Side stories for Taming Destiny
That Fateful Day (Read after Book 2 Chapter 1) (available to all tiers) - See what happened to Lathani and Kalanthia while Markus was away at the end of Book 1. Read after Book 2 Chapter 1 to avoid spoilers.
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Book Two: Growth - Table of Contents
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Book 1: Leap - Table of Contents 2023-07-31 18:05:41 +0000 UTC View Post
Book 1: Leap - Table of Contents
Chapter Two: Hope Springs Eternal
2023-07-31 13:17:20 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Sixty-Six: Buckeroo
I’m not in the best of positions, leaning back on my hands with a crocodile look-alike half on top of me. It’s heavy but I’ve got the advantage on land. Remembering a nature program at home and hoping that this analogue’s physiology is at least similar, I clamp my arm around its mouth, holding its head to me firmly.
The cr...
2023-07-23 09:17:24 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Sixty-Five: Man, I’ve got an Axe
Careful. Caaarefuul, I say to myself as I tip the resin bowl. It’s hot, so I’d rather not spill it on my hand, but I do need to transfer the liquid so I can filter it. Right now, it’s full of detritus which won’t do anything to improve the consistency of my pitch. Drop by drop, the molten resin drips from the hole in the side of...
2023-07-23 09:16:35 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Sixty-Four: Tough and Chewy
When I realise the loud noise was just a pot exploding, I grimace. One item bites the dust. Let’s hope for not too many of those. It sure shows how keyed up I am that a noise the equivalent of a car back-firing is enough to almost give me a heart attack.
Mind you, at least I’m not the only one shocked: all five of the felines - or what...
2023-07-23 09:16:06 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Sixty-Three: Baked Cub
The fire crackles cheerfully as I sit next to it, the tree stump I collected yesterday in front of me, a somewhat sharp flint stone in my hand. Within eyesight, but carefully being kept away from the flames, are the four cubs, happily playing together. I’m keeping an eye to make sure they don’t come anywhere near my fire, and Bastet is sitti...
2023-07-23 09:15:40 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Sixty-Two: Colony
I step carefully through the leaf litter in front of the gaping hole. My knife and mace are both in my hands and I’m tense, ready for another monster to come leaping out. Casting a glance around, I frown as I try to piece together what had happened in the instant before the spider-insect attacked.
Despite my increased Intelligence, the w...
2023-07-23 09:13:56 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Sixty-One: Nightmare-inducing
Regret isn’t helpful right now so I push it away, using the split-seconds I have before it’s upon me to instead try to figure out how to stay alive. By the time it lunges at me once more, I have a basic – and risky – plan of action. Here’s hoping it’s sufficient.
Pulling my arm up to block, I attempt to slip the mace in between...
2023-07-23 09:13:29 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Sixty: The Venom Coursing Through My Veins
The next morning is a bit of a repeat of yesterday. Food, stoke the fire, and then prepare for the day. This time, I’m intending on going out into the forest rather than digging a pit, so my preparations are a little different.
The main task I need to do in preparation is check my Inventory to minimise the amount of stuff I’m carrying ...
2023-07-23 09:13:02 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Fifty-Nine: Priorities
Despite being on tenterhooks for most of the morning, even after getting back to the cave area, nothing bad happens. Well, nothing outside the normal, that is. In the end I don’t make more soup since I suddenly realise that the cubs are going to need water throughout the day and my wok is the only container I have that they can easily drink fr...
2023-07-23 09:12:27 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Fifty-Eight: Pride
My mind races quickly. We have one cub AWOL – what are the chances that Trouble is where the shriek came from? I wouldn’t take that bet. At the same time, we have two cubs here that we can’t leave on their own. I make a decision quickly.
“Bastet, you go ahead,” I tell her quietly but urgently. She sends me a reluctant look, glanc...
2023-07-23 09:08:28 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Fifty-Seven: Trouble
The two felines stare each other down for a long moment. Well, I say two felines, but I’m not even sure a nunda counts as one, let alone a raptorcat. Lathani is significantly bigger than the as-yet-unnamed raptorcat cub – she’s about the size of a medium-sized dog where the other cub is probably like a small lion cub in size. We’re all f...
2023-07-23 09:07:59 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Fifty-Six: Sympathy
I wake up in the dark to something breathing heavily near me. I freeze while my mind races groggily to work out the cause. The fact that it doesn’t move closer while I wake up fully is enough to calm me a little, and I relax completely when I realise exactly what the origin is. I remember having had the bright idea yesterday to Bind a raptorca...
2023-07-23 09:07:33 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Fifty-Five: Non-human Communication Skills
“Maybe you should stay here with the cubs until I’ve spoken to Kalanthia,” I say a little hesitantly, casting an apprehensive eye up the slope. I mean, I’m pretty sure this isn’t going to be an issue – Kalanthia’s been OK with Spike after all. However, a raptorcat is a different story from a porcupig and...I’m stalling. ...
2023-07-23 09:06:28 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Fifty-Four: Handily-sized Snacks
First, I need to confirm – or deny – my suspicions. As casually as I can, I turn to Bastet and ask her a question, doing my best to control the feelings and images I inadvertently send down the link.
