Stray Fables

At ten minutes to midnight in an empty campus cafeteria, Nathan Avery’s cereal and existential dread were interrupted by a beautiful stranger invading his personal space.Five minutes later, she shoved him out of his world, leaving him stranded in a ruined city painted in pale-blue frost and silent violet-orange flame.All he has left of his world are the clothes on his back, the phone in his pocket, and Lyra, the AI within it… assuming she ever finishes recalibrating after her connection to home was severed.The city and world beyond its walls are full of things that want to eat him, stab him, or worse. If he can stay alive long enough though, he might find the adventure, purpose, and connection he’s been craving… and what those things sometimes cost.Nathan had been desperate to escape the gnawing ache of boredom. For better or worse, the universe gave him what he wanted. [participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge]