#43 - Before Anvil Part 1

Kai jumped, almost knocking the ink over, as someone banged on the door. “Grimnir! Get out here!” 

Kai’s eyes widened. Hellä! Grabbing his healer’s satchel from its hook, Kai unlatched the door. The wind howled in almost immediately. A woman stood in the snow, her flame-red plaits swinging gently as she panted.

A short fantasy story set in the LARP world of Empire. When one of the artisans of Ashenhall is injured, it's up to his apprentice and the village healer to save his life. But in the darkness, something lurks.

My wife and I went to our first LARP earlier this year, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Any chance to dress up is great, particularly if it's 'as a viking, complete with sword'. It was run by Profound Decisions, who also do a mythic fantasy themed LARP. After a bit of deliberation, I wrote this piece of backstory for our characters. Next weekend we'll be at the LARP again, and I needed to get Pocket Fiction done well in advance. Since this piece happened to be about the right length for a two-parter, and since I happened to have the real Hellä on hand, I thought 'why not?'

As always, I would love to collaborate with you! If you have short fiction that you would like me to include as a standalone episode of Pocket Fiction, drop me a line!

Each track is also available as a podcast through the iTunes store.

Thanks for listening! Ideas? Suggestions? Things you would like me to read? Please comment and subscribe!

Music: “The Pyre” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By attribution 3.0. 

Additional voices by Susan Cook.