If Dreams Cast Shadows: A Homeless Tribe

by Perry Holmes

A ship of carnival performers voyaging the high seas was not an uncommon visitor to the port cities of the ancient world. The fact that these performers stood roughly four to five apples tall was uncommon, even in an age before magic dissipated from the earth. A race of hardy little folk who called themselves the StoutLittles had traveled the world, amassing reputation and wealth as the greatest, most exotic circus show anywhere. Yet being very small and talented their music, acrobatics and theater antics awoke greedy curiosity wheresoever they went. They could stay in no place for long without trouble finding them. Rather than becoming enslaved as court jesters for crowds they kept moving until one day the captain revealed a map book leading to a secret place to live in peace. As the humans grew ever more populous, spreading to every corner of the world the enchanted creatures of myth receded deeper into forests and caves to live by their old ways. The captain's maps boasted of a mountain range filled with fresh water and gardens where other little people had long ago settled. Goblins, elves, dwarfs, gnomes and countless beings of the fairy kingdom dwelled together, keeping alive the old ways of magic and long life. All the StoutLittles had to do was find it and hope to be accepted. Yet the enchanted creatures have counterparts, enemies wielding power twisted in nightmares. If the fabled sanctuary plateau that the StoutLittles seek to find even exists than so does the enemy. The first short story in this series chronicles a hunt to escape both the human lands and the clutches of a secret foe in a quest to live in a country of friendship and freedom.

74 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 31, 2020