Blue Crow Rising; Chapter 1 part 3

In a catastrophic rush we ran through the building. She didn’t need to pull me anymore but she had a firm grip on me. But I wasn’t going to run away. I was by her side and was going to protect her from the sprites! Somehow, in the chaotic rush of the moment, I thought that I was going to prove that I could take care of her by… whacking sprites over the head? Yeah. Brilliant.

We crashed out the double front doors into the yard. It was full chaos. There was students in all shapes, everywhere, grabbing at sprites and battling them in the most (to my unmagical lens) epic of ways. Sparks were flying! Magic simmered through the air like ribbons!

Aaliyah let go of me, running towards the debris around the trees. “Grab a stick!” she called to me, doing so herself. Then, seeing as I wasn’t getting there fast enough she threw a stick at me, snapped one off a branch for herself, and whirled around to face…everything.

Because the grounds were huge. The grounds sprawled in all directions with preened green slopes, a little stream gurgling down among them, and trimmed trees here and there dotting the landscape. But the battle was all concentrated here, where the sprites were trying to destroy our sacred trees. We were smack in the thick of it.

“Get as many as you can!” ordered Aaliyah before sprinting into the chaos. I wanted to yell at her to wait for me- but that would have sounded wimpy. I was brave! Rawwwr!

So I stood there and tried not to quiver with my stupid stick in hand. Damnit! Why?!

As they say, spirits and the bloomed ones that are so inclined can smell fear. Within seconds a sprite was flashing towards me, elements in hand and teeth gnashing.

If you’ve never seen a sprite up close, their sparkling cloud doesn’t hide their shape very well. Beneath it, they sort of look like floating ghosts with evil hands and onion-shaped heads. This one had green lights sparkling around its hands and the nastiest pointy teeth I’d ever seen.

“Snack- snack,” it seemed to say, clacking its teeth together as it floated before me.

I gripped my stick with both hands. Think of Aaliyah, I told myself. Think of school. You’re never going anywhere unless you bash this thing’s brains in-

Aaaand, just as I was thinking that, it zoomed in on me. I swung the stick with a yell, a sound that was mercifully drowned away by all the sounds of a battlefield around us. My stick whizzed above the sprite’s head and I lost my balance. The sprite leaped forward. Its fangs buried into my right forearm, its elemental spell sending electric shocks into me.

Okay, now I yelled.

And then something happened.

I felt a change come over me. Something rushed through my system like hot soda bubbling in my veins. I thrashed, the electric sparks suddenly seeming faint.

I’m fucking dying, I remember thinking. Good lords, this was stupid!

As the rush continued I found myself moving – and suddenly came to with my hand closed over the sprite. Both hands.

Beneath my skin I felt the sprite pulsing. I felt the three parts of its soul throbbing with life. I heard it hissing and scrawling in a language I suddenly understood.

“Let me go!” it shrieked in that tiny, hissing, voice. “You’re not one of them! Let me go! What are you? Let me go!”

Shocked, I moved my hands. Tentatively, I pulled on what I felt and the three soul parts began coming apart. The sprite shrieked – and burst one of its own parts. It killed itself.

I gaped as the body went limp in my hands. The two other parts throbbed with life still – and it smelt. It smelt delicious, a strange aroma of death and untimely consumption and decay that called to me like a corrupt song. Suddenly I knew what an addiction must feel like. What it must be like to crave the casinos, the drugs, the things you knew you shouldn’t do.

Because I knew I shouldn’t eat the sprite.

I mean, yes, everyone eats sprites. But I wanted the soul.

Hesitant, I looked around. Maybe I was searching for a reality check. But the world felt woozy. It didn’t seem real. And somehow I just knew that no one was paying me a shred of attention, too busy searching out their own glory strikes.

So I gave in. I was lifting the sprite’s remaining two souls to my lips. Somewhere within me my rational self was wondering what was happening. I mean, can stomachs even digest souls?

But it never reached my lips. Instead, the two sprite souls sort of infused up my arms, dissolving into me, merging up through my skin.

I gasped, dropping the now thoroughly dead body. I wanted to scream as I realized that the souls were now in me. Did I digest them through my hands? Was the sprite now part of me? Did I now have five soul-parts? What was going on?

Completely freaking I fell backwards onto my ass. With a scramble I tried to get away from the inanimate body. Impulsively I wanted to flee.

That must have been the trick because suddenly I was scrambling, launching myself up, up, and flapping into the sky. It was when I was about five to six feet up, pumping my wing/arms like mad that I realized – wait a minute.

I looked down at the chaotic battlefield. I looked downer and saw my legs- now two stubby black bird legs. With a hoarse shriek I realized that I wasn’t me any longer.

With a jolt I realized I’d bloomed. Somehow. With another jolt I realized I was about to fall straight down if I didn’t do something about it.

I cawed for help. I shrieked. I flapped and flapped and wiggled my butt in the hopes of getting those feathers to do their job. Ingloriously, it made me think of pilates. Clench the buttcheeks! Wave the arms! Automatically, my legs paddled the air as well, and I must have looked like an idiot trying to run through the air.

Careening through the air, climbing up with no hopes of getting down, I found myself looping towards a tower.

Now, I want to take a minute to say that this tower wasn’t painted in brilliant orange with ‘forbidden fucking tower’ scrawled over it. It just – no one went there is all.

It also just so happened to have a gridded balcony, sort of like a safety ramp, all around the top. I aimed for that, figuring I could sit up here until I got help.

With a zoom I careened towards the tower. A side draft of wind nearly bashed me into the tower, and I didn’t so much land as I flew to the floor and stuck my legs out and began to walk and folded my arms. Skittering to a stop, I slammed sideways against the tower’s wall.

Okay, I told myself. Okay. Fuck.

Chapter 1 Part 2

I had this theory, I read about it online and in a magazine once, that not being able to bloom was due to a nutritional deficiency. I’d believe it, because all five of us were dirt poor except Magdalene. And Magdalene was, well, really special. She had a hard time talking. Her eyes were lined with black, her clothes were black, and spikes jutted from her at every possible corner. But she just couldn’t really talk. Or do math. Or really, sit still for that long. She liked shouting too.

But she was an unbloomed, so she was my friend. We, the useless ones, we stuck together.

