He Must Go Walk the Woods So Wild

By S.L. Dove Cooper

Sometimes, all the world needs is a little bright comfort.

Other times, what it needs is a pinch of darkness.

In these twenty-five stories and three poems, S.L. Dove Cooper presents a balance of both in a mixture of fantasy and science fiction. In this collection, woods are dark and nights are dangerous and full of wonder. Fairies can be benign forces of nature. Or they can be the most dangerous predators of all. Magic can be caught and spun into impossible quests. In the far future, the most terrifying thing of all may be the prospect of making new friends. Including:

* Four teens find themselves caught in a fairy tale some of them will never walk out of.

* When GalaQuest comes hurtling into Hedriar's life, so does one of her sisters. And Hedriar will have to choose where her help is most needed.

* A mermaid's curiosity sees both herself and a prince caught in a witch's trap.

* All throughout his adult life, Paad has not been allowed to watch the dragons hatch, but when a hatching goes wrong, he may be the only one who can save the day.

* Little Red Riding Hood's granddaughter has learned well from her family's mistakes, and isn't going to repeat them.

With humour and heart, the stories in this collection present a quiet, yet not always cosy, look at the fantastical and magical mundane.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dovelet Books
• Release date: Mar 18, 2021
• ISBN: 9781393035367

Book preview

He Must Go Walk the Woods So WildHe Must Go Walk the Woods So Wild by S.L. Dove Cooper

To all Patrons who supported me through the years.

Without you, this collection would be infinitely less rich.

Thank you for all your support!

Table of Contents

Content Notes

Introduction

How Goat Ate the Sky

The Little White Snake

The Fish Killers

Your Prince Has Drowned

Little Cats

Winter Rose

I Am the Magic

The Night I Met the Girl Outside of Time

The Tooth Fairy

The Thirteenth Child

Lânik and the Archives of Se Chatyn

A Little Gentleness

The City

The Writer

The Great Bird

Balanced by These Horrors

Big Skies, Small Wings

Kitty

Evenflower's Call

Weather Letters

The Knight's Ribbon

He Must Go Walk the Woods So Wild

The Prince and the Nightingale

The Cerulean Sidelines Quest

The Stalking of Sally Foth

The Golden Rose

The Shimmering Prayer of Sûkiurâq

Bright with Every Dye

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Introduction

It’s been a wild ride since I started a Patreon and then began publishing a piece of short fiction or poetry for patrons every month. For a start, I’m writing the first draft of this introduction at the tail end of 2020, the year of the COVID-19 pandemic and wherein nothing happened the way we’d wanted or even could have expected, throwing many, if not all, of us off quite a bit.

For another, a lot of the stories I wrote for Patreon – and some which I was going to stick in my portfolio, but things happened and I wanted to share and maybe cheer people up with some softer and gentler tales – turned out to be wildly different from what I expected.

I’ve never been much of a planner, so it’s little surprise that I’d toss out what outlines I had, but who knew that I leaned towards novelettes or longer nowadays rather than to short stories? I certainly didn’t, though based on what I’ve written for 2020, it’d seem that’s where my pieces generally end up nowadays. It’s not that I wrote none that are genuine short stories. Just that everything that wasn’t already a short story in need of updating... mostly didn’t stay short.

Likewise, I couldn’t foresee that, in 2020, I’d detour slightly from all my plans to set up a quiet, cosy SF setting specifically for people like me who want small (well, novelette-length), low stakes stories and a dream of what the future could be, or just some more quieter character-focused SFF where nothing goes pewpew or boom.

Yet here we are and all of these things are true. Even if 2020 kicked my behind enough that my hopes of publishing a whole collection of quiet SF stories in 2020 turned out to be, well, a bust. It was a rough year. We can’t have everything, and 2021 is wide open before us.

On top of that, I decided to split my writings into two pen names so people would find it easier to know whether to expect poetry or prose when picking up one of my books. That’s still an ongoing process for a couple of reasons, not least which needing to revise and finish two whole books, but it’s slowly getting there!

On a more personal note, who knew the friends I’d make in 2020 – shout-out to the Fantasy Inn Discord especially! – or what I’d learn about myself since starting a Patreon in 2017. I certainly couldn’t have foreseen the wonderful and sometimes delightfully silly friendships I’d develop or deepen over the course of these four years.

