It’s a surprisingly difficult task to find a proper place to hide the corpse that’s been stinking up your closet for the past week. Officer Coppa is getting suspicious, possibly due to reports that you gave out gas masks as favors during your party last night. If there’s no body there’s no murder, so you need to get that sucker taken care of!
By now, rigor mortis has hopefully worn off. If not you need to plan your killing sprees more carefully, because a stiff corpse is harder to hide, and doing so successfully will probably require a very sharp cleaver and a lot of tarps.
But we’ll deal with the loosened up body for now. Assuming you don’t live amongst gargoyles on top of secluded Frost Bite Mountain, nighttime will give you the best cover for getting your grisly load out of your home. You don’t want your neighbors to see; they’re suspicious enough. The best way to do this is to use a real body bag, the sort medical personnel and crime scene investigators use. After all, who would possibly suspect something so obvious? Be sure to keep a trophy of some sort, preferably something that contains information or DNA, like a lock of hair or driver’s license.
Haul the body into your car, and don’t worry if you get any blood or hair or skin cells on the seats. No one is going to be investigating your clever self anyway, so you’d just be wasting precious time cleaning up.
Now, where you dig your grave depends on where you live.
In/Near Darkwood Hollow or the Woods of Ages:
Between these two forests, Darkwood Hollow is definitely the best choice. It’s sparser and the ground isn’t as soft, but any decent police officer is going to look in the more obvious Woods of Ages first. Find a fallen, hollowed out tree trunk and simply stuff the body inside. People will walk right by it and not notice!
The Desert:
Don’t stray too far from the main city of Ravi-Sorin. You don’t want to be weighted down with a dead body and several days’ worth of survival gear should a sandstorm kick up. Dig a pit in the sand, toss the corpse inside and high-tail it back home! The wind will cover the grave up for you.
Banshee Swamp:
This is probably the best place to dump something unwanted. You don’t even have to do any grave digging, as the stinking, murky swamp hides anything and everything. Be careful not to tread too deeply into the twisted, bare forest, or else you and your victim will be lying side by side in the Rougarou’s stomach.
Blizzard’s Realm:
The harsh weather of the Blizzard’s Realm means there’s probably tons of undiscovered bodies buried in the snow. As the name implies, this large island is almost constantly barraged by blizzards and white-outs, and being flat there’s little to no shelter from such conditions. Why on earth do you live here anyway, it’s horrible! Toss the body and find a home on the beach or something.
City:
If you happen to live in a well-populated city like Mistica Kingdom, your murdering and disposing is going to be a little more difficult. Whistling innocently works wonders if you’re getting weird looks carrying a large, heavy bag through town, and just to throw people off, dye your hair some bright and easy to identify color. It’ll remind everyone of a sprite, and who distrusts a sprite?
So now your area has been chosen. Next, you’ll need to make sure you bring the proper tools. Big, bulky shovels are the best as they hold up well, even if you hit some rocks. Also grab a sharp stake of some sort. Should someone spot you trying to stuff the shovel in next to the body bag, avoid eye contact at all cost. Hunch your shoulders and mutter incoherently to yourself. When you leave, peel out as quickly as possible.
While you’re driving, it might appear that certain cars are following you. Don’t worry; it’s probably just a popular model and color, so keep on going.
You’ve made it to the gravesite, congratulations! Now, this is where a lot of people tend to screw up. You know all those stories about serial killers who were really careful about every little detail? They planned ahead, cleaned up evidence and most of them were even friends with their neighbors. And you know why they’re so well known? They got caught! Thus, you have to be spontaneous, messy and act like you have no idea what you’re doing and that the cops don’t exist.
Your car’s headlights will give you excellent vision at night, so keep them on and the engine running. Break out your shovel and start digging, but don’t waste time taking measurements or anything like that. Details get you caught, remember? Besides, the corpse is all squishy and bendable now that rigor mortis has worn off.
Once the body is in the ground, don’t cover it up yet. Remember that stake you brought? Get it out now and jam it right through the corpse’s skull, because zombification is a legitimate concern. You don’t want to be responsible for the apocalypse.
