Hello again, all my lovely, lovely friends! Welcome to Building Realities with Jack Lhasa!! I’m your host, Jack, and we’re going to talk about the value of small fiction. Little blurs of creativity.
In my personal style, I try to anchor these posts to a character or place that I’ve been working on lately. You can have them for any type or reason. In my mind, it’s a wonderful way to reveal something about worldbuilding without dumping info on the reader, or you can use them to help tell a character’s back story. Or maybe explain where Captain Lura Lite got that signature sword
When we’re on the plot, mind or side, we want to keep things linear, and sometimes that means not giving something the history or details you really want to share.
Shortz are my take on that. I try to keep them at or around 500 words. I also pick the person, place, or thing I want to focus on. And keep the focus where it belongs: dead center. These rules of layout and limits help us stay centered and our focus directed.
You may find that these rules need to be modified for your purpose. Well, have at it! If it doesn’t workout, come back here, and start again, even if you keep customizing the idea, I’ve found this to be a great place to experiment.
With that, here’s today’s Short:
Clearing the Mind
(A Short starring Kaelith)
The air just north of the great crater was thick with the scent of blooming flora. Kaelith stepped lightly across the forest floor, her boots silent against the pale bark of fallen branches. Overhead, the colossal mass of the ice giant dominated the sky, signaling the transition from the world's six-hour day into dusk.
Here, nestled between the crater's towering rim and the jagged, snow-capped mountain to the north, the woods were coming alive with a soft, natural glow. Bioluminescent plants flickered to life in the dimming light, painting the underbrush in varying shades of deepest blue and vibrant purple.
Kaelith adjusted her reinforced, one-shouldered cloak, the sturdy broach holding it in place glinting as it caught the ambient light. She had always been faster than her peers, a trait that had fueled her rapid rise in the professional Dueling circuit, but out here, she forced her mind and body to slow down.
This trek was a necessary escape. At twenty-three, with only a year left at the Lower Academy, the pressure was mounting. Her professors, her family, and her starry-eyed friends were all relentlessly pushing her to apply to the Academy for High Magic. It was the toughest, most grueling education offered in orbit. As everyone loved to remind her, its graduates were the kind of people who wrote history.
She paused by a river cutting through the valley, watching a cluster of corpuscular animals scurry from their daytime hiding spots to hunt before the bitter cold of Night set in. Kaelith rested her hand on the hilt of her blade, a unique weapon, made from a solid piece of wood perfectly for combat, had it been metal. The wood it was carved from had an intense focal power. She didn't draw it; there was no need for combat here. Thanks to centuries of prosperity and education, violence and crime were rarities.
Kaelith had only come out today to clear her head, polish a few tricks she’d only just picked up. More than anything to test ghe new blade. It was razor sharp on one side, and dulled, curved for deflection, but its main purpose was to act as a very special foci..
That’s my time!
Thanks for sitting around with me. Letting me talk about some of the things that really matter to me.
I’m Jack Lhasa
You are Amazing.
👊🏼👊🏼Solidarity👊🏼👊🏼
Shortz - Clearing the Mind
This is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental. Copyright Jack Lhasa 2026, unless otherwise noted. MoonShadow is a work of fiction and art, by Jack Lhasa and David Cunningham