This collection consists of my favourite pieces that I’ve published on Patreon between 2017-2020. I’ve learned my lesson from the first collection I did, indeed! Though, by the time this introduction and book makes it out into the world Feather by Feather will also have got a nice and much-needed makeover, or be in the very final stages.

This collection also consists of predominantly fantasy stories with a few soft science fiction pieces thrown in for good measure. It also has a handful of poems because I felt terrible leaving them out. They’re the pieces I’m proudest of and the ones I’ve enjoyed working on the most. Fun fact: despite writing verse novels under a different name and knowing these are my most popular books, I don’t consider myself a poet. I really don’t write enough of it to consider myself one, but I do always enjoy it and I’m humbled to know that others do too.

I wish I had some great story about how my life has changed since 2017. It’s seen some changes. Some that were great and fell through, some that came with massive heartbreak. But the net result is that my life is pretty boring. Also, I cannot stress this enough, 2020 happened. I would’ve had a massive story about living in a hostel for several months to share if 2020 hadn’t happened.

It’s not all been down to 2020, though. I’ve also spent some much needed time recovering and while I’m nowhere near where I want to be yet and I’m not sure how much it’s genuinely helped, I actually do feel better and more comfortable in my own skin.

So here’s to hoping that 2021 will treat us all a lot better and people will learn to treat each other a lot better. I hope that wherever you are in the world, this collection finds you well and that 2021 will treat you kindly!

S.L. Dove Cooper

04 March 2021

>How Goat Ate the Sky

Listen, dear one, for this was the way of it. In the days before the people chose their shape, it was that Goat decided he would graze the sky. As the people were yet young and playful, they did not notice anything amiss until the day Goat started to eat the sun, and the world was covered in darkness. It was only now that Goat had begun to eat the sun, that the people noticed he had already grazed all the other light from the sky.

Many of the people were scared and did not know what to do. Hawk and Hummingbird flew up to Goat where he was eating and tried to reason with him, but Goat ignored them and munched on. The sun flared brightly in an attempt to burn Goat and chase him away, but Goat did not seem to mind that his fur got singed.

All the plants are dying! cried the people. Hawk pecked at him and Hummingbird flew around him. You are killing everyone!

But Goat kept eating until he had gobbled up the whole sun and said, My stomach hurts, and curled up where he lay for he could not see anything more than any of the other people could. He rested his head between his legs and, in time, he burped out part of the sun. It was just a small part, but it was enough for some of the people to see by.

Owl joined Hawk and Hummingbird up in the sky and scolded Goat for eating the Sun. Goat only complained about how much his stomach hurt. All the pieces of sun that he had eaten burned in his belly and he wished he had never eaten the sun at all! Owl suggested that Goat throw up the sun, but Goat did not much like that idea. Hawk and Goat started arguing.

As Owl tried to calm Hawk and Goat, Hummingbird flew up and down to feed the small fragment of sun twigs and whatever the bird could carry in its beak. Hummingbird hoped that the food would give the little piece of sun strength to grow big and strong, so that they would not need Goat to restore light to the world. Indeed, the little sun grew and, while Owl and Hawk and Goat did not notice, all the people who saw what Hummingbird was doing helped in any way they could. They fed the little sun until it was a brightly glowing ball that lit up the world once more.

Goat was miserable. His stomach hurt and he was hungry and everyone was angry with him for eating the sky. He did not much mind the latter, such is merely the way of Goat, but he minded that there was no more tasty food. The sun had been too hot, but he had quite liked to eat the stars and the moon. Goat burped again and another small fragment of sun escaped. It stayed close to its big sister-fragment, small and hidden, for it did not wish to be eaten again.

The people scolded Goat severely. They told him that neither he nor his children nor his children’s children’s children nor their children could come down to eat the weeds and bushes until Goat had brought all the stars and the moon back to the sky. Goat laughed at them for after all he was Goat, but the people were true to their word. Goat’s children were chased into the sky and they could not return down to eat. And they dared not eat the fragments of sun, for the first sun still lay heavy and painful in Goat’s stomach and did not make good eating.

There were clouds in the sky still, but Goat’s children soon grew bored of clouds. They could not jump on them and they could not eat them. There was nothing for them to do up there. The only time anyone would acknowledge them was when they tried to eat from the ground. Then, the people would chase them back up into the sky. Goat’s children missed the solid earth and the trees and the people and they complained loudly.