Also, we waited our turn. As the teacher, Mister Macmillan, passed by to unlock the door the five of us drew back to get out of everyone else’s way. We knew our place in society. I gritted my teeth at it, but that was what it was. It just wasn’t safe to get in anyone else’s way. People who had bloomed just had so much power!

“Studying still? It’s a bit late for that?” Professor joked as he held the door open. I realized he was talking to me. Sheepishly, I grinned and shrugged. Someone walked past me and slammed their backpack into my shoulder.

“Sorry!” they said, obviously not at all. I returned to the page. The ink had bled a little from the rain. I tried to focus, to memorize all the formulas-

“Come on,” Aaliyah patted me on the shoulder, steering me into the classroom. I protested but let her, enjoying the attention. In a last minute ditch attempt I flipped the page – and saw more formulas! CRAP!

Sniggers rose from the back of the class as Aaliyah steered me to my seat. We sat, all five of us, smack in the front. It was the safest spot to be and even the teachers encouraged it. They didn’t want us to get picked on.

“Notebooks away,” Macmillan said, mainly to me. I pressed my lips together and handed Aaliyah back her notebook. More sniggers, about what I couldn’t guess but I wanted to punch someone for it. Rich kids.

Then, the test began. Mister Macmillan handed out the leaflets to each row and they were passed down. The instant I got mine I flipped it open and began skimming the questions. Yes, yes, yes, I knew most of these! Okay!

Thanking Aaliyah with all my might, I flipped to the back section – the ‘superior’ section. It was really only for the ‘superior’ students who showed promise and who had exceptional marks – a category Aaliyah and me had exceptionally managed to nose our way into. It was quite remarkable for us unbloomed ones to have managed to enter the category, a feat that amazed our principal and even earned us both an embarrassing article in the school’s newspaper once.

And YES! I knew how to do those too!

Furiously, I began scribbling away. Time seemed to slow as I focused upon one question then another, scribbling and calculating and jotting numbers here and there.

Halfway through, I lifted my head up. Professor Macmillan was pacing the rows, scolding students and reminding everyone to keep their eyes on their papers.

I, however, was suddenly unsure of what I was doing. Something was wrong. Something tingled at the back of my neck. Something that had happened when – I looked out the window and caught my breath. Beyond the preened soccer fields, the sacred trees were on fire. Strange figures ran about, shadowy and furtive.

I lifted my hand. “Professor.”

“Don’t speak out of turn,” Macmillan said as he walked over.

“But,” I protested.

“What?” he asked as he walked to my side. I pointed to the window.

“We’re being attacked,” I said, stating the obvious.

“Oh,” he said.

There was the universal rustle of everyone looking. Of necks craning as everyone tried to see what I was pointing at. Which, for your information, was a sprite attack. It had happened once in my mother’s time at this school. It had already happened once in my time, and now I was unlucky enough to witness it again.

The alarm, a little late in my opinion, wailed out over the microphone. “Attention, students and staff,” our principal said primly. “We are enduring a sprite attack! Senior students are encouraged to use this as an opportunity to hone their fighting skills and gain hunting points – which I remind you are required for graduation!”

There was a cheer. Because, yeah, sprite attacks weren’t a catastrophe. In suburbs, where people were caught unawares watching their TV’s and where the populace wasn’t crawling with students yearning to ‘get out and FIIIIGHT!’, as some teachers were now shouting in the hallways, it could be dangerous. It was just especially dangerous if you were magically crippled, like, you know, us unbloomed were.

I was hunkering down in my chair, heart already hammering in my throat. Professor Macmillan was already at the front of the class, huge grin plastered on his face. “Alright students!” he called out like this was the best ball game of the world. “Get out there! Get some points!”

I slunk farther down in my chair, exchanging a horrified look with Aaliyah – who somehow didn’t look as terrified as I felt.

There was a roaring cheer of students jumping up, throwing pencils down and rushing for the windows. “Go, go, go!” Macmillan cheered, clapping his hands.

Students, the fastest first, began blooming right as they threw themselves at the windows. It was normally a sight I both loved to watch and hated. I was jealous, I hated them for being able to do something so magnificent. To shed their human skin and bloom into fully spiritual form.

There was Zalf, the gryffon who passed through the glass just in the nick of time. Gertrude, the graceful swan. But I was waiting with bated breath for the one. The one.

She was filthy rich. She was long-legged, blonde, pale of skin and always impeccably dressed. Her hair was short and choppily pulled back, with two long tendrils hanging down beside her face. Confident as could be, she and her small cluster of elite friends waited until everyone else was on their way to being moving. Because they never needed to rush. They were dragons.

Ever seen a dragon? Me neither until last year when our classes merged. Since then, I waited with bated breath for the crystal ice white dragon to materialize – but most of all for the jade green one. Her.

She, leaping for the window, was graceful and lithe. Stunning and magnificent as her green scales shimmered to reality around her and her shocking blonde mane rippled out.

Then, justlike that, she was gone. With an exhale I relaxed and looked back to the front of the class where Macmillan was. He was looking at me expectantly.

I pointed to the test. “Can I finish?”

Proffessor cringed. “You do know that you need hunting points to get into any high-ranked school, right?”

My jaw fell. But we were un-bloomed! We couldn’t hunt! It was too dangerous for us to even join organized hunting parties! Nevermind throwing ourselves into a melee!

“I mean,” Macmillan continued. “For the other schools, you can get in without it. But I know you two were hoping to get into McVaster so-“

Aaliyah scraped back her chair and jumped to her feet. Determination was scrawled all over her face. Holy shit- she really was going to do this!

I clutched at my chair. “Aaliyah! There’s sprites! We’re unbloomed-“

“Get up!” she ordered. “We’re going!”

“You can hit them over the head with sticks!” professor was cheering. Aaliyah grabbed me by the arm and yanked me to my feet.

I protested, but my wife-to-be was having none of it. With a yank and more determination than she needed, she rushed us out the door.

And that, really, was how it all began.

Another Farfadel Novel!

Wow! I got into a writing groove today and FINISHED the Farfadel novel I was working on! As in, I finished the rough draft. Roughly. In the draft form, 😄.

What is this novel about? Well its hugely LGBT+, and a romance, and a happy silly novel. Also it has dinosaurs 🦕 🦖, so you know you need to read it!

