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The Fantasy Festival: The First Night (free prequel) cover

Illustrated stories

The Fantasy Festival: The First Night (free prequel)

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Free to download: the night the Fantasy Festival was born. A god of size, a dying circus, a strongman with nothing left to lose and a farmhand with a secret.

The story

Kansas, 1909. Crane's Wonder Circus is giving its very last show to half-empty benches. Its star, Thaddeus Crane, the strongest man in the West, has nothing left to lose. On the third bench, a shy farmhand called Henry Dale can't take his eyes off him.

Far beyond the edge of everything, in a temple of golden worlds, Auxiano, the God of Size, has been locked away by his brothers. He grows stronger every time a man dreams of being made small, or of growing until every other man has to look up. And tonight he has found his way out.

One bargain later, the strongman is seven feet of carved muscle with a silver beard, golden eyes and a staff that can make any man any size. The old proprietor is the Ticket-Master, with a box of leather tickets that beat like hearts. And a ticket with Henry's name on it is fluttering across the prairie towards his hayloft.

From the story

The Ringmaster stood over him, and he was the size of a cathedral.

Henry was six inches tall. Beside him, the toe of one great black boot rose like the prow of a ship, polished so bright that he could see himself in it. The leather of the boot climbed above him in a gleaming black wall, up and up, to the laces, to the great leather column of the Ringmaster's leg, and above that, so far above that it was hazy with cigar smoke, the face. Silver beard. Golden eyes. Smiling down. …

What's inside

  • Free: download it, read it in your library, keep it
  • A 29-page illustrated PDF, about 8,700 words, with 14 new pictures
  • The prequel to Shrink Files 21, 22 and 46: the origin of the Ringmaster, the Ticket-Master and the Festival's magic

Continue the saga

Kinks in this story

Your ticket is waiting.

Details

Format
Illustrated story (PDF)
Length
29 pages · About 8,500 words
How you get it
Read online in your library, or download to keep
File
PDF, 4.05 MB
Audience
Adults only (18+). Every character is over 18.

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