Archives: Short Stories

The Saga of Sweetangel – Part 4

More! Behold:

 

The thing they didn’t tell Turtle,

Was that they rarely found missing people,

And most detectives won’t even try.

No point in searching or hoping,

When Sweetangel took what he or she pleased,

And Dirtlings could but turn a blind eye.

 

Poulter and Longthorn were careful,

It was unwise to ask of Sweetangel,

For Saltpetre was superstitious.

They spoke to their best informants,

They found a drunk who had seen Frog that night,

And his tale was quite suspicious.

 

Tatty Jack was the drunkard’s name,

Poulter plied his tongue with malt-barley brew,

Until he said that he’d seen the girl.

“She had a bounty of lodeshells,”

“She took them to the electrum quarter,”

“To the workshop of Everys Pearl.”

 

So Longthorn, Poulter and Turtle,

Made good haste through the pale fog and black night,

To the electrum engineer’s shop.

A pale Findlishwoman answered,

Mrs Pearl, decked in forge mask and apron,

Harvesting her electrical crop.

 
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The Saga of Sweetangel – Part 3

Hiya!

More Sweetangel! (There’s loads).

Have a good Woden’s Day!

 

Poulter and Longthorn shared glances,

The girl spoke of things best left unspoken,

Sweetangel was a creature of myth.

An urban legend, a fay-tale,

Dark Sweetangel comes to catch and kidnap,

None know why, or see its face and live.

 

“Turtle, you ask us for too much,”

“A case we just cannot take,” said Longthorn,

“You can’t go looking for Sweetangel.”

“Bollock and fie!” shouted Poulter,

“We will take the case, and take it for free,”

“I’ll find that foul thing if I’m able.”

 

“Not like you to give charity,”

“Or to pursue a case this ill-fated,”

“Have you misplaced your wits?” asked Longthorn.

“You know me quite well,” said Poulter,

“But you do not know why I turned gumshoe,”

“Sweetangel took my heart and left scorn.”

 

So Longthorn asked no more of him,

And the private eyes went forth with Turtle,

Searching high and low for little Frog.

They asked questions in shady pubs,

They asked the Ubus if they had heard aught,

And they wandered through streets swathed in fog.

 

 
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The Saga of Sweetangel – Part 2

Hello!

Today’s post is a continuation of said poem story! You may have to check back to remind yourself of the intro here.

 

On the eve of the First of Rain,

When the nights were long and the gutters full,

A Karkar girl found the detectives.

“No room for beggars,” said Poulter,

“Give the poor urchin a crust,” said Longthorn.

“I don’t want no food,” she protested.

 

“My name is Turtle,” said the child,

“I been told that your firm unloses things,”

“And my sister has sudden come gone.”

“An urchin can’t pay,” said Poulter,

“We’ll take the case anyways”, said Longthorn,

And he bid that Turtle’s tale go on.

 

Saltpetre had many orphans,

The girls Turtle and Frog lived among them,

But two nights ago Frog disappeared.

She was hunting for spent lodeshells,

Electrum men paid a penny for each,

To feed the machines they engineered.

 

“I searched all night long,” said Turtle,

“I asked about Frog in alleys and dens,”

“But they all had the same thing to say.”

“Sweetangel has taken the girl,”

“Sweetangel takes young and old, rich and poor,”

“Sweetangel takes good people away,”

 

More to follow, have a good one!
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