After even Goat was tired of hearing the complaints of his children, he huffed and puffed, but the pieces of sun had grown cold in his belly and he could do nothing. He had no light to make stars with. He certainly had nothing to make a moon with. Goat told his children to be patient and play games with each other until he had found out what to do. And so Goat thought and Goat slept and there was nothing in the sky but the two suns, Goat and his children, and the clouds.

Finally, Goat had to relieve himself, and that gave him an idea. He asked his children to chase the suns away and keep them at a distance so that he could work in secrecy. And so his children did and Goat sought out the darkest corner of the sky that he could find for his work. Not even Cat or her cousins would have been able to see him there had they been looking. All the people were busy chasing after Goat’s children.

And while the people were so distracted, Goat pooped out all that remained of the moon and the stars and the moon and set to work making them whole and new. He could not make them as bright as the sun had been before he’d eaten it, but he did his best. He scattered his new stars across the sky without thought for how they looked together and he had to give the moon strength to grow bigger, just as Hummingbird had fed the sun, but finally there was a new moon and Goat hung it, carefully, in the sky.

When his children chased the suns past him, the people following them gasped, tumbling over one another in shock. They clapped at the new moon and they did not even mind the stars being in such disarray. They were very impressed with Goat and allowed him and his children to come down to the ground again. Goat’s children had learned their lessons as well as they ever will, but Goat? Oh, dear one, that is another story for another time.

The Little White Snake

Was once a girl lived in the Kaur about an hour’s walk as the sun travels from Jaast where the revolt started proper and her name was Elspet. She lived there with her parents and they lived off selling peat blocks and woven baskets. They were off well enough, though they had little money and no one else around for ages. They had each other and all that, so they were happy living off the land as best they could.

Elspet was a young thing and every morning she’d put some of her milk onto a small clay plate and put it outside. See you, there lived a little white snake near the family and Elspet fed it milk as faithful as ever there was a faithful person. And every Sunday evening she’d find a silver penny on her plate and that helped the family live.

But her parents didn’t know where the coins came from and Elspet told them it was from the Lord and Lady Almighty. She didn’t know for sure, but the snake’d never done nothing to harm anyone and besides it was angel-coloured.

Mind, this was all a long time ago when the country was still under the yoke of the Valanians, though common folk like Elspet and her parents didn’t much care long as the soldiers left them in peace and they’d food. Doesn’t matter to them who was lord of what. They’d be taxed the same.

But one day the lords of Jaast rebelled and the Valanians came and they set fire to the Kaur. The wind was strong that day and it carried the flames further and further til there was nary a spot that didn’t seem to be burning.

And there were Elspet and her parents, right in the middle, all choking on the smoke. They’d put cloth to their mouths, but it wasn’t doing much and their eyes were stinging tearfully. They were sweating with the heat, trying to grab what they could of the house and save whatever they could.

And who’d Elspet spot but the little white snake she fed every morning? It slithered away and then came back like a dog wanting you to follow. It took little Elspet a few moments to realise the snake’s strange behaviour was its way of saying ‘follow’ and she thanked the Lady and begged her parents to trust her.

Eventually, cart heavy and laden, they followed their daughter and their daughter followed the little white snake. It was slow going, though the snake made sure Elspet never lost sight of it. They followed and followed, abandoning the cart partway when it got stuck and the flames were too close to free it.

They followed and followed until they reached the great lake. Elspet gave a cry when she saw it through the dark ashes around her. She rushed forward to thank the little white snake, but it was nowhere to be seen any more.

Elspet and her parents waded into the shallows of the water until they found a small abandoned coracle. It was a little singed, but otherwise undamaged. Its previous owner had, sadly, not been as lucky as they. They buried him, best they could, and fled in the coracle to where the fire wasn’t come.

Elspet never did see that little snake no more, but she always set out a little dish full of milk in the morning and it’d be empty by evening. And every Sunday, she’d find herself a little silver penny in the dish until the end of her days.

The Fish Killers

Was once a very foolish city. A very foolish city indeed. It was called Jaast and it wasn’t quite so big as now, but still it was big and rich enough to buy city rights and had its own count. And that means it’s a city proper if ever anything did. Now, Jaast this city isn’t nowhere near sea water and so the people almost never eat sea fish. Was in the middle of a swamp, so it was, though there’s no swamp nowhere near it today. It lies days and days from the sea and the people then never travelled no further than Ijwezerhoof for the big market. That was far enough to travel for the people of the city of Jaast, so it was.

