She pokes her head out of the nest and looks up at the sky. It’s so blue that it looks violet against the sun. Light spills off the gum leaves that ripple in the breeze high above, while down below the ground is a crosshatch of stringy bark. She withdraws back inside the safety of ...
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Author: Ekaterina Tretiakova
Fiction: ‘Sprites’
She sits above the surface of the water, looking out at the golden sea. Her toes skim the waves as she swings gently backwards and forwards. Backwards and forwards. She holds onto the rusted chains on either side of her with a loose, resigned sort of grip. Her favourite dress is stained with salt. But ...
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Fiction: ‘Of Fire and Blood’
Always I can see them on the horizon. First they rise high above the skyscrapers, and then they dive down like frenzied birds feeding on a school of fish. The power of their bodies is immense. I thought they wouldn’t look quite so indestructible from above. I was wrong. As our jets raced overhead, I ...
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Fiction: ‘The Cowardly Soldier’
Under the torchlight, the clearing is filled with an amber glow. The wind is still and all is quiet. Through the branches that arch across the sky, there are thousands of stars glinting in the night. But he doesn’t notice these things. He can’t see the moon ripening into a golden orb, or the snowy ...
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Fiction: ‘Trip of a Lifetime’
The suffocating smell of incense wafts through the curtain of colourful beads hanging across the doorway. She feels ridiculous for even coming in. But it’s warm inside the little building and the glow of flickering candles is inviting. She takes a deep breath once. Twice. And then parts the beaded strings and steps into the ...
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Fiction: ‘The Tulip’
All my life I’ve been told the story of the tulip that had grown from the pavement, but I never really believed it until I saw it for myself. She was as enchanting as a fairy tale. Her bright red petals were awash with orange and gold so that she burned like a sunrise in ...
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Fiction: ‘Paradise’
He chips away at the stone with a blunt axe, pausing only to brush away the flakes which have built up around him. His hands are coarse and weathered. The skin on his palms is a patchwork of callouses, each at varying stages of healing. He stops to look up at the roughly hewn ceiling ...
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Fiction: ‘Firebug’
Skeletal trees splashed with silver and charcoal glare down upon the winding road. If you stand on the very crest of the hill, they look like an army of charred trunks and twisted limbs. No animals move about within the shadows. No birds nest in the trunks of the trees. No insects make a sound ...
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Fiction: ‘The Pearl’
She lies peacefully beneath the currents, nestled in a bed of tangled seaweed. A tiny silver fish darts by. Following closely is larger fish covered with striped frills of white and orange. The smaller fish weaves between the reeds, desperately trying to lose its pursuer. First it turns one way, and then another. Its little ...
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Fiction: ‘The First Law of Thermodynamics’
The entire world runs on energy. From the tiniest plant life which photosynthesises sunlight into nutrients, to the nuclear fusion which roils in the heart of our sun. Energy is everywhere. It keeps the Earth in orbit through gravitational forces. It allows us to reach out to one another across an entire planet in the ...
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