Tibs placed a hand on Heather’s, stopping her from drawing her sword in response to the bow Rachel aimed at them. Lian was the only one on her team who looked unsure of the situation. Darna and Korl had a hand on their sheathed sword. The barkeep held a mace. He was the only one whose name Tibs didn’t know, but suspected he was one of Darna ...
2025-10-27 13:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostEric opened his eyes, and glee looked back at him. He turned around and admired his workspace. The prickling was silent. He didn’t need it, not anymore. When he was ready for it, the diagram would just come, but for now all he wanted to do was take in the space.
His eyes fell on his tools, scattered on the floor, and he cooed.
He w...
2025-10-26 13:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostSnake sat in a school bus so old, he wouldn’t be surprised that it still had a combustion engine. It was one of the smaller ones the California penal system used, six seats, three to a side.
Where they were used to take children to school, two easily fit per seat. Three had been squeezed into them, back when he went, his district not bei...
2025-10-26 13:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostGralgiran looked over the people seated at the meeting table. The only one he wasn’t used to seeing there was his Heart.
“What caused the problem?” he asked the Supervisor. He had the reports, but he wanted their version first. To smell the air as they explained. See if something there would sway his evaluation of their performance.<...
2025-10-25 13:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostChapters written
This week, I wrote 3 chapters for Mind Your Step, 4 for The Technician’s Fight, 1 for The Daughter, and 1 for Harker.
The Redux for the Technician’s Fight is now out of the ‘full rewrite’ section, but I’m not done with it. There are a few more chapters that will need significant adjusting t...
2025-10-25 05:12:37 +0000 UTC View PostTibs sat by the room’s entrance and now had a sense of how Jackal felt each time they’d encountered a new puzzle he had to work out, and there was nothing for anyone else to do, or at least the fighter. He’d often had Carina or Don help, and even Khumdar, with his broad knowledge of the world, had been able to assist at times. Jackal was s...
2025-10-24 13:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostJeremy brought up the circuit he’d designed and inserted it into the reactor floating over his drafting table. It was a scaled-down version of what it would be if he were to have it built, not that he knew if it would work. This was a new design, taking his last reactor and applying Kelsirian thought process to it. The theoretical results his ...
2025-10-23 13:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostTibs headed toward the bear as soon as he was able to identify the mass of essence in the distance.
“Isn’t the dungeon in that direction?” Heather asked.
“I owe Karliak a bear.”
“You’re going to fight a bear by yourself?”
“No. Just capture it.”
She narrowed her eyes. “How do you capture a bear?...
2025-10-22 13:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostGralgiran listened to the silence.
Too many months now. Too many of them without a Spreading Branch broadcast. He was growing concerned there might be nothing left to rescue by the time he found out where they’d been taken.
He contacted his investigation beta. “Batrix, anything on Spreading Branch?”
“Nothing directly, A...
2025-10-21 13:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostTibs looked over the beams leaning against each other, while Ruppert moved among the top. He murmured comments to himself, that Tibs heard in his mind, and which Karliak also heard, since they complained about the noise.
“And?” Tibs asked.
“It’s like I thought,” the squirrel replied. “They’re leaning against each other ...
2025-10-20 13:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostThe reception counter was unoccupied when Eric entered the motel. He looked around for a moment, wondering where they were. He couldn’t remember any time in the two weeks he’d been staying here when the desk wasn’t manned. Samantha was usually there, if not her, it would be Robert, or their father, Marc. He decided they’d probably gone t...
2025-10-19 13:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostInformation appeared on his visor as Patrick looked at the building on the other side of the street. Its height; thirty-six feet. Its width; five hundred and eighteen feet. Its depth; a hundred and twenty-seven feet. The composition of the facade; brick. The windows; boarded up with cheap plywood. The font was green and looked as if he was readi...
2025-10-19 13:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post“How are you feeling?” Leiha asked, calmly watching Jeremy from the other side of her desk.
The laugh that escaped him was strangled by the almost sob at the utter ridicule of the question. How was he feeling? After what they’d done to him? Jeremy would never have imagined that a species so comfortable with their sexuality could be c...
2025-10-18 13:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostAs Tibs hoped, Lian sat himself next to Heather and leaned in to whisper something. That should keep her sufficiently distracted so she wouldn’t react too much to some of the lies he expected he’d have to tell.
Darna was who brought the ale. She set all the tankards down before sitting.
“So,” Rachel said, “who are you?” 2025-10-17 13:00:37 +0000 UTC View Post
The projection over his desk showed an enhanced view of the Bane, recorded from a ship, by the motion.
Gralgiran had been standing when Admiral Douhane sel Synta Kreftia had appeared for the meeting she’d requested. She’d asked that he sit, as she wanted this to be informal instead of official.
“I am not here as a representativ...
2025-10-16 13:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostHeather rolled her shoulder, looking like she couldn’t believe it worked. “Why was it painful? I’ve been healed before, and it wasn’t.”
“That was a purity cleric. I used Fever.”
She glanced at him. “Just how many elements do you have?”
“Twelve.”
She stared. “How is that possible?”
“I…do...
2025-10-15 13:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostThe room Jeremy stepped into was…empty.
His orders had been to report for the next part of his interrogation training. As this was hunter related, he wore his uniform, but hadn’t expected he’d have to fight.
The empty room made him think this was no longer an impossibility.
The door closed, and he fought the urge to che...
2025-10-14 13:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostStepping inside Karliak was no longer stepping into something obviously made. The path was grassy, the walls foliage and rocks at their base. There was something of how Firmen had made his walls mostly of trunks, but this felt more natural. Anyone walking here would question how it came to be, but wouldn’t immediately conclude a person had don...
2025-10-13 13:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post“How did you know there was a bomb in the bag?” Walter asked.
Eric didn’t answer, watching the lion cut a line from the bottom of his leg to where the knife had entered his leg.
“You’re a Tecker, aren’t you? That’s how you knew. You could sense it, or however it is you do it.”
He thought about lying, but what wa...
2025-10-12 13:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post“Thank you, Janine,” Donald said, and the mail delivery woman handed him the stack. “How’s Willie?”
“Doing good, Mister Orr. Off to summer camp so me and Gary can have some time to ourselves.”
“Careful with that. If you enjoy it too much, Willie will have a sibling.”
“We took precautions.”
“Those ...
2025-10-12 13:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostA bit of a warning to those who join my stream, next week will be a short one. I am off for the holiday on Monday, then have my surgery on Thursday. I should be back home on Friday, but I won’t be writing.
Chapters written
This week was a regular one, so 3 chapters for Mind Your Step and 3 for The Technician’s Fi...
2025-10-11 13:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostGralgiran returned to his apartment, puzzling over the request. That the male knew of his Heart wasn’t surprising; by now, what had happened to Jer had circulated through all the news media, not only the pirate broadcast. But that couldn’t be enough for him to want to meet his Heart.
He found him nursing a coffee at the table.
...
2025-10-11 13:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostThe rest of the trip wasn’t the chore Tibs worried it would be, having to play entertainer all the time so Ruppert could talk. After a few days of constant jabbering, the squirrel grew tired of it, and Tibs could rest while eating around the fire with the others.
The one group Ruppert never got tired of talking with was the children. As ...
2025-10-10 13:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostThe door buzzed as Jeremy put his shirt on. A tap on his tablet opened it. “Come on in! I’m just about ready!”
He grabbed the new jacket and threw it on, turning to exit the bedroom, and stopped. Toom and Xen stood in the opening, looking at him.
“That’s not going to work,” Toom said, displeased. He wore pants of an almos...
2025-10-09 13:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostThe city wall came into view further down the road, and Heather ran, Ruppert chasing her.
Tibs didn’t.
He knew Alistair wouldn’t be there. His old teacher might have spent some time searching the city for him, but he would have had to return to the guild eventually. He might even have realized Tibs had escaped if Heather had work...
2025-10-08 13:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostGralgiran stood to the side as the medics, with the assistance of the Quartermaster’s people, brought the pods to their species representatives. Each was accompanied by their own medics, as well as a security contingent. The prisoners were still within the ship, waiting for his signal. He wanted the patients taken away before bringing them out...
2025-10-07 13:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostWith going through their morning routine, then packing and their leisurely walk, it was well into morning by the time the sentry noticed them and ran off to warn the bandits of their approach. Tibs had decided not to tell Heather about the sentry, since it wouldn’t change what was coming, but she’d noticed something that caused her to search...
2025-10-06 13:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostThe sky didn’t match Colby’s mood, and that was a shame. It was gray, while he was excited to be in the pickup with his father, arriving at the state’s auction house. It was Colby’s first time taking part, and marked his coming shift to working fully at the ranch, instead of splitting his time between that and school.
He didn’t m...
2025-10-05 13:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostOver the next hour of his walk, the neighborhoods became more affluent, not so much that he worried he’d be chased away, but the people, an even mix of human and Furries, as far as he could tell, had more money than anyone where he was staying.
Even the stores looked wealthier, with large parking lots in front of them instead of lining t...
2025-10-05 13:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostChapters written
This week was ordinary. So three chapters for Mind Your Step, three for The Technician’s Fight, one for The Daughter, and one for Harker.
The initial chapters, the one for last weeks, didn’t have as many changes as I expected. Altering the setup to how Jeremy’s first mission happened, and the ...
2025-10-04 13:00:11 +0000 UTC View Post