But on a more serious note, im finding myself wondering how im going to go about getting the news of my novel out there. Im so bad at networking. Whenever someone does end up reading my novels, especially the Farfadel ones, I get rave reviews. But I just have to get them out there. And I dont want to do traditional publishing (you need the same amount of so ial networking anyways). I think it would be really hard to traditionally sell an lgbt+ childrens book, to be honest.

So, I’m thinking of doing a book tour, on the blogosphere and other places on the web. Do you want to help out? I can give out goodies like pdfs of my book, mail you bookmarks and pictures and stuff like that in exchange for a certain amount of help!

Anyways, please comment on this blog if you’re interested, have ideas for me, or just want to chat, or message me at mdaoust245@gmail.com! I’d really love to get some help and I’m sure you can’t wait to read more about Farfadel so… win win? Hahaha, I wish you all the best! Have a lovely day ❤

The future book cover, maybe!

Chaos & Kuryo (novel 3) Chapter 19 Part 2

Chaos POV

There was a hissing noise, and Kuryo’s body began to disintegrate into a fine dust. The god-slayer opened her mouth, gawking and choking. “How-” she seemed to try and collect herself. “See- you’re a god-slayer.”

“Kuryo wasn’t a god,” I bit back. “He was my friend!” And lover. But close person first and foremost. Sex was just none of her business.

She took another deep breath. Then her eyes zeroed in on me. “Work with me. I will help you get what you want.”

“I want to fix things by stopping you!” I snapped. “Not making things worse-”

“You slayed an entire pantheon! We are no different-”

“That was an accident!” I shrieked. “I’m here to fix that!”

She laughed. “You think you can just bring the gods back to life? Like this?” and she turned, slashing her sword upon one of the hanging bodies. It sliced right through the midriff as I choked on my breath. The body writhed limply, but didn’t move. Again, there was no bleeding. The god-slayer turned to me. “See? They’re no better than snakes, or worms. You can cut them into so many pieces and yet they don’t quite die, unless-” she pointed her sword at me. “You kill them. You’re the god slayer here.”

“Me?” I was baffled! “How-”

“You’re Chaos,” she said sharply. “Aren’t you? Child of the Grim Reaper and Life?”

Oh. Ohhh. Oh. Hereditary powers and stuff. I wanted to smack my forehead, I felt so stupid. Right. Me, killing things. Because grim reaper powers. And yet – could I bring things back to life?

“You’re going to help me,” she said, marching over to another body. With a swing she began hacking at it, sending bits flying in all directions.

“Stop!” I yelled.

She turned to face me, arms extended. “I will! If you agree to help me!”

“NO-”

She hacked at another body. I screamed.

“Tell me what you want!” she shouted, slashing at yet another unfortunate body. I ran to her – and was jerked back.

“GO!” shouted a voice in my head as invisible hands wrestled me around and shoved me towards the door.

Kuryo? That was – okay, I can take a hint. I ran for the door, yanking at the thing.

“It won’t let you out,” called over the god slayer. “You’re stuck.”

I spun, plastering my back to the door. She was slowly advancing on me. “Even if you kill me, you can’t get out.”

Fuck this, I thought. I flicked out my swords, ready to chop her to little itty bitty bits- when the door burst open behind me.

RUN! A voice shouted in my head.

I caught a glimpse of pure horror and anger on the godslayers’ face (which was priceless, by the way) before running and bolting for it.

I could almost see a blue crow flying ahead of me as I ran down the halls. I got halfway through there before I realized I wasn’t running in there anymore. I was in a haze of darkness, being pulled away and through the world.

Oh hey, I knew this feeling. Kuryo?

Hey, a voice answered in my head. Just stay still.

Things slipped by, and it felt like I fell unconscious because, in a blip!, I was suddenly awake in a way I hadn’t been for some time. I felt super awake. Aware. Alert. All that, and more.

We were before what looked like the strangest building I’d ever seen. It was part cathedral, part castle, and part modern mansion. It had spired juttign out and crystal-esque windows and a large gate that we were standing before. And yet there were patches missing in the stones, showing through to wooden foundations. Was that even how houses were built? I wasn’t sure – And took a minute to look around.

We were on a bit of lawn, and that was it. The lawn literally dropped off into space. Well that – that was a unique way to set yourself aside from the neighbors?

I looked around. This building, us, we were just suspended in space. I saw, far away, satellites and planets and stars and even a galaxy. Super cool but-

“Welcome to the Academy,” said Kuryo from my side.

I yelled, jumping back. Then I lunged and tried to hug him. I slipped straight through and fell flat on my face in the grass. I tasted plastic. The lawn wasn’t real? Huh.

Scrambling up, I faced Kuryo. “You’re alive! I mean-” I took another look. He was semi transparent, wearing his usual blue sweatshirt and jeans, but he looked far more miserable than usual. “You’re here?” I said hopefully.

“I am here,” he said grimly. “But here is not where I’d want to be.”

I looked to the building. “What is this?”

“The Academy,” he nodded at the shabby building. “This is it.”

“It’s a building?” I was confused, okay? “I thought it was – a person?”

He gave me a look. “It’s an institution. It is both people and a location.”

Pow, that was the sound of part of my brain struggling to keep up with this. Kuryo put a hand on my shoulder. Then another on my other. He looked me squarely in the eyes. “We need to get Charr back. She is still alive, and the other Charrs- they are going to give birth to the Trinity.”

“The Trinity?”

“Yes. So we have to-” He took a deep breath and glanced at the building. “Negotiate.”

“Negotiate?”

He gave me a look that probably said ‘stop just repeating everything I say’. “Yes.”

“I could have taken her. The godslayer. I’m the child of the grim reaper- I can kill things!”

He frowned, as if he’d already known that. “You can’t kill her,” he said slowly. “She’s just like the academy. An institution. If you cut down one limb, another will regrow.”

I blanked. “She was a person. I saw her.”

“But she was part of an institution. I know this. So-”

Something moved. We both turned and watched as an impressive door swung open – and Charr walked out. The un-pregnant Charr. Our Charr, dressed in her usual plain black shirt and black jeans and thick boots.

Kuryo gawked, squeezing my shoulder with one hand. The other slid to hang by his side. “We need to-” and he seemed lost for words.

