Tania Fordwalker
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Tall tales told short.

Tania Fordwalker writes speculative fiction.
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A mysterious pandemic calls humanity back to the sea.
A stolen phoenix wreaks havoc on the dry Australian forest.
A boy must keep a young wyvern safe from his poacher father.
A grieving carpenter creates a door that can take away memories.
​A slave discovers the true form of the dragon tormenting her captors.
To learn their fates, read on...

Tania Fordwalker writes speculative fiction.

A story is a door to another world.
The doors below sit ajar.
​Take a peek...

STORY: Beyond the Shore

21/2/2024

 

​PUBLISHED: Lightspeed 
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REPRINTED: io9/Gizmodo | Science Fiction World
FORMAT: Text & audio | 2000 words | 8-min read

February 2060
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Nobody noticed the first few.
    They walked. One by one, in the beginning. Isolated instances. On every continent, mid-meal, mid-shower, mid-work, mid-fuck, right out the door of a pulled-up car in the middle of a freeway—ordinary people turned their backs on their ordinary lives and walked.
    They walked, shedding their hair in clumps along the way, sloughing their skin in translucent sheets to reveal pale grey beneath.
    On bleeding feet they walked down highways and lanes and trails, unerringly taking the path of least resistance to the nearest coast. They crossed the sand. The sea cooled their aching calves. Still, they walked, until the waves broke over their smooth heads and pulled them under.
    They didn’t drown.
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Text © Tania Walker 2022  |  Illustrations by Arthur Rackham