Hillora Lang
Bio
Hillora Lang feared running out of stuff to read, so she began writing just in case...
While her major loves are fantasy and history, Hillora will write just about anything, if inspiration strikes. If it doesn't strike, she'll nap, instead.
Stories (42/0)
Dragon’s Head Manor
There weren’t always dragons in the Valley. As I read the first line of the first volume in the series of books on the polished mahogany stand before me, I smiled. As soon as I’d entered the library in the manor house on Dragon’s Head Island off the coast of Maine, my eyes fell on the beautifully-designed row of books prominently placed in the center of the enormous room. Each one was a collection of dragon stories, and I would have thought the collection was geared towards children except for the cover design. No one would ever give books with such gorgeous covers to a child. They could have been designed by William Morris, or another of the pre-Raphaelite brotherhood.
By Hillora Lang2 years ago in Fiction
The Five Sisters of Kintail
There weren’t always dragons in the Valley. Until the winter of 2031, they kept to the high Cairngorm peaks, each one claiming its own territory atop a craggy mountain pass, and only descending into the valley below when food was scarce.
By Hillora Lang2 years ago in Fiction
Treatment Protocols for Dragonpox Virus-Infected Persons
There weren’t always dragons in the Valley. Or rather, there wasn't always Dragonpox in The Valley. In fact, there wasn’t much of anything in this small valley in the American South. Located in rural Alabama, and comprising a total of less than 3000 acres, the valley—or The Valley, in CDC and governmental circles—was the best-kept secret in the fight against the next zoonotic pandemic disaster.
By Hillora Lang2 years ago in Fiction
Want to Leave 9-5 Behind?
There weren’t always dragons in the Valley. The San Fernando Valley, that is. And that empty niche is one that Dragon Shifters, Inc., a just-launched headhunter, is working hard to fill. Are you searching for a meaningful way to change your life? This might be exactly what you're looking for!
By Hillora Lang2 years ago in Fiction
All Creatures Great and Small
There weren't always dragons in the Valley. There had been dragons, real giants, in the before times. But that was ages agone. All the people remembered of those dragons was burning and wasting and daughters sacrificed. Not the good times, those weren’t.
By Hillora Lang2 years ago in Fiction
Building Dragons
“There weren’t always dragons in the Valley,” Miss Perserkin, the tour guide at the Royal Victoria Museum of Bio-Technology, said from her place at the front of the pack of new University students. They seemed to get younger every year. She tried not to hold their age against them, although it did mean that their attention spans weren’t all they could be. “As I’m sure your professor has told you,” she nodded towards the class’s instructor, Professor Abramowitz, standing off to one side, “the first dragon created in the Valley was an anomaly.” And this was where she always tossed in her little joke. “Barnabus Montheile was a very naughty little boy!”
By Hillora Lang2 years ago in Fiction
Hurricane Season
There weren't always dragons in the Valley. The Valley was rather far off the normal migration routes. Dragons flying north to the Canadian Rockies kept to the airways over the Sierra Nevada range, the Cascades, and the Rockies. Those heading for their normal breeding grounds in the eastern portions of North America—the Great Adirondack Park, and further north into maritime Canada—usually kept to the route above the Appalachians and Adirondacks. Dragons seldom veered off-route to fly over the Blue Ridge Mountains.
By Hillora Lang2 years ago in Fiction
Teaching My Dragon Boyfriend To Use An A.I. Art Program
“There weren’t always dragons in the Valley,” Balmethestus said, curling his tail around my back so that I could sit comfortably. His internal heat helped soothe my sore muscles after hefting heavy boxes all day at work.
By Hillora Lang2 years ago in Fiction
Seize the Dragon
There weren’t always dragons in the Valley. That was the first line of my story, the absolutely non-negotiable first line required by the good people at Vocal.media. The same first line that every one of the (so far) six hundred and eighty-one qualified stories entered into the challenge had used.
By Hillora Lang2 years ago in Fiction
If the Sky Could Dream…
“There weren't always dragons in the Valley.” I always began my introductory lecture to the Joint Exploratory classes the same way. There were a few grumbles from the larger students, but they were too well-mannered to make their voices heard this early in the semester. And that was important, to me at least. I always endeavored to be as partisan and even-handed as possible. If they'd just wait to hear what I had to say...
By Hillora Lang2 years ago in Fiction
Devil’s Bone Root, Dragon’s Blood, and Dogwood
There weren't always dragons in the Valley. Once upon a time, the Valley was a peaceful, bucolic place, filled with apricot orchards, and soy farms, and flocks of the best egg-laying Orpingtons and Australorps and Red Stars for five counties. Was is the operative word here. Because it wasn’t peaceful there any longer.
By Hillora Lang2 years ago in Fiction