Thicker Than Water
**Five: Thicker Than Water** _Connect The Dots - Ayreon_ Dinner with his brother was more awkward than Ethan would have liked. After leaving the city, he drove absentmindedly for hours. He wasn't sure how long exactly, but it must have been a...
Sharp Angles
**Four: Sharp Angles** _Meds - Placebo_ "Excuse me! Hey!" Fingers snapping. People talking. Beeping. Machines. Itchy shirt. Sore feet. Tail in the way. Is your phone charged? "_Hey,_kid!" Nico's attention came crashing back like a wave, and he...
A Patient Death 11: Sweat & Shame
**~ Chapter 11: Sweat & Shame ~** When big pig Hando told Breeze the smuggler they were looking for worked out of a place called the Red Lantern Inn, the wolf had expected to find a normal, if perhaps unusually decorated... well, _inn_. "This is a...
A Patient Death 10: All Hail, Apathy
**~ Chapter 10: All Hail, Apathy ~** Smoke rose in the distance, the narrow plumes of white trailing up beyond the edges of the city walls, indicating to all who cared to know that Nurjan's army was performing their morning prayer. The Niverron walls...
A Patient Death 09: Tradition & Triumph
**~ Chapter 09: Tradition & Triumph ~** Roland filed into the Lord's Junction with the other nobles, fighting - as always - the urge to scoff at the gaudy unlit sconces and over-designed doorframes. It was early, and stark morning light illuminated...
The God Seed
**The God Seed** The slaps rang out through the cave, echoing against the walls, the soft but reluctant moans following close behind. I tightened my grip against the otter's neck fur, grunting myself. We were deep beneath the mountain now, but still...
A Patient Death 08: Three's Company
**~ Chapter 08: Three's Company ~** Breeze sneezed, cursing the pawful of woodchips and dust he'd just snorted from the air. He shook himself, again raising the axe, and again bringing it down on the errant log blocking the path. _Kunk._ The sound...
A Patient Death 07: King and Country
**~ Chapter 07: King and Country ~** "Get up." Breeze coughed himself awake, scowling at the boot prodding none-too-gently at his ribs. "Hope you enjoyed your night, damn savage." He looked up, his mind wondering briefly if it was time to fight. The...
A Patient Death 16: Disease, Injury, Madness
**~ Chapter 16: Disease, Injury, Madness ~** There was no heat in Luther's cell, and so the smuggler woke slowly. Like all reptiles, the komodo dragon was ectothermic, meaning he relied on the mercy of external sources to keep his body's temperature...
A Patient Death 15: Smuggler's Run
**~ Chapter 15: Smuggler's Run ~** Breeze watched Erasmus closely, the otter's furry round face pushed as deep in his hood as it could go. The moonlight glinted in his blue eyes, which - in the darkness of night - currently seemed only a step away...
A Patient Death 14: Army of Thieves
**~ Chapter 14: Army of Thieves ~** Two fundamental ingredients are required in order for war to rage on for over a hundred years, and the first one was simple; an endless pool of able bodied men willing to stand and fight for their king and country....
A Patient Death 17: Infest The Rats' Nest
**~ Chapter 17: Infest The Rats' Nest ~** "It feels a little odd, to be holding a ball at a time like this." Salem whispered, adjusting his doublet's collar as he scanned the room. Roland merely shrugged, feeling quite at home in his finely-pressed...