The Storm-Dance Archives - Thea van Diepen

Aish of a Grey Lion: A Storm-Dance Short Story (part 2 of 2)

Thea van Diepen

“Aish of a grey lion,” he said. “Where are your claws?” They stared at each other, Niobe sick to her stomach. He had done it. He had gone out into the eseteij and cried out for change. Why now? No, she knew why. Either the Teeshlawat Fyareng had survived or one of his followers continued in his name. Which didn’t matter. They were recruiting again, both children and from the old ranks of child-soldiers. Even if she rescued the child,

Aish of a Grey Lion: A Storm-Dance Short Story (part 1 of 2)

Thea van Diepen

The sharp scent of pine a stab through her nostrils, Niobe kept her eyes on her target as she wound her way through the trees. Uneven ground lent itself poor to graceful movement, but Niobe had the uncanny knack of keeping her shoulders level even as her feet crept across the fallen logs and moss-covered rocks beneath the underbrush. There, only twenty paces ahead and to the right was the soticheij, the monster that once was a man. Back to her,

These Stories Not for the Faint of Mind

Thea van Diepen

Recently, my best friend informed me that all of my stories are complex. At first, I was all “What? No they’re not! Why would she say that?”, but then I thought about it, and was like “Yeah… you’re right.” Which isn’t to say that they don’t start simple. They often do. And then a layer of complexity comes along and is like “Hey, can I join in?” and I’m like “Heck yes!”, which invariably leads to that layer inviting friends,

Eseteij (a Storm-Dance poem)

Thea van Diepen

The following poem is inspired by Ursula Le Guin’s book, Always Coming Home, which has a lot of poetry in it, and the poetry does a very good job at giving a sense of the main culture of the book. And, since I’ve been reading it, I decided to write a poem from one of the cultures I’ve made up for some stories I’ve been working on. In this world, there are magic storms, called eseteijo (eseteij in the singular), which

The Story Equivalent of Dropping Mentos into a Bottle of Coke.

Thea van Diepen

Right now, as well as (still) looking for a summer job, I’m taking a writing course. I signed up for it basically as soon as finals were over, which earned me an incredulous look from my mother, but I don’t mind. Why? Aside from the fact that I absolutely love learning things at all times and will actually go and research topics that interest me if I’ve gone too long without learning something new, I knew I needed something to