lsmontoya

[lsmontoya]

Llano Cabro  A weird supernatural short story...

(Part 2)

"They used the giant trees' wood to build a new town," continued the foreman. "My grandmother told my mother that the wood was like nothing they had ever seen, a golden hue, very resistant. The emotions were high in town. That's why nobody noticed the crops had started to wither. The animals also began to die, a few at first and then, by lots. Pregnant women gave birth to stillborns. People got nervous. Daily reports of apparitions and strange sounds near Llano Cabro were common. And then, one night, the horror took the form of flames. A fire consumed the town to the ground. Many people died. Survivors left and never came back. The settlement was abandoned." 

My grandfather said he was entranced by the story, but his common sense kicked in.

"How come it's a sugar cane plantation now? Why does the sugar cane doesn't die?"

"Ask Don Eugenio," the foreman answered and refused to talk anymore about the subject.

One day, waiting for the bus home, my grandfather noticed the barbed wire fence surrounding the plantation: the stakes were made of wood with a golden hue. He realized that the whole estate was enclosed by them! As he tried to chip one of the stakes, Doña Tati came from behind, startling him.

"Don't take that home," she said, "unless you want to carry the curse that is sealed here."

He said that was the last time he saw Doña Tati. Shortly after that, he left the plantation and moved to the city.

A year before he went missing, my grandfather got emails from his old crew members on the plantation. He rejoiced and exchanged emails with them. They were happy and told him to come and visit them. Then, he told my grandmother he had been dreaming about Doña Tati, inviting him back to the plantation. The next day, my grandfather was gone. We never saw him again. When we managed to contact the families of his friends, they told us they had been missing for years. Llano Cabro took them.

[lsmontoya]

Llano Cabro A weird supernatural short story...

(Part 1)

I will never forget the day my grandfather told me about Llano Cabro. It is an evil place. 

My grandfather used to work for Don Eugenio, the owner of a sugar plantation in the outskirts of the old town. The soil was perfect for sugar cane. The fields went on as far as the eye could see, except for an area near the center that everyone avoided, be it man or animal. That was Llano Cabro. Nothing grew there, not even grass. My grandfather said that he never once saw a bird land inside that patch in all his thirty years working there. "I think it was the smell," he had told me. He described it as a characteristic stench, like a dead animal rotting in the field.

He was so intrigued about Llano Cabro that one day while having lunch, he planned with the other men to stay after work and into the night. They wanted to see for themselves if the stories about apparitions and ghostly voices were true. Doña Tati, who was serving them lunch that day, heard them and ran to tell the foreman. 

The foreman was an imposing man, but when he talked to them that day, my grandfather said he was pale and edgy. 

"You should never go to Llano Cabro," he told them. "My mother told me the stories that her mother told her. Before this was a plantation, a hundred years ago, it was a jungle. Indians lived here, alongside the settlers that were starting to arrive in these parts. The Indians warned the newcomers about the danger in the jungle. Deep within lay the cursed door to the underground. A circle of trees protected them. Those trees were planted by the firsts of their people and were as old as the world.” 

"But the settlers didn't listen to the stories. Little by little, they cut down the jungle. They thought the Indians were lying to scare them away, but one day they reached the circle of trees. They couldn't believe the size of those trees, those were monstrosities! Just one of them could give enough wood to build a big town. The settlers could only see the profit in the wood, and in the following years, they cut down all the trees…"

[lsmontoya]

I can hear you, but I can’t understand you...

That’s a side effect of the curse, I guess.

I hear the words, but they jumble with all the other words.

I know it sounds silly. I know of worse curses.

I can only understand when I’m talking to one person in a silent room. In any other case, it’s just noise. 

People don’t get it. That’s why I always wear headphones to avoid talking to people and ending up in an embarrassing situation. I have had plenty of those. 

I even learned to sign. Most of my friends are deaf. It’s a relief. I don’t have to explain anything to them. 

To look normal and not be normal drains you bit by bit. It’s like carrying a heavy load that no one sees. 

I’m one of the cursed. I was offered when I was young, I don’t remember it. I don’t remember the thing inside me either. Sometimes I dream of it, but I always forget. Maybe I don’t want to remember what I am.

There’s no good side to this curse. I can hear the Silents. That’s my job. To listen to the voices that no one else can hear. To know what they say. They speak in horrors…

I don’t have a bad life. It’s just different. I guess everyone carries something inside that they shouldn’t have…

--------

Amazing art by @dangiuz

[lsmontoya]

I love this brilliant quote from "Rabbit Heart" by Florence and The Machine. It's a terrific writing prompt for a thorny story.

“This is a gift It comes with a price Who is the lamb And who is the knife?”

