Untold International is a 501c3 nonprofit organization based in Colorado. Our focus is on literacy and storytelling.
Supporter-submitted short stories, anecdotes, poetry, and other writings under 100 words on the theme of belonging.
Your voice matters. Share your story here.
The Godstone – 6
“But you can still speak the Common Tongue, yes?” Lord Ibarius leaned over Portia and squinted.
Portia breathed deeply. Her heart was still pounding, yet her mind was strangely calm. “Yes.”
“Then it is my turn.” Rising, Ibarius stretched his hand toward the monolith and proclaimed, “O Trident! Grant your supplicant your pure and righteous power!”
As the man touched the stone, the room became unnaturally quiet. The wind that played through the holes in the cavern ceiling like a booming flute halted, and Portia thought she saw a blue light in Ibarius’ eyes. It only lasted a moment.
– Onyafoqchɛo
The First Incarnation of Lord Shiva – 4
One day, Anjali took some of her precious antiques to a shop to pay her family’s debts. To her surprise, she saw a handsome servant boy working there.
The boy was Krishna, and he had eyes like the virgin forest. Tall and strong and so handsome that even his master’s daughter wanted him for herself, Krishna was nevertheless overwhelmed by Anjali’s beauty. The shopkeeper grabbed Anjali, but Krishna saved her and she fled. Angry at Krishna’s interference, the shopkeeper dismissed him. As he was leaving, Krishna saw Anjali’s broken anklet on the ground and took it to search for her.
– Tracy Ama Opoku, Ghana
Empathy in practice
What is patience but empathy in practice, accepting that another person’s experience is equally valid, believing that they are doing the best they can? To have patience with a person is to seek your own experience in them, and to choose to respond to that shared existence. The patient person understands that the other is not other, or if they are, they are no more other than that person is other to them. And if we are all others, fumbling blindly at the margins of what connects us, then perhaps we have more in common than we think.
– K Paige Medina
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