Threshing Day
Cut along the dashed lines and pass the cards around the table.
Pour a drink and tell us: which story title or opening page made you settle in and think, okay, I am staying a while?
If a dragon were choosing you tonight, what would it have to see in you first, and does that feel like a compliment or a dare?
These cadets are all competing for something they cannot earn by effort alone. When has waiting to be chosen felt like that in your own life, and what got you through it?
Which story warmed you most, and was it the bravery in it or the tenderness underneath the bravery?
A bond in this world is a lifelong, no-takebacks kind of belonging. Who or what in your life feels like that, and what does it ask of you?
Short stories make you say goodbye quickly. Which cadet did you want to tuck a blanket around and keep reading about?
Somewhere across these thirteen stories, someone has to accept a version of themselves they did not plan on. How did that land for you, and did it feel like a loss or a relief?
Think of the story that left the softest ache when you closed it. What was the ache about, and what would you say to that character if you could sit down with them and a hot drink?