muffinlance

91. The First Dose

Their procession, small as it was, began at Salt’s Mane. It began with them waiting on Rose, whose squad was not letting her depart without many hugs, promises of letters, and the re-pinning of the heroic medal she’d misplaced which they had graciously re-found for her. She would wear it, wouldn’t she? To remember them?

The ...

90. The Stories We Hate

“They’re calling themselves the Blood Commoners,” the Captain of the Guard groused, over drinks.

The Blood Commoners, like they were some kind of dramatic and self-sacrificing opposition against the blood nobles. The Raffertys always had been prone to thinking overly lofty thoughts of themselves. Behold, the height of their ambitions...

89. The Late Wake

“You’re late,” said the Lady. She sat on a bleached trunk of driftwood, one leg crossed over the other. “I’d almost announced your death again.”

Aaron stood before her, panting, the hood of the stag cloak thrown over his back.

“Do you know,” he said, “I think we’ve quite the dragon problem?”

“Not here, w...

88. Truces Are For Plotting

Aaron gave John the letter from his mother. John gave Aaron its reply, and honey rolls. It might not have been friendship, exactly, but it was at least a truce.

* * *

The investigation into Orin’s humanity continued, amidst the fighting. Aaron found himself in the odd position of personally visiting nearly every place where Orin’...

87. Not Even Trying

Aaron returned to the enclaves for a third time, with a smile and a new letter and a griffin cloak upon his shoulders, which earned him quite the range of reactions. Mostly the sort that would get him killed long before he got lured into a dark forest, should he keep wearing the thing. Interesting to see which enclavers looked twice upon seeing ...

86. Parallax

“Stop dying,” Rose commanded. “This is an order, not a suggestion.”

“It’s not as if I meant to,” Aaron said.

“Are you going to tell me,” she said, “that you weren’t doing something stupid, either time? Or any other time you’ve been in danger?”

“You can’t going making a question that broad,” said ...

86. Lives Included (2)

The Winter Lord came at them. Not as a subtle stalking thing, but with the crashing of something large that didn’t care over much for the little things crushed in its wake.

The kaibyou scruffed her final kitten and shoved it into Aaron’s hands.

“The clearing,” she ordered, now that her mouth was clear. And swiped her...

85. Lives Included (1)

Baby update: little girl appears to be doing well; follow up MRI in two weeks to check how well her skull is healing, but she seems to be past any immediate danger and back to complaining about tummy time and other momentous baby concerns. Also I am delighted to announce that 1) new baby is fey-marked, and 2) her primary noises ...

Baby emergency, no chapter this week

Mother in law came to help with the new baby. 

Mother in law dropped the baby on her head. 

Baby has a skull fracture. 

THAT IS NOT HELPING.

We are home from the hospital now. Bleeding seems to have stabilized and the doctors are hopeful for a full recovery, but suffice it to say that writing is not a prior...

84. Take Only What You Need

The kaibyou ate the rabbit babes bones and all, then licked herself clean with a certain daintiness. She did all this while staring directly at Aaron, which made him simultaneously both more and less inclined to try running again.

When her whiskers were no longer red with someone else’s kill, she stood and began walking. She did...

83. Leave Nothing Unwanted

When he woke, John’s twin was gone and the griffins were back up their tree, probably until nightfall made leaving a safer affair. Waking was good. Waking after a clear delay was less good because… reasons. Reasons like. He was fairly certain a person who stayed down for more than a few minutes had trouble getting back up, and he’d no way ...

Volume One Book Launch!

Volume one is officially on Amazon/KU and Audible! 

2023-03-21 16:24:49 +0000 UTC View Post

82. Don’t Maul the Messenger

Enclave weaponsmiths were legendary. Or so Aaron had been told by Mabel, at length, when he’d gotten her started on the topic over lunch the last he was in Salt’s Mane. Dragons had been coming to Last of the Isles long before proper humans had arrived, and the griffins had taken some historical offense to the poaching of the reindeer herds t...

Book 1 Moving to Kindle Unlimited

Just a head's up: the first book of Fox's Tongue (chapters 1-48) will be moving to KU just ahead of the official release; that means they'll be taken down from Patreon and Royal Road.

This doesn't affect chapters 49 onwards, or any future chapters, which I'm working hard to get queued up while Spouse is still on paternity ...

Obligatory Baby Pictures

Mini-Muffin 2.0 has arrived!

Yes I am already typing over her, why do you ask. Guest-starring chapter 82 in the background.

<...