[lsmontoya]

Have you ever wondered if you went to another world, how would your life be? Would you tell others? Would you keep it a secret? And how does the experience of that world affect you in this world? Does it affect you only mentally or physically? 

That’s a trope I wanted to explore in The Otherworld. I have often read stories that have protagonists going to another world and then coming back. Still, seldom have I read stories about living parallel lives on parallel worlds. One book that I think does it marvelously is The Talisman, by Peter Straub and Stephen King.

------

Amazing art by @davanshatry

Check out the book on Amazon. Cheers! ✌

[lsmontoya]

Math and magic!

Mathematics and magic are more intertwined than you think. For centuries, planets have been associated with specific numbers. The permutations of these numbers invoke their powers.

Take Saturn. Its numbers are 3, 9, 15, and 45. Draw a 3 by 3 square, and divide it into 9 equal spaces. Now fill the spaces with numbers from 1 to 9. Do it in such an order that the sum of all the numbers for each row, column, and diagonal is 15. You do realize that 3 times 15 is 45, right? There’s your magic square.

-----

The fist image (Public Domain) by The British Library, Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts

[lsmontoya]

What about intelligent beings that don't need to breathe?

In worldbuilding exercises for fantasy or science fiction worlds, it's assumed that the imagined alien beings breathe. But what if they don't? It's that even possible from a scientific standpoint?

Breathing is necessary to bring in oxygen and excrete carbon dioxide. Oxygen is essential for life because it allows our cells to break down sugars and turn them into energy.

On Earth, most life is aerobic. But, are there organisms that don't use oxygen? Yes! Here are some examples: Clostridium botulinum, which lives in the bottom of the sea near hydrothermal vents; the Loricifera found in the sediment of a 3,000 meters deep brine basin in the Mediterranean; and the recently discovered Henneguya salminicola, a salmon parasite, the only known anaerobic animal.

What all these organisms have in common is that (1) they live in harsh environments and, (2) they're minuscule. Anaerobic metabolic processes don't produce as much energy as aerobic processes, so it makes sense they're only present in microscopic life.

Even though anaerobic life is uncommon in our day and age, it's currently believed that the beginnings of life on Earth were anaerobic.

Back to worldbuilding. Could we have sentient beings who don't need to breathe? Their metabolism, which is their organisms' processes to sustain life, would be radically different from ours. Maybe they have another way to bring in the chemicals needed to produce energy, something other than a respiratory system. Perhaps they absorb it from the liquid of their planet instead of air. Maybe they get all they need from some ultra-rich energy food.

A human breathes 12 to 20 times per minute. Imagine if these aliens didn't breathe at all. What would they think of us, inhaling and exhaling all the time? They might not even understand what it is that we're doing!

[lsmontoya]

What’s your blood color?

In most vertebrates, blood is red due to the presence of iron in hemoglobin, the protein that transports oxygen and carbon dioxide in the body.

Crustaceans, spiders, squids, and octopuses have blue blood because of hemocyanin, the equivalent of hemoglobin. Instead of iron, hemocyanin contains copper.

But there is more. 

Sea cucumbers have yellow blood because of vanabin, a pigment that is not related to oxygen transportation. And there are marine worms with purple blood because of hemerythrin, another oxygen-binding protein.

What about dichromatic blood? Some marine worms’ blood is composed of chlorocruorin. When diluted, it appears green, but in high concentrations, it looks light-red.

In your worldbuilding, what would be the implication of different blood colors in your species? For example, hemocyanin is not as efficient as hemoglobin at transporting oxygen, unless you live in an environment with low oxygen pressure. How lower levels of oxygenation affect the stamina and behavior of these species?

[lsmontoya]

Envy

A short tale of rivalry, spite, and magical sake!

Magical sake is such a hard thing to do. We have been in this business for five hundred years; no newcomer can surpass us... yet, you did.

What did you have? Better ingredients? My water comes from the womb of the earth, heavy with the minerals of prescience. My moon rice comes from the borderlands in the mountains and has never been touched by human hands.

Technique? I own the secrets of the ancient brewers. Mine are the blood pacts with the Spirits of Fermentation.

You don't have the people. Those sorry bastards would die on their feet if faced with the demonic onslaught of Steam. I'm sure you have never braved that. Those who have are marked by horror and madness, or mastery. We are Masters. We are a family with a bond as deep as the root of a mountain.

Yet, you succeeded in winning the trust of the Seers. How did your sake manage to open all the perception gates in the Channelers? How did you keep them from the Terrors? 

