Ander - Part 4: Subchapter 42
42 Banno closed the door behind him, gasping and wheezing, burning from the inside out, trying not to think about how he'd have to walk all the way back to the animal cages, and then all the way back to his room when he was done. But he did think...
Ander - Part 4: Subchapter 47
47 Through that black window, through the shadows and underneath the blankets lay Banno, fast asleep. He could hear the fire outside, but the sound in his dream did not belong to a fire. It belonged to a river. It wasn't a raging, dirty brown serpent...
Ander - Part 4: Subchapter 46
46 -uuke!" He didn't turn back. He was looking down at his shadow, spread out before him, made spiky by the grass. It pulsated in time with the blaze at his back, jumping and fading, growing dark again. Shadows weren't supposed to be so clear at...
Ander - Part 4: Subchapter 44
44 Banno put the fire-starting kit back where he had found it, checked the candles on the table one last time to make absolutely sure it didn't look like they had been tampered with, then continued on to his room - his eyes, ears and nose on full...
Ander - Part 4: Subchapter 45
45 "Jitters!!" Valery screamed, the full horror of what was happening before her eyes slamming into her all at once. She was still in her nightclothes, and ordinarily she would have been freezing her tail off on a night like this, but the barn was...
Ander - Part 4: Subchapter 28
28 Maybe there was still time. Maybe he could still make it. And if he couldn't... well... No! What was he supposed to say if he got caught now? _Oh hi there, James! What am I doing out of bed, sneaking around behind your back, you ask? Well, I was...
Ander - Part 4: Subchapter 29
29 Did they notice it yet? Banno didn't think so. They were too concerned with what was going on in this bed to bother looking down at the floor. He only had moments to think, but this itch... this damnable, infuriating, constant, incessant, ITCH!! It...
Ander - Part 4: Subchapter 26
26 _Now what do we have here?_ Banno thought, looking up at something he's never seen before. A series of black and white sketches, neatly framed, neatly lined up against the wall, neatly spaced in equal intervals. There were some butterflies, some...
Ander - Part 4: Subchapter 25
The white bandages created a jarring contrast against his black fur, even more asymmetry he couldn't quite ignore. damn, this was going to be so annoying. banno took a deep breath, steeled himself, and put some of his weight down on it.
Ander - Part 4: Subchapter 27
27 "Dad?" Luke said, not quite sure what he intended to say, but feeling like he might not get another chance for a very long time. "Hmm?" Dad looked back, his hand resting on the doorknob. There was so much Luke wanted to say to him, but he was...
Ander - Part 4: Subchapter 24
24 - lightly patted him on the shoulder, like he was a grieving she-wolf widow at her husband's pyre. It was all Banno could do to keep himself from bursting out in gales of laughter. He'd almost lost it back there with his little speech, talking...
Ander - Part 4: Subchapter 22
22 _Ssshhh..._ Luke could see those eyes, black inside the black. He could feel them boring into his own like one of Dad's hand drills, going deeper and deeper. _Ssshhh..._ He could still smell the smoke from the dead candle, mixing with the...