Running With Scissors Pt. 9

Original photo by Steve

RWS is a serial fantasy story that posts every Monday following Danielle, a regular girl stuck in an irregular world where unicorns serve as judge and jury, gnomes have infested the south district, and a minor god reports the weather on the nightly news. 

See the whole list of blogs here.

--//--

Part 9

The dragon shook herself. "You can hardly expect me to sit in that device all day without a chance to stretch my wi-" She eyed Sam and her nose flared. "Hello, Cat."

I could suddenly feel the tension sparking in the air. Sam bobbed her head just a nod. "Hello, Lizard."

The two of them stared at each other, both waiting for the other to make a move. I had a feeling the history between them wasn't suitable for the middle of the street. I spoke a little louder than necessary, "Since you're here..."

It took a second, but the dragon shifted her head in my direction. I felt Sam relax a hair beside me. "Since you're here, do you have any suggestions on rounding up gnomes? They're living in the sewers and we'd like to relocate them."

"It would be easier to kill them all."

Sam barked, "Well if you're not going to be useful you can just--"

"She asked for my opinion and I gave it to her!" The dragon snarled.

The two of them glared at each other until I stepped in between them. "Ok, hold the horses. Shit." I looked at the dragon, "This is the only job offer I've got and if I can't pay my phone bill, you're stuck in this little box." I wiggled my phone. "So let's talk relocation."

"You have a perfectly functional job. As Oathbound you have plenty of work."

I waved one hand, "The Queen's not paying me to .... I don't even know--"

The ghost snorted, "The queen sits in the penthouse of Killigan Tower Stock Exchange. She is literally on the top of this century's pile of treasure. What on earth makes you think she's not going to reward you for your services?"

"It wasn't exactly part of the oath swearing and licking I got. You're changing the subject." I pointed at the sea of green gnomes still on their knees. "How do I get them to central park?"

The dragon heaved a great sigh, "Hark! Pests! An Eternal Flame addresses you."

The gnomes whispered, "Dragon."

"Leave this place. Head north by northwest to Central Park and live there until called upon."

The movement was immediate. A green sea of creatures swarmed northward and quite rapidly emptied from the intersection. They left behind the slime and tiny red caps of their squished siblings.

"Thank you." Horns honked as the swarm caused more traffic where they went. At least they went.

"I don't understand your desire for an additional job."

"We'll talk about it later. Can you sit in the phone for a few hours, please? I'll call you when I get home."

The dragon stretched her back end up high and kneaded the pavement with her claws like a cat. "Very well. I shall finish programming my roomba." She jumped into my phone, a movement of wind and pressure that lasted for heartbeats.

The police finally arrived.

Sam put a hand on my shoulder and casually walked me out of the intersection. "Let's get back to the office and let them deal with the clean up. Seems we have some chatting to do, anyway."

That didn't sound good but I walked. I did need a job and despite the ghost's assumption, I didn't really think the Queen had any intention of paying me. It probably hadn't crossed her mind. I tried to scrape green gnome goop off my flats and utterly failed. Sam was splattered with it. The intersection was a mess. Traffic would be snarled for hours. It was only eight in the morning and it had already been a long day.


--//--

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Skylife

Photo by karindalziel

The clouds looked like solid ground. Or what Guene imagined the ground looked like. You couldn't stand on them, but Guene leaned on the railing and stuck her foot out under the bar so she could see what walking on the ground might look like. The wind streaked her hair back. She'd never seen the ground, of course, but her grandfather had stood on a mountain top once. He said it was more solid than anything else in the world, with worms in the dirt.

Guene didn't know what a worm was but she wanted one for a pet. She thought she'd like that, anyway.

Mist suddenly obscured her view and Guene pulled her foot back. The airship plunged through a high cloud, cooling her engines and filling the dew collectors. The harvested water trickled through the pipe Guene held onto, falling toward the ship's belly for storage.

It'd be fun to walk on a cloud, Guene decided. They'd be spongy and soft if you didn't just fall right through. Guene turned her face into the oncoming mist just as the airship broke into sunlight. A gap. Fluffy clouds stretched out in front and around the ship. The wind quieted. The sun cast bands of light into the space and Guene ran her quick feet to the front of the ship and found it. Home.

