Cozy fantasy short stories from Starfall
38 tales from the world of Starfall
Starfall is a small world of lamplit towns, a harbour of airships above the clouds, a meadow well and a card game everybody plays. These tales are set there: cozy fantasy for grown-ups, about people with jobs to do and small things that matter to them.
In The Door That Needs a Shoulder, Pip Underweather walks four days west to catch the famous sound of Maren’s sticking door in a jar. The Violet Whale for Chapter Twelve has Ilex bargaining over her favourite violet card for the last chapter of a serial before the midwinter supper. The Comet’s Cart Goes Uphill is what happens when a tinker fixes a cart so it can’t roll into the pond, and it rolls uphill instead.
The stakes are small and real: weather, work, letters and a good game of cards.
Snow, Slowly, Not IndoorsAn eight-year-old in Lantern Hollow finds a mysterious snow card in her Midwinter mitten and writes to the person in the observatory, with far too many P.S.s, to find out who made it before the lamp supper.
The Jar That Kept the WindOn the night watch on Whistling Ridge, a fallen star lands in Pip Underweather’s sound jar, and Sable Windreader has a jar that blows the same gust over and over until dawn.
The Violet Whale for Chapter TwelveIlex has to finish the last chapter of her favourite serial before the midwinter supper, and Pell will only lend it in exchange for the violet card she has opened every game with for years.
Jem’s Knot on Rope DayJem can tie a miller’s knot one-handed without looking, but whenever she tries Ansel’s hitch she ends up with a miller’s knot or a lump, and Pip Underweather has a jar in a basket that keeps saying “take our time” in Ansel’s voice.
The Door That Needs a ShoulderPip Underweather walks four days west to put the famous sound of Maren’s door in a jar, and then finds the door won’t make it.
The Night the Well RestedOne night a year nobody may draw from the meadow well, and the well keeper has a chalked sign, a dishcloth and one kettle of tea to get the whole valley through till dawn.
Two Miles by StarlightWhen a cart wheel knocks the foot off Ivo’s two-mile stone so that it reads seven, Ivo has to recut it by night before the morning walkers come up the road, and a lamp with hardly any oil in it isn’t going to last.
Did Not Need ItA fallen star fleck gets caught in Purl’s best polishing cloth, and it won’t let Maren walk past a single knocker, lamp or milestone without stopping to shine it.
The Comet’s Cart Goes UphillCorvin the Tinker fixes the Wandering Comet’s cart so it will never roll into the pond again, and it rolls uphill instead, off across the meadow with the Comet walking briskly behind and insisting the Comet does not hurry.
The Jar Marked Sable LosingOn the last windy evening of the season, Pip Underweather climbs Whistling Ridge with two empty jars: one for the long note the ridge sings once a year, and one for the sound of Sable losing at cards, which nobody has heard in three years.