[ghoul1gan]

-

[ylesia]

fable name: Cernunnos [ a Celtic god of Nature ]

𝕬𝖗𝖊 𝖞𝖔𝖚 𝖗𝖊𝖆𝖉𝖞 𝖙𝖔 𝖉𝖎𝖘𝖈𝖔𝖛𝖊𝖗 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖙𝖗𝖚𝖙𝖍?

𝕰𝖓𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖂𝖔𝖔𝖉𝖑𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖇𝖊𝖌𝖎𝖓 𝖞𝖔𝖚𝖗 𝖏𝖔𝖚𝖗𝖓𝖊𝖞.

Here there is the whole story if you don't want to play the game or if you want to make sure that you explored all the options. I hope you had fun playing my little thing!

Credits: Decor art NOT BY ME

[wind song]

mark
it's love I am in love <3

[Eldritch Corvid]

Fable name: Visceras
Prompt: Prompt:

This fable tells two truths and one lie.

- The heart that fuels it is not of this world.
- There are names carved into the wood of its body, but it has forgotten who the names belong to.
- It has never died.
Which is which?

"Which is which?" It parrots without moving its mouth, its voice a gossamer drape in the wind.
"You mean to ask a being caught between the folds of our space and strangled by the fabric of time to define the meaning of your reality?" It shuts its eyes and exhales, the sigh rattling through its lungs.
"This is a question for you, not for us." It says rather matter of factly. "As such, you may consider putting some thought into the quandaries placed before you prior to completely discarding them in favour of the path of least resistance." It metaphorically spits out these last few words, offended, yet somehow remaining visually emotionless.
It takes a moment to gaze off into the middle distance, contemplating the offending question. It casts its eyes back to the visitor, stretching its neck upward to look down upon them. "This one understands that short lived creatures tend to prefer to save time on things they deem unnecessary. Is this one's thought experiment.. unnecessary? What is necessary? It is all relative!"
Shifting so that it's crooked wings could stretch, it settles back into a sitting pose, draping its front hooves over a rotten log.
".. This one recognizes your critical eye cast upon us. You would be correct. If what you deem to be an unnecessary diversion is to us a crucial step to determining the mettle of your soul, than who is to say the answers to this one's queries aren't equally manifold.." another sigh drifts from its hollow body, and it blinks slowly, fixing its gaze firmly upon the visitor's face " Touché. Perhaps the wisdom in your response is found not in the answer to its own words, but in the implication it makes about the nature of truth. What is it after all, if not relative-... we see now. We see your answer." It leans forward, observing the visitor more closely, almost impressed. Its bones creak, the leaves on its antlers swaying in the gentle breeze breaking through the trees.
Each question sounds more empassioned:
"For how can one such as us categorize something as being of or not of this world if we cannot even discern where we are? How can we confirm to whom the names belonged if we are doomed to forget them? How can we even define what is living and what is dead, if to you death is the end, and to us only the beginning?"
Straightening once again, it shakes its head vigorously, shaking many leaves and moss balls to the forest floor. It is as if it is discarding its previous conceptions of the encounter.
"Small one with few words, you have given me much to consider. Go, you may pass."
With that, the visitor picks up the things they had at first dropped upon seeing the honestly baffling and horrifying creature. Stiffly, at a brisk pace, they make their way through the thicket, ignoring the brambles clawing at their face and arms. Finally letting go of the breath it felt like they were holding in for an eternity, they mutter, voice wavering:
'That's it. No more hiking trips- I don't care what she says.'

I never enter for these because of how daunting it is but I was really struck by this one. I know it'll go to a good home.

[Alantica]

╔══════════════════════════════╗

Name: ███████

... Dream?

╚══════════════════════════════╝

[Exitium]

Mark

[koegami]

Mark!

[☼ morgana]

morgana res

[Reiemye]

fable name: Thalo

entry:

fragment, recovered

Cursive transcript
Found her at the edge of the void, half-buried in silt.
The heart still moved, faintly, though the rest was hollow.
Her skin bore writing in several hands, some fresh, some fossilized.
I think she was trying to overwrite herself.

I’m not sure she knew which part was real anymore.

[ChxosAngxl]

fable name: Orren "He Who Carries The Names"
-The heart that fuels it is not of this world. Truth
-There are names carved into the wood of its body, but it has forgotten who the names belong to. Truth
-It has never died. Lie

People call him many things depending on the valley you cross: The Hollow Stag, Timber Heart, The One Keeping The Names...Children point at him when he steps into the moonlight. Old folks cross themselves when they catch sight of his ribs.

Once, before the valley even existed, there was a hearth in a house long gone. A hearth that someone used to make a bargain...the bargain was simple, a promise to keep a story alive in exchange for a place to be. A heart, from another world that nobody really knows the location, was gently slipped between marrow, rot and roots...and the beast rose.
The body that grew around that perfect heart grew muddled with hands, hatchets and hope. Travelers, priests, lovers...anyone wgo couldn't bear to let a story die carved names in his body. The tree flesh kept the names like bookmarks. Over years the bark swallowed the letters...the letters became lines and the lines became strange runes whose meanings got all blurred. Orren learned to carry the names as weight but not as memory.

The lie is the one people like because it flatters everything into legend. In truth Orren has died and been undone and remade more times than the valley has stones. He dies as a slow weathering...when the blue bird doesn't return and all the leaves fall together. Yet the otherworldly heart is a stubborn, peculiar thing...when its beat pauses it reaches across the seam it came from and something answers. Death is not final for Orren...death is part of the bargain: fall, become compost of story, then be readmitted.

And the blue bird? Who knows if it is the same bird each time?