Heroes Wanted: A Fantasy Anthology

by Laura M. Hughes

“What do you think a hero is? It’s just the right person in the right place making the right choice at the right time.

Sometimes they came in the most unlikely form.

A slavad. It rose from the darkness on two human-like legs, extending to its full height, a length that nearly brushed the bottom of the roadways above. Long black fibers grew from its glossy chitin; they plucked the tendrils of the rock dog souls that lined the entrance to its lair, strumming out a harrowing ripple that filled the cavern. The slavad took in its surroundings with four iridescent eyes, set closely above its fangs, which it could not hide even with its mouth closed; weapons as black as the darkness it came from and sharper than any sword or spear in Agreeja.

A great discription of a monster

The slavad opened its jaws and Liddle saw the strands of soul from his previous victims still amongst its gums, colorful bits of person still gleaming in there like it had torn apart a rainbow.

When it bit and tore away the souls of the creatures it looked as though the slavad was pulling out threads from a scarf.

“It doesn’t take a hero to kill a man.”

It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”

born a hero; a hero is born from a sequence of choices.”

I’d love to see how you’d kill a man with a pig-shaped salt shaker.” With concern on his face, the tinsmith looked at the pig, then at Royce.

Nice I'd like to see that too!

The guard’s lip had curled around the word ‘rat’ as if it left a bad taste in his mouth. The gesture was familiar to Ori. The guard was not, but that was nothing unusual; fighters among the Onyx Host were virtually interchangeable these days. Perhaps that was why they were always so short-tempered; knowing you were disposable could hardly be conducive to a winning disposition.