All Comments on 'The Clay Man'

Good story. More Edward Woodward good than Nick Cage silly :)

...and so nice to see a happy ending!

But not sure why it's in this section.

Why in the incest/taboo section? Almost interesting tho.

Loved the Greek names! Only Zileva should have been Zileia. Zileva is the past tense of a verb, while Zileia is the noun jealousy in Greek. That is the one you wanted most probably. Also, Zileva sounds Bulgarian, nor Greek!

By the way, Thymos is a male. You might want Orgi, Rage...

You are one of the best authors on Literotica and I found myself wanting to like your contest submission more than I did. It was an interesting plot and I was enjoying it until the ending. Perhaps you were rushing to finish it but the escape and final conclusion left me cold. You are amazing and I really get happy each time I see your latest posts. Perhaps this was just a rare off day.

I'm sorry in advance for the under-rating that this effort is bound to receive, voting-wise, due to its awkward fit into the category under which it has been published.

Nevertheless, you have proven yourself a trustworthy author yet again -- this was another "story worth telling!" Five stars from this voter.

As I understand it, any story that is about, is set of the theme of, or mentions incest, is heavily encouraged to be put in the category.

The story offhand mentions that the whole community is the product of inbreeding. Not enough outsiders enter the community to increase the genetic diversity, which causes the children to have much greater chances of genetic defect, which is actually noted in the story. One of the children was stunted.

Inbreeding in humans is defined as incest.

Later AE put it under Sci Fi and Fantasy, as I'm pretty sure this is not set in the normal Earth timeline. It depicts a fantastical world even if the world doesn't actually have any magic or future tech.

@AE, very good short story. Maybe it's being an American, but as soon as Amyalos saw the men in the clearing for the first time, I knew something was wrong, that there was some kind of terrible secret going on.

Within half a page I was getting Wicker Man vibes. Not great, but not awful, it was mainly spoiled by the rushed ending.

Spooky fun story. I'll be looking out for the clay man! Happy Halloween!

I liked this one a lot. Good plot line.

Couldn't figure out why this was rated less highly than your other work, and I still think it deserves a higher rating, but I understand a little better now, with that ending. I mean...does the Duke pardon him? Is he able to return to his family, or find work and support himself and Elpida? Does he abandon his children with all those women on the mountain, knowing that they'll end up involved in the same horror when they grow up?

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I recall you mentioning people's dislike of your abrupt endings in the end notes on other stories, and I noticed a little bit of that on some of them, but...this one...dang.

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As far as the reader knows, they escaped the mountain, only for him to die a different way, when the Duke's men arrest him, and he's executed, leaving Elpina penniless and alone. And now I've depressed myself, imagining that ending.

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In my opinion, the Duke pardoned Amyalos, and in fact hired him as his master brewer. He and Elpida married and, because of his position in the Duke's staff, he was able to know his child with the Duke's niece, even if only as an uncle of sorts.

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After Amyalos and Elpida's escape, the mountain folk interpreted his successful escape as a sign from the gods that the clay man sacrifice was undesirable, and ceased the practice. They sent petitions to the Duke, asking for men to help with the inbreeding issue, and Amyalos (the Duke grew fond of him and Elpida) suggested an official plan to use the mountain as a sort of penal colony/sanctuary.

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Nonviolent criminals who managed to make it to the mountain would be left unmolested so long as they remained there for no less than two years. After that time, if they returned for the Day of Souls, the Duke would assess their case and decide on their punishment, if any. Willingness to return and face judgement would factor in to the decision, as would the mountain folk's assessment of the individual in question's behavior and character whilst dwelling on the mountain.

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The nonviolent criminals would also serve to repel violent criminals from using the mountain as an escape from punishment for their crimes. If they elected not to repulse such a criminal, but to allow them to dwell among them (for whatever reason), they thus automatically took responsibility for his or her actions and behavior, from that day forth. Or something like that, I'm just noodling.

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Really, I enjoyed the story, but it ended too soon, in my opinion. Still 5* per usual.

I thought the ending was fine.

5*. Really enjoyed this one.

Very well done, sir.