PodCastle Miniature 84: The Fox Brideby Mari Ness
Read by Rish OutfieldFirst appeared in Daily Science Fiction in March of 2015.
He carried the squirming animal to his – no, their, he had to remember that now, their – bedroom, struggling to avoid her sharp teeth. The oversized ring he had given her glimmered on her left front leg; she had spent most of the evening biting and licking at it, when she had not been growling. He had ordered the musicians to play louder, to cover up the noise, but the growls still lingered in his ears.
When he reached the room, he secured her chain to one end of the bed, and sat gingerly at the other end. The waxing moonlight flooded the bed, giving a silver sheen to her red and snowy fur.
“When you are a woman, I can remove the chain,” he told the fox.
The fox barked.
“I swear it,” he said.
A snarl.Rated PG-13.Mari Ness has published close to 100 short and flash fiction stories in various publications including Tor.com, Clarkesworld, Daily Science Fiction, and Apex. Her experimental novella,
Through Immortal Shadows Singing, is forthcoming from Papaveria Press. She blogs at Tor.com, where she has, amongst other things, compared Disney animated films to their text sources. She lives in central Florida.
Rish Outfield. Not much can be said about Mr. Outfield that hasn’t been said by the average parent to scare their children into behaving, into going to sleep, or keeping their mouths shut about what they saw take place in the woodshed. You will find him regularly at
The Dunesteef podcast, which he produces with Big Anklevich, and you can hear him pretty much everywhere in the genre story pod-o-sphere. And for good reason!
Listen to this week’s PodCastle!