I drew myself up. “I’ve got this.” I did. I was a god-slayer! I was the Grim Reaper’s child! I-

The gate swung open sideways, sliding out of the way. Charr smirked haughtily in a way that just wasn’t ‘her’. “Welcome, world weaver,” she said nastily. Then, with a tilt of the head at me she added “and god slayer.”

We looked at each other. I guess everyone’s getting the fancy titles, then?

Charr gestured in a wide sweep of the arm. “Come, enter,” she said, and it sounded almost sensual, in a not right kind of way.

I looked to Kuryo, but he was glaring at Charr. Squaring his shoulders, he marched on towards her. I followed, and Charr smirked as we drew to her side. The gate shut with a clang, without me having even seen it shut.

Chaos & Kuryo (novel 3) Chapter 19 Part 1

Chaos POV

It was a stupid idea. Just – only I would think of something like it.

“Just walk out there and say you want to meet her,” the other me had suggested. Stupid idea.

Stupider yet, I tried it.

“Hey!” I stood in the middle of a street full of medieval peasants. On one side of the street, before tall buildings that looked straight out of the modern era, there were several knights in shining armor. “Shit-faces!” I called out, marching towards the knights.

The knights lifted their visors. Peasants rushed just out of the way – then turned around and stared. It was like a good old-fashioned showdown. Me on one side of the street, the knights on the other. I began crossing the open space. People gasped and pointed.

“Demon!” More than one cried out. Why? Must be the eyeliner or something.

I marched straight up to the guards, flicking my swords out into my hands. That made them jump and recoil. Ten steps away from them I stopped. “I want to meet the god-slayer!” I declared.

The guards took a good look at each other. Then, as one, they charged at me. Crap.

I took them head on, magic coursing over my swords. Metal clashed on metal, and I began making short work of them. These were certainly not as well trained as those who had been attacking the nuns. I needed no fancy tricks to knock them to the ground and skewer them mercilessly.

The last three, as seemed usual, began to run away. I chased after them, wholly expecting to be led into a trap. They would round a corner and bam! There would be a hundred of them and I would be screwed.

But still, I chased after them. Maybe because I trusted the Sephira to be watching out for me? Maybe, more likely, I just knew that I had to. I had to do this.

We rounded a corner and the three soldiers disappeared into a building. I chased – and was stopped by a very solid door that refused to open.

“Augh!” I shouted, kicking at the solid glassy thing that was most definitely not fragile. Stepping back, I was thinking of which spell to cast when a voice said “Hey, demon.”

I spun. There, in the middle of the empty street was a young woman, probably in her twenties. She was all in black, a scarf wrapped around her head, wearing a long shirt and jeans with a sword in her hand. “You were looking for me?” she asked, striding forward.

“Are you the god slayer?” I asked sharply. I was busy!

“That is me,” she said crisply, drawing to a stop beside me. The door opened for her, and she waved at me to enter. “Come.”

Uhh. I looked from her to the door, and back. “Why?” I asked.

“Because it’s polite,” she said flatly. “Or do you want to speak in the street?”

I just looked at her. Was this a trap? I really didn’t know what to do.

“Are you a friend of Kuryo?” she asked. “He’s inside.”

“Kuryo?” my eyes flew wide. “I’m looking for him!”

She nodded into the door. Okay. I walked in, senses on high alert.

We were met by the most polite-looking reception desk. The god slayer marched past it, and we went into an elevator. Or at least, it was like an elevator. It sort of lifted us up in a ray of light and vwoosh- we were up on another floor.

“You must tell me what you are here for,” she said as we began walking down a starchy corridor, all white and steel.

“I am here from the Sephira,” I said flatly. “I’m to stop you from killing any more gods.”

“Hmm.” she looked at me from the corner of her eyes. Then, with another ‘hmm’, she smiled. She gestured to a door on the right, the only one there. “Your friend is in here.”

I let her open the door. Our eyes crossed, and she ushered me in with a neutral face. Or was there a smirk?

Cold air struck my face. A smell, a smell of – battlefield? Spices? Somehow, I knew it was Kuryo, and a very unhappy Kuryo at that. Without thinking, I launched into the room.

It was like a giant meat freezer, complete with corpses and all. There, on giant hooks, dangled beings with halos, crowns, and mystical animals wrapped around them. But there, closest to the door-

“Kuryo?” I yelled, running towards him. I skidded on a patch of ice and almost collided with him.

Kuryo spasmed. He was hanging from a hook that was protruding from his collarbone, his eyes rolled back in his head. He wasn’t breathing- but I could tell he wasn’t dead either.

“He hasn’t died. None of them have,” she said calmly, stepping to my side. She crossed her arms, looking Kuryo up and down. “It’s strangely hard to kill them.”

“What?” I looked from her to Kuryo.

She nodded at the room. “These are the ones who wouldn’t die.” Then, tilting her head to the side, she added. “Help me kill them.”

“What?” I fairly yelled. I patted Kuryo’s face, felt his arms. I wasn’t sure what I was doing. Searching for some sign of life? There was none, but – I swore he moved, his arms twitching.

“You want to negotiate? Hear me out. You will have your friend back, if and only if you help me kill the last of the gods.”

“What?” I repeated, panic flooding my mind. Kill the last of the gods?

“The gods are a pest on these worlds, and they are cruel and fickle. I will give you back your friend, sans powers, if you help me with the last of the gods.”

“I can’t do that!” Morally, I meant. Killing one god was enough-

“I know who you are,” she said sweetly. “You’re a god slayer too.”

“I am no such thing!” I stepped between her and Kuryo. “I-”

“Chaos,” she said sweetly. “Don’t you want your friend back?” Yet she drew her sword.

Behind me, a tortured sound escaped Kuryo. From the corner of my eye, I saw him spasm, head flinging back. I stepped to him, and his hand gripped at my arm. It was a death-grip, vice like and too strong for Kuryo. His eyes suddenly focused on me, and they were desperate.

She stepped to us, sword scraping over the floor. “Or should I kill him before you? Just to make a point?”

I flicked out my swords – and my arm was yanked. With a sickening thud, I felt the sword slam into flesh. Into Kuryo, dead in the heart.

