Kaz was only half right. He was in trouble, but Li was not.
He woke in a pool of unclean water. Someone had taken the tent down without waking him, and the water that was held outside the oilcloth lining sluiced in as it flattened, swirling around the sleeping dragon and kobold. The camp was taken down wit...
2024-06-14 19:20:23 +0000 UTC View PostThe story didn’t take long once he started, but soon Lianhua had her face buried in her hands. “Which princess?” she muttered. “If it was the youngest, she’s what, barely eighteen?” Her shoulders heaved as she sighed, and she looked up at Kaz. “We met her, I think. My grandfather sent a message to King Maleim, b...
2024-06-13 19:23:22 +0000 UTC View PostThe rain still hadn’t stopped by the time the humans decided to camp for the night. He couldn’t see the moon and stars, but Kaz could feel the sun set, as damp shadows deepened into darkness, and the brilliant flashes of lightning backlit the roiling clouds. Shortly after each flash came the terrible growling of a monstro...
2024-06-12 20:26:52 +0000 UTC View PostWe have a whole series of appointments queued up today, so I'm not going to be able to sit down long enough to write a chapter. Sorry, everyone! I'll be back to work tomorrow 😊
2024-06-11 15:53:08 +0000 UTC View PostKaz hurried down a narrow street, the buildings that seemed to lean in toward him blocking much of the rain. Lianhua was right behind him, but of course Chi Yincang was nowhere to be seen. Not by his eyes, anyway, though there was a suspiciously blurry patch on a roof nearby, where the raindrops suddenly parted ways with each...
2024-06-10 22:38:42 +0000 UTC View PostKaz was ‘shopping’ with Lianhua, Kyla was sleeping, and Li was bored. Li had never actually met another dragon, but her instincts told her that dragons didn’t like being bored. Li definitely didn’t like being bored, especially since she couldn’t pass the time by sleeping, as she usually did. But Li was...
2024-06-07 19:28:45 +0000 UTC View PostOnce Raff saw his charges settled into their rooms, he let Lianhua know that he would go find some horses. There were a few stables in town, and though there weren’t a lot of extra horses around, he could probably find someone who knew someone with an old nag or a retired carthorse. But first, he had a stop to make. 2024-06-06 21:33:29 +0000 UTC View Post
Raff kept a close eye on the people around them as his ragtag little group entered Wheldrake. The little pink puppy - Kyla - was holding the dragon beneath her cloak. And how was that for a kick in the arse? That Pellis-cursed Iron-fang rat Blue had been hauling around for weeks turned out to be a damned dragon. A tame, tiny ...
2024-06-05 20:47:17 +0000 UTC View PostKaz woke after a long, dreamless sleep, finding that at some point during the night Kyla had curled up next to him, and Mei and Li were tangled together between Kaz and Kyla. It was the smell of meat cooking that woke them all, and the sight of Kyla’s perked ears and twitching nose made Kaz bitterly regret his own transform...
2024-06-04 23:41:23 +0000 UTC View PostKaz rolled to his side, reaching for the little dragon, but she was already climbing to her feet, her eyes blinking sleepily. She had worn herself out doing… something. But what?
<You weren’t doing it right,> she told him, eyes gleaming with their own light in the soft shadows.
Kaz finished rolling over,...
2024-06-04 01:08:14 +0000 UTC View PostIt took another three hours of walking to reach the spot where Raff wanted to camp. Kaz knew because Raff explained that both the sun and moon actually moved across the sky during their designated time periods. When they were at their peak, it was the center of the day or night, and as they dropped toward the horizon, their t...
2024-05-31 19:39:24 +0000 UTC View Post“We came a good bit further west than we should’ve,” Raff said, drawing an X next to the long, winding line he claimed was meant to represent the river. “We’re close to the Grimgar Wilds now, and we won’t want to be here when night falls.”
He kept casting glances toward the huge, dark cave into which the r...
2024-05-30 22:47:24 +0000 UTC View PostWhen Kaz opened his eyes to a scaly face and flickering tongue, he thought at first that Li had found him. Then his eyes focused, vision much clearer than it had been since they were damaged, and he realized that not only was this creature black, rather than gold with hints of other colors, but it was huge. Larger than huge.<...
2024-05-29 19:46:57 +0000 UTC View PostThe last time Kaz looked at his core, he’d seen marked improvement, even over how it looked when Nucai first repaired it. Now, it was even better, and he could see that both his blue and his gold ki were stronger than before he interacted with the Tree, or rather the beings or spirits inside it. His Wood ki, especially, bla...
2024-05-28 22:12:01 +0000 UTC View PostThere were few bushes and trees breaking up the grass for several yards ahead of them. After that, water roared and tumbled, more of it than Kaz had ever seen in one place except a few of the great, dark lakes. Those were incredibly dangerous, thanks to the immense creatures that could live in their depths, so most kobolds al...