A giant platform suspended with air balloons and rotary props hovered in the cloud cathedral. It was Guene's firm opinion that the floating city was far better than the ground. Even with worms for pets, she would miss being so close to the clouds.

The Deep Desert

Photo By coda

Shameless Dune fanfiction from a writing prompt this morning.


--//--

I must not fear.

Ketar placed his tiny hand palm down on the sand dune and felt the worm. The dune hummed, a low note. He felt his breath quicken.

Fear is the mind-killer.

Ketar jumped to his small feet and ran. He took steady, even strides, perfectly in rhythm. He felt the exact moment the worm caught his vibrations and turned. Here was his test.

Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration.

Ketar slid down the face of a dune and continued his run. Not fast. It was the steady impact that mattered. The regular timing of his steps. It drew the worm like the Spice drew men from the stars.

I will face my fear.

The sand boiled behind him. Ketar broke to the left into uneaven steps. Walk without rhythm, and you won't attract the worm. It surged past him- a wall of plate scale and single-minded hunger. It threw sand; as long as a spaceship and twice as big around.

I will permit it to pass over me and through me.

Ketar ran alongside the worm and set his hook under the edge of a scale. He pulled up, exposing the underside. The worm turned upward, protecting its delicate skin from the harsh desert sand. Ketar hopped up as it turned, his leather-covered feet found purchase on the coarse scale. He set the second hook and leaned forward against them. The worm turned him up to the crest of its circular body.

And when it is gone I will turn my inner eye to see its path.

Ketar leaned rightward, exposing more skin under the left-hooked scale. The worm turned to the right. They flew through the deep desert, faster than Ketar could move. Faster than a horse of the watered plains. Almost as fast as the helicopters that collected the Spice.

Where the fear has gone, there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

Ketar was proud to ride his first worm before his tenth birthday and maintain his people's traditions, but he'd seen where the desert gave way to the plains and the plains to the forest; he knew they were a dying people.

There was something out here. Ketar let the left hook slip free from the scale. The worm turned. He let the right hook slide free. The worm dove into the sand. The boiling desert approached. Ketar leaped rightward and stutter-stepped across the churning sand toward... was it a man? Out here?

It was. A man in a worn but functional stilsuit standing in the middle of the deepest desert. His eyes, even the whites, glowed blue but they did not focus on Ketar as he approached. Ketar had never seen eyes that glowed. The man held his hand out to Ketar who took it.

"You are... Ketar?"

His voice... Ketar had never heard a voice like that. It was low and high at the same time. Wavering in the air. He felt it like a physical thing. Ketar nodded.

"I am blind." The man said in that Voice.

Ketar wrenched his hand free. That was why he stood out here in the desert. A blind man was no good to the tribe, no good as a Fremen.

"The worms will not come. The desert does not want me." His Voice traveled over the desert sands, rattling them like the worm. It was a Voice like a weapon.

Ketar took the man's hand again and looked up at him. He couldn't see. Ketar couldn't speak. It wouldn't work.

"I am.... The Preacher."

Ketar lead him from the desert.

Love Beyond Life

Photo By Natesh Ramasamy

The moon glistened in the silent October sky, sending shadows across the graves. It was almost time. Charlie
found her headstone without any trouble. He'd been here often enough at all hours of the day and night and the larger-than-life Valkyrie standing over her grave was hard to miss. Almost ten years, he'd waited. Moving her to this decrepit place only a week after her death so that she was the youngest body here. He'd taken every precaution. He knew the chant. He was ready.

The fresh graves gave him pause. They had new angels on their headstones. This wasn't part of the plan. They were three rows away from her but that didn't matter. They were new. The bodies fresh. He wrung his hands. He didn't have another cemetery as old as this one anywhere nearby. And he wasn't going to wait another ten years for her spirit to settle in a new place.

His watch beeped once.

It was time. Now or never. He could do it, even with fresh bodies in the cemetery. He'd just have to be careful. Charlie stood at the foot of her grave and opened his hands over the earth. He began to chant.

Charlie thought he saw the moon flash. There was light in the cemetery that hadn't been there before. It condensed in front of him. Her. She tucked her hair behind her ear and turned toward him with that smile he remembered. She was here. Transparent, colorless, a spirit young enough to remember life but old enough to stay dead. Charlie's throat tightened. She was still so beautiful. He wiped tears from his cheeks and tried to clear his throat. His voice was raspier than he expected.

