Flames devour the clouds, while we stare in open horror. I do not know if there will be any more rainbows during my lifetime, because I do not know if there will be any more rain. I heard a rumor that some corporation signed a deal that was read to grant the cloud herders the right to do this, to vaporize our clouds and chase the vapors into their ( Read more... )

The no-parking signs no longer stood sentinel against cars. With the incoming tide and the rising of the water level up to a good three feet in the former parking lot, they had become anchor points for people to tie their canoes up against. It was one of the benefits of living in a former city, everybody agreed--the sheer prevalence of signs for ( Read more... )

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The algal bloom was a deep purple, and the town cheered. Their remediation had been successful; they could incorporate a town on the edge of the lake and fish in it and bathe in its water and drink from it (after proper filtration, of course). They had been a wandering town for so long, with three failed remediation attempts behind them, that this ( Read more... )

The riparian nomads were known to the water spirits, and vise versa. This did not help their popularity in the communities that they visited. Anyone untouched by the same kind of drownings, sudden floods, and other waterborne calamities was not viewed popularly, no matter that their caravan barges held all manner of useful things and their plays, ( Read more... )

The bubbles rose to the surface of the pool and burst in great explosions of water that spattered the tiles of the wall and sent chlorine belches into the air. Good thing coach wasn't there to see this; he'd've gone crazy, seeing his nice pool being destroyed like that. Destroyed? Oh, yeah, it wasn't only water that was exploding. Tiles around ( Read more... )

William the Silent frowned when the stadtholders came before him with their complaints, but he saw the way that it would go. Their dikes were failing, one and all, and there was only one option before them that they saw: to buttress themselves against the world. His military advisors, chomping at the bit to actually fight a war and justify their ( Read more... )

The fishing was fine that last Saturday afternoon, the last one the ones that we were to enjoy. We didn't know that, though, of course. To us, it was just a mighty fine fishing day. To the invaders, it was a sign that our people would do just fine dumped on one of their colony worlds where there was nothing *but* fishing days, because the only land ( Read more... )

The "Complete Moisture Solution" pack wasn't as advertised, he thought, scowling down into his basement. Sure, there hadn't been any more leaks--but now there were those disgusting glowing, pulsing leach-like things wrapped around all his pipes. They were creepy and weird. They muttered quietly to each other, and he thought they sometimes sang in ( Read more... )

Shiny were the glimmer-flies along the bank of River Ponlaki on the night that she went wandering out upon the dew-drowned grass to see her husband's face. All the girls were told that if they went and did and saw, true it would be, and happy too. There were the risks of walking beside the river after the moon rose, but those were brushed aside ( Read more... )