The Stag of Horn Creek

Before radioactivity caused the closure of the Grand Canyon, the young ranger Sue saw a strange animal in Horn Creek: a bizarre stag with twisted horns and perhaps long fangs. Now, close to retirement, she's about to make her last round of inspection together with her niece Katy in hope that she'll take her place someday. But the purpose of Katy's visit is to capture the stag in a video to feed it to internet users.

Written with great care and knowledge of the mechanisms of species adaptation to environmental changes, Sarah K. Castle's story is a warning for the future, lived through two main characters who represent the past and present of our humanity. The story original was scripted by Arianna Pioli and illustrated by Dario Wela.

Sarah Castle lives in Durango, Colorado. A geologist and environmental scientist, she has worked at national forests and landfills, for the Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals, and most recently in the oil and gas industry. She attended the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Workshop in 2006. Since 2007, she writes Science Fiction and works as an air quality specialist.

Arianna Pioli was born in 1993 and she loved to write since she was a child. After classical high school, in 2012, she started various courses that lead her to the International School of Comics where she attended the creative writing course of Alda Teodorani. After a three-year degree in philosophy at the University of Roma Tre, she enrolled in a Master's degree in "Information, publishing and journalism" and in a course of Comics' Screenplay at the International School of Comics. She participated with some stories in various genre anthologies; her last winning story is from 2020: "The indelible vandal", in the collection "Onda Noir - Errori giudiziari" published by InSedicesimo, Pentagora Edizioni. She worked in school libraries and bookstores, and has a Twitch channel.

Dario Wela attended the Officina dell'Arte in Bologna, performing numerous courses in comics, illustration, and manual and digital coloring. He participated in various fairs and is working on the following projects: the webcomic "Il Canto di Urania" for Spaghetti Comics, together with Erica Benvenuti) and "Alien Presences" together with Francesco Matteuzzi, author of "The Werewolf Hunters". His other works include the comics "The Stag of Horn Creek" (Future Fiction), "Solixtens" (Scorpio) and "The lighthouse keeper" (Alembic). Dario has also published a book for the Cavedio Picture Short entitled "Lo Spritz Salute".