Breakfast in Bed
All characters are the intellectual property of Gildedtongue's and Blacktail's players. Grill yawned and blinked blearily, turning hir head away from the beam of sunlight coming through a gap in the calico curtains. Shi lay under hir thin blanket...
Reminder at Breakfast
"Good morning, Bree-Anne. Sleep well?" Tanner glanced at the sleepy kitten padding into the kitchen, her pink schoolbag dangling from one hand, it straps trailing across the floor. The six-year-old Siamese kitten yawned widely and nodded. "Yeah,"...
I Want It All
It was quiet. Dan, a middle-aged German Shepherd, looked up from the murder mystery book he was halfway through, and twitched his ears as he listened to his surroundings. Sparrows twittered outside in the trees and on the lawn. Two cars drove past....
Lunchtime Action
The principal's door was closed when Alexander Dent showed up at the start of the school's lunch break. He gazed at the sign on the door, a 1930s-style Bakelite rectangle with ROGER PARSON on the top line, and PRINCIPAL on the bottom. By itself it was...
Before School Quickie
A light mist swirled around Alexander Dent's figure as he hurried down the wide footpath that ran alongside the classrooms. A glance at his watch showed that it was 8:06 AM. Barely enough time before school started at 8:30. The classrooms were...
Gleaming, Shiny Gold
Cameron reached the bottom of the stairs and looked around the room in which he now found himself. Simple chandeliers spilled golden light across the room, illuminating the royal blue drapes hiding the dressed stone of the walls. Many...
Horsie Ride 7, Part 7 - Unburdening
Three days later, Anson was working at his computer on a holiday assignment. Summer should be a time of fun, laziness and enjoyment - and perhaps a bit of hedonism - not spending hours doing research on a subject that he didn't find particularly...
Babysitting Bracken
"Hi, Dad! Bye, Dad!" Nightrain appeared almost a blur as shi sprinted past hir sire on the way out the door. "Sorry we can't chat, but we're very late for the parent-teacher meeting." "Anything I should know?" Kowhai asked, bewildered at the scene of...
Horse Ride, Part 9 - New Class, New Teacher
"Settle down! You with the chatter ring, put that away. They were annoying in the 90s, and they're annoying now." Kerry paused in the doorway when she saw her new teacher, then quickly moved to a vacant desk before she caused a pile-up. The chubby St...
Early Morning Surprise
The night was dark and stormy - because many good (and not so good) stories start out that way. Rain pelted the windows, and a stiff breeze whipped the net curtains around through a slightly ajar window. Pooftail woke up with a start, blinking in the...
Trick and Treat
It had been a quiet night so far. A few kids, dressed in a variety of cheap costumes, had knocked on the door for handouts of candy, but as Halloween wasn't a big thing where Anson lived, he was safe from the overwhelming presence of pumpkins, spider...
Payback?
"Cannonball!" Seth took a running jump and leaped off the cliff, tucking himself up into a ball and plummeting four metres into the pond below. A mass of water erupted from his entry point, and quickly subsided, rippling outward in gentle waves. The...