“NO!” screamed the woman. In a flash her sword swung – I ducked – and Kuryo’s head went rolling. I staggered back, my sword dripping cold blood. The body, headless, didn’t dance or anything. It didn’t even spout blood. It was cold.

But she wasn’t. Her eyes were wide and she was breathing like she’d run a marathon. Wild, her eyes fixated on me. “Where is she? Where- do you have the powers?”

“What powers?” I asked stupidly.

Chaos & Kuryo (novel 3) Chapter 18 part 2

Chaos POV

I sprawled on the floor, whining pitiably. It was cold, painful, and would have been humiliating if I didn’t know it was driving everyone else nuts.

All the nuns were lined up for prayer, their head nun reading out passages, and I was just laying there near my alter ego, being loudly miserable.

Finally, when I began to wail, the bible (or whatever book they were reading from) was snapped shut. “Demon! Enough!” barked the head mistress.

I sat up. “Are you going to free me?”

“No!”

I flopped back down, banging my head onto the floor accidentally. But I didn’t care, letting out a pitiable wail. Hey, I might as well express myself.

My nun glared down at me. “Silence yourself!”

I wailed, rolling so my back was presented to her. “I’m just here to see the Sephira! You don’t need to mistreat me like this!”

“Maybe you would hear the Sephira speaking if you would shut up!” barked the headmistress, whipping a wooden ruler stick out from her skirts. She pointed it dramatically at me. “You-”

Bang! Somewhere, a door was flung open. The nuns gasped. I sat up, spider senses tingling and common sense telling me that something was happening.

Indeed, trouble had just arrived in the shape of a dozen or so guards. They were dressed full medieval style with capes and helmets and swords unsheathed. One guard who hung behind the others (in a red cape instead of the pale orange the others wore) called out. “Fiends! Worshippers of the gods! We have found you at long last! DIE!”

Well, if there was ever a ‘bad guy’ speech, that was it. But this was no coincidence! I lunged to my feet and jumped over the pews. I was damned if I was failing this test. It felt as obvious as if a videogame banner had appeared in the corner of my screen labeled ‘save the nuns’.

“Hey, idiots!” I shouted out, bursting up a glittering green magic shield around myself. Hello? Glowing green target? I couldn’t possibly make myself more obvious. With a flick of the wrists, my swords appeared in my wrists. “I’m here!”

The knights all drew to a halt. I darted around the pews, placing myself effectively between the two parties. Yeah, go me. Hero mode or what?

The red cloaked knight in the back marched forward. “What are you waiting for? Get the women! I’ll take care of this one.”

Uh, huh. Yeah, well, how about no? Jumping forward, I slashed down, setting a spell into the ground. It scattered out at my sides, a dark wave of magic that built up like walls on either side of me.

Bitch, they’d HAVE to get through me.

“Magic!” whispered one very daft soldier, as if he’d just cued in then.

I straightened, rolling my shoulders into place and taking my best fighting stance. “Come at me,” I sneered.

The red-cloaked knight stepped before me. “Who are you? How dare you-”

I took a running jump and slammed a foot in his face. There, that settled it! I landed, and swords erupted around me. I spun, slashing and kicking.

With a terrible war cry, a particular nun came barging through the wall I had created. “Demon!” she called out. “Take this!”

What? I spun and was very nearly whacked in the forehead with a thick glass bottle. I caught it, but barely.

“Holy oil!” she called out as I ducked a sword slice and rolled over the floor.

Holy oil? What the – ohhh. Oil!

Back on my feet, I uncorked the bottle with my teeth and, jumping back, tipped the contents back into my mouth.

Ohh, it burnt. But that was beside the point. As the knights rushed at me, I spat it out at them, lighting my swords on fire at the same time.

Fi-yah! Fwoosh! One slice of my blades, and knights were now erupting in screaming flames. It was ridiculously effective. Swish! Slice! I made short work of them, running around stabbing and cutting throats.

With yells and lots of scampering, the last few knights turned and ran straight back out the way they had come in.

Taking a deep breath, I let my magic wall fall down. Turning, I looked over the nuns. All safe. Heyyyy – guess who just won some Sephira points? Yeah?

I looked hopefully at the statue. No magical glimmering or anything. I looked to the head mistress. She was pale, shocked, but was starting to walk towards me.

“You did it!” yelled my alter ego, running up to me. “You saved us!”

I grinned and nodded, but the head mistress was grim. “They will return with more strength now that they know where we are. We must flee.”

“But to where?” cried out another nun. “They have spies everywhere!”

“Hey,” I said. Eyes turned to me. The head mistress nodded to my alter ego.

“Release the demon. It has redeemed itself.”

With a grim nod, my alter ego reached forward and pulled the rosary off my head. I grinned, but felt no different.

“K, thanks,” I said. “But what’s going on around here? Why-” I glanced back at the Sephira statue. “Why are you all being hunted?”

The head mistress drew herself up stiffly. “We are the last god-worshippers. They have been trying to wipe us all out ever since that god-slayer began her campaign three years ago. Since then, there has never been a moment’s respite!”

“Oh,” I said, feeling the next mission being unlocked and popping up in the back of my mind. “There’s a god-killer?”

“Yes!” “Oh yes!” the nuns chorused, nodding in tandem.

I bit my bottom lip. “Okay, I’ll see what I can do,” I said. Then, on second thought. “Where can I find this god-killer?”

There was a pause. “They travel amongst the realms,” said the head mistress. “They do not stay in one place.”\

Uh huh. I looked to the statue of Mary, Queen of Demons. “Alright,” I said. “I’ve got an idea.”

Chaos & Kuryo (novel 3) Chapter 10 part 2

Kuryo POV

The thing about being so short is that skirts and all that are horrible eye magnets. There were two people who came out onto the balcony, and oh my. The bird in me squawked and cocked my head, saying (in bird speak) ‘Are you serious?’.

It was a grizzly old man (it had to be) wearing no medieval tights to cover his stumpy and hairy legs or anything else up there. And that tunic! Too short, my friend. Too short.

Just as I was ogling this man who was definitely a human by his shortness, another being swept out onto the porch, barely dressed as well. But this one it was the top that wasn’t quite dressed. They had on a deep reddish brown robe that looked like a dress, and it was open down to the waist and draping off one shoulder. They had long blonde hair that swept down past their hips and bright eyes. He (it looked like a he) exhaled smoke and stepped to stand beside the man, offering a pipe.