2024-05-27 22:04:26 +0000 UTC View PostKaz slept well that night, curled up on the soft ground with Kyla pressed against his back and Li snuggled against his belly. The three humans each watched for a while, though nothing else approached them. It was the rising heat that woke Kaz, and he opened his eyes only to flinch away from the glaring white that seemed to su...
2024-05-24 19:07:24 +0000 UTC View PostTentatively, Kaz reached out and touched the fuergar’s side, noting the faint thud of its heart still racing inside its chest. Ribs rose and fell beneath his hand in a single shallow breath, so it wasn’t dead, merely unconscious.
He frowned as Raff and Kyla rejoined them. Kyla immediately crouched down besi...
2024-05-23 19:48:24 +0000 UTC View PostKaz knew they had been followed before Raff and Lianhua could even set his paws on the ground. He took a moment to be astonished by the way it squished up between his toes, soft and warm, and not at all like the ground he had walked on for his entire life. In that moment, his opportunity to send their stalker home was lost. 2024-05-22 20:31:24 +0000 UTC View Post
She remembered the time from before she knew she was different. Curled up beside her mother, warm and full of milk, she lived in safety and darkness, filled with the squeaks and gentle breathing of a dozen siblings. Then the Light came, and the Monster killed the large one, the father and protector of them all. Her mother and...
2024-05-21 22:59:41 +0000 UTC View PostKaz wished he could have seen the plaza properly before it was filled with the remains of the shiyan. In Li’s eyes, the patterns formed by the bricks were complex and beautiful, though the body and fluids smeared across them made it difficult to tell if they created an overall image. His own vision, however, showed...
2024-05-20 22:49:36 +0000 UTC View PostOnce he started, Kaz didn’t stop until he reached one of the massive rib bones buried within the beast’s torso. His knife slid through bone almost as easily as the spongy flesh, but he shifted his angle away from the ribs, knowing that the core was in the other direction.
Meanwhile, the monster continued to thrash, ...
2024-05-18 00:08:19 +0000 UTC View Post“If that thing comes down on the city, it’ll crush us all,” Lianhua called. “We need to either get it to land in the plaza, or chop it into small enough pieces that it can’t do as much damage.”
Kaz actually felt a hint of amusement break through the absolute terror he had been feeling ever since he realized ...
2024-05-16 19:07:06 +0000 UTC View PostTheir destination was indeed quite a bit closer to the center of the city, and while the road leading from the Mithrilblades entrance was to their right, a gleaming stream of clear black water marked the Waveblades’ road, visible between the buildings to their left. Kaz could also hear the sound of water trickling and splas...
2024-05-15 23:52:46 +0000 UTC View Post“Oi,” Raff said. “These belong to you?” He shook the dangling kobolds, his voice as genial as ever, but his eyes were calculating as they watched Avli.
To Kaz’s surprise, Dett started to step between his future mate and the tall human, but Avli pressed her hand to his chest, holding him back. The Mithrilblade ...
2024-05-14 23:21:10 +0000 UTC View PostThe city was huge, but sprawling in a way the mosui city hadn’t been. All of the buildings there were tall, to the point that all you could see while standing in the street was the walls to each side, a straight corridor ahead and behind, and the ever-present ki-stones above. Here, it looked like the tops of s...
2024-05-13 20:21:59 +0000 UTC View PostI don't have much in the way of rules here, but I've never really codified what there are. I'm still pondering making a Discord channel, and my husband asked what my rules were going to be, so I thought I'd drop them here, too. (Edit to add that I have made a Discord, which is 2024-05-11 23:18:08 +0000 UTC View Post
Kaz sat on a low stone, watching as Gram selected the members of his new tribe, with a great deal of input from Ija. It turned out that Gram’s father had been another of Vega’s pups, but he and his mate had died when the hidden den was attacked by one of the first abominations to break through from the mid-levels. Since t...
2024-05-11 00:33:58 +0000 UTC View PostI had some things I had to do this morning, and it threw my schedule all cattywampus. I will get a chapter done this evening, but it'll be a while yet. Sorry!
2024-05-10 19:36:54 +0000 UTC View PostKaz turned to see everyone staring at him, some of the kobolds looking cautiously hopeful, while others seemed quietly hostile. Strangely, these emotions seemed to be equally mixed among all the kobolds, not any one particular tribe, and two groups seemed to have formed, red and gold-furred kobolds mingling on both sides.
... 2024-05-09 20:54:12 +0000 UTC View Post<-up!> The voice echoed through Kaz’s mind as something was pulled from his hands. It fell, landing hard on his toe before rolling away. It didn’t get far, since one side of the dull orb was nearly flat, so it settled quickly in place, looking entirely innocuous.
Kaz shook his head, staring down at the dragon ...
2024-05-08 20:48:25 +0000 UTC View Post
