Camila turned her face to the skies reflexively, checking for the Draconis lychnus. But the mother had left for a hunt less than an hour ago. It would likely be two more before she returned.

Olivia attempted to sigh but it involuntarily came out as a groan. So much for that nice bubble bath and bottle of wine she had planned for the evening. That scene in her mind evaporated and was replaced by an image of herself drinking lukewarm coffee and working from home late into the night.

She knew it was there, she could feel it staring back at her. She stared back defiantly, trying to will the monster to see she wasn’t afraid.

Morwenna was finally being assigned the mentor under whom she would apprentice for the next ten years, in order to become a witch. She was elated, as the Matching Ceremony was the rite of passage that signified her graduation from the Conservatoire. And she couldn’t wait to leave the school behind.

Trigger Warning - Pet Death
I was sitting in my papasan chair doing schoolwork when I heard a weird thump. How was this possible?

As I was leaving the grocery, I saw a young girl waiting by the bus stop with her grandmother. She was dancing and twirling around the bike racks, her black braids bouncing as the beads in her hair clacked together.

The thing I remember most vividly about it all is my bright red sneakers with the white laces I was wearing that day, as I looked down and saw them drifting above rooftops and treetops and tops of all kinds.

Our song on repeat, we’d shuffle through the moves we’d learned, reminding each other of tips from our dance instructor and trying to remember not to look at our feet.

It gleamed in the distance, on the large concrete launchpad. The starship Terra IV was so massive you could see it for kilometers.

We adopted a sweet kitten

With little white mittens

Who loved her human mum the most

Up ahead, the clouds formed a massive shelf that blocked out the sky. They were a deep ominous blue and flat on the bottom, belying the swirls and shapes above that curled up to the heavens.

Sadly, I have not made time for creative writing as an adult, even though it once brought me so much joy. So my new year’s resolution for 2022 is to reignite my creative writing spark!