Recent content by Kassa Lia

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It had been years – so many countless years ago – since Kassa had last shed tears. Of sorrow, of regret. But she shed them now as she drove her horse through the hills of grass gold and green, fully intending to leave Len behind. After what she had said, she expected to never see him again. She...

Kassa’s face flushed red. Not with embarrassment or shame, but with rage. As Len was again lost in the past and already returning to his noble self, Kassa could do nothing but fume. There were many things she wanted to say, so many that the words were too jumbled together to get out. Perhaps it...

Ahead of them, stretching away from the oasis, out into the horizon, was nothing but a great expanse of grass. Green, gold, and bronze colors swayed as a gentle wind played over the stalks, shining as sunlight washed over them and sent the last remaining drops of dew aglow. It was a beautiful...

With his life at last laid bare, Len wept. In his tears was a sorrow Kassa never thought could exist, yet here it was. She recalled, with irony, the words her mother once told her – that it took a man to cry. That to cry was not a lesson in humility. Nor was it a demonstration of weakness, but a...

As Len recalled the story of his life, and the life of so many others, Kassa listened, rapt. She did not speak, not daring to interrupt the narrative, even as her mind puzzled over the tale that ended in tragedy. She had been born and raised in relative solitude, but she had spent most of her...

Her question went unanswered… but Kassa already realized she wasn’t too interested in either. As he laid claim to painful knowledge of fear and fatal strength, she frowned, recognizing the error in her thoughts. In the end, he indeed might understand, after all. But this did nothing to cheer her...

Gaze falling, Kassa could not meet Len's eyes. She stared instead at the fire, dying of the soil thrown over it. The flames flickered and hissed as they suffocated, dwindling to small, smoking embers that would be cold by daylight. She regretted ever lighting that fire, regretted ever looking...

Are you afraid, my child, my child? Do you shiver in fear, in the grip of the night? Do you tremble in dread, of the moon and its might? Do you remember the darkness, my child, my child? Hold close to your heart the burning and fright. Let the shadow close over your heart and your sight...

Around them the smoke swirled, black as night. Unafraid, Kassa breathed it in, allowing it to draw her into a land where dreams rules and the past and future were brought into the present. Her eyes opened and gazed deep into the fire now roaring before her. Its golden body danced in her vision...

Normally Kassa would have smirked or felt contempt at Len’s words. This time however, she laughed – and not unkindly. His confident faith concerning their invulnerability woke a mirth in her she hadn’t known existed. Though it had a tinge of darkness to it, it was lighthearted all the same and...

One eyebrow tilted upward as Kassa regarded Len before she laughed once again. Of course it was no humorous matter, and any other time she would have taken his words with somber gravity, but now… she was different. She had changed over the course of the recent times in ways she didn’t fully...

Irritation flickered across Kassa’s face as Len smiled. What in the hell was so funny? And of course, to her dismay Len did indeed insist on attending her meeting with the master of her life. But she focused on the grasslands ahead of them, bathed in soothing light and flickering in a warm wind...

Stroking the neck of her horse, Kassa listened raptly to Len’s story. Her eyes turned to him, a bit wide as he clarified what a Dra’lil really was. She’d heard of dragons, fanciful fairy tales and real accounts, of course. She’d seen paintings and read stories of the rare legends, once even...

True or false, Kassa often preferred to think of herself as unsentimental. Not exactly unfeeling, but cold to the weak emotions that fettered other women. Shivers of desire, butterflies in the stomach – these things were nothing less than silly and foolish. And Kassa was a woman, not a little...