Hello, and welcome to the Folklore & Fiction dispatch. At the summer and winter solstices, I mimic the sun and pause to reflect on my own creative work. In this edition, I'm discussing fables in fiction with a passage from my short story "Metal Crow and Ghost Crow," forthcoming in the G Is for Ghost anthology.
An Excerpt from "Metal Crow and Ghost Crow"
A great stone wall rose between the beach and the settlement, and beyond them both the crumble of a long-abandoned city gave way to distant mountains. Metal Crow landed on a weathervane in the commons; a sturdy pole topped with a steel rooster that called the time and temperature as he settled beside it. "Fifteen hundred hours and thirty-eight degrees Celsius!"
When the rooster finished, Metal Crow followed in a loud, clear voice. "PRS Unity, Smart Assistant Navigator, requesting emergency medical assistance for one survivor, a girl five years of age, Nathalee Mera. Coordinates are 48.911689 by -125.949934."
Below him in the commons, people hurried between houses painted white to reflect the heat; an old man tucked under a pink umbrella, a beautiful woman in billowing cotton, a smartly dressed little boy sucking on a frozen lolly as it melted into his hand. Metal Crow brightened in his bearing and expression. They valued children! It was a good sign.
A door creaked open. Squinted eyes in a pinched face peered up at the weathervane. A woman's voice shouted, "What was that?"
The old man stopped, tilted his umbrella to look up at Metal Crow, and croaked a reply. "Pacific Rescue Ship's AI navigator."
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