And now, you have the nerve to show up in my brewery. You dare to sit at my table, to order tea, and ask for an audience! I know the extent of your tongue. I'm well aware of the foul words you muttered behind my back. That fancy kimono doesn't hide the rotten nature of your heart. How dare you come to my house? What kind of trouble have you got yourself into that forced you into the wolf's mouth?

---------

Great art by Benjuhr (ArtStation).

[lsmontoya]

The Fountain of Wisdom

...It’s not what you think!

Yan couldn't believe it. Was it real?

After Master Yien finally broke his secret vow and confided where the Fountain of Wisdom was… After crossing valleys and chasms, after battling sorcerers and mercenaries, after suffering so many ordeals, he thought he would find a temple, a sacred scroll, an ancient order, or a lonely hermit that would reveal to him what he was looking for. Instead, he found this: a giant turtle.

"I have to be dreaming," Yan said to himself. 

He faced a giant turtle, thrice his size, which stood on the tips of its hind legs, balancing on pebbles on the ledge of the mountain. The wrinkles of its green skin looked like crevices on a rock. The shell was covered in moss and fungi, and delicate ferns grew from its head.

Even if it was a statue, the natural laws of nature were "wrong" here. Yan came closer and kneeled to see if there was a structure holding the weight of the thing.

"This can't be," he said again.

"That's the answer you are looking for, human child."

Yan sprang up and looked around, searching for the cavernous voice. Finally, he looked up, and his hair stood on its end when he realized the turtle was smiling at him!

"You are alive!" he said, backing up.

"Of course, I am alive. And I just gave you the answer."

"Wait, what was the answer?"

"This can't be."

"No, no, no, that can't be the answer. And you can't be real!"

"Why?"

"Because the Fountain of Wisdom can't be a turtle!"

The turtle let out a sort of chuckle.

"And what were you expecting? A human? Child, long before humans were, was I."

--------

About the story: of course, everybody thinks of Kung Fu Panda when they see a turtle in a meditative posture. But not many think of the Turtle in Stephen King's novel IT. This is my humble homage to both. 🐢🐢

Great art by Yangyang Sui (ArtStation)

[lsmontoya]

What if humans went through metamorphosis?

Metamorphosis is not a rare biological process. 65% of all known animal species on our planet go through partial or complete metamorphosis. It's interesting to note that the fossil records of the earliest insects show no evidence of its existence. It was a later development, about 300 million years ago. Why did it happen? Perhaps the environment went through radical changes. Maybe it was a genetic mistake. What's for sure is that after many millennia it's still part of the animal kingdom's life processes.

Humanoid beings that undergo metamorphosis is a subject that pops now and then in fantasy and sci-fi. Maybe their civilization would have no "children," and no "family," since species that develop using this process don't watch over their offspring.

How would metamorphosis affect the psyche of these beings? Would they become another "person" after the transformation? Would they have massive passage rituals to guide them through? Would they lose the memories of the stage before?

Could one of them decide not to go through the process and retain their juvenile form? That "choice" also exists for some species; it's called paedogenesis.

[lsmontoya]

The Otherworld uses a magic system that's not "magical."

Yes, you heard right. And yes, I know that this is the fantasy genre. Long after I wrote the book, I came across the term "science fantasy," and I loved it. Science fantasy refers to a logical magical system that can be explained in "scientific terms." You could also call it a "hard magic system," but "science fantasy" is kind of a brain disrupter, and I like it better.

I took this approach in the series because I wanted to merge the otherworld and our world in a single system that would be believable. I started with the statement "everything is energy" and continued worldbuilding from there.

One of the book's most appealing features is how energy manifests in each character, as you can see in this spectacular art by Damon Iannuzzelli (ArtStation).

When energy flows through a being, it vibrates in a particular way. Humans can experience those vibrations as images, sound, textures… even scents or flavors, and emotions. But the most direct way is color. Through each character, energy expresses in a different color, which gives clues to their innermost psychology and essence.

------

Energy as a hard magic system is part of The Otherworld universe. To know more about the book, click here. Cheers! ✌

[lsmontoya]

The Shrine in the Cave 

What happens when a nonsense ritual takes a surprising turn?

Anja walked down the road with her traditional white dress and matching straw hat, ready for the offering. She went at midday, alone, as stipulated by the codex. What a waste of time! Her colleagues thought it was the crowning achievement of her four years in the Cultural Studies Institute. She thought the “honor” could have been passed on to someone else.

 For a thousand years, people had been making the same nonsense ritual to the carvings of a house in the rock with unflinching dedication. How silly of them to think that there was an ancestor in the shrine, who protected them. The thought infuriated her. If there was some otherworldly protection, the plague wouldn’t have happened. Or their defeat in the last war two hundred years ago, or the famine fifty years ago, or the mounting debts to the central nations.

