Excerpts From Nonexistent Books

The raccoon had skittered up the glassy-smooth walls of the Crypts of the Dead Gods like a passing reflection. Now, unleashed, the plunged down like an avenging masked angel, makeshift club extended. The skeleton was decapitated in a single blow, the magic holding it together violently dissipating and blowing it into hundreds of bony shards.

“Womprat” delivered his kick swift and true. The patrolling skeleton never saw what was coming; it toppled headlong into the pool, and then began the long, slow descent to the mystery waters at the heart of the astral island. Its +5 broadsword of alacrity and decapitation was the weight that bore it downward, never to be seen or wielded again by the hands of mortals.

“Ja, zat vas…mein lunch,” said Cryptkeeper Sands, sadly, as his plate of talc shards was greedily taken. “But okay.”

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Symptoms are not
Just symptoms
They are germs
Remaking us to fit

They like the heat
So my temperature
Soars up to suit
The next generation

The drive to expand
Is as strong as them
As it is in us
So I help them do it

Not a runny nose but
Pioneers set forth
On mucus sails
For uncertain lands

I am their earth
Being terraformed
My burning fever
A climate change

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Settled only in the early 1700s, the Merina islands have always been remote and never supported a very large population. During the war, all the islanders were evacuated by the occupying Japanese and put ashore on the mainland; most still have not returned, as the islands were considered to be of major strategic value. The current science station was once a missile tracking outpost during the Cold War, for instance, and because of this the island escaped the ecological disasters and invasive species that ravaged many others.

After the satellite tracking station was abandoned, a few islanders were able to return but the remoteness of the island meant it was only known by a few surfers and other enthusiasts. An attempt at commercial llama farming in the 1990s failed badly, and Typhoon Dingo in 1994 caused major damage to all existing structures.

The only remaining habitat of the rare and critically endangered Red-Speckled Pseudo-Lemur, the Merina islands have attracted intense scientific interest that is in direct opposition to Club Lo, which has been developing the island and its relatively unspoiled beaches as an upscale resort.

Inland, the Merina ruins are particularly noteworthy. By far the largest and most intact ruins of any island other than Nan Madol on Ponape, they show a distinct Bali influence, leading some to surmise ancient trade or colonization efforts between the two widely separated islands. No systematic excavation has ever been undertaken, as the ruins lay on private land, but their mysteries may perhaps one day be unlocked.

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Scurvy rogue
Buried sword
Matey silver
Almost wench
Deliver swear

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Eat.
Coulis, olive, love, put
Grill rib
Charred pesto, feast egg

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Satisfy fennel
Organic drizzle oyster
Chorizo around steam

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Make like about
Never him, sweet can
Endive, how claim red
Spread beef sautee, then
Drink, dish salad
Tongue bite, thick with

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Fetch me pillage
Walk the dog
Eat yer oil

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Which fresh cook
Every herb, bone-out
Could menu wine fill?
Bread, bitter pork, you
Down good duck salt
Onions

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Make like about
Would him while
Which how wide than
Every with raise that
Shiver face down with
Timber loot shoot they

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