Ramsaur does not want to go just yet.

Yes, they found the orcs were using a wolf guide against his will and that needs to be told, and yes they resurrected their Turtle Druid (“I was not dead! I was in a druidic trance!”), but here were orcs, and Ramsaur hadn’t been able to do any of his magic yet on them!

“Can’t I just do a little thing before I go? I think I know what might help them along the path.”

Emil held up his hand to wait, not an uncommon sign for Ramsaur.

No one wanted to play with the dead anymore.

There was a time that playing with the dead was in style, a darker time, a grittier time. Ramsaur had mastered necromancy too late in life, and in the wrong Era.

He touched the skull of his brother, Addy, that he kept around his neck, the way he focused his power, and the way his brother could still be a part of his life.

He could not save Addy when they were both young, but now they could be together.

Yes, sometimes Addy spoke to him, but always words of encouragement like, “Splendid animation!” he would say. “Bravo on the verisimilitude!” the skull would whisper.

Sometimes Addy was his only supporter in the practice of dark magic, and even dark magic users need cheerleaders.

“Okay, as long as it doesn’t give us away,” Emil said. Ramsaur was thrilled. With a tap on Addy, Ramsaur resurrected all the dead flies in the area, like a cloud of dirt.

“Spare the wolf,” Emil said, reaching out to Ramsaur’s arm.

The wolf was spared. The flies attacked the orcs and pushed them down the path. The orcs swatted and fell and growled and howled and ran. “Ramsaur, you make such a lovely plague.”

Ramsaur was deeply touched, “Thank you! That is the nicest thing anyone living has ever said to me.”

Emil looked back at him, wondering perhaps how many of the dead spoke to Ramsaur.

They parted ways in the Autumn Woods.

Emil would approach the abandoned wolf still with a chain around his neck, and would go to the Great Owl. Ramsaur would follow the orcs for a bit, to make sure the flies stayed animate, and then would return to the others, carrying his newly-alive Turtle Druid (“I was in a trance! Trances are a thing for druids!”).

Go to Chapter 14

“Protect the Autumn Woods!” is an illustrated story by Jerome Stueart in 33 short flash fiction chapters. The story features D&D-inspired magic-using forest animals who fight to protect their homes. This story was at first a response to a prompt list created by Jenn Reese and Deva Fagan for an October Art Challenge in 2021. You can now read all 33 parts of the story, “Protect the Autumn Woods” with the search term, #AutumnWoods. “Protect the Autumn Woods!” Art Show at the Dayton Society of Artists (48 High Street, Dayton, OH) from November 1 — December 15 2024.

“Protect the Autumn Woods!” is adjacent to a larger show of amazing Dayton Artists, “Small, but Mighty.” Come see all of the art, any weekend, Friday 12-5, Saturday 12-5 to experience the art yourself.

Emil the Fabulous was the first to note that the orcs had help. A wolf.

A wolf who might be able to know that the illusion deer had no scent, the fire no heat, no ash.

A wolf in captivity.

A chained wolf.

A bit of a brutish handsome wolf.

But a wolf who could track down them all, and who could lead the orcs right to their door.

So many magic users crowded into one enchanted forest had always been a security risk, Emil had long said. But they liked each other and this was home. Many of them had found it difficult to live anywhere else; their skills made them targets.

They couldn’t all be fabulous rogues and slip around stealthily wearing gorgeous cloaks.

This fall collection handsewn Stealth Cloak made him feel not only invisible to the orcs, but threw shade at the trees around him. “You never looked as good in leaves as I do,” he winked at the oaks.

Looking good was important to Emil, despite rogue tendencies to wear black (is this always a funeral??) and to want to blend in. Sometimes blending in meant being obvious or loud. No one suspects the brash, coquettish, witty fox with the unusually small right front paw to be the pickpocket, the eavesdropper, the trickster. Slinking around in the shadows was too obviously villain. Tres gauche.

Today, Emil wore one of Garna the Alchemist’s potions around his neck to mask his scent. He now smelled like fungi and rotting leaves. Oh the tragedy of a bad scent.

He was lucky that his cohort on this mission, Ramsaur, liked the smell. “Dead things are very aromatic,” he’d said.

Ramsaur would never be a social climber though, so his quirks didn’t matter.

They were off to contact the Great Owl at the edge of the woods to get Their wisdom on what they should do about the orcs since fire nor floods nor glowing deer had been effective. They at least could offer some reconnaissance.

“Now we know they have a wolf guide,” Emil whispered. “You need to go back and tell the others. I’ll continue on to consult Old Biddy.” He looked at the massive wolf bound by the chain in the orc’s hand.

He might even free that wolf.

Pick a lock. Make a friend. Who knows?

They might have an ally, and the orcs would lose their nose.

Go to Chapter 13

“Protect the Autumn Woods!” is an illustrated story by Jerome Stueart in 33 short flash fiction chapters. The story features D&D-inspired magic-using forest animals who fight to protect their homes. This story was at first a response to a prompt list created by Jenn Reese and Deva Fagan for an October Art Challenge in 2021. You can now read all 33 parts of the story, “Protect the Autumn Woods” with the search term, #AutumnWoods. “Protect the Autumn Woods!” Art Show at the Dayton Society of Artists (48 High Street, Dayton, OH) from November 1 — December 15 2024.

“Protect the Autumn Woods!” is adjacent to a larger show of amazing Dayton Artists, “Small, but Mighty.” Come see all of the art, any weekend, Friday 12-5, Saturday 12-5 to experience the art yourself.

