Herons in the Dunes

Herons in the Dunes

The dunes were not sand, but powdered bone.

A dry, ashen silence blanketed the ice-slick coast, broken only by the wind.

Howling.

Shrieking.

Stuttering like a dying engine.

Dragging salt-stained tarps across the broken wreckage of forgotten machines.

Herons.

Blue herons.

Four foot tall blue herons.

Dead, now undead, zombified blue herons.

Herons, tall and hollow-eyed, stood like statues in the frostbitten distance, their blue-veined feathers crusted with rime.

And then one moved.

Jerky.

Wrong.

Like corrupted data on a glitching hologram.

GhoulSpawn saw the heron’s head snap backward.

Snap!

Crk-KK!

Tendons rewound.

Vertebrae re-fused.

The neck reassembled like reversed footage.

Then it split in two.

Two heads.

One body.

Both heads turned and stared at Quaraun and GhoulSpawn.

Both beaks stretched wide in unison — an echo of ancient augury, a broken omen of blood and doom.

And they screamed:

“Necromancer. Necromancer. Necromancer.”

The sound was not sound.

It drilled into the skull.

It reverberated in tooth enamel.

A voice born from Hell!

Charging straight for the Moon Elf and the half-Elf/Sheep-Demon Satyr.

They ran from Silent Moor.

Ran as fast as their feet could take them.

Which wasn’t very fast.

Not with Quaraun’s lame leg and GhoulSpawn’s cloven hooves.

GhoulSpawn’s hooves squelched in the muck.

Quaraun’s pink slippers grew heavy, filling with wet sand.

Somewhere from deep in the marsh, BoomFuzzy’s maniacal laughter rang out.

“RUN!” He cried. “Run from the Lich! Run from The Elf Eater! Run my pretty lit’ Elves! Hahaha!”

“He’s gone insane!” GhoulSpawn screamed.

“Hurry!” Quaraun yelled. “Get to the lighthouse!”

“What’s wrong with him?”

“He has gone too long without souls!”

“What do you mean?”

“Feeding him souls keeps him connected to the living.”

“And if he doesn’t have souls?”

“This happens!”

“What is THIS exactly?”

“The lich curse takes control of him. He does not remember who he is or who his friends are. He just goes full psycho Lich on everyone.”

“So, right now he’s The Elf Eater and not BoomFuzzy?”

“Exactly, quick, this way.”

Quaraun dove through the tall marsh grass and up onto the sandy road between Silent Moore and Noodle Beach.

“We got to get back to Black Tower,” Quaraun yelled as he ran.

“Why?” GhoulSpawn called back as he tried not to lose his footing in the slick mud of the clam flats.

“I have wards all around the lighthouse for this reason. If he loses it inside the lighthouse he can not get out and we are safe outside until he reverts.”

“But he’s outside the lighthouse!”

“Yes. Meaning, if we go inside, he can not get in, and we will be safe in there.”

They ran across the shores of Noodle Beach.

The two headed heron was now joined by thousands of large quahog clams. Undead quahog clams, with long sharp teeth lining their bivalves.

“Oh god!” GhoulSpawn whimpered looking back. “There’s like a whole army of undead everything coming after us.”

“Yeah. Lich touch. Every dead thing around him will resurrect. It is what Liches do.”

They desperately climbed the cliffs, and scampered pell mell up the steps to the lighthouse.

Inside the lighthouse, they both stopped to breathe for the first time.

Outside the lighthouse, more nightmares awaited.

“Fe, fi, fo, fum, I smell the blood of an Elvenson,” BoomFuzzy’s voice cackled outside.

“Quick,” Quaraun gasped. “Hide. Stay out of sight of the windows. Just in case the birds break the glass and get in. Unicorn can not get in. I am not sure it will work on the birds.”

Quaraun hid inside the stove and wept.

GhoulSpawn clattered down to the basement and locked the door.

The undead herons pecked dents in the walls all night.

They never left.

All night they stayed.

All night they squawked.

By morning’s light, their shrieks died down.

GhoulSpawn crept back upstairs and into the kitchen.

“I think it is safe to come out,” GhoulSpawn whispered to Quaraun.

Together, quietly, cautiously, Quaraun and GhoulSpawn peeked outside.

The nightmare fuel herons were gone.

But long fang clams, littered the beach, their bivalves still snapping.

BoomFuzzy lay unconscious in the sand.

