Latest Stories

Most recently published stories in Earth.

How can we farm for a vegan future?
By 2025, the UN predicts that the world’s population will be close to 10 billion. This increase in global demand for food means that farming is going through a major transformation, and farmers are being forced to adopt methods that are less damaging to the environment in order for us all to meet our nutritional needs.
By Subeesh Narayanan V4 years ago in Earth
Animals of night
I have to get away; I need to make sense of this. My mind needs quiet. My lungs need fresh air. My soul needs to connect with something other than people and things that beep. I find myself pulling into one of my favorite places to hike. A Marsh and nature preserve outside of the moving town. I don’t remember the drive and don’t think twice about it. I put the vehicle into park, warm my hands on the vents one last time, take a few deep intentional breaths and open the door. Almost symbolic of the storm inside my mind, the cold winter wind hits my face along with pelts of snow. The snow hits, sticks, then slides off my face before it has a chance to melt from my body temperature completely. My whole body shudders. I throw my coat on as I trek away from the Jeep, hat, and gloves to follow. Even in the winter storm, the trail is easy to spot. Smooth Snow illuminates the worn path. I move along the route, tucking my hands into the warmest spot I can find. The snow is too deep for the boots I slipped on; I feel ice against the back of my legs. I’ll walk until I can’t feel my feet; I shrug. I suddenly realized the winter storm had stopped. I stop and look around. There is no chance of complete darkness with all of this snow. The rattle of prairie grasses and expired flowers is loud as the wind blows. The soft subtle whisper from freshly fallen snow is here. I stand still with winter and listen to what it is saying. I close my eyes, and flashes of the tiger come back into the front of my thoughts.
By A. Lusch4 years ago in Earth
Hibou Blanc
Stretching out her pinion feathers one by one, she feels the power of her wings. Her wing bones are ready for flight. She turns her head all around her, hearing everything.
By Nadia Khan4 years ago in Earth
The Owl Of Destiny
Hungry but determined, Herman began his long walk from the market to his father's barn. He had gone there to get some medicine for his dad to no avail. Disappointed, he wanted nothing more than to get home quickly. It was getting late, but observing the sunset while partaking on his journey was therapeutic in itself. The Sun portrayed a radiant mix of violet and orange. Although Herman had a far distance to go, the vibrant colors of the Sun filled his body with energy, and a warm feeling of love swept throughout his entire body. Herman began pondering the human condition. "If we are all a part of a so-called supreme consciousness, how is it that we are all so different?" he thought. Then it hit him. "We are not as different as we believe we are. We all experience the same range of emotions at some point in our lives and share similar senses of this existence; via taste, touch, smell, hearing, and eyesight of this natural world. What if pure consciousness is nothing more than a formless entity experiencing life on a tangible physical plane simultaneously through the eyes of each of us?" Herman thought to himself. "It is a concept I truly will never be able to perfectly articulate. Language in itself limits expression." Herman concluded.
By Anthony Weir 4 years ago in Earth
Just Another Day
By Joy Grate 1/25/2022 He sits in the shadows of his high perch waiting for the darkness to fold over the small window under the roof’s edge. His day has been filled with the rattle of human activity below. He watches the cat, marbled in calico, as she slips silently down to the cow parlor below looking for a hand out.
By Joy Grate4 years ago in Earth
Key
"Key" A knock at the door. It echoed through the vast corridors. The door stood 11 feet high. Engraved with Hyroglyphs. Everything in the library was Mahogany. Solomon' heard the knock from the back of his study. Light they were. Still ,, this disturbed Solomons' flow. He had grown so sensitive this winter. Winter was the only season. Solomon' had no recollection prior to to what could be estimated to have been maybe 18 months back. Time was lost. Solomon' spilled a beaker filled with a neon red elixir. He let out a scowling yell.
By Lamar Shawn4 years ago in Earth
Half as Crooked as a Flounder
As you probe for the lock’s combination, remember to be like a barn owl, not a dolphin or a bat. You will live in a world of sound, you will know and map all things through sound, but must never dream of being so crass as to produce any of your own. This isn’t echolocation: it isn’t shrieking in the dark and forcing every fiber in your vicinity to echo back your cry, betraying its position. No: there will be better uses for shrieking, later. What you are doing is pure listening, passive, waiting for each separate thing to reveal itself to you through the quiet sounds of its own existence. Like a barn owl sensing the heartbeat of a distant vole, you must let each diminutive click of your work slide across your cheekbone to your ear, engraving its secrets in a line below your eye. Then, when the right secret has been whispered to you, you must pounce. Click on one. Six is binding. Click. Click. Open.
By Chris Hansen4 years ago in Earth
We Rose Together
Resonating with daily life in the valley requires connecting with how the sun and its light-rays relate with the moisture in the air. The fog rolls in over the mountains and there is a mystical moment to be felt when a heart is open to the experience of the light.
By Maurena Leigh McKee4 years ago in Earth
Owl Oak
Chapter 1 Owl Oak was a tree that stood big and strong, and Alexander could have sworn that it had not aged a day since he was a child. He had witnessed death and trauma; love and loss; he had watched all fall around him like acorns; however, the tree remained unchanged. It was the last tree in London.
By Alfie Saunders4 years ago in Earth
Alone in the Barn
“As a farmer, I had not many friends, except for the ones that visited from their ranches once in a blue moon. The land we owned and raised had been acres apart, making any visits hard. Some of us had children, though they tended to stay in the village or on a farther acre of land from us. Most of us had rarely seen any visitors, for very few stayed for long. Except for one..”He recalled. His old hand tufted his fuzzy white beard, and he leaned closer to the warm fire to tell his story.
By Byul ~4 years ago in Earth
How One Incident Changed His Life but One Doesn’t Count … A Barn Owl Epiphany
At the beginning of last summer, it was unthinkable that one incident could change his life’s mantra but so it did from one event to a total scope of lifeforces around him before unseen and uncounted. In fact, the number One didn’t make sense anymore in his new world.
By Annemarie Berukoff4 years ago in Earth
Night Rides
There was a chill to the night. Not just in the weather, but in the unsettling feeling of being alone in a land full of unknown nocturnal spectators. Coyotes howled and yipped in the distance, the sound of hoof beats made a continuous rhythm that matched my heartbeat, almost emphasizing it. I felt the heat of the horse’s warmed muscles through his shedding winter coat under my legs, like the warmth of the early spring day faded. Stars brightened the sky, but in the darkened woods it made no difference. There was a ranch house in the distance behind some trees, a beacon of light in an otherwise sea of darkness. The horse snorted out of excitement as he picked up his pace as we got closer to home. I was sure he also felt the same eeriness I felt. As we came around the corner of the dirt road we were following, he stopped suddenly.
By Jessica R Faunce4 years ago in Earth