Feldar is a mighty Minotaur warrior, feared and respected amongst his people. But then he draws the ire of a vengeful Elven witch... and when one of her spells goes awry, he finds himself unexpectedly trapped in the body of the sultry seductress! Soon he is captured by another group of minotaur - his own people! But the fierce warriors fail to recognize their own, and soon Feldar is taken, bound and helpless, as a slave back to his own village! Now, publicly displayed for all the village to see, Feldar finds himself succumbing to the passions of the strange new body he inhabits. But just as he begins to lose himself to throes of lust while the monstrous creatures look on, a lone minotaur enters the cage, intent on claiming the "elf maiden" for a prize... The witch herself, now wearing Feldar's skin! --- The thing that wore Feldar’s shape crouched down beside its prone captive, wrapped a massive arm around the cowering form. The creature’s bovine scent washed over her as he pulled her in close, leaning forward to whisper in her ear. “You nearly defeated me, Feldar.” The creature’s whisper was hot on her cheek. She looked up into his eyes, seeing at last a familiar mocking expression, one that had sat upon a very different brow just this morning atop a certain mountain pass… “The witch!” Feldar gasped. The minotaur smiled with a slight inclination of his head. “Salindara, I am called. Though here I am known as Feldar, it appears. The witch continued with a wry smirk. “I was so disoriented I nearly tumbled down that damned mountain. The other minotaur stumbled upon me and bound my wounds, taking me for one of their own. It took but a few simple spells to conjure up the appropriate memories and mannerisms to make the illusion complete.” “But why?” Feldar’s mind reeled. “What have you to gain from impersonating me?” “Why, my pet, I should think you would understand quite well. I plan to avenge myself upon you - for ruining my wares, slaying my men, and trying to kill me. And I assure you that the vengeance of a witch is much more severe than what even your savage people are accustomed to.” The minotaur leaned in close, his teeth bared in a wicked grin. “Now that I have you in my grasp, I won’t be letting you go so easily, my pet.” Suddenly Feldar was seized in the minotaur’s powerful grasp, her body hefted into the air with effortless ease. She flailed about, but Salindara’s hold only tightened around her. “I claim this one as my prize,” the minotaur called out, “though I may be persuaded to share her after I am finished!”

ISSN: 2397-9607 Issue 252 In this 252nd ÿissue of the Baba Indaba?s Children's Stories series, Baba Indaba narrates the story of ?THE ELF MAIDEN?. Two young men living in a small village fell in love with the same girl. During the winter, it was all night except for an hour or so about noon, when the darkness seemed a little less dark, and then they used to see which of them could tempt her out for a sleigh ride with the Northern Lights flashing above them, or which could persuade her to come to a dance in some neighbouring barn. But when the spring began, and the light grew longer, the hearts of the villagers leapt at the sight of the sun, and a day was fixed for the boats to be brought out, and the great nets to be spread in the bays of some islands that lay a few miles to the north. Everybody went on this expedition, and the two young men and the girl went with them. They all sailed merrily across the sea chattering like a flock of magpies, or singing their favourite songs. And when they reached the shore, what an unpacking there was! For this was a noted fishing ground, and here they would live, in little wooden huts, till autumn and bad weather came round again. Then it came time to leave and pack the boats. The more cunning of the two sets a ruse of forgetting his knife in the hut. While his friend goes off to fetch the knife, the others set sail and leave him marooned. With no way of getting back, he makes his way to a copse of trees on the far side of the island and starts setting up camp. But that?s when the fun starts?? What happens to the boy? Does he last the winter? And what of the Elf Maiden? Where does she fit in to the story? Well you?ll just have to download and read the story to find these things out for yourself. BUY ANY 4 BABA INDABA CHILDREN?S STORIES FOR ONLY $1 33% of the profit from the sale of this book will be donated to charities. ÿ INCLUDES LINKS TO DOWNLOAD 8 FREE STORIES Each issue also has a "WHERE IN THE WORLD - LOOK IT UP" section, where young readers are challenged to look up a place on a map somewhere in the world. The place, town or city is relevant to the story. HINT - use Google maps. Baba Indaba is a fictitious Zulu storyteller who narrates children's stories from around the world. Baba Indaba translates as "Father of Stories".

"He played his fiddle in the woods as well as in the open glades. His work in the forest took him deeper and deeper each day away from the hut till one day he said to himself “Why do I walk so far each day I’ll build myself a hut nearer to my work.” And so deep in the forest he built himself a grand hut snug and warm. When he left the old hut he said to the house elves “follow me and the cow, and you shall live well, for this house will soon grow cold, I’ll not remain here.”

The stories in this Fairy Book come from all quarters of the world. For example, the adventures of 'Ball-Carrier and the Bad One' are told by Red Indian grandmothers to Red Indian children who never go to school, nor see pen and ink. 'The Bunyip' is known to even more uneducated little ones, running about with no clothes at all in the bush, in Australia. You may see photographs of these merry little black fellows before their troubles begin, in 'Northern Races of Central Australia, ' by Messrs. Spencer and Gillen. They have no lessons except in tracking and catching birds, beasts, fishes, lizards, and snakes, all of which they eat. But when they grow up to be big boys and girls, they are cruelly cut about with stone knives and frightened with sham bogies all for their good' their parents say and I think they would rather go to school, if they had their choice, and take their chance of being birched and bullied

Twenty-five years after Jesus’ Son, a haunting new collection of short stories on mortality and transcendence, from National Book Award winner and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Denis Johnson NATIONAL BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Dwight Garner, The New York Times • Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air • Chicago Tribune • Newsday • New York • AV Club • Publishers Weekly “Ranks with the best fiction published by any American writer during this short century.”—New York “A posthumous masterpiece.”—Entertainment Weekly NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • The Washington Post • NPR • The Boston Globe • New York Public Library • Kirkus Reviews • Bloomberg The Largesse of the Sea Maiden is the long-awaited new story collection from Denis Johnson. Written in the luminous prose that made him one of the most beloved and important writers of his generation, this collection finds Johnson in new territory, contemplating the ghosts of the past and the elusive and unexpected ways the mysteries of the universe assert themselves. Finished shortly before Johnson’s death, this collection is the last word from a writer whose work will live on for many years to come. Praise for The Largesse of the Sea Maiden “An instant classic.”—Newsday “Exceptional luminosity . . . hits a powerful vein.”—The New York Times Book Review “Grace and oblivion are inextricably yoked in these transcendent stories. . . . [Johnson’s] gift is to extract the beauty in all that brokenness.”—The Wall Street Journal “Nobody ever wrote like Denis Johnson. Nobody ever came close. . . . We’re just left with this miraculous book, these perfect stories, the last words from one of the world’s greatest writers.”—NPR