Warrior's Spirit
_I was afraid to go to her, not because I did not return her love, but because it would make saying goodbye all the more difficult..._ "I AM SPARTASTICUS!" I shouted against the icy blasts of unceasing, howling wind._"I am the Khranoth cheetah...
House Rules
Art, in the modern digital studio, is made in layers. With music, it can be individual tracks and riffs, shadings and nuances, even sampling of other audio media. Graphic work can begin on paper and be scanned in, or begun on a tablet and continued...
Great Minds
He was proper puffed when he coasted his bicycle into the fast-food stand parking lot. His goal of making Provinceton by dark was on schedule, including an hour-long stop at this place to get a semblance of a meal and some rest before continuing on his...
Seem and Substance
_Let be be finale of seem; The only emperor is the emperor of ice cream._ --Wallace Stevens A sharp double-trill resounded from several locations in the large, empty house. After several untended rings, the answering machine, that delightfully...
Engineering, Part 1
I'm partial neither to bars nor alcohol, although the occasional _aperitif_can be welcome. Properly, the word refers to a dry or fizzy alcoholic beverage (a Sloe Gin Fizz is a good example), although the word has come to mean any alcoholic beverage...
Tenderness
"Good morning." The soft voice in Eoin's ear made him smile softly and stretch a little even as an arm reached around and pulled him closer, his bare back to a very firm and equally bare chest and belly. He wrapped his own white-gold furred arm...
Aftermath
Cory Windrunner slumped, exhausted, barely able to keep herself on the hassock she had sat upon... how long ago? Hours? Months? Years? She had heard every word of a story spanning nearly a decade, felt as if she had somehow lived it, survived it, and...
Invocation
Holding the candelabra carefully ahead of me, I padded slowly, languorously, through the near-midnight room. Amid the constantly shifting chiaroscuro of flickering candle flames and shivering shadows that flitted around the huge space, I felt a thrill...
Collar 4 -- Need to Talk
I passed my forepaws over my face briefly, trying to regain my wits, then settled them in my lap. The events of the past week, not to mention the past hour or so, were taking a toll. I couldn't blame it on lack of sleep; I'd been sleeping like a happy...
Expiration Date, Part 2
Neville stood aside as he welcomed me into his home. I knew from other conversations that he had inherited the modest house from his parents (who had passed some years ago), and he had apologized long in advance for how badly he had "let the place...
Grace
Somewhere beyond the lonely cabin, deeper in the woods, the woeful cry of the wild wolves thrilled upon the chill night air. Within the one-room space, lit only by the small fire in the hearth, the gray-furred fox listened with a fascinated...
Collar 5 -- Protection
This story has been deleted in order to comply with the AUP changes of May 2021.