“What happened to your pack, Bastet? You seemed too powerful to be taken down easily.” Instead of doing a ‘don’t think of pink el...
2023-07-23 09:06:02 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Fifty-Three: Trap
I wipe sweat off my brow, my breath still coming in tired pants. Feeling low in energy, I pull out some cooked meat and munch on it, putting a little of the raw stuff in front of the cubs and offering some more to Bastet. The adult raptorcat accepts it, just as tired from her own efforts.
Casting a last glance around the area, I make sure ...
2023-07-23 09:05:31 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Fifty-Two: Strange Babies
The cubs are so cute it takes all I have not to just rush over, grab, and snuggle them into my neck while making ridiculous noises that would be better found in an anime than real life. They’re little bundles of fluff with supple feet and stubs of wings covered with the softest of down. They have teeth, but they look more like white milk teeth...
2023-07-23 09:05:03 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Fifty-One: Acceptance
Focusing back on the raptorcat, my distraction having lessened the pressure I was applying, I take a different approach. Honestly, this isn’t all that different from all the other negotiation and mediation I’ve done – when one angle doesn’t work, try a different one.
Do you not wish to live to grow stronger? Death is the end of...
2023-07-23 09:04:38 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Fifty: Battle of Wills
Walking through the forest is actually a pleasure. The sun and leaves make a dappled pattern on the layers of last year’s dropped leaves. My Stealth has already levelled up to Beginner four despite not getting much practice over the last few days of digging pits. The moments when it directs my feet to shift slightly so they don’t step on a c...
2023-07-23 09:04:14 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Forty-Nine: Animal Empathy
The next day I continue with digging my pit. After fetching water, of course. Kalanthia disappears into the forest as soon as I get back, leaving Lathani playing by my feet. I tempt her over to my work area with a bit of nicely roasted meat and then she’s happy to mess around in the dirt for a while. I watch with a bit of amusement as she stud...
2023-07-23 09:02:56 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Forty-Eight: Nicholas’ World
Regretfully walking away from Lathani, who makes an annoyed sound when I stop petting her, I head past the cave. Sorting out the firewood in my Inventory, I stack the majority of the branches up near where I’ve started digging my pit, only taking enough of the driest stuff into the cave with me for the night.
A previous day, I’d tested...
2023-07-23 09:00:00 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Forty-Seven: Time
Looking up at the sky, I try to estimate the time. Having paid close attention to my Energy gain by absorption over the last few days, I’ve concluded that there must be between twenty-seven and twenty-nine hours per day. Settling on twenty-eight as the average – and also easily divisible – number, I decide on a clock face with fourteen hou...
2023-07-23 08:50:45 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Forty-Six: This big
As usual, I wake with the sun. Testing a small chunk of my potato-replacement, I look forward to the time when I’m able to eat enough of it to actually make my stomach feel like there’s something in it, rather than the emptiness which follows my ‘breakfast’ with it now. I’ve got high hopes for this thing - if today goes well, I’ll be...
2023-07-23 08:44:37 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Forty-Five: Good Times
In my state of serenity, I start wandering down the hill towards the stream. I look at my surroundings and notice that they are ever so slightly different from before. The world around me has a myriad facets which I’ve never really paid attention to. I can see the links between different things more easily. I admire how the play of light over ...
2023-07-23 08:44:04 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Forty-Four: Wisdom
The next morning, I skip testing the root Spike found a few days ago. I’ve been taking advantage of the more relatively relaxed days to start the whole testing process – and so far with decent results – but considering I was attacked yesterday by the gang of velociraptors when I didn’t even go that far from home, I don’t want to risk b...
2023-07-23 08:42:18 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Forty-Three: Flailing Master
I stalk carefully through the forest back towards the tree. The shadows are already lengthening, but mid-afternoon here means there’s still plenty of time until night falls. I took over an hour to reach this area last time, but I wasn’t exactly moving fast, instead meandering while looking for an appropriate branch to turn into an axe-haft. ...
2023-07-23 08:40:24 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Forty-Two: An Exercise in Frustration
Knapping flint is an exercise in frustration, I decide after the fifth time this morning the stone I’m trying to turn into an axe head splits in the wrong place and completely ruins my progress. On the positive side, I have a number of flint shards which will be useful for creating other tools and weapons later. On the other hand, I’ve made ...
2023-07-23 08:39:32 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Forty-One: Nightmare
Eyeing the nasty chimera warily while backing up, I wonder how to kill it. I don’t exactly want to get anywhere near its venomous bits – because you can’t tell me that those fangs aren’t just as likely to be venomous as the tail – but my knife and mace are both close-range weapons. Then, once more, I remember that, a) my Inven...
2023-07-23 08:37:24 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Forty: Bounds of the Vow
I warned you, Binder, she snarls in my head, her telepathic voice matching the audible sounds she’s still making.
“What?” I choke out, completely confused. Warned me about what? What have I done wrong?
I warned you not to try to bind my cub! My scrambled mind tries to make sense of her words. She’s calling m...
2023-07-23 08:36:46 +0000 UTC View Post