One day so it happened a fishmonger came to the city. But he wasn’t no ordinary fishmonger for he had the Adversary on his cart. Ash-grey he was, just like he’d come from the Abyss and that there fishmonger didn’t look none too clean either. But the Adversary he was ash-grey and soot-black and had mean, mean little eyes that said your soul was going with him to the Abyss very soon.

The guards at the city gates wouldn’t let the fishmonger pass and sounded the alarm for no good and pious person willingly lets the Adversary into their home, see that they don’t.

And when all was said and told, all the men of the city came out with their knives and pitchforks and hammers and anything that could be a weapon. And all the boys they followed them, taking all things could be used as clubs with them, for all their mothers tried to stop them. Their fathers didn’t try nothing acause they were all marching to the gate themselves ahead of the boys.

When they got there, they attacked the Adversary, so they did. They ran him through and beat him up with all their weapons and threw him upon the ground and dragged him through the dirt, hoping to kill the Evil One and so do good in the world and assure themselves of a place with the Lord and Lady Almighty. They were so many the Adversary didn’t even try to fight back. He knew when righteousness was too much for him, so he did.

Was an older time and the people of the city of Jaast weren’t none too reasonable with the fear and the presence of the Dark Prince and all. Was such they would’ve attacked the fishmonger too, ‘cept he was clearly human and frightened out of his mind, so he had a chance at salvation and a right to a priest.

So it was the folk of Jaast fetched one of their priests to come and look at the Adversary and hear the fishmonger’s confession and repentance, so they did. They crowded around the fishmonger’s cart and made sure he couldn’t go nowhere until the priest came.

They fair left the Adversary where he lay with only a few guards, trusting as they did that the Adversary was well and truly defeated by the power of their pious violence as that they had done him.

Only, most all the priests were at prayer and not to be disturbed. The only one who wasn’t was old Sjro, who was ill and thus excused from attending the service. He couldn’t walk alone no more and so his maid and servant came with him to support his passage.

When they arrived there, the maid burst out laughing and laughing and laughing. If not for his other servant, the poor priest would have fallen into the dirt, so hard was the maid laughing and the menfolk gathered there shifted uneasily, worrying that their beloved Sjro had been tricked by the Adversary.

So’s the priest was leaning on his servant and the maid was laughing and by now the womenfolk had come up to the commotion and everyone was staring at the maid like she was a witch and needed to be burned or drowned.

But she wasn’t no witch, see you that she wasn’t, no. Just she’d grow up far away near the sea and she knew very well that what the good city-folk of Jaast had attacked wasn’t no Adversary at all. Was a stingray, so it was, but the people of Jaast they’d never seen the like before and thought it was the Adversary come to ruin their city and steal their souls.

The poor fishmonger was let go, so he was, shaken but paid for all the damages the folk had done to his wares. He never did travel too far from the sea again, so’s to avoid meeting people didn’t know he wasn’t travelling to bring ruin to their town.

And that’s how the people of Jaast came to be known as the Fish Killers so it was and that just shows you you can’t never tell what something is by looking at it acause it just might be what you haven’t never seen before, so it could.

Your Prince Has Drowned

Your prince has drowned.

Do you want to RESTORE your attempt, RESTART or QUIT?

> restore

You are swimming in the sea. The light filters hazily through the water and it is difficult to see in the murky depths. You float on the warm current, surrounded on all sides by water. Your senses warn you of nearby rocks and other sea life, but most of the latter leave you alone and you are too high up to encounter much of the former.

> u

You swim up until you breach the surface of the water. The sun is high in the sky, making the sea shimmer around you. There is nothing in your vicinity SAVE clear sky and waves. You can see a whale in the distance.

> w

You swim west. The sea continues to shimmer in the sunlight, as calm as a sea will ever be. Keeping your bearing is difficult without a good idea of the terrain below, but not impossible. You have, after all, had all of your life to learn the ways of the sea and the mysterious landscape beneath the waves. You stop when you are tired and would like a rest. There is nothing but ocean as far as the eye can see.

> search

You find nothing of interest. Are you sure you’re looking for the PRINCE in the right place?

> d

You swim down below the surface. The sunlight is hazy, but you can just make out the fish darting through the water. They scatter at your approach, quicksilver glints soon out of your reach.

> d

You swim down to the very depths of the ocean. The sunlight cannot penetrate here.

> look

It is too dark to see.

> n

It is too dark to see. You don’t know where north is.

