Melissa, Seanna and the seven children had watched the newsman as he did the story on the newborn being found.

Within an hour, calls were flooding the news office, prompting them to add three more staff to keep up with the calls.

Most of the calls were simply nuisance ones, no real content, just people being idiots, obstructing the search for the newborn's family.

A few calls sounded like they might be pertinent, but further investigation revealed that the child they were claiming was not the newborn.

Chapter 3

Natalia sat on the sofa near Aloysius, utterly stunned. This sweet man had been born as a female, thrown out and disowned by his family, lived through a fast and active marriage to the person who saved them one night, then lived with a kindly lady with unspecified health issues. That had appeared to end when the lady died, but the young person had discovered that they had inherited everything. They had then gone on to make changes in their life, the biggest being the transition to this lovely man in front of her, and to top it off, he was a successful artist!

The town, lake, national reserve and the people in this story are all fictional.

Be warned, this is not a pretty story. It has several instances of physical abuse and actual violence.

The story is set in the near future, starting from early November 2017. Much of it takes place the next spring.

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Chapter 2

A Blank Page
Chapter 11
By Flummox

There is no love more powerful then the one of a parent for its children. and there is no greater pain in this world then for a parent to see its children suffering (Legend Of Actit).

Mankind can live without scientists, without priests, without emperors, without philosophers, without warriors and without merchants, but it will never be able to live without mothers (An Ancient Prophet).

When a parent is crying for its children, the whole sky is crying. And when a child forgets its parents, the hell opens its mouth (Legend Of Imhal).

The young boy standing in the back corner of the women's restroom behind the Waldenbook's store shook his head and sighed. Every time his great-aunt Esther took him from home for the day, she would always cause some sort of trouble, this time she'd gone overboard.

Elwood shrugged his narrow, bony shoulders and reached deep into the above the knee pocket of his favourite pair of khaki cargo pants and pulled out a positively ancient cell phone, it had to be at least ten years old, more than two years older than Elwood himself.

When the Ottoman Empire attacked Constantinople, it was not the fierce cannons made huge holes in the walls, nor the horde of battleships passing through the Golden Horn that spread terror among the last Byzantines, that conquered the city. It was something small, that brought the Turks in: The Byzantines forgot a small door open. The Turks could not believe this... and after a few days of street fights, they conquered the most powerful city in Middle East.

History Of The Turks

The saga of Danny and Jessa comes to a close. Thanks to everyone who's stuck with me and special thanks to Lizzy Bennet, whose input has made this a much better and fuller story than I expected.

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Week 33 - the baby was as big as celery, which I found hard to believe. I had, as of my last doctor’s appointment, I had gained twenty-seven pounds and was now a DD cup, which Danny enjoyed. My belly was big enough to have its own zip code.

When someone dies, the soul moves to the Afterlife, which is in a different world. Still, something remains here. Those who passed away, somehow still live here, through the things they did and left to us. This is what still keep them connected to our world and extends their lives among us, even if they are unseen for our eyes.

Legend Of The Legend

Foot of the Long Road

The assassin had finally reached the beginning of the treacherous roadway to the Queen's castle. Weaving though the scattered camps of minions seemed like the hours in an eternity. And then he heard it...the gong! The gates were being closed early! Apparently Her Highness did not care that nearly forty thousand of her troops were going to be trapped outside the walls; and he was to be trapped inside them.

When you pull a sheep out of its flock, it will instantly try to get back. When a sheep is alone, it does not eat anything. It just makes noise, calling any nearby sheep. Its eyes scan the horizon, looking for any sign of a flock of sheep. When it sees a flock around, it runs towards them as fast as it can. No animal suffers more from loneliness then the sheep. By looking at a lonely sheep, one can realize how much lonely people are suffering.

The Wiseman

Sometimes, something must die, to keep the rest living.

The Wiseman

This little piece was something that came out of nowhere while I was trying to sleep early today. I got up, intending to jot down basic info for it, but ended up spending about two hours doing other things on the computer before returning to get the sleep I still needed.

The interesting part is that this resurfaced a few hours ago as I was trying to go back to sleep.

The caution is primarily aimed at the brief kill scene near the end, but also due to the storyteller's description of the job.

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River

By Dawn Natelle, edited by Eric

Chapter 34 – The mine

So far: Wayne headed off to college in London, Ontario. On his mission from Manitou, he meets new friends, both four-legged and two-legged ones. He gets a ride back north for Thanksgiving, and Ginny’s House II starts to become a reality.