Potato Soup
It was January, and the modest kitchen of their Hoosier farmhouse was warm and cozy with the scents of fur and food, post-Christmas memories (they'd taken down the tree this morning), and of a New Year's full-spread, horizon-hung promise (but, then,...
As Good As Rest
AUTHOR'S NOTE - This is the series finale of "Arctic." The sky was a blanket of slate-grey. No azure-blue today. It looked like snow. Her ears waggled, bare and exposed to the icy-cold 'I can see my breath' air. And he watched her, with...
Notorious
"How did you find out?" Aria asked, staring straight ahead. Into the brig. Barrow, beside her, only said, darkly, "They had trouble keeping their thoughts ... " He squinted. " ... to themselves." A breath. "So, going on what I picked up...
Canyon Arrow
... four years earlier ... "This is the Canyon Arrow. If you want to be on the team," the coach said, squinting, smiling, whiskers twitching, "then I'll meet you on the other side ... " He padded away, toward the shuttle-pod. " ... in three...
Cohesion
A grunt. The vixen tilted her head a bit. Her white tail swished in the dim, evening-lit confines of the room. Neither of them noticed the stars outside the windows. Neither of them cared. Ural brushed his teeth along her nape,...
Redemption Songs
"There. Down there, see?" A paw pointing out the window. "Way down there ... " They were in a low, low orbit, and descending by the second. The outside temperature of the hull heating up. But they were all protected by the shuttle-pod's metals and...
'Til We Have Faces
Her white, sharp-clawed paws danced, lazily, on the aesthetically-smooth and pleasing surface of the computer console. The fur of her paws being a snowy-white, and the pads being a charcoal-black. She tap-tapped here and there, bringing up images on...
Driven to Thirst
"We want our officers back." "They are not YOUR officers," Aria stated, with stern clarity. "You do not own them." "Perhaps not. But neither do you," the fisher said, leaning forward. "They are OUR officers," he repeated. "And we want them...
Begin to Mend
(Author's Note: This episode takes place about half a year after 'Victory for the Romantic Muse.') Her head was on a pillow, and with the fabric of the pillow-sheet being the same color as her fur (a soft, milky-white, a snowy-white), there...
Milty
It was all hustle-and-bustle outside, today. Everyone working. Everyone shopping. Everyone going. The sound of too many cars on the salted, chilly streets, with all those drivers driving so crazily. Engines sputtering. And a few...
Scotch Pine
It was late. The outside barren. Bare. And white. Nothing of summer, or even autumn, remained. All a memory. All waiting to happen again. All in respite. Out there, the glitter-glistening icicles, like recently-invited guests, hung from...
Gothic Cathedrals
It was November, the Monday before Thanksgiving, and the always-noisy, mechanical hustle-and-bustle of the nature-less city seemed to slow, as if holding its breath in baited anticipation. The skyscrapers going all googly-windowed, as if jabbering with...