Year 277 Outpost in Thornerie Desert 25 miles south of the Coliseum  Kal awoke to a light in her face. An odd siren raged nearby. Her fox-beast, Gella, scratched her stomach as it scrambled for cover under her bedsheets. Its sharp claws tore skin and she sat up screaming.  The lantern shifted and she saw […]

Year 210  Main City and surrounding territory “Tell me the good news, Abi.”  The lanky man braced himself. “Here is the topography report, ser,” Abi said.  Rishad Bachan did not take the folder of documents. Instead, he stared out a dusty, muntinned window at a derelict quarry. A carving of the Bachan family crest hung […]

Year 263 First Camp “Indi!”  Indi Joharis was glad to be back on solid ground. So glad in fact, that she was down on dirtied knees, rooting around in the spongy, old-growth forest loam. She observed a nest of fibers intertwined amongst the wooden cables of the douglas firs’ root network. Isolating a long, white […]

To be read in conjunction with Book 1: “Joan’s Calling” in the Tales of Bastunia series. His mother didn’t come home again.  That made five nights in a row. There was no sign that she had come home in the daytime while he was at school, either. The pantry was empty. The ice box had […]