> u

At least up is an easy direction to determine in the darkness of the ocean’s heart. You swim back to your usual depths. The light is hazy, but you can just make out the fish darting through the water. They scatter at your approach, undoubtedly afraid they’ll be your next meal. You are getting a little peckish.

> wait

You wait.

> wait

You wait.

> look

You see the sea. It looks no different from the way it has looked all your life. Nearby a pod of dolphins is playing.

> play

I do not understand.

…

Your prince has drowned.

Do you want to RESTORE your attempt, RESTART or QUIT?

> restore

You are swimming in the sea. The light filters hazily through the water and it is difficult to see in the murky depths. You float on the warm current, surrounded on all sides by water. Your senses warn you of nearby rocks and other sea life, but most of the latter leave you alone and you are too high up to encounter much of the former.

> help

Help who? You are alone.

> help prince

The PRINCE is not here.

> look for prince

The PRINCE is not here.

> restart

Are you sure? Y/N?

> Y

Beneath the waves of the ocean lies a thriving kingdom. It is often believed that the sea people live at the very bottom of the ocean, but this is not true. They have built their civilisation between the surface of the sea where humans may spot and hunt them and the bottom of the sea where not even their lanterns can penetrate far into the darkness. They have made their homes in caves with more comfort and luxury than imaginable and their ocean kingdom is filled with treasures the likes of which the human world has never beheld, not being able to survive long enough to see the wonders for themselves.

In that kingdom, there lived a princess. She was the youngest of seven sisters and the most curious. She was not the prettiest princess and she was not the fastest swimmer, but she had a beautiful voice. She was clever and brave and one of the few sea people who eschewed the eating of fish. That had been the Sea King’s fault for one night he had desired to tell his children a story about the sea. Normally it was his husband who looked after the children for both the Sea King and the Sea Queen were terribly busy with affairs of state. Tonight, the Sea King wished to spend some time with his children and so he told them a story about how the fish lost their intelligence. The idea that fish had once been like the sea people so horrified the youngest princess that she vowed never to eat any again.

On another night, the princess’s mother, the Sea Queen, told the seven sisters the story of how the sea people and humans came to be so at odds with one another, for the two races do not get along. Humans will hunt the sea people and take their bodies from the ocean, while sea people will lead any humans to a watery grave. Yet, it was custom for their kind to surface on the eve of their maturation and to watch humans from a distance for there is always a hope, fainter with each passing generation, that the relations between the sea people and the humans can still be mended.

The princess, ever since hearing her mother’s story, sneaked away to the surface as often as she could. The tale of two-legged people and their lives outside of the sea fascinated the young sea girl. It was on her seventeenth birthday that she was finally allowed to swim up to the surface. From that eve onward, she would be allowed to swim up as often as she liked or dared. She could get as close to the human kingdom as she felt safe.

…

Eager to discover the human lands above the surface without fear of censure, you have swum to the surface near a human settlement. You have hidden behind a rock jutting out of the water as you stare at the beach to the north. It is almost deserted. There are a few humans moving about on the sand.

> se

You swim south-east. This turns out to be a particularly bad choice. So excited are you about having seen humans without fear of repercussions that you don’t pay attention to your surroundings and you find yourself caught in a net. You are frantically trying to break free. After a while your throat is hoarse FROM calling for help and your head is throbbing FROM attempting to reach out to anyone near. The water is so disturbed by your struggle that there is nothing near you. It is a wonder that the humans on the beach do not hear you screaming.

> wait

You are too panicked to wait. You thrash and fight against the net that is holding you. You only succeed in tightening its grip.

> wait

You are too panicked to wait. Your struggle only further tightens the net. Much more of this and it may kill you.

> bite net

Exhausted, you stay still long enough for an idea to brush past the panic. Your teeth are sharp; the net is weak. You start to bite at the rope you can reach. It is slow and careful work, for the net is thin and hard for you to catch between your teeth. Eventually, you manage to create a gap large enough for you to squeeze through.

You are free!

> leave

Go where?

> e

You swim east. The sun is setting, turning the sky the colour of coral and jewels. In the distance you can see a ship.

> ship

What do you want to do with the ship?

> swim to ship

You swim towards the large ship. Every fibre of your being hurts from the cuts of the net’s fine mesh, but your curiosity has never been stronger. You know that there are humans on ships and you will be able to get closer to them than to the ones on the beach. It takes you a while to catch