 Anja wiped the sweat off her face as she entered the cave. Only a ray of light came from above, bouncing dimly in the vertical rock, which was marked with deep diagonal scratches running across the stone formations. Outside had been hot, but here it was cold… unusually cold.

 This was the first time she had been there alone. Without the crowds, the magnificence of the place came through. It was easy to imagine why a millennia ago people would think that there was something sacred in the cave.

Right! No time for daydreaming! She was going to perform the ritual and then get back to town to meet her friends in the bar.

She turned forward and paused. No, no, that couldn’t be.

There was light inside the shrine… But, the shrine had no “inside”! It was a sculpture on the wall!

She came closer, stopping at the entrance. A long line of candles on pedestals gave enough light to make out a room decorated with ancient furniture. Anja squinted, trying to see beyond the half-light; the room stretched to the back, and into the rock in what appeared to be a long hallway.

 A delicious savory smell came from within it, so appetizing and comforting that Anja forgot her apprehension and stepped inside…

----------

Spectacular photo by @rkrkrk

[lsmontoya]

What would you choose: fur, scales, or feathers?

Human skin is truly amazing. Did you know it's the biggest organ of our bodies? If we "took off" our skin, it would weigh around 4 kg! 😮 

Still, for fantasy or sci-fi worldbuilding purposes, you might want to explore other options: For example, what would you choose: fur, scales, or feathers? 

Fur serves for camouflage, temperature regulation (especially when cold), and enhancing the sense of touch. Maybe your sentient beings with fur evolved in cold worlds that need the extra layer or live in an environment when they can be easily hunted down by predators.

Scales are useless for thermal regulation but protect the body from water loss and abrasion when moving in terrestrial mediums. In aquatic mediums, they reduce friction with water and allow the animal to move or swim faster. So your sentient beings with scales might be amphibians or live underwater.

And finally, feathers. It was thought that only birds had feathers, but now it's believed that some dinosaurs also had feathers. Feathers are necessary for insulation, temperature regulation, and flight. Your sentient beings with feathers may not necessarily fly. Still, they can be useful for insulation and communication. For example, a particular feather pattern may be the equivalent of a name. Or, they may also use a sort of feather display to find their significant other. 😉

Another curious option that I didn't want to leave behind is the exoskeleton. Unlike vertebrates, who have their skeletons on the inside, arthropods have them outside, covering their bodies. Exoskeletons primarily protect the insect with a hard protein coat; however, they limit how big they can grow. So, sentient beings with exoskeletons might have rigid movements compared to vertebrate beings and may grow slower and not as big as other beings in your world. But the tradeoff is that they would wear "armors,"  probably with the beautiful iridescent colors of the insect world.

So, what would you choose for your beings? Fur, scales, feathers… or an exoskeleton?

[lsmontoya]

Magical alphabets

“Ah, now we come to the futhark. Do you know what these are? They are called runes. These are the symbols that the ancient germanic tribes used to convey the ideas of their time. These simple angular lines embody their language. But, like all ancient alphabets, they are heavy with magic. The ancients put them on their weapons and objects to grant protection or special favors from the gods.”

“Do they still hold their power?”

“They sure do… But why don’t you try it for yourself? Mark your instrument (yes, that computer of yours) with Teiwaz, the warrior rune, and see what happens.”

------

Great rune circle by Stefan van den Berg (ArtStation)

[lsmontoya]

A lake beneath the ocean?

It lays deep beneath the sea. At first, you might think it is the ocean floor, but then you notice that this “floor” is moving. On closer inspection, you realize it is a milky mist, slightly rising and falling upon itself. Would you go further? Hagfish dive in, yet the crustaceans that teem the shore of this underwater lake of mist don’t venture beyond.

These lakes actually exist; they’re called brine pools. The density of the brine prevents it from mixing with the seawater. Any marine life that wanders into it suffocates. 

Envision a world with several “kinds” of water, each one with a different density. Can you imagine a world that had an ocean below an ocean?

Check out an unreal brine pool video by OceanX

[lsmontoya]

The Goddess in the Red Leaves

How does it feel to offer yourself to a Goddess?

Of all the supernal beings that humans have the capability of bonding with, I chose Her. No ceremony was necessary to guide my decision. I gave Her my heart, and She ensouled me with Her Fiery Breath. I am now the keeper of Her secrets and the weaver of Her spells. In my wake, a crimson tide ignites the world. In my hands, Her sigils of power channel my will. I leave now to Her House in the Burning Sea, where the fire of the world rests. If you need me, come to me. Find me in the red leaves.

------

Absolutely gorgeous photo by @rkrkrk