"You look great." She didn't say anything. Charlie tried to smile at her but it was harder than he expected to finally see her and be unable to hold her. "I- uh.. I bring you flowers every week." He made a little gesture at the base of the statue.

She turned to look at put her hands up on her cheeks. She bent, her transparent hands cupped the fresh buds and she made a show of smelling them. Could she smell them? He hoped so. "There's a new middle school down the block, now. Tommy's got kids there. We- uh... we do regular dinners together-- aw, hell, you already know all this." He could see it in her face, that light, indulgent smile she had that said she knew what he was going to say and didn't mind just because she enjoyed hearing his voice. Charlie's throat thickened up again and he had to look up at the sky to keep the tears in. "I miss you," He said. "God, I love you so much."

He brought his eyes back down and froze half-way. There was a stone angel climbing up the back of the Valkyrie, her face set in an eerie expression of serene reflection. A second angel walked around the base of the Valkyrie, he held a stone sword. The new spirits had risen, young enough to remember life, and too fresh to not want it back. Charlie stumbled back a step. The swordsman angel leaped forward, the weapon singing through the air like a heavenly chorus. Charlie only just avoided it. The sword sunk into the dirt of an older grave, disturbing the spirit.

Charlie searched for her but she was gone. The swordsman advanced. The angel on the Valkyrie jumped. Charlie turned and ran. He fell headlong over a low headstone and scrambled up to his feet. The angel landed in front of him. The swordsman advanced from behind. Charlie put his hands up and tried to remember the chant for putting a spirit back down in the grave but all he could think of was how much he'd screwed this up, how he'd never see her again.

Something stone moaned hugely behind him. The disturbed spirit, no doubt. Charlie wanted nothing to do with it. He said a faint apology and ran to the side, across graves and flowers. He heard the two angels follow, dragging the old spirits up with them. He couldn't get out this way, he realized. They'd driven him to the back corner. Charlie spun in place just in time to see the Valkyrie descend from the heavens. She screamed like wind and her sword, twice as big as any other statue in the cemetery, came down on the swordsman angel with vengeful wrath. The stone angel crumbled beneath her. She spun and cleaved the second angel clear in two.

Then Charlie heard her voice. Her voice. It came to him on far away wind and when he heard it, the sound made him cower. "RUN!"

Charlie ran. The Valkyrie- his Valkyrie- destroyed any spirit that followed him.

Extinguished

Photo by Takot

Talia wished the fireflies were real. She could remember running through the reeds of her father's lake-side home trying to bottle them in a mason jar. Talia cupped her hands together. The not-fireflies hovered over her skin, blinking like discordant notes on a piano. Talia dropped her hands. The flies scattered. They burned through the illusion only inches away and everything blinked off. The lake, the reeds, the smell of old wood- it was gone again. Talia's ten daily minutes of mental stimulation were finished.

 The walls of her room were a particular shade of light blue scientifically proven to encourage tranquility. Her chair was vacuum-formed to her exact shape and reclined to a precisely optimal angle. Talia had come to detest blue and reclining chairs. She remained standing until a warning light flooded the room crimson red. Talia sat. The chair reclined. The room turned blue. Above her, a single yellow light blinked. She stared at it while the hive brain connected the socket in the back of her skull. The hive brain breached her consciousness. Talia's last personal thought was of fireflies dying in the mason jar.

 --//--

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Running With Scissors Pt. 8

Original photo by Steve

RWS is a serial fantasy story that posts every Monday following Danielle, a regular girl stuck in an irregular world where unicorns serve as judge and jury, gnomes have infested the south district, and a minor god reports the weather on the nightly news. 

See the whole list of blogs here.

--//--

Part 8

Gnomes, I learned, liked to mimic. They marched around behind Sam in a konga-line despite the fact that she went out of her way to step on large groups of them whenever she could. There was slime running freely in the street. People around the edges had started catching on, stomping or squishing any of the critters they could reach.

My phone rang. The dragon. I let it go to voice mail. I wasn't too sure killing them all was the best option, but they didn't seem to be running out of numbers either. The stream of small green bodies from the drain had yet to ebb.

They ran around in flowing groups, like schools of fish. They climbed up and over each other without any apparent personal survival instinct. When they started grabbing my jeans and crawling up, I jumped back and kicked them off. "Oh, yuck. Stop!"