81. Nothing Suspicious at the Castle

“You didn’t tell me you had a brother,” Aaron said, the next he was at Onekin. The trip had been pleasantly uneventful, and made entirely on the feet of horses rather than upon his own sore hooves.

John Baker did not look up from where he was kneading dough with unnecessary force. “Do you have a letter for me?”

“Not this ...

80. Late to His Own Funeral

Aaron arrived at Salt’s Mane rather behind the news of his own death. Which made for an awkwardly pointed conversation with the guards, who’d watched a lone traveler approaching—suspicious enough, that—only to have him introduce himself as a dead boy.

They were of the opinion that he should spend a little time in those cells they�...

79. Touch Wood

His first bounding step inside, and there was already a leshy waiting for him. Right in his path, where it looked to have always been, but certainly hadn’t a moment ago. Aaron stopped, his flanks quivering, his tail raised.

There was a heavy thump behind him. Aaron did not turn around. The wind brought crushed grass and the dry-sharp sce...

Preorders and Posting, Oh My

News!

• Baby is: still incubating! (Due early March. I have achieved my final form: walking watermelon.)
• Volume One is: open for a limited preorder of signed copies + 2023-02-18 17:08:16 +0000 UTC View Post

78. Fit to Kill

Aaron had a bad feeling. Which was the sort of irony he didn’t much appreciate, really. He was back on the road, with a reply for Connor from his brother, and a letter for Rose that she’d not asked for, and a few other missives on the state of the kingdom and suchlike that were probably more important. He was about an hour south of the Hella...

77. How’d You Know, and Other Impolite Questions

They arrived back at Salt’s Mane with a stunning lack of roadside excitement. Riding all day every day for days on end was, it turned out, rather boring when nothing was stalking you from the sky. Aaron was fine with the lack of imminent death. But it was a weird thing, having the horse under him do all the work, while he sat there getting sor...

76. Everyone Has Their Hobbies

“So,” Aaron said, casual as can be. “Are you going to out me to our father soon as you open your mouth?”

Because she’d certainly wasted no time in doing so to all those lords and ladies on the committee yesterday. Which was a thing he couldn’t think on too hard, because if he did, then he’d be thinking of the sand clock he wa...

Announcement: Patreon Payments Paused

TLDR: I am very preggers, updates will be slow, so Patreon payments are PAUSED. You will still get updates. Just slowly. And for free.

Thank you for your patience, you are all lovely people. <3

…There is not actually a longer version of this announcement. I’m just at the stage of pr...

75. Matters of Record

They’d stuck a crown on Prince Connor. A little one; no jewels, or anything so gaudy, and nothing near the regalness of the king’s. Just a thin band of gold, worked into the semblance of two dragons coiling over each other. Aaron wondered if it would fit the boy’s twin better, if and when it became Rose’s turn to be next in the successio...

74. Safe Travels (4)

It went for Adelaide first, which was a thing she probably wouldn’t like him feeling grateful for, but there it was. She jerked her horse’s reins towards the forest. Almost made it, too. But the dragon got there ahead of her, her path predicted, talons broad enough to crush boulders outstretched. They hunted with their hindlegs, a part of Aa...

73. Safe Travels (3)

Jessica—Jeshinkra—had received a letter. That was how it started. She’d been expecting friends of hers for a visit. Three from her unit, traveling a bit on their way home, leaving the safety of their caravan for a detour to this little town. This was not spring with its dragons, or winter with its lean hungry things. It was summer, the wea...

72. Safe Travels (2)

Just before dawn, Aaron put on his wolf cloak and slipped into the forest through a crack in the town’s gate, quickly closed. There was new growth brushing his shoulders and old decay damp under his paws, and sounds and smells he still didn’t know. There was a strangeness to being outside of humanity’s walls before sunrise. An electric cha...

71. Safe Travels (1)

Aaron was to ride messenger horses on his way back to Onekin, changing for fresh mounts at towns along the main road. Messenger horses were bred for speed, the stablehand said. Ours are particularly excellent at fording the local rivers, the stablehand said. Just watch out they don’t play tricks on you, the stablehand said.

“It’s jus...

Family Tree, As Drawn By Aaron, If He Cared to Draw One

Also known as "Who's My Half-Sibling Hopscotch". I really think the Queen missed an opportunity here, to complete the circle with a few select liaisons with Unknown Women. Or did she.

70. Interviews and Departures

Orin handed him a neatly tied stack of letters as the meeting broke up. Each bore the crown’s seal: a dragon rampant, caught in the spiked ring of a crown.

“As we discussed,” he said, and left it at that.

“You’re carrying his correspondence?” asked his sister, once His Majesty had left the room.

“I’m the go-betw...