I eyed their feet. Both wore about the foot size (did that matter?). They were speaking, though, and I paid attention, pecking aimlessly at the wood of the balcony to look like I was doing something.

“We will have the shipment ready soon,” said the human, puffing at the pipe. “Don’t worry about that.”

“I’m not worried about that,” said the other being. “I’m worried about this new dimension they’ve got their eyes on. It’s apparently quite the chaotic one.”

“Oh?” the man chortled. “I’m sure it won’t be a problem.”

I eyed the two of them with one eye. A dimension? Conquering?

The pipe was passed back to the alien or whatever they were. He puffed at it for a moment, then returned it to the human. “You know, it’s quite strange, this world,” and he sent smoke up into the air. “Very religious,” and he gestured to down below. “Like here, but worse.”

“Well good for you. Makes good slaves,” the man chuckled nastily.

Suzy, who had been slowly whimpering since their appearance, now began to cry in the back of my mind.

“What?” I asked within myself.

“I don’t like them,” she whispered. “They’re the conquerors. They’re the one fighting me, the Academy, for the gods.”

I squawked. “For the gods?”

The blond man looked down at me. He exhaled smoke. “Oh, look. It’s blue. A blue crow.”

The man snorted. “Filthy things. Kick it.”

“Hmm,” the blond man stooped, chuckling. He held out the pipe to me. “Want some?”

I eyed him, then the pipe. Okay, a magical-looking pipe? A perfect wizard-like thing? I wanted it.

Slowly, I nibbled the tip. It made the tall man laugh. “Look!” he said, turning slightly to say it to the other man. “It wants some!”

Then I yanked it from him and took off. Fuckers!

Wham! I hit an invisible wall just above the railing of the balcony. A shimmer of a spell let me know what happened.

“You idiot!” squealed Suzy in the back of my mind. “You stupid stupid-”

I flopped gracelessly down onto my back, the world whirling. A blond head poked above me, laughing. “The poor thing!”

The world careened some more as I was lifted. I was held up to eye height as the man stood. “Think it’s injured?”

“Who cares?” asked the other man. He picked up the pipe and wiped it off on a sleeve before eyeing it suspiciously. “Just chuck it over the edge. It’s dirty.”

This man hummed. A hand gripped me solidly and we turned. In the back of my mind Suzy was weeping.

We stepped into the building, and I couldn’t detect much of what was going on. I was badly concussed, I guessed. The world span and I was handled this way and that, flipped over.

“What are you doing?” asked the ugly man, now puffing inside on the pipe.

“Oh, you know, I like feathers,” said the blond man.

I heard a strange ‘snip-snip’ right next to me as my left wing was extended.

“He’s cutting your feathers!” Suzy shrieked, making the inside of my head rattle.

My feathers? I squawked, trying to peck at the hand – which made my head thud awfully. But my feathers! I scrambled, flapped – and was held quite solidly by the shoulder. A giant pair of shears appeared at my right side and snip! A huge chunk of my wing feathers fluttered away.

I shrieked. My feathers!

“There we go!” the shears were laid aside and I was cradled in two hands, held up to a strangely modern lamp in the ceiling.

“Fuck you!” I shrieked, jumping out of the hands. Flap flap- thud. I hit the floor right before the short mans hairy feet. Ugh.

The world spun and the short man was laughing. “It’s so stupid!”

Horror drenched through me. I shuffled along on the floor, flapping desperately. But there was no traction. No wing grabby power. Squawk!

I was scooped up from behind. “Come here, you thing,” and I was placed on a pillow on the table. “There. You just-” my head was patted and it was like an anvil striking me. “Stay here.”

I wanted to barf. My head was hurting so bad and now everything else was aching from all my falls – and Suzy was sobbing. “We’ve been caught!”

“Of course not,” I shushed her. “This is just a setback. The minute they turn their backs, I’m out of here.”

Because, really, if dimensions couldn’t hold me back, how could this building? The minute they looked the other way, I was going to hop my way out of here and that would be that. I’d pop onto another building and never go on a balcony again.

It took some time. The tall man fussed around me for a good few minutes, setting a bowl of water before me and a crust of bread. Ech. Go away!

Finally, they did go back out onto the balcony. Good.

I focused. Felt my power through the throbbing pain and nausea. Then I sent myself forward – and lurched.

I opened my eyes, feeling a strange tingling all over myself. A certain lack of…

“They’ve cut your wings!” Suzy was wailing.

Yes, but – that can’t be the crux of my power. They’re just wings.

I tried again. And again. And finally, head pounding and retching from the pain of it all, I dropped down onto the pillow. The world span and I gave up for the time being. Maybe I was just too sick to do this properly.

It certainly couldn’t be because of my wings being cut.

Chaos & Kuryo (novel 3) Chapter 6 part 1

Kuryo’s POV

We were traveling, whizzing in crow form with the Academy’s subconscious within me. We had long ago left the pocket from which the Academy had created its little haven and we were now whizzing through one dimension when – WHAM. Something smashed into us, completely out of nowhere.

It was a soundwave, that I was aware of. It ricocheted off us, sending us reeling to the left.

“Oh no!” squealed the academy – who I’ll call Suzy for simplicity’s sake – inside my head. “It’s them!”

“The rebellion?” I thought just as I righted myself and turned around. And no, it wasn’t the Rebellion. Those bums had never pulled themselves together like this. Instead I was faced with a giant ship of the interspace travelling thing.

Now, traveling between dimensions should have prepared me for actually meeting an inter-dimension traveling thing, but I had never met one before. It was an absolute shock. Which was why I got caught.

A laser, light beam, whatever you want to call it, burst out of the ship and zapped over us. It tingled like ants on fire over my skin and between my feathers, and suddenly I was no longer in the ship. Instead I was in a tube full of green-ish liquid, in my human form.

“Oh no, no, no,” moaned the voice in my head (suzy) as I got a good look at what was outside of this huge tube.

There was rows upon rows upon rows of other tubes, all upright like mine and capped with a lid, filled with sleeping creatures and, mainly, humans. Between the rows marched – not humans.

“It’s them,” wailed Suzy within me, curling up and sobbing in the back of my mind.

