LegendFiction, a writing community I’ve a member of, recently a held a challenge for members to write a story of up to 1000 words over the course of a weekend. About 12 authors, including myself, took part, and the results were published in a collection called Quilldrake, which you can now download as a free ebook.
The collection’s title refers to the fact that we were told to write about a Quilldrake, and it was then left open to our imaginations what exactly a Quilldrake is. The 12 authors who took part came up with 12 different intrepretations.
My story features the members of the Adventurers’ Guild of Mariburg, whom you’ll probably remember from the daily scenes I wrote last October.
A Book of all the Beasts of the World
Joel Balkovec
This work was originally published by LegendFiction in the Quilldrake anthology.
© 2026 Joel Balkovec
“You,” L’rea says, approaching the dark-haired archer in the Guildhall.
Ithirian inclines his head. “My lady,” he says to her – and she can’t tell if he is mocking her.
One of a hundred Auditors entrusted by the Anax with the Iron-Bound Tomes of Xu-nan-Thaal, it is L’rea’s duty to go out into the wide world, learn all she can, inscribe it into the iron pages and return one day to the Great Library.
Knowledge is power and Xu-nan-Thaal owes much of that power to the efforts of generation after generation of Auditors.
L’rea notes with no small swell of pride that she has added much to the pages entrusted to her since joining the Adventurers’ Guild of Mariburg. Few Auditors before her have ever come to this land and she has record much no daughter of Xu-nan-Thaal has ever witnessed. Though she has also had to endure the very worst places in the world.
She shivers at the memory of her treks with the other members of the guild through the fens in the hinterlands of Mariburg.
Without waiting to be invited, she takes the seat beside him and places the parchment the table.
“I need your help.”
“It’s good to be needed,” Ithirian notes with a smile.
“T’kahl and I found this is an old bestiary in the Margrave’s library,” she tells him. “I have never seen a beast like this, and the script is one I cannot read. You’ve mastered more languages than anyone I have ever met.
She points commandingly with an ash-hued finger.
“Tell me what this beast is.”
On the page is a hulking reptilian beast drawn in faded ink: head like a serpent with forked tongue darting out, back bristling with spiked scales, four stout legs like a bull’s, rising from the mire and lunging after an unfortunate pair of travellers with gaping, fang-lined maw.
Just one more reason that swamps are the worst place in the world…
Ithirian leans intently over the parchment and studies the runic script. “This is a very old Karolai script. Small wonder you can’t read this.”
“But you can?”
Ithirian shrugs. “I learned much from my mother.”
“Your mother the bird-witch?”
“They call her Raven-Woman back in the Dáls,” he mutters.
He turns his attention back to the ancient parchment.
“This was made for Karul himself. That it is mark of an Imperial scribe, up there in the corner.A page from what was called a Book of all the Beasts of the World. Not so different from your work as an Auditor, I suppose. Now, as for this beast: in the Old Karolai language, it’s called stahil-trahho. In our tongue, it would be something like —”
“Thorn-dragon!”
L’rea flinches back at the eager voice crying out mere inches from her pointed ear.
Genevieve, the newest arrival at the Adventurers’ Guild, is peering excitedly over L’rea’s shoulder at the beast on the page.
“How long were you standing there?” L’rea gasps. “And how do you know how to read Old Karolai?”
“Old Ubbe taught me many of the old languages,” she notes proudly.
“I would say more like quilldrake,” Ithirian muses.
“But trahho is the word for dragon!” Genevieve insists.
“It’s too small to be a dragon. Drake is better for a lesser beast. Dragon-like, but not a true dragon,” Ithirian says. He slowly enunciates his next words as if that strengthens his argument, “Quill. Drake.”
“Too small?” Genevieve repeats. “It’s big enough to eat a grown man! Just look at it!”
She slams her hand against the parchment, making L’rea wince.
“It has no wings!” Ithirian protests. “Dragons have wings, drakes do not. That’s the difference!”
Now, he roughly slams a finger to the parchment, noting the two-headed and twice-crowned dragon that is the emblem of the Empire of Karolai.
“That is a dragon. The quilldrake is something else entirely.”
“It’s a giant, man-eating lizard! How is it not a dragon?”
L’rea groans. Her long ears twitch indignantly. The Iron-Bound Tomes deserve better than this. Aliena, the Guildhall’s barmaid shoots her sympathetic smile from behind the bar. Ithirian and Genevieve are too far gone into their argument to even notice and L’rea snatches back the parchment. She decides to seek help from the wisest man she knows.
“Guildmaster, I need to show you something…”
Once again, you can find the Quilldrake compilation on the LegendFiction website, where you can also sign up to join the community.
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