Tales Grand and Grim

By V.J. Kendall

Seven ballads set all within the same world where magic and fantastic creatures exist as a matter of fact rather than as imagination. Each is an exploration of the human condition, of how life, love, and adventure would exist and come to be even within a fantasy world we would otherwise idealize.

• Language: English
• Publisher: V.J. Kendall
• Release date: Jul 15, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223157021

Book preview

II

Then, ghastly laughter filled his ears,

likewise the crunch of bone!

The restless dead broke through the floor

that hid their catacombs!

With grinning teeth and grasping claws,

they sprung out at the boy.

The only choice left for him

was to battle and destroy.

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Each loathsome monster’s countenance was frightful and bizarre.

From all around — from front, and back, and near, and also far

— the dead descended upon him with grisly repertoire.

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Not all was lost though, for the boy

had wits and skill enough

that in his hands his sword sliced true

with nary a rebuff.

Yet still in waves the dead poured forth,

too numerous to count.

Our lad took pause to ponder

if these foes he would surmount.

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A bitter taste sat on his tongue, the rancid burn of bile.

These dreadful things! he said aloud. Unnatural and vile!

And so he hewed them bone from bone and trod upon the piles.

III

Snap! Rat-a-tat! The noise was stark

as bones splintered and cracked.

He lunged, and plunged, and slashed, and dashed,

and fervidly attacked.

A swell of pride grew in his chest

with every fiend he slew,

but then a shadow fell on him,

dimming his line of view.

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Panting with exertion, soaked with sweat, and smeared with grime,

he turned his head intrepidly, heart thumping double-time;

behind him loomed a hulking ghoul awash in ash and slime.

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It towered over him in size,

beyond the