A Patient Death 06: Wail of the North

**~ Chapter 06: Wail of the North ~** Roland gazed through the glowing crimson of his wine glass onto the city below, deflating. The relief of being finally, mercifully alone washed over him like warm bathwater, and he felt his hide twitch with the...

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A Patient Death 13: Tied Down

**Part Two: Foam Born** **~ Chapter 13: Tied Down ~** _Like a soothed pup in cotton._ It was a saying for a reason. Breeze and Erasmus watched as Abigail slept soundly in the makeshift crib, blankets rising and falling with each tiny breath. The...

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A Patient Death 12: Annihilation

**~ Chapter 12: Annihilation ~** Miverwak flinched as the report was slapped into his paw, licking his lips, nerves electrified at the prospect of undertaking his first _true_ task. No more scrubbing latrines for ungrateful soldiers, no more oiling...

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Keeping Secrets

Max looked up from his mug of hot chocolate, smiling into Brady's eyes. The wolf smiled back, before breaking the contact to sip his coffee. He moaned a little as he drank the hot liquid, inhaling the very essence of the caffeine. Max sipped his own...

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Tip of the Spear

**Chapter Four: Tip of the Spear** Oderan tapped his fingers impatiently against his leg, staring out the side of his carriage and gazing at the neutral region of Aleya. _What is taking so long_? It felt like they'd been sitting here for hours now....

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White Noise

_Beep_. _Beep_. _Beep_. That was the first thing Lars heard. Hearing seemed to be his only sense right now. His eyes seemed to be open, but everything in front of him was a blur of greys and whites. Beep. He could hear beeping, but had no idea where...

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Quiet Violence

Brady's earliest memory is of a fur his age being hit by a truck, just outside his home window. He was five years old. He wasn't really mature enough to grasp the idea of death in an intellectual sense, but he knew enough to know it was bad. That day...

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With Friends Like These

**Chapter Three: With Friends Like These** "What'cha doin' there?" A youthful voice asked. Garret stopped, sighing deeply and looking up at the much-too-cheery mutt standing over him. It was Misha, the one he'd given his food to a week or so ago....

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Black Meridian 12: Mystic Horizon

**12: Mystic Horizon** The circus's circadian rhythm changed significantly during performance weeks, as Fletcher learned. They performed six nights out of seven per week, and the show usually finished an hour or two after midnight. The day after,...

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Black Meridian 11: Yellow Eyes

**11: Yellow Eyes** "My daddy killed thirty-three people w'this gun. Four 'a them he just beat to death, after running outta ammo he spent killing their friends." The Baron Mason Fulbright said, fingering a large copper-plated revolver. The thing was...

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Black Meridian 10: Midnight Meridian

**[Part Two: Performance}** **10: Midnight Meridian** Until he saw it with his own two eyes, Fletcher hadn't fully grasped what Meridian meant by 'auxiliary show'. He saw now it was some kind of circus prelude, but the one time he'd had a chance to...

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Black Meridian 14: Stage Persona

**14: Stage Persona** Blood on his paws. Blood in his ears. His mouth, nose, clothes, so much blood. Justin's eyes watered as he ran through the cold night air, rogue twigs ripping at his face and shoulders as he sprinted by, pumping his little arms...

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