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Challenge #04701-L317: Follow the Bouncing.... Orb

Some children try to get Wraithvine, Birbid, and anyone traveling with them to come play. They had balloons that one of the kids' parents had enchanted so they wouldn't pop, so they could play catch and bounce the toys between them. -- Anon Guest

[AN: Balloons take a long time to exist in Alfarell because latex takes longer to launch so I'm handwaving some magic]

Someone had cast several iterations Tinrak's Bouncing Orb in the plaza. The brightly-coloured bubbles easily rebounded off of any surface. Then drifted slowly according to gravity and the prevailing breeze. What they also rebounded off were the hands, heads, and sometimes feet of the children.

Adventurers everywhere would agree that Tinrak's Bouncing Orb was a useless spell, and therefore only used by Bards to show off during concerts. Adventurers, Wraithvine decided, didn't know the true meaning of 'useless'.

The kids were having a screaming good time. Figuratively and literally. Many rushing about to bounce a colourful ball higher than all the others. Some defending the bubbles from the perils of the ground, and little toddlers running shrieking after any orb remotely near them. It was painfully loud chaos and it was beautiful.

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Challenge #04700-L316: Mercy For the Many

"They won't be changed or persuaded at all?"/ I'm afraid not, I'm so sorry.

"We both knew it might come to this."/ I know, but it's always sad.

"Don't worry, you know I don't make them suffer."/ If we want to save the people in those factories.....

"I know. Just, sometimes, there really is no other way. They'll simply fall asleep... and never wake up." -- Fighting Fit

It's easy to believe that ending the one badguy will solve a systemic problem.

Challenge #04699-L315: The Green Revolution

Is the difference between mad science and genius the success of the project? That’s what one researcher believes, for a new breakthrough could solve global warming. Or it could freeze the planet. Success or failure, genius or madness. Only results will tell which is which. -- Deathshead419

The saying goes, If it's stupid and it works, it's not that stupid. Some people feel inclined to test such expressions to the snapping point. Some have a mad idea and would rather seek

Challenge #04698-L314: Emperor's Folly

“The Haters said I was daft to build a castle in a swamp. And they were right. Honestly, great call from the Haters.” -- Deathshead419

Determination can make miracles. Well. Determination, a lot of money, and special powers. When you can pay for anything, you can make anything happen. Including the castle of the moor.

Behold, the magnificence. The work of so much earth shaping, stone shaping, and a veritable mountain of gold. A work of magnificence years in the making.

The

Challenge #04697-L313: An Unnerving Supply

Conglomerated Meat Products Limited has a rather infamous reputation, beloved by customers for low prices and hated by nutritionists for how those prices are achieved. At least they were, and those detractors would love more information. Alas, the last three health inspectors to visit the plant have vanished without a trace, the police somehow never finding evidence of foul play… -- Deathshead419

On paper, it looked like a very good business. It never ran out of supply, and could fulfill a great

Challenge #04696-L312: Important Gifts

A family gives Wraithvine a large pouch of catnip seeds for hir to grow the plant, not only as a medicinal tea, but a treat for Lilbit. -- Anon Guest

Gratitude comes in many shapes. Gifts as simple as a hug, or as complicated as an artefact that could prove useful in varied eventualities. This family could not spare much more than a small pouch of seeds. Of course they wished they could give more. Compared to how Wraithvine had changed their

Challenge #04695-L311: Remedied Choice

A traveling hellkin was a highly skilled medic who knew how to make most medicines, use magic to heal, and was an accomplished surgeon. They did not discriminate with their treatments, and only charged as much as a person was capable of paying. Even if it meant just asking for a simple meal, or, not asking for anything more, than a thank you. -- Anon Guest

If someone looked no further than first impressions, he looked like a wandering vagabond carrying a

Challenge #04694-L310: A Better Solution

They were born the only child in a family of immense wealth that had gained the ire of the local populace, and was taken from that place while still young and impressionable. The family were not killed, the local populace didn't want them to be able to have THAT much of an escape. Worse, the child, raised in a humble, poor, community with love, kindness, and knowing the values of a family that cared, was sent back to them older, and created

