Happy Golden Days
Meadow, seated on the couch, glanced toward the living room window. The outside world was dark and quiet, heavy with snow. Had been for hours. Big, fluffy flakes tumbled down from heaven like salt from a slow-motion shaker, made visible by the...
1.9 - Never So Clean
Herkimer shielded his vulnerable eyes with a grey-furred paw, squinting as he peered out the shuttle-pod's aft airlock. The sun was fierce, unrelenting. High and hot, blazing white. The mirage-laden landscape that surrounded them had been beaten into...
Golden Guarantee
**3:50 AM** Meadow woke up. To buzzing. And music. **Bzzz!** 'The _sun_ is _shining_ in the _sky_! There _ain't_ a _cloud_ in _sight_!' **Bzzz!** 'It's stopped _rain_ing, _every_body's in the play! And don't you _know_, it's a _beaut_iful new...
Open Fire
'Twas a few nights before Christmas and somewhere in the house, two creatures were stirring, and one was a mouse! The squeaky commotion was coming from the bedroom. With the door ajar, illumination poured in from the short, wooden-floored hallway. The...
3.3 - Now and Again
On the scorched, abandoned planet in Redwing's shadow, beneath the sandy, wind-whipped surface, Arctic's away team found themselves in the dark. Literally and figuratively. In a dark and dusty echo-laden room of stone and metal and artifacts they...
2.3 - The Further Shore
Squinting heavily, the snow rabbit raised a white-furred paw, shielding her ice-blue eyes, getting a better look at her surroundings. It was hard to fathom. Such bright, vivid colors: lush, leafy greens, neon blues, with a splash of gold and juicy red....
Entrance Poll
"Field, if you open that door _one_ more time ... " The harvest mouse, peering into the dark November chill, re-adjusted his muzzle mask and called over his shoulder, "I thought I heard something!" _Like a car, maybe? Like crusaders for democracy,...
Goodnight, Plush
The mouse woke. In the morning, in the early morning (it was still dark outside), he woke. Restless. His plush in his arms. And he buried his nose into it, his eyes closed. And breathed. It smelled so warm. Smelled of his own fur. It was a big, soft...
Deprivation Medication
Aria slipped behind her tactical station. Ross following her (very closely, like a mouse-ling), as if trying to stay snugged up in her shadow. Advance looked up (from his Captain's chair). "Decided to join us?" "We came when called," was the...
Sweet Tooth
Field slowly strolled through the aisles, golden paws gripping the red, plastic cart-handle, trying to keep it steady. One of the wheels was wobbly. Creak-clunk, creak-clunk! Making the metal frame rattle every second or so. He tried to ignore it,...
Drive Me Batty
It wasn't easy working at an orchard. The job was seasonal. The pay wasn't great. And autumn, with its assorted pumpkin and harvest festivals, became a busy, stressful blur. But there were some saving graces. It wasn't corporate. You got to be in and...
Perfect Start
It was the thirty-first day (or evening, more accurately) of December, closing in on midnight. Outside, the rural air was calm and clear but bitterly cold, a faint, otherworldly crescent moon hanging low to the southwest. Inside, resting warmly on the...