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Challenge #04548-L164: Out of Sight...

The elderly who had none to care for them in this village were more than cast out. They were set at the edge of a village in a little hut that had naught but a couple thin, rough beds a couple flagons of water, stale bread, and little else. The Disappearing Hut, because the elderly always seemed to vanish from it.

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04507-l123-low-made-high -- Anon Guest

Word came to Pine Hills that there was a realm where the Lord sponsored the infirm and elderly. Including reserving some of his budget for public caregivers to look after the health and welfare of those who could not look after themselves. To Rein, it felt like a nursery tale. Something made up for people to daydream about.

Rein's local Lord was not like that made-up daydream Lord. He had the opinion that the weak deserved to perish and the strong had to live by the sweat of their collective brows. Children were only exempt because of their potential to be useful. And if one of the strong became weak? The Vanishing House.

A house outside the walls of the city-state, where the lord kept a week's worth of rations, a small cluster of bunk beds, and the barest minimum of blankets or firewood. The tax money for the House was a lot cheaper than a host of pensions, he argued.

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Challenge #04547-L163: You Got a Big Storm Coming

Never underestimate a human with a really twisted sense of humor, friends in serious danger, a box of jokes, and nothing left to lose. -- Anon Guest

Shouldn't have messed with me, you flakkers. And you really should not have messed with my ship and my crew. You thought you were stealing people, a ship, and all that it came with. You thought you didn't have to worry about a Ship's Human because I was doing EVA maintenance when you attacked.

Bad

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Challenge #04546-L162: Adventure Begins

Wraithvine is asked to set up a small training dungeon to help teach young, inexperienced, adventuring parties who are just starting out. -- Anon Guest

Adventurers were a kind of plague of their own. They tended to barge in, wreak havoc, forget what they went there for, and steal anything that wasn't nailed down. Most of the time, they could be aimed at dangerous places, but closer to civilised spaces? People had to hire Adventurers to get the Adventurers out of their

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Challenge #04545-L161: Prejudice's Shadow

They did not speak, childhood illness stole their voice. But the Harukh village didn't care. This human had always been kind to them, helping them when illnesses or injuries came their way. They also made it clear to so-called "heros", this human who could not speak was not going to be mistreated. The human, for their part, kept trying to make it clear, wordlessly, they didn't NEED "saving". -- Anon Guest

[AN: Harukh are mostly nomadic, so this place is a statistical

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Challenge #04544-L160: Homicidal Weather Patterns

They were visiting Earth. The skies turned a strange greenish hue, the winds went quiet, even the insects went still. The human grabbed their friends and swiftly dragged them to a metal bunker with only two words. "Twister's coming!" -- Anon Guest

Visiting the aptly-named Terra is not recommended for level three Havenworlders and above. Those undergoing resilliance training must do so under strict supervision from an epigenetic advisor. Why?

Well. Even in the most civilised and tamed areas, there are unexpected

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Challenge #04543-L159: Recompense

They were very thin, hungry, but afraid to ask. They were told these strangers made you pay more than your money for their aid. And she had very little money to begin with. -- Anon Guest

There were a lot of stories about these invaders from the stars. How they did terrible things. How they ruined worlds. How they ruined lives. How they preyed upon the weak and the vulnerable and did despicable things to children.

Eidel had been hiding for weeks,

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Challenge #04542-L158: All Due Respect

Careful to whom you speak, and the tone of use. Just remember insult is rarely forgotten, and not all retribution is swift. -- Anon Guest

Night Watch, ten years before the significant event...

Officer Druempf almost missed the moving shadow in the half-light of dawn. "Halt! Who goes there?"

The shadow slowed, sighed and straightened, revealing itself as that double-damned devilborn. The alleged lordling who was the most infamous student of that Elf's school in the landscaping place. "It's only me, Officer,

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Challenge #04541-L157: Heroic Celebration

Wraithvine hates goodbyes, really hates them. But not all goodbyes are sad. This one, as ze left a wedding they had been invited to, was happy. They knew this family, they would meet them again. So it was not goodbye, it was "See you later." -- Anon Guest

Heroes tend to have open-air weddings in large fields, or take over an auditorium for the ceremony. Mostly because of all the people wanting to wish them well. There's other decorations to make it

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Challenge #04540-L156: Restful Sanctuary

Each night the songs started. Soft, gentle, soothing. These songs eased the tired Wizard and hir dragon friend to sleep, along with the gentle purring cat in the Wizard's lap. -- The New Guy

[AN: Mature Elves don't sleep. They meditate.]

The world is large, and full of perils. One would expect that from a world made for Dragons. What's less expected is the occasional island of succour.

This is the Singing Forest. Legend says a great hero once placed a piece

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Challenge #04539-L155: Something-something Power, Something-something...?

'You may find after a time that the having is not so pleasing as the wanting. It is not Logical but I have found it to be so.' More or less a 'Spock' quote . Have fun. -- She Who Knits

[AN: Unfun Fact - My mother rubbed my aspiration failures into my face with this quote at every opportunity. I am desperately trying to not let that flavour this story. Wish me luck]

Hail to the Chief Executive Officer, they who

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Challenge #04538-L154: Singer For Supper

You need or want something non standard or they do not sell what you want in the usual retailers. Bespoke, Made to Measure, Made for you to use. Or for you to gift to someone. -- She Who Knits

Automation is great for standard things. Everyone agrees with that simple fact. You can replace broken things with a near-identical copy, at a relatively cheap price. This applies very well to things, especially things of common use.

Furniture, vehicles, housing... even shaped foodstuffs,

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Challenge #04537-L153: Please Don't Make Me Laugh

They say laughter is the best medicine, but that's not quite true. It's just a good aid to proper care. -- Anon Guest

Let me get this into your head - laughter is not always the best medicine. Just try doing it when your next breath is being debated by committee. Metaphorically, of course. It's just as difficult to breathe when it feels like you're allergic to air.

I'll spare you the sordid details of abundant mucous generation and leave you with

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Challenge #04536-L152: Desperate Motivations

To get to where they are needed, they must travel through the maelstrom of lightening, heavy rains, winds, ... and worse. -- Anon Guest

The world was full of scars like this. If 'scar' could apply to an eternal cyclone guaranteed to repel travelers from attempting to breach it. In the middle, in the eye of that permanent storm, was the floating island of Aljanna. A paradise lost to most of the mortal world.

Legend held that they were safeguarding a mighty weapon.

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Challenge #04535-L151: Blown Back

The first hundred times didn't work out so good, but this time it will. -- Anon Guest

If at first you don't succeed... the saying goes. Sometimes, try, try, and try again, is not the ideal solution. It's that kind of philosophy that results in history's echoes.

Again and again, those who rise to power seek to create their ideal society by forcing the populace to adhere to rigid rules or face harsh punishment. Again and again, the populace rebels and the

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Challenge #04534-L150: Ameliorative Measures

They said the eclipse would only last minutes. It's been a century. -- Anon Guest

We know the sun is still there. We can see its corona around the shadow of the moon. We're lucky that we have the technology to grow crops without sunlight. We're very lucky that our energy sources aren't causing more problems than they solved.

If this had happened half a century earlier, we would be looking to our extinction in a mere handful of years.

If it

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