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Challenge #04950-M201: Careful Gentle Lessons

The kids are getting cooking lessons from Wraithvine and Bibrid. -- BKF

Scramble and Chance had learned the most important things about living in the wilderness. How to make shelter if they had none of their own. How to make fire even when magic was unavailable. What plants and animals were reliably edible more than once.

Now they were learning how to cook it.

One thing that could very rarely fail was stew. Except one eager child was fireproof and heat-resistant. Chance was living evidence for how the Hellkin got all those rumours about them in the first place.

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Challenge #04949-M200: Battle in the Bedroom

A small child has an imaginary friend, a favourite stuffed toy, and a puppy. The three do not get along — the puppy has tried to eat the toy many times, the toy endlessly needles the imaginary friend for not being real, and the imaginary friend has learned a piercing whistle to annoy the puppy. But now they must put aside their differences and work together… to defeat the monster that lives in their child’s closet. -- Tergon

Everyone who knows about

Challenge #04948-M199: Last Days of a Saint

A dying elderly woman's final wish. She had spent her entire life helping others. And while that life had made her very happy, a tiny little piece of her wishes she could be spoiled a little and treated like a queen. Just for one day, though. -- BKF

A Saint for Wraithvine had reached the point where she was no help to anyone. A lifetime of charitable action had worn her near to a whisper, but she was happy.

"It is our

Challenge #04947-M198: A Most Useful Weed

An alchemist has been brewing a potion for three months, and after taking meticulous care, it’s finally ready for the final step: the addition of a locally grown, fresh-picked herb.

Unfortunately, a combination of overzealous weeding by locals and imperfect weather means that the usual crop is not available.

The alchemist now has forty-eight hours to find the missing ingredient, and is becoming increasingly unhinged. -- Tergon

Months of steeping, fermenting, careful additions of each ingredient according to the instructions. The

Challenge #04946-M197: Controlled Substance

There is nothing more stubborn than a determined wizard, except, perhaps, a determined CAT! And when the plants are fully mature, Lilbit manages to get into the catnip, with rather amusing results.

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04696-l312-important-gifts -- BKF

Wraithvine knew hir stuff. The wards did little more than add an unpleasant static charge to Lilbit's fur, but they kept her off the plants. The cat mint plants that kept drawing her back to a very unpleasant experience.

In an effort

Challenge #04945-M196: The True Impediment

A hellkin runs a special school for those who are disabled, helping them learn how to overcome the prejudices and misconceptions people have of those who are not considered "normal". None of those there are treated as lesser, but instead, shown just how strong they can be. -- BKF

There were two entrances to the place, depending on what kind of parent wanted their child there. One side was bright, open, colourful and soft. The other side was stark, dark, and oppressive.

Challenge #04944-M195: Letter Campaign

A malicious letter writing campaign forces Lord Kormwind to implement a restrictive policy in regards to mail coming into Whitekeep. This has unforeseen consequences. -- Deathshead419

[AN: I can't easily imagine what might lead to such things in Whitekeep. Origins outside of Whitekeep can work]

A king of conquest is generally expected to encounter the need for more conquest. In such a way, empires are wont to grow. King Kormwind Arachis Felbourne Whitekeep, ninth of his name, stopped short of controlling enough

Challenge #04943-M194: Something Wicked

The royal family are faced with a terrible burden. The boy that was their son has long since died. What was within the body was pure evil. Now came the most painful part. Casting out the evil, though it would mean having to bury their son. For the sake of many lives, there was no other course.

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04898-m149-what-rude-beast -- BKF

The thing that inhabited Prince Crevith's body drove it relentlessly Eastward. To what goal, it did not

Challenge #04942-M193: Signed, Sealed, Adopted

Bibrid is offered the opportunity to officially adopt Chance as their own child. Scramble was not interested in being adopted, ze saw the two traveling with them as beloved Untys. -- BKF

[AN: The plural of Unty (The nongender variant of Aunty or Uncle) should be "Unties", but it also looks like that thing you do when you loosen a knot. My compromise is leaving the Y alone, so I fixed that in this prompt. Also, Scramble in Nonbinary. I checked. Last

Challenge #04941-M192: Slow, Slow Progress

A person who studies plants, but is not a druid, just a normal human, works with her elven husband to develop Harukh'ai crop plants that grow more quickly, grow larger, and are more nutritious. Others may sneer, but they truly believe the way to world peace, is by making sure no one goes hungry. -- BKF

[AN: Possibly in relation to Had a Bad Day ]

Hard-root in its natural form is a slow-growing tuber that, like most things that grow in the

Challenge #04940-M191: Give Your All

They were poor, but at time of offering at the temple, they gave their very last coin with a wish. Not for wealth for themselves, but, of all things, for the children of the local lord who was not unkind, would survive their illnesses. And the poor who gave their very last? The gods always know. -- BKF

See a copper, pick it up, and all the day you'll have good luck. So the saying goes. The truth of the luck of

Challenge #04939-M190: Justice in the Snowfall

A child’s tradition- the shadow dance, to summon and welcome Kinderfreund and Helpmeet -- Weirdlet

Kid culture is a heck of a thing. Nobody knows who invented the floor being lava. There's no recorded instance of step on a crack. Nobody knows who first determined how to use a dandelion clock.

Nobody knows who created the Shadow Dance.

Just like nobody knows who thought of leaving out offerings for Greatfather Langeven and the unicorn that draws his sled. All around Alfarell,

Challenge #04938-M189: Chosen Heir Test

A dying deregger oligarch, wanting better for his people, doesn't bequeath his fortunes and worlds to his descendants. He uses his will to give them to the only man who has never lied to him. An Alliance member who made their living astroid mining. -- BKF

Pax Humanis isn't the only reason why Deregger Oligarch's compounds are heavily fortified. There's also the descendants and seconds-in-command who are on the impatient side. Sharpening knives or preparing undetectable poisons when they weren't pricing assassins

Challenge #04937-M188: War Adapts

Alliance observers watch the boot camp where future human space Marines are trained. -- BKF

They say war never changes. Some aspects of it do. Such as, how badly the opposing sides can ruin the landscape they're fighting over. Or how nefarious or nasty the tactics can get. Or the tools employed in battle.

What surprised most of the Alliance was how Humans - the most reckless of Deathworlders - agreed that nuclear weapons were not on.

Turning contested territory into an

Challenge #04936-M187: Domesticated Predator

The havenworlders look upon the scene in shock as a normal house cat chases away a full sized bear from the camp. -- BKF

Human Yen loved to take her friends camping, and that included her cat, Dinky. Dinky, on harness and leash, did not do any of the hiking. She preferred to ride on Yen's backpack, chattering and chittering at the little creatures beyond her reach.

Yen was no slouch. Dinky was firmly attached with a harness and leash. Kept safe

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Challenge #04950-M201: Careful Gentle Lessons

Challenge #04949-M200: Battle in the Bedroom

Challenge #04948-M199: Last Days of a Saint

Challenge #04947-M198: A Most Useful Weed

Challenge #04946-M197: Controlled Substance

Challenge #04945-M196: The True Impediment

Challenge #04944-M195: Letter Campaign

Challenge #04943-M194: Something Wicked

Challenge #04942-M193: Signed, Sealed, Adopted

Challenge #04941-M192: Slow, Slow Progress

Challenge #04940-M191: Give Your All

Challenge #04939-M190: Justice in the Snowfall

Challenge #04938-M189: Chosen Heir Test

Challenge #04937-M188: War Adapts

Challenge #04936-M187: Domesticated Predator