin to fade back into the bones in the silence and as they disappear, the wendigo draws closer, its nostrils flaring with your scent. 

Did the ghosts keep you hidden? Was it your music that drew them out? It’s a guess, but you’re tempted to start playing again. Except…you touch your cheek where it feels brittle and ice crystals melt against your fingers. 

Apparently, their touch freezes your skin. You franticly search for another option. There’s a tiny gap between the top of the bones and the ceiling. You eye the space, wondering if you can crawl overtop. 

Do you…

Play again?

Or

Crawl Over the Bones?

Thanks for joining in this adventure! Leave you vote in the comments below and we’ll return next Thursday to see how the story continues

Blessings,

P.S. If you enjoy adventure stories, I have four full adventure books currently available on Amazon. Whether you’re looking for dragons, mystery, monsters, or myths, there are endings to find!

The post Ossuary Music – Play appeared first on Jennifer M Zeiger.