The herons had vanished, but madness lingered like fog in the early dawn. A scream-shaped silence hung above the seaweed-wrapped dunes, and in that quiet.

Too still.

Too brittle.

Quaraun trembled. His long rabbit ears twitched. Tinkling chains echoed in the hollow belly of the lighthouse stove where he hid. The pink necromancer sobbed softly, limbs folded tight, silver bangles chiming in his grief. Soot smeared the edges of his silk robes. He reeked of sea salt and fear.

GhoulSpawn tiptoed, hooves click-clack-tapping on the cold tile floor. His golden fleece bristled, matted with sand and something stickier.

Maybe blood.

Maybe marsh scum.

Maybe heron bile.

He did not want to know. His hooves left trails on the linoleum. He winced every time one squeaked.

“They’re… gone,” he whispered, again, a little louder now. “Like, yeah, totally gone, I think. I mean, unless they’ve like, y’know, turned invisible and mutated into, like, you know, quantum ducks or whatever. But probably not.”

Quaraun crept from the soot-filled cavity, emerging like a ghost smeared in rose perfume and blackened feathers.

“The herons were never truly birds,” the Moon Elf whispered, voice fragile. “They were things created by Unicorn’s mind. Abominations. Chimæras. Glitches in reality. Creatures birthed from cursed science. They were formed in the darkest depths of Unicorn’s memories. I recognize their cry. I remember their squawk. I have seen them. He has summoned them before. They ought not exist. They ought not exist. They ought not exist. Yet they do.”

“They had, like, two heads, man,” GhoulSpawn said, wide-eyed. “And one of ’em blinked sideways and the other blinked inward. That’s not even biologically viable.”

Quaraun hugged his bony arms across his chest and turned to the window. He dared not look, yet could not help it. His tentacled hair clung to the frost-paned glass.

Outside, the long-fanged clams snapped at air, tongues curling like wet serpents. The surf hissed and sloshed, dragging kelp-wrapped shells and broken electronics across Noodle Beach.

Seagulls circled.

No, not seagulls.

Not anymore.

Their wings bent wrong.

BoomFuzzy sprawled in the sand.

Salt crusted his dreadlocks.

Purple tartan soaked with brine. His gold-plated teeth glinted with the rising sun.

Unmoving.

Motionless.

Silent.

“Unicorn?” Quaraun’s voice cracked. “Unicorn!”

The pink-robed necromancer threw the door wide, wind howling in. He limped down the lighthouse stairs, jellyfish-tentacle-hair trailing behind like ribbons in the gale.

“Wait — Quaraun, dude! You don’t know if he’s — !”

But GhoulSpawn’s voice was lost in the wind and waves and gull-like monsters above. Quaraun dropped to his knees in the wet gravel, hands trembling, bionic fingers clanking against the unconscious Lich.

BoomFuzzy’s eyelids fluttered.

“Uuuuuuuuuurrrrrgggggghhh…”

Then, a giggle.

Then, a cackle.

“HAHAHAHAHA — “

“Unicorn!”

“Found the Lighthouse, eh, Love? Heh — hic — think I drank too much kelp wine. Or got possessed by the sea. Or maybe ate a hallucinogenic clam.”

“You chased us with screaming herons!”

“Aye. I do that.”

“You tried to murder us!”

“Aye. I do that, too.”

Quaraun slapped him.

BoomFuzzy laughed harder.

The beach trembled.

Far below the surf, something ancient stirred.

The herons were gone.

The clams had come.

And beneath it all, in the cold-black deep —

The Nightmare still waited.

Waited & stirred.

Stirred & waited.

This story is published in:

