Ah, a curious soul. You have found the forest of stories.

GNOME & BONE MAGAZINE

Short Stories

  • MUCUS-COATED TAXIDERMY

    Contemporary Cryptozoology and Other Phenomena, by Jodie Norman(Kept in shorthand) Entry 1, 14 May 2025, Cephalo Pond: Arrived at the pond a few minutes behind schedule. The trees on the downwind warp. Thought pine bristles were scales or exoskeletons. Not an unimportant environmental note. Cephalo Pond resides off a strangely carved trail with minimal sunlight…

    D.S. Burton
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  • A SINKING INEVITABILITY

    On summer nights, when the air has gone cool and the water cooler still, I settle my aching limbs down at the docks. The dropping temperature goads the fishes to the shallows where I wait, makeshift fishing pole in hand and tackle box in my lap. A siren stalks me from below, as she has…

    Sarina Northway
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  • REAPER’S GREENHOUSE

    Here, I fosterthese loose leaves of this complete herbariumranging from common weeds to fabled reeds. Still, I wanderfrom private gardens to hidden forestsin search of undiscovered vegetation. On an overcast afternoonbetween accommodations,I come across a greenhouse,clean and unseen here before. Inside are brown dilapidations:wilters grounded and walled and hungwitness the urban ashen smogwithin the bourbon…

    Lisla
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  • GLASS SLIPPERS

    The peddler shows up not long after I’ve finished bottling my latest potion, right as the sun is beginning to set. I watch him uneasily, leaning over the windowsill, as he pushes open the gate and begins walking down the path. He knows his business, clearly. This late in the day, my father will be…

    Vivian Pfleger
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  • WIND FLOWER

    The Sylphs Lament I’ve buried you beneath the yarrowWarding off the fever of my griefDown the manzanita path,My tears mix into redwood mudFlowing past lady ferns andSpanish Lotus Blue witch nightshadesimmers stillIn the porcelain teapotsitting under the moonlightOn my dandelion lawn.Waiting for our shared life But this battle was lostBefore my contract was signedI bartered…

    Beulah Vega
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  • AMBUSH SERVES THEM WELL

    The ogre excreted rivulets of sweat,his leather halter stained octal white.Officially, the torture was to begin at nine, sharpbut paperwork had mercilessly delayed him.It should have been a very simple job,had not the faerie such ungodly small limbs.As the ogre rested on the castle’s rockcut from hell with fire and death,he felt a breeze like…

    Colin James
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  • ABSOLVED ON VELLUM

    The way the Traveller tells it, he was making his way across the border with his companion when he first saw it: the creature emerging from a forest clearing.  “It was skittish, small—perhaps a mere bairn. Had I not seen it with my own eyes I would have thought it a hoax, too.”  The Scribe…

    E.L. McKee
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  • A DARK HOUSE BY NIGHT

    Even in his current predicament, Nate took a moment to appreciate that he’d had a pretty good run. It almost didn’t matter that he would likely freeze to death in a dark alley tonight. He’d escaped the carpet-making factory where he’d been a prisoner for two decades, ever since his parents sold him at the…

    Marigold Rowell
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  • HAND IN HAND AMONG RUINS

    The sun had nearly dipped below the horizon and the remaining rays glinted off rows of vegetables, imbuing everything with an orange hue as Emilia hurried past. Her cotton skirts bunched in her fists as she bustled through the field, head lower than the corn stalks to her right. Beyond the field, the town was…

    K.A. Roy
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  • MARIGOLD AND TEETH OF IVORY

    Princess Claude’s scream could chill the blood. Like the November wind that raged beyond the castle windows, Claude’s voice whipped the flesh and assaulted the ears. Not Marigold’s ears, however. Marigold had grown accustomed to it in her ten years as a lady’s maid. The princess’s volatile moods made her so bored she yawned, showing…

    Rae Foster
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