Oh, them? The tall, not quite proportioned correctly not-humans? Because, they looked like humans at first glance. But they were just a smeedge too tall, too lean, too… ethereal looking?

Placing my palms on the glass, I sensed the world with my powers. I felt the lives in all the tubes, all pulsing and asleep. I sensed the life within all those non-humans, calm and placidly watching me like I was the latest curioso. They were remarkably the same, just in different casings. Like all life, really.

Two of them, dressed in long burnt red robes, came to stand before my tube. One placed a palm upon the glass.

“Where is your traveling device?” they asked, and it reverberated through the tube.

I gasped for air – and found the liquid breathable. I choked on it, gulped, and found myself breathing in liquid. Whoah. Weird.

“Your device,” the creature repeated starchily.

I made a point of looking down at my hands before back up at them. “I dropped it,” I lied. No need for them to know I didn’t need one.

They both cocked their heads as if smelling the lie. I held up my hands, defenseless. In the back of my mind, Suzy hadn’t stopped her wailing and it was seriously distracting.

What looked like a taser was set against the tube and – zap! It was a taser.

My hairs stood on end, my limbs quaked, and my brain was dizzy. Wow, that was a high voltage.

“Your device,” they repeated.

I turned out my pockets. Shook out my sleeves. “There’s nothing!” I exclaimed furiously.

The taser was approached to the tube, but the other alien shook its head. It said something dismissively in their language, which was melodious and sweet. Noxiously sweet, like your aunt promising to give you candies when she was really taking you to the dentist.

I banged a fist upon the tube. “Can you let me out now?” I held out my arms. “I got nothing on me! I have somewhere to be-”

They both started laughing. Again, they spoke with each other, and they casually pressed a button at the base of the tube.

ZAP! Lights out for me.

Except, Suzy woke me up. My body was asleep, but I was sitting above it, tied to it but still alert. Suzy was sitting beside me, on the top of another tube. This one contained what looked like a wild pig.

“They’re slave traders,” she sniffled. “We shouldn’t have come here. They’re going to sell us!”

“Who are they?” I asked as calmly as I could.

“They’re from the Arka dimension. They finally figured out the dimension jumping, and,” she sniffled dramatically, “they’ve been invading everywhere and taking over dimensions. They’ve even attacked the Academy. It’s a mess.”

“Oh,” I said. Suzy sobbed, covering her face with her hands.

“I’m scared,” she squealed.

I put an arm around her shoulders, but took a moment to look around. There were many of those species strolling around, patrolling and checking on the tubes. They weren’t very magical though, if they hadn’t noticed us sitting up here.

“It’s going to be fine,” I said, honestly believing it. The Academy wouldn’t let its subconscious be gone for long. At worst we’d be re-kidnapped.

But Suzy was growing hysterical. “We shouldn’t have left home!” she wailed.

I squeezed her shoulder tighter. “It’s going to be just fine,” I whispered, kissing her gently on the side of her head. I could feel her panic and fear, so I tried to press calm and happiness into her. At least we were together. We were each other’s tickets to freedom. The Academy would come for her, and I’d escaped everywhere I’d been trapped before. I could certainly do so again.

Chaos & Kuryo (Novel 3) Chapter 5 Part 2

Chaos’s POV

“Execution?” I blinked, shaky hands holding onto that cigarette for dear life. Okay, okay. I uh – hadn’t seen that coming. “Are you sure?”

Ysolda gave me a pitying look. “You really didn’t know?”

“No,” I squeaked. “Maybe their other cells are full?”

Ysolda gave me that look again. “Maybe,” she said. Then she offered me another cigarette. I turned it down, feeling sick to my stomach. I lay backwards down onto the cot, trying to collect my thoughts.

Alright, let’s take score of things. I was locked in here. I was in jail, probably awaiting execution. I uh- was no longer immortal so that execution would probably be fatal. Very fatal.

I gritted my teeth. Okay, this wasn’t fair. Lucifer, you buggery liar! He was the one –

And then Kuryo drifted back into my thoughts. He was still missing. The jerk who’d not even told me he was transgender. What else was he hiding from me? Was he- did he even love me?

I rolled onto my side. Moped some more.

Curling on myself, I caught sight of the ducky socks I was wearing. The sparkles in them were valiantly doing their thing, proclaiming to the world that, indeed, they weren’t shoes.

Aaliyah and Jade had loved me, in a different way, I thought. Maybe. Otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to steal these ‘lucky’ socks. Lucky! Well I sure wasn’t feeling lucky.

Ysolda had sat down and was chain-smoking some more. I rolled onto my side and looked around. The cell on my other side was empty. Above was a flooring, and above that was the occasional scuffle. Across the corridor were more cells, their dark interiors too dark for me to make out any forms within them.

I flung myself around, sprawling this way and that. I just couldn’t get comfortable. Maybe, oh I don’t know, the fact I was going to die was weighing on me?

“This sucks,” I muttered out loud, without really meaning to.

“Life’s not fair,” answered a voice further down the hall.

I draped an arm across my eyes. “You don’t say,” I snarled back.

A figure shuffled to press against the cell door across the corridor. They had long silver hair that dangled around their face, and were wearing a long black trenchcoat. Oh yeah, and they had a black thing across both their eyes. Like a scarf, wrapped over them.

Great, I thought as I felt a familiar twinge of curiosity. I got hurt by Bella who covered one eye. Now I’ve leveled up to being hurt by someone who covers both their eyes. Whoopee.

They tapped their palms against the cell door, then rested against it. “Who are you? You don’t sound that old.”

I snorted, sitting up. “I’m Chaos,” There! Have a good laugh, you old geezer.

“Chaos?” They hummed. Wrung their hands against the bars. “I’ve heard of you.”

“Yeah, so has everyone,” I grumbled, flopping back down onto the cot. Which was stiff like a brick, mind you.

“I’m Sephira,”the stranger cooed, holding out a hand. It was a craggly hand, strong but not broken. Just weathered.

My heart jumped up into my throat. “Sephira? The presence of God?” I sat up and spun, staring at the figure that was now grinning like a shark. “How are you still alive?”

“Oh, you know,” they whispered. “That’s a mystery.”

“What, but-”

“Hey kid!” I turned, and saw nothing. Where was I?

