The Hippocampus and the Menagerie

A fearful and captive servant, who tends a menagerie of unique and captive creatures, is dazzled by the arrival of a most magnificent creature known as a hippocampus. Genre: Fantasy

Excerpt: At the center of my memory is the image of a horse, a horse the color of orange cream, rearing up, and glancing at me, with an oceanic glint in her eye. She has wings. She has fins. She is fast. I remember. She was fast. Slicing through the water like a ray of sunlight.

So I don’t know how it could have happened. But I have to do something.

I must free the hippocampus.

What’s the Writing Prompt that inspired the story?Write a story based on the image you draw of a...sea horse. No source noted. This prompt was marked “idea,” so I think it may have been my idea.

Faster FictioneerI held my first free writing workshop over Zoom to teach my method of writing short stories (an abbreviated version) on 11/8/2023. The workshop is based on my course, called “Faster Fictioneer: A Doable Method to Write a Short Story from Start to Finish in Five Weeks.”

You can watch a replay of the workshop here: FASTER FICTIONEER

(You can also buy the course there.)

I’ve Got Issues For YouThe Storyfeather Gazette is a monthly round-up of my recent podcast episodes, short stories, trailers, news, recommendations, and more that I send by email. Follow the link to look through old issues and to Sign Up: STORYFEATHER GAZETTE

Storyfeather-themed merchandiseT-shirts, mugs, stickers, notebooks, baby onesies, and more featuring artwork from stories and art challenges STORYFEATHER TEEPUBLIC STORE

CREDITSStory: “The Hippocampus and the Menagerie” Copyright © 2020 by Nila L. Patel Narration, Episode Art, Editing, and Production: Nila L. Patel

Music: “Trip-Hop Lounge Abstract Background” by Digital Emotions (Intro/Outro)

Music by NICHOLAS JEUDY (Dark Fantasy Studio)* “The ocean takes it all” “Compass” “Experiment 7” “In the shadows” “Winter guild” “Fallen leaves” “Rage” “The plan” “Into wild lands” “Northern dusk” “Ancien stones” “Dark secret” “Wide place”

*These tracks were part of a music and sound effects bundles I purchased from Humble Bundle and sourced from GameDev Market.

Music by Nicholas Jeudy licensed from GameDev Market Sound effects from AudioJungle and GameDevMarket

Find more music by Digital_Emotions at audiojungle.netFind more music by Nicholas Jeudy at gamedevmarket.netFind more stories by Nila at storyfeather.com

Episode Art Description: Digital drawing. Within a glass globe, whose edges are partly visible in frame, there floats a creature in left profile with the front half of a rearing horse and the bottom half of a sea dragon. A finlike wing extends from the creature’s back. Branching frills and ruffles of fins extend from the bottom half. The body is striped. The ruffled fins bear patches and spots of color. Glowing bubbles rise up around the creature. The globe rests on a base that’s decorated with tube-shaped coral and coiled snail shells.