Challenge #04693-L309: Combat Hypocrisy

If war is diplomacy by violence, then the currency of exchange is in the bodies of the youth. And so a General must make his bitter calculus, choosing which men to hurl at the enemy defenses in the grim hope that the righteous side is victorious. -- Deathshead419

The best kind of war, say many philosophers, is the one you don't have to fight. Many war hawks have ignored this wisdom and prefer to throw fighting youth at the enemy until one

Challenge #04692-L308: There's Always a Catch

Below the waves is a shrine. Those who lay upon the alter join the sirens, gaining a new form and an enrapturing voice. And Arbin had best learn to use these new pipes, for the sacred duty of sirens is to ensure at least one is always singing a lullaby. For if the song ever falls silent, something lurking in the darkest depths may awaken at last…

Inspired by BKF's comment below this previous tale: https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04657-l273-uninhabited --

Challenge #04691-L307: In the Hour of Greatest Need

An apprentice healer saves a mysterious stranger from a fever. The thankful stranger gives the healer a box, promising that when the time comes, the box will open and the debt will be repaid. -- Deathshead419

Devryq never knew the stranger's name. They were just a fellow traveler at the waystation-house. One in need, because they were deep in a fever. Deveryq hadn't thought of rewards, just of the need ze could see to.

It didn't matter that the stranger was a

Challenge #04690-L306: Not Your Average Teen

The child thought they were human, until they began to enter their teen years and certain things began to manifest that showed they were not. Small scales, occasional flame, they were frightened. Then a kind hand reached out to them and stated "No you're not a freak, or a monster, but child, you are changing. It's time you learned your heritage." -- Anon Guest

Everyone knows that things can happen to a body growing into maturity. For Humans, the usual speech is

Challenge #04689-L305: Lessons of History

Over the objections of his advisors, the youngest of seven princes makes friends with a warren of kobolds whose home was right under the estate he'd been given. That friendship pays off during a brutal rebellion, when he is able to get innocents hidden so they do not suffer. How did the alliance form? He almost paid his life to protect the warren from poachers trying to take eggs. -- Anon Guest

History easily becomes stories. Some of those stories transform in

Challenge #04688-L304: Miracles For Midwinterfeast

"Greatfather Langeven is a childhood god. He only sees that which is good in the world, and so comes for the children who believe they have been good. Which is terribly unfair to those who've been told they're wicked their entire, brief lives. But that's a different story for a different time."

The youth had always been kind, had always done their best to help others, even though they, themselves, were constantly being told they were evil, wicked, and, sadly, thoroughly believing

Challenge #04687-L303: The Price of Prophecy

Divine clues convince a town that a boy and his friends must complete a daring quest to avert world ending disaster. That may be true. But the Hero’s parent knows the children will face potent foes none could survive without aid. So the parent, willing to pay well, begs Wraithvine to watch over the young heroes from the shadows and keep them from harm without being seen. -- Deathsead419

Langdon was born with the blaze. Prophecy declared that the boy born

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A 4612-post collection

Challenge #04701-L317: Follow the Bouncing.... Orb

Challenge #04700-L316: Mercy For the Many

Challenge #04699-L315: The Green Revolution

Challenge #04698-L314: Emperor's Folly

Challenge #04697-L313: An Unnerving Supply

Challenge #04696-L312: Important Gifts

Challenge #04695-L311: Remedied Choice

Challenge #04694-L310: A Better Solution

Challenge #04693-L309: Combat Hypocrisy

Challenge #04692-L308: There's Always a Catch

Challenge #04691-L307: In the Hour of Greatest Need

Challenge #04690-L306: Not Your Average Teen

Challenge #04689-L305: Lessons of History

Challenge #04688-L304: Miracles For Midwinterfeast

Challenge #04687-L303: The Price of Prophecy