“Hey kid!” a voice was calling.

I was suspended in grey, like stuck in a mist.

“Hey kid!”

Suddenly just before me, Sephira wiggled their fingers at me. “See you later, Chaos.”

“Wait!” I jumped after them – and fell off the cot.

“You were dreaming,” said Ysolda’s voice from oh so not far enough away. I was straight back in the cell. No more grey mist. I looked desperately across the corridor – and now there was enough lamp light for me to see into them. They were empty.

“God’s alive,” I blurted, jumping up to my feet.

“Say what?” asked Ysolda from her side of the cell wall.

“I just -” maybe now would be a good time to shut up, Chaos. So I paced instead, the mud in my socks squishing like ice between my toes.

Sephira was still alive. God’s presence was still out there. Inviting me to find them. What the hell?

I looked around the cell again, the irony of this entire situation not lost on me. I was in the depths of hell, set for execution, and God’s presence showed up. How charming.

It also meant I had to get the hell out of here. If Sephira was still out there – maybe there was a way to fix this world! To put everything back into order!

I cracked my knuckles, cracked my neck, and looked down at the lucky socks. Maybe those duckies had something going on, indeed.

//////

“Attack of the White Clouds” Chapter Six Part Two

As we climbed lower and lower down the grassy knoll, Ch- began to speak. “I understood you,” she said softly. “You wanted to investigate this village, and especially the deer. For signs of the White Clouds. Am I correct?”

I nodded hastily, my teeth clattering in my haste. She nodded curtly to herself in satisfaction. A sneaky smile flitted across her features, then vanished. She lowered her voice. “I trust you to tell you this: that I do not trust that seer, and I do not trust the others for trusting her. They are fool-hearted for doing so.” I startled at her divisive thoughts, and suddenly realized that she was seperating me from them for a reason. Her head dipped closer to me. “And I also know you could not tell them of this, even if you wanted to. So listen to me.”

I gaped, my legs slowing. Her hand gripped my shoulder and dragged me along. “Someone must have sacrificed that deer. It is no animal or beast who places things in such ways, or who does rituals of the kind. Do you follow? That means there is someone alive who did it- in the wake of the White Clouds, in the wake of our people’s disappearance. Look at it! It is not that old! A week at most. That is plenty of time for that seer to have found her way to where we met her.” At that Ch-‘s eyes drew narrow and her jaw set. She released my shoulder as we began to wade into the murky and filthy waters towards the body of the deer.

I fixed my eyes upon the deer. True, all the trappings of ritual lay about it. A hasty sacred cord, the throat slit the proper way. Yet how could one person have conducted it alone? A ritual such as this required three: a hunter, a butcher, and the prophet. I shook my head as we neared the animals’ hoofs. The beads in my head rattled and I touched Ch-‘s shoulder gently with the tips of my fingers. Her scales were warmed by the sun. Immediately, as if i had branded her with fire, she whipped around ready to defend herself. I held her gaze and shook my head purposefully. Then, slowly miming the speech she had taught me, I told her that we should not cross the sacred cord. Illness would befall us. Then, I lifted up the three fingers and pointed to the sacrifice. “Th-th-three,” I blurted.

“Three what?” she asked harshly.

“Th-three,” I insisted. But I did not know how to mime these words. I did not know how to force them out right now either, or how to convince Ch- that it could not have been the seer, and that the poor seer probably never came here because her robes were neither soaked in mud nor blood. And that meant that we were not alone. There was at least three out there- leaving sacrifices to spirits which were not eating. And what did that mean of our gods? Had they too been eated by the White Clouds?

I wrung my hands over my trident at that. Could it have eaten the gods as well? Were we truly that alone?

Ch- scowled. “I wish you could speak,” she snapped before wading away. Over her shoulder she said snarkily. “Gurgle or moan if you find something, you fish!”

The insult bounced off my careless scales and left me unmarked. Instead I wrung my hands and watched the floating and bloated body before me. What if… My mind scurried to conclusions and possibilities. What if the sacrifice was not done to our gods but to some other spirit? There was only one way to find out.

Wading around the corpse I stepped onto the jutt of earth it was perched upon. Someone had scraped up this earth so that the body would appear to float above the waters. Certainly not the work of one person. It would have taken a single person days to set up this alone!

Ch- would not have known this, but in these sorts of ceremonies the symbol of the deity to which the animal was sacrifice was inscribed upon a leaf. That leaf was then stuffed into the wound in order to summon the deity to their feast. That leaf, right now, was poking out of the deer still.

I bit my tongue. There was no crossing the sacred barrier. However, the leaf looked loose. With a sweep of my leg I sent a wave of water crashing over the body. The leaf trembled, wobbling in its spot. Again i swept my legs. On the third try the leaf came loose and swept away from me. I scrambled around the sacred circle and sloshed after it. It skirted away as if hoping not to be seen, but I caught it in the prongs of my trident as it rode the current away. Scooping it towards me, I could finally see it.

A deep green still, it was covered over its entirety in wax that protected it from the elements. Even the blood of the offering had not clung to it too tightly. Yet the symbol that was inscribed into it remained, burned magically so as to never be erased. It was one that was foreign to me.

Carefully, I scooped it up. Perhaps the seer would know, I thought. Perhaps Ch- would comfort me and scoffingly say it was one of the desert’s benevolent gods. Anything would be nice, I supposed. Because if it was not one of the gods of a tribe, then this cloud with an eye inscribed in its center could only mean one thing.

After that i did not go far. I could easily see Ch- angrily battling against the knee-deep waters and exhausting her fury against them. By the time she returned her legs dragged against the water’s hold and her shoulders slumped. “I did not find anything,” she called out. “But thanks for not looking.”

I held up the leaf I held carefully in both hands. “I looked. I found.”

Ch-‘s jaw dropped. She sloshed forward in a hiss of angry splashes and curses. I held the leaf aside as she floundered towards me, then offered it as she stood before me with water dripping down her face. Ruefully she wiped her face with a hand and snorted aside before looking at what I held.

“What is that?” she asked, but there was no anger to her voice. Only the cold tinge of fear could be heard.

I pointed to the deer. “Sacrifice.” I had had time to calm myself, to rehearse and choose my words. “In the deer,” and I pointed again urgently.