Picaresque Stories

Saya has a special arrangement with a dragon. She gets tied to rocks. He gets the gold. They scam villages with fake sacrifices, overcooked rituals, and a convincing act of "damsel in distress." She's no maiden - just a fast-talking harlot with sharp instincts, flexible morals, and a talent for moaning on cue. He's no terrifying beast - just a very old, very gay, very arthritic lizard with a hoard, a temper, and joint pain from shapeshifting too much in the bygone ages. It's all going swimmingly until heroes start showing up. Cults get nosy. Other dragons get ideas. And Saya begins to wonder what exactly she's doing in a world where virtue gets sacrificed and livestock counts as treasure. A sword-and-sandals fantasy with scams, sarcasm, sensuality, and sheep.

"It was an easy time to be born. The year is 1982. His nose was sniffing around, his ears were listening..." The desert is a vast place, and Sane Son must deal with the Papermen. They desire documents for every action, and every one must sign. The sight of freedom is far from them, but Sane Son is journeying to uncover it.

It is broken. Everything is broken; The only way is up. Through broken heart. And senseless violence. Comes truth; Comes all the things that you ever needed...

In 1863, Theophile Gautier introduced us to the loquacious, punctilious swordsman, brigand and killer for hire Maitre Jaquemin Lampourde and his curious-looking colleague the Chevalier Malartic, assassin, criminal mastermind and professional kidnapper. They were only secondary villains in Gautier's 'Captain Fracasse', henchmen to the villainous Duc d'Vallombreuse, but they were also much more interesting than any of the main characters of the novel, and sadly received far too little page-time. To remedy Gautier's negligence, I present the continued adventures of this pair of professional criminals in the Paris of D'Artagnan and Cyrano, hoping to do for them what Stoppard did for Rosencrantz and Gildenstern, and what Macdonald-Fraser did for Harry Flashman.

A dark fantasy romance about a demon girl, a human boy, a hummingbird, and martial arts.

"The year was 17,812 and the world was shown the light of mega mart." In the second part of the Mega Mart trilogy, there are more tunes than ever before. See the Slothman ride bus 29, witness the battle of Sea port city, and experience number johnson's war with the granras. It will take a real Rookie to take it all in.

When Andy Marigold's fiancee breaks off their engagement, he takes a few of her wealthy family's heirlooms including an ancient map. Hand drawn on frayed yellow parchment, it shows what looks to be the eastern half of the United States with red lines crisscrossing the whole of the continent at several points cryptically marked "linee temporanee", "Enigma", and "Pile-o-Bones." With no other prospects, he decides to pack up his belongings into his Toyota Tercel and with his English Sheepdog, Wolfie, follow the map wherever it goes. In fact, once they start following the map, they can't seem to escape its pull. When he awkwardly offers Vicky a ride to Chicago, he realizes that it just might be the path he was destined for.

Being An Account of His Travels Through the State of New York in 1848 and of the Wickedness Which He Found There. The Confessions of Jonathan Pratt is a work of serialized fiction, currently in progress, posting twice a week. Here is a link to Chapter 2: http://www.snakeoilgraphics.com/Pratt/post/2012/06/13/Chapter-2.aspx

War. What is the starting point and where does it end? This is a vexing question. By the time war is declared, it is too late. If we are to stop it, we must act before it starts. To act proactively, one must be observant and know the process. To depict this, the author started the story 25 years before the end of the war. Aside from that. In the original version, all 385 stories were presented in the form of an undivided list. The author felt that this format was difficult to read in the Wattpad version. Therefore, we have decided to present the stories up to 1926 as vol. 1, and to compose a new vol. 2. There is still a long way to go, so please take your time to follow along. At what stage would you take what action? Good Luck.

This is the tale of Guppian through the Monian lands, and taking a very large journey to meet with very unknown characters.

A small village in the Dardaren mountains is threatened with a plague of butterflies. However, it is Timo's last chance to prove to his father that he is Jito n'Ecket - the golden netter.

Trapped on a desolate planet at the edge of a system in chaos, a small child has nothing between himself and death other than GUX-11, his murdered family's inquisitive janitor-robot. But the robot is battling with its own sanity, and there is something in the woods, watching them. Furthermore, the distress call they sent out years before has been heard, but it isn't help that is coming.

"The novel: parroting the morality of the times. This is the function of the novel today..." "You are living today for the saints of wisdom. Live with zest. Put energy in your step..." "Empire is created upon the face of influence. To influence one must be bold..." The tale of Empire is a high one, laid out in 2015. It will turn and move with the contours of the river of life.

The Mentite War is now behind him, but Matthieu Sartonné finds himself in another company of holy warriors, bound for a frontier only known to him in legend. Global Church converts in the western Qenshi States fear once again the armies of their southern neighbors, and the nations of the Southern Coalition have responded to their call. It does not matter that joining them saved Matthieu from the Grand Inquiry in Ossir, as the desire for a better world still grips him as strongly as ever. But now he has seen not only the perfection of the Bathala's island but the false paradise of Cyrnne, and questions the ability of imperfect beings to create anything that is not even more flawed than they are. This new world is one where the Global Church, under its officers and lords, works to transform a nation into one after its own pattern. Enemies of this effort are everywhere, and even the work of its allies threaten to destroy any chance at a peaceful conclusion to what had previously been a tense stalemate. Meanwhile, an impoverished priest takes Matthieu into his service, unaware that forces beyond their control threaten to destroy everything they seek to mend. In a land where the work of salvation and the work of death are so closely mingled, how can one man hope to stand against the current of the times?

The dog who didn't like his master is a light hearted, humorous dystopia about Ben, a Labrador who does not want to become a guide dog for the visually impaired and decides to run away from his training school with the help of a scheming cat named Pistachio. Set in the war torn northern town of Lambed, the novel follows Ben's adventures and his misguided conversion to the feline cause. Ben embarks on a voyage of love, betrayal and redemption which will not leave him unscathed. A tall tale/tail indeed in which the animals have become decidedly human in their quest for power and domination. With the help of Ben, a fascistic Catiphate is born but will there be room for him once Pistachio has asserted himself as its absolute ruler? To be sure this is an old tale but one with a modern twist coloured by current events on the world scene.

A ROGUE'S REWARD His plan was foolproof. Fate disagreed. Meet Finn: charming, cunning, and utterly penniless. Meet Barry: his loyal companion, perpetually focused on his next meal. When the kingdom offers a princess and a fortune for the head of the fearsome giant Goliath, Finn concocts a scheme too brilliant (and absurd) to fail. Forget slaying the monster - Finn plans to marry him off! What follows is a riotous adventure filled with tavern brawls, improbable escapes, potent wine, political backstabbing, and the most unconventional matchmaking attempt in history. But in a kingdom where everyone has an angle, the biggest con might be the one Finn never saw coming. #FantasyComedy #Adventure #MedievalFantasy #Rogue #Comedy #PoliticalIntrigue #Giant #ARoguesReward #FantasyFilm #Picaresque #Swashbuckler

In 1859, England, a misfit Irish student named Lámha L. Boggan endures ridicule at his prestigious English boarding school due to his heritage and peculiar looks. Despite constant harassment and failing grades, Lámha is promised a special "retreat." However, the trip turns out to be a dark twist of fate, where he's thrust into the brutal world. Optimistic yet naive, Lámha must now navigate the harsh reality of servitude, betrayal, and survival while traveling across the globe.

Verdam is a man living in the forest in the year 52,000. He must create his own feet, and he is introduced to a very serious game by the King.