Cover up the body with dirt, sand or whatever the area you’re in provides as cover. If you’re the sentimental type, maybe pile a few rocks on top of the grave in a conspicuous manner, should you ever want to visit. And now, you’re finished! Don’t feel obligated to leave the gravesite too soon; you’ve worked so hard already. Oh, and the red flashing light on the back cover of this book? Ignore it.
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Long, long ago, in the forgotten depths of the Diamond Glacier Domain, every winter during the solstice, it is said a mirror of pure ice rises across a frozen lake. Some say it reflects a legendary's true nature, others say it shows a different world, and still others claim it turns all who gaze upon it into vengeful frost spirits. No one knows for sure although all are cautioned to avoid the lake when the winter moons shine upon it. Not even the sensitive fey could tell what mysteries lurked around the lake; it was devoid of any spiritual imprint.
Two fey sisters grew up in a village not far from the lake's shore. They were inseparable, playing out in the snow every moment they got. They'd make snowmen and snow gargoyles, have snowball fights and go ice skating. They grew to love the winter; not even the fiercest blizzards scared them. But their fearlessness grew into recklessness, and they stopped heeding the cautions of their elders.
They played in the ice and snow until late in the night. As the solstice moon shown overhead, a great mirror of ice rose out of the lake before them. Both sisters cautious approached the mirror. They saw reflected in it the most handsome fey they had ever seen. He appeared to be younger than the oldest sister but older than the youngest sister. Then, to their amazement, he waved and spoke to them.
His voice was like honey, and he told them of his world on the other side of the mirror where he was a prince. His castle was made of rainbows, and the flowers in his garden never died. He and his people ate the most delicious fruit every day, and the land was filled with song and laughter. In turn, they told him of their home in the Diamond Glacier domain: how the snow sparkled like stardust and how the aurora would shine in the heavens. They told him of the fun they had ice skating and drinking hot cocoa around roaring fires.
The hours flew by, and all too soon the sun rose. The mirror of ice did what all snow is opt to do; it melted into water, and their vision of the young prince faded. Still, each sister cherished the night and held the memory close to her heart. They spoke of this to no one but each other; they feared their kin would not understand.
Each day of the next year passed slowly by until the winter snows returned. And during the night of the solstice, the sisters snuck out of their bedroom and crept to the frozen lake. As they arrived, the icy mirror arose, and their princely friend stood before them, smiling. He and they both were a year older.
Oh, there was so much to talk about—a whole year of adventure and change. One night was simply not enough. In those hours they laughed and cried, told stories and shared dreams. As the first lights of the sunrise shone, they all pressed their fingertips against the ice that separated them. Their fingers met but never touched—and then the prince was gone.
Ten more years the sisters visited their prince in the starlight. With each year that passed, the hearts within the sisters grew from those of a girl to that of a woman. Both had fallen in love with the prince. They cherished their feelings in secret even though they began to suspect the other felt the same. And on nights when moonlight sparkled off of the snow, they dreamed of the prince.
Each one dreamed she was alone with him. Their fingers finally touched across time and space, and they waltzed while the aurora shone over them. His heart was warm, and his hand were strong. He proclaimed his love for the dreamer, promising to make her his princess in his kingdom of color and light. But as their lips touched, the dream melted like snow.
That year, their secret meeting was filled with longing, and the parting was all the more sorrowful. As the prince faded, he uttered the words, “I promise to...” But the sisters never heard the rest of what he said.
Eleven months later, the prince danced with each sister in her dreams. She confessed her love for him, promising to be his princess in turn. “But what must I do to spend my forever with you?” she asked. “What must I do to enter your kingdom?”
“Give me the life of your sister; then we can be together as prince and princess forever,” answered the prince.
It was the older sister's twenty-first winter and the younger sister's eighteenth. Neither slept much the night before the solstice. Both their minds were too full: their sister or their love? Together they silently left the village; not a word was exchanged until they reached the shores of the lake. Moonlight reflected off of the icy mirror, and there stood their prince.
“Come, my princess,” he said, reaching out his arm. His smile told of joy, and his eyes shimmered with love.
That was all it took. The younger sister lunged at the older, pulling out a knife she had stolen from the kitchen while the older struck at her with a hammer she had taken from the shed.
The pure white snow spotted red as the sisters lay, unmoving, beneath the starlight. Only the Mistican moons bore witness to the tale. And as the sun rise, all melted as if it were nothing more than snow.
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