• Three Wizards and a Lighthouse

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Includes the following stories: The Cursed Mirror A Quiet Morning with the Sound of Waves, Wind, and an Abundance of Fresh-Caught Fish Candied Nightmares Sapphire and Calm The Soul Eater The Drip The Cold Embrace  GhoulSpawn in the Walls A Dark and Stormy Night Braving the Icy Winds Herons in the Dunes Emerald Reflections Under The Lighthouse Light Whispering Shadows in the Fog Walking Through the Wreckage Bone Dice A Flapdoodle Wackadoodle Noodle Wizard’s Duel Chaos in The Lighthouse: Shattered Panes, Shattered Minds Yelling at the Snowstorm The Lighthouse Keeper Quarrelling Over the Last Slice of Pizza MoonSnail Cove, Maine Walking Along the Edge The Singing Crabgrass Crabs: A Green Fairy Wine Tale A Pocketful of Memories The Potter’s Hands Cold Beach, Warm Hearts Unease Dance in the Rain Every Lighthouse Keeper Dies A Cliff-side Overlook Breezy Afternoon Adoration - GhoulSpawn’s Perspective Adoration - BoomFuzzy’s Perspective Bitter Cold Winds Lover’s Triangle The Storm's Embrace Rosewater and Silk Weaving Memories by the Sea Necromancy: A Day in the Life of a Bumbling Necromancer Terror in the Silver Mist Gourmet Wonders A Threatening Letter Under the Light of a Dying Moon Unspoken Words Between Us as We Walk Through the Snow Together The Restful Sigh Psionic Warriors Channelling the Power of the Mind Springtime Drizzle Lens and Light Maintenance Tumultuous Tempest Silvered Lament Zoning Out, Watching the Snowflakes Fall Without Feeling Anything Realizing We Might Actually Be Safe The Scent of Ink and Roses A Shared Moment of Silence: Quaraun, BoomFuzzy, and GhoulSpawn Under the Moonlit Sky The Floating Paper Lanterns Beneath the Black Tower Shadows Stormbound Shadows Halloween Chaos with BoomFuzzy the Candy Corn Unicorn  Staring at the Stars Sitting on the Edge of a Cliff The Day the Lighthouse Glowed a Little Too Brightly Longing for the Warmth of the Sun, We Found Only More Darkness The Woes of Laundry: A Small Task in a Quiet Day The Shared Quiet Moments The Arrival The Scents of Simplicity: BoomFuzzy’s Kitchen and the Softness of Home In a land of ice and gloom, Where the blizzards often loom…(A blizzard hits a village...) Desolate Nostalgia on a Frozen Shoreline The Trade Caravan Bone Dice - Again Lightkeeper's Dilemma The Silent Knock The Old Haunted Quilt  Resting by the Fire The Struggle of Maintaining Their Lighthouse Home in a Harsh Winter Storm Golden Hands Sweeping the Lighthouse Sunrise Mocks the Aching Heart, a Poem by Quaraun the Last Moon Elf The Real Nightmares There’s Beauty in the Destruction The Lighthouse’s Glass-Eyed Horror What Unites Us? Velvety and Vile Mud, Bums, and the Epic Quest for Cleanliness BoomFuzzy’s Clam Chowder, His Love for Seafood, and The Joy of a Shared Meal The Cold Night's Warmth Haikus & Historians The Evening’s End: Quiet Conversations and Comfort in the Home They Built Together Peering Through the Mist and Finding Nothing But More Fog Wandering Paper Boats A Solitary Black Sock The Brownies & The Witch, or Why Faeries Don’t Wear Socks A Quiet, Relaxing Foot Rub Making the Bed The Black Sock, Again The Eaten Moon Sunset: A Bleeding Wound Upon The Sea, a Poem by Quaraun the Last Moon Elf Making Tea in the Middle of a Storm If Objects Had Desire Drying Herbs Lighthouse at the End of the World The Reflection in the Fog The Series Prologue aka Quaraun’s Backstory

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The Pink Necromancer, Moon Elf silk weaver & merchant: Quaraun on Noodle Beach. His master chef Phooka turned Lich husband: BoomFuzzy with his 1968 VW Bus Beach Noodle Food Truck. And their on again/off again mad scientist Sheep Demon lover: GhoulSpawn with his 1974 AMC Gremlin time machine. Time Travel setting swings back and forth between 40th century Maine after a comet hit the moon decimating the planet, and the 1970s, Maine. Quaraun in the main character, he and BoomFuzzy are a married gay couple. GhoulSpawn is their shared live-in lover. Art by Wendy Christine Allen.

