Storyfeather Gazette: A rampaging animatronic in a malfunctioning escape room and a bazaar at the nexus of existence

Published over 1 year ago • 2 min read

February 2025 Issue 1

In this issue: A round-up of the January stories and podcast episodes, and a heads up about what's coming next issue (reading recs).

Circle format, a three-quarters view of Nila's smiling face from a photo with an oil paint filter applied.

THE BIRDS AND THE BEASTS

Love is NOT is the air! Or in the waters. But what is? Creatures, my friend. Creatures!

And...birds. (Which actually by my definition are also creatures.)

🦕

Greetings! I'm Nila. Every week, I release a new short story and a new podcast episode spanning the genres of science fiction, fantasy, mystery, mythology, fairy tale, fable, and horror.

Whether you're in the mood to read or listen, I've got stories to tell you.

Let's get into it!

January was a time of creatures 🐦

I did an art challenge and used my drawings and paintings to inspire stories.

The theme of the art challenges, and therefore the short stories was birds from nature and creatures from myth and legend. It was Beastuary. The podcast episodes were themed around magic.

Titles and taglines below.

Short Stories

The links below lead directly to the story post.

THE BIRD WHO WOULD BE A BARD
A bird who loves to sing stories finds a way to tell stories by transforming herself into a human, but something goes wrong with the spell...

THE VALLEY OF SHAPESHIFTING CREATURES
An expedition sets out to traverse a wondrous and dangerous valley, one where every creature is a shapeshifter.

ESCAPE FROM GRAMMATIKA
A player gets trapped in a malfunctioning escape room type game with an animatronic that turns from benevolent to baleful in a blink.

Digital line drawing. A horse seen from chest and shoulders up, facing forward and to the right. The mane is depicted as serpentine locks that whip around the head. The mouth is open, nostrils flared, and the eyes glow with fiery colors that stream up. The black horse is surrounded by a hazy white light, against a black background. Watermark of “Storyfeather” within one lock of hair at left. Copyright notice at bottom center reads, “Copyright © 2025 Nila L. Patel”

AGE OF THE COLOSSAL CREATURE
Once, there were colossal creatures in the world, whose heads stood so high upon their towering necks that if one were to leap from that head, it would take days to fall all the way back to the earth.

Podcast Episodes

Digital drawing. Various winged animals in the sky positioned at a diagonal from bottom left to top right. At bottom left a snake emerges from glowing clouds. The snake has two arms and is holding them out. Outspread wings appear from just behind the snake’s head. Above and to the left of the snake a giant turtle swims through the air toward the viewer with outspread wings emerging from behind the forelimbs and smaller wings emerging from behind the head. A spider crawls on the turtle’s shell. The spider bears eight wings. Behind the turtle at some distance an elephant descends. Faded feathers fall from the elephant’s wings. Watermark of “Storyfeather” along the turtle’s underside.

We're in season 8, the Year of Revisitation. Each episode is a standalone story, but it's inspired by an earlier story.

The text links below go to the Explore page on Storyfeather, where you can listen to the episode, find the links to the episode(s) that inspired it, and more.

Pressing on the Spotify embed image leads to the episode's Spotify page.

PRAGMATA AGNOSTA

A young woman has trained and studied so that she could wield the mysterious powers she has inherited.

Pragmata Agnosta

Jan 3 · Storyfeather

36:14

THE SEVEN RINGS OF NECESSITY

When two siblings play a board game where they must collect seven magic rings, they discover that the game pieces may possess real enchantment.

The Seven Rings of Necessity

Jan 10 · Storyfeather

30:21

SALIS AND DULCINE

Salis and Dulcine are not just twins, but the best of friends, despite their opposite natures; so when one of them falls into a deadly trap, the other will do anything to rescue their sibling.

Salis and Dulcine

Jan 17 · Storyfeather

45:20

THE BLACK PENNY MARKET

There is only one currency that is able to abide at the nexus of all existence. In our world, we call it the black penny.

The Black Penny Market

Jan 24 · Storyfeather

36:58

ALL THE MAGIC LEFT THE WORLD

Something has disrupted the ethereal force that imbues all creatures in the world with magic.

All the Magic Left the World

Jan 31 · Storyfeather

30:32

Parting words🪶

If you've got feedback on this issue, please reply and let me know. Next time, I'll (belatedly) highlight some stories and authors I enjoyed in 2024. I'll also share more images I drew for the January art challenge I did.

Birds. And Beasts.

Long live stories!
—Nila

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