Madrijolpur, a druid of the ponds and marshes, saw that the orcs were not following the deer or veering from the fire. They could sense the illusion. But they were close enough to him. They thought they stood on dry land.

With magic in his old leathery pads, and by the runic marks on his shell, he used his powers to raise, raise, raise the water table.

The dry land became wet from beneath, and the orcs began to sink. This was no illusion.

The druid enlarged the area of the pond exponentially as he marshed out the surrounding land, causing the orcs to sink, to fall backwards as they scrambled to find a dry path.

The only path he left them was the path out.

Not even the way back would hold their weight.

He looked around him, Isn’t this what he’d always wished for? A little larger pond, a little wider stream? The woods could sustain a larger area for pond life. Yes. But the downside was that the ponds and marshes contained thirty orcs now and getting them to move forward by sinking the trail behind them was not sustainable.

He could not do it on his own.

He tried to maintain stillness in the water. He didn’t want to be seen.

If he used all his power to sink them slowly in the muck, he would have little energy to stop them from breaking a shell if they saw him. Three orcs were already waist deep in the mud. The others crawled forward to the path. He could take three of them down at least. But 27 of them would soon reach the encampment where the others hid if he did not keep widening the pond. Too much, too much. Too much. Too wide. How beautiful it was to see so much water. So glorious! But he felt so dizzy now and he slowly sunk beneath the sustaining ripples.

Go to Chapter 12

“Protect the Autumn Woods!” is an illustrated story by Jerome Stueart in 33 short flash fiction chapters. The story features D&D-inspired magic-using forest animals who fight to protect their homes. This story was at first a response to a prompt list created by Jenn Reese and Deva Fagan for an October Art Challenge in 2021. You can now read all 33 parts of the story, “Protect the Autumn Woods” with the search term, #AutumnWoods. “Protect the Autumn Woods!” Art Show at the Dayton Society of Artists (48 High Street, Dayton, OH) from November 1 — December 15 2024.

“Protect the Autumn Woods!” is adjacent to a larger show of amazing Dayton Artists, “Small, but Mighty.” Come see all of the art, any weekend, Friday 12-5, Saturday 12-5 to experience the art yourself.

As it always seems to happen to Fade, the thing he wants is destroyed. This time, suddenly, with fire. The North Eastern quadrant of the Autumn Woods was engulfed in flame, flames that reached the highest trees in seconds. From nowhere. As he watched everything he loved burn again–as too many wars between kingdoms had cost him his home, his friends, his loved ones–he could hear the roar of the wildfire, the crackling cackles, see how it engulfed the trees and twisted the branches, till they fell withered–but he felt no heat. He relaxed. He could feel how tense Dame Brigitt was on his neck. “That is not a fire,” he said. “That is magic. And orcs do not have magic.” Dame Brigitt tried valiantly to argue against his logic. He persisted to calm her. “There’s no heat. It is illusion.” She gasped, “Xini is using the crown!” And the battlehawk, with nothing to fear, but everything to save, dove into the flames towards home.

Go to Chapter 10

“Protect the Autumn Woods!” is an illustrated story by Jerome Stueart in 33 short flash fiction chapters. The story features D&D-inspired magic-using forest animals who fight to protect their homes. This story was at first a response to a prompt list created by Jenn Reese and Deva Fagan for an October Art Challenge in 2021. You can now read all 33 parts of the story, “Protect the Autumn Woods” with the search term, #AutumnWoods. “Protect the Autumn Woods!” Art Show at the Dayton Society of Artists (48 High Street, Dayton, OH) from November 1 — December 15 2024.

“Protect the Autumn Woods!” is adjacent to a larger show of amazing Dayton Artists, “Small, but Mighty.” Come see all of the art, any weekend, Friday 12-5, Saturday 12-5 to experience the art yourself.

Dame Brigitt Meadowsedge, a Knight of the Order of the Sun, a Paladin of Threnna, returned from her Seventh Quest of Valor, which had taken many months. She rode Fade her trusty red-tailed hawk, her companion in battle, himself a cynic that kept her gleeful optimism realistically grounded. Their path home, though, they’d seen a trail of orc destruction stretching between two kingdoms already, a trail that alarmingly led her straight back to her own home. They’d seen too much wide Orcan devastation for some individual band in such a short time, razing and plundering villages along many paths. Fade said it was calculated for orcs. It suggested a plan. But oh, Threnna’s Beads! (Doom F*ck, said Fade) The last smoldering human village was only a short distance away from the Autumn Woods. She shouted to Fade to fly faster, and his mighty wings hammered the air. She could not let herself believe that she might be too late.

Go to Chapter 9

“Protect the Autumn Woods!” is an illustrated story by Jerome Stueart in 33 short flash fiction chapters. The story features D&D-inspired magic-using forest animals who fight to protect their homes. This story was at first a response to a prompt list created by Jenn Reese and Deva Fagan for an October Art Challenge in 2021. You can now read all 33 parts of the story, “Protect the Autumn Woods” with the search term, #AutumnWoods. “Protect the Autumn Woods!” Art Show at the Dayton Society of Artists (48 High Street, Dayton, OH) from November 1 — December 15 2024.

“Protect the Autumn Woods!” is adjacent to a larger show of amazing Dayton Artists, “Small, but Mighty.” Come see all of the art, any weekend, Friday 12-5, Saturday 12-5 to experience the art yourself.