BoomFuzzy King Gwallmaiic aka BoomFuzzy the Unicorn: Quaraun's husband, BoomFuzzy aka King Gwallmaiic, a Scottish Phooka, who is King of The UnSeelie Court. Quaraun is his court mage and advisor, as well as the only Elf in The UnSeelie Court. BoomFuzzy is a "classic fantasy type" Necromancer who uses sorcery to raise the dead. Being a Faerie he is also an illusionist and master of trickster magic. By profession, he is a Master Chef, owning the global monopoly on restaurants, taverns, pubs, and food trucks. Until his death, BoomFuzzy was regarded as the world's most powerful wizard. He is now a Lich. BoomFuzzy is also half-Human. His mother was a Mongolian/Chinese Human, which is why he wears distinctively Asian outfits, along with a great kilt worn as a cape. Known as BoomFuzzy the Unicorn, he often takes the form of a purple Unicorn. BoomFuzzy's exact age is unknown, though he was well over two thousand years old at the time of his death, and Quaraun resurrected him as a Lich around 500+ years ago, making him close to 3,000 years old. In his BlackBird form he is fifteen thousand years old. Art by Wendy Christine Allen

Quaraun Quaraun the Insane aka The Pink Necromancer: The F2M transgender Persian Moon Elf main character: The Pink Necromancer, Quaraun The Insane, with BoomFuzzy the Unicorn. F2M for those unaware = Quaraun was biologically born female, but transitioned to live as a male; this is why there are stories where Quaraun is sometimes pregnant, in spite of being male and using he/him male pronouns. Quaraun is a Necromancer by the actual dictionary definition of the word, meaning he is a psychic medium who sees and hears ghosts, and uses tarot, spirit boards, and seances to communicate with the dead. By profession he is a silk weaver/tailor/silk merchant. Quaraun is an Elder God JellyFish who takes the form of an Elf to blend in with society. His 12 foot long hair is made out of venomous, stinging jellyfish tentacles. Quaraun is BoomFuzzy's apprentice and regarded as the world's most powerful still living wizard. Quaraun's exact age is unknown, but he is somewhere around 750 years old. In his SunTa form he is twelve thousand years old. The Scared Pink JellyFish that lives in him, is stated to being over two million years old. Art by Wendy Christine Allen

Faeries vs Elves (In The Quaraun Series) A Pink Necromancer World Lore Post

The Pink Necromancer: The Adventures of Quaraun The Insane aka The Twighlight Manor Series

🌸🦄🌸 Furry Yaoi Fiction about Elves and Faeries and Satyrs and Demons and Unicorns and Technomancer Wizards and Liches living in a Lighthouse and surviving as Travelling Merchants and Food Truck Chefs in Cyberpunk Dystopian 40th Century Maine, and Zombie Apocalypse and Time Travel but it’s Slice of Life Vignettes of Mundane Daily Lives of The UnSeelie Court’s Royal Family trying to survive after a comet hit the moon and turned the Earth into a CyberPunk Ice-Age. 🌸🦄🌸

• eBook Editions from this series can be found on: GumRoad

• Kindle, eBook, Print Paperback, & full colour illustrated Hardcover Editions from this series can be found on: Amazon

Main characters: The Pink Necromancer, Quaraun (A Moon Elf) and his husband King Gwallmaiic aka BoomFuzzy aka The Elf Eater of Pepper Valley, Lich King of Fire Mountain (A Phooka/Faerie).

BoomFuzzy is King of The UnSeelie Court;

Quaraun is his Court Mage;

GhoulSpawn (not pictured) is Quaraun’s apprentice.

They are the world’s three most evil super villains, though they do not see themselves as evil. They own the world’s only functioning BioDome and thus hold the world’s monopoly on crops, food, livestock, and fabric, holding the Human population at their sadistic mercy.

These stories are told from their point of view.

 — — Art by Wendy Christine Allen

Meet The Characters

Books By Wendy Christine Allen
Currently Available on Amazon Kindle:

Index of the Quaraun novels, novellas, & short story collections on Amazon

And GumRoad:

Index of the Quaraun short stories on GumRoad

On Medium:

An Index of the more than TWO THOUSAND Quaraun Short Stories on Medium

(NOTE: a $5 or $15 per month paid subscription required to access stories on Medium)

On Vocal:

Index of the Quaraun short stories on Vocal

On Notd:

Index of the Quaraun Short Stories on Notd

On OnlyFans:

Index of the Quaraun Short Stories on OnlyFans

Pink Necromancer Merch: On CafePress:

An Index of the Quaraun Merch on CafePress

Pink Necromancer Merch: On Zazzle:

Index of the Quaraun Merch on Zazzle

Not Quaraun:

This page was written by Wendy Christine Allen of 146 Portland Ave, Old Orchard Beach, Maine.

All Rights Reserved.