They all yelled back in high-pitched chorus, "Stop!"

Someone beside me asked, "Can these things talk?"

I didn't really have a clue. "Sam?"

"Sam!" The gnomes echoed. That was getting old fast.

"They can communicate in larger groups, but individually they're pretty stupid."

"Stupid!"

Yeah, they were stupid alright. "So what are we supposed to do?"

Sam squished a small tower of gnomes. "I haven't figured that part out yet."

"Don't you guys have magic?"

"Melissa does, but these things are pretty impervious."

"Impervious!"

Yeah, ok. I was done with the call and repeat. "Hey, stop squishing them and form a circle. Get in a big circle and herd them together." I grabbed the lady who'd asked if they could talk and put her in place. "You, stand next to her. And you next. Like that, get people in line."

"People in line!"

Hey, more than one word that time, maybe this would work. My phone rang again. I ignored it to nudge gnomes together into the bigger group and at a certain point the mass shifted from enclosed chaos to organized movement like there was a queen bee suddenly running everything. "Hey," I said to the gnomes. "Hey, can you talk now?"

"We can talk!"

"Great. You guys can't stay here in the sewers. First, that's like way nasty--"

"Nasty!"

Maybe this wasn't working.

Sam kicked a gnome into the herd and asked. "What are you trying to do?"

"Not really sure. I thought we could ask them to leave or something."

"Huh. Not a bad plan."

"What do gnomes eat, anyway?"

"Happiness."

I offered her a skeptical look. "From the sewer?"

"I told you they were stupid, right? They thrive on happiness around them."

I crossed my arms. "Ok, so... the park maybe? People are happy there, right?"

"Sure. What are you thinking, follow-the-leader all the way to central park?"

"I don't have a clue."

My phone rang. I answered it. "Damnit, I'm in the middle of an inter--" The dragon jumped out of my phone. She was still a ghost, incorporeal and kinda creamy, but she took up the entire intersection. People screamed and ran. Sam started sideways and flicked her eyes between me and the dragon.

The gnomes all bowed down on the ground. "Dragon caller!"

I sighed.

Part 9 or All Chapters

--//--

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Running With Scissors Pt. 7

Original photo by Steve

RWS is a serial fantasy story that posts every Monday following Danielle, a regular girl stuck in an irregular world where unicorns serve as judge and jury, gnomes have infested the south district, and a minor god reports the weather on the nightly news. 

See the whole list of blogs here.

--//--

Part 7

I skirted the corner and despite my curiosity, focused on my interview. A job was more important than a green-slime invasion. I needed to pay rent.

The address was a squat, homey cottage sandwiched between two high-rise glass buildings. Not exactly what I expected. I rang the doorbell. A witch answered.

She was shorter than me by a good foot, had barbed wire tattooed where her eyebrows should have been, and had an honest-to-goodness pointy purple hat. "Whattup?" She asked.

"Uh. I'm here for an interview with Sam? My name i-"

"She's out there dealing with the gnomes." The witch pointed at the chaos of the intersection. "We think they've been breeding in the storm drains again. You can't miss her, looks like a tomcat."

"I... I'm sorry a tomcat?"

"Yeah, 'bout this big." The witch made a ball with her hands in the general size of a domestic cat. "Silver. Black stripes. Go on, you'll find her." The witch shut the door. I turned back to the intersection, because what else was I going to do? At least now I'd figure out what was going on. Gnomes, she'd said. I'd never seen a gnome.

People were getting out of their cars to look. I pushed between them and stood on tip-toes over someone's shoulder. What I saw didn't make much sense. A swarm of something was flowing up out of the storm drain and was running in circles. Little pieces- individuals, I realized- were breaking off from the whole and spinning until they fell over. There was a cacophany of high-pitched giggling.

I pushed my way to the front of the pack and found, as I'd been told, a silver striped cat running around catching gnomes. She was covered in green slime. I saw her pounce on a gnome and it popped into greenness. She worried the little red cap for a second, then pounced on the next one. There were thousands of them and they were running everywhere. Like bugs. Small little green bodies with red hats and high voices. They didn't seem to have any direction.

The cat pounced on a gnome right at my feet and I said, "Sam?"

The cat was a person. In a single blink she morphed from one to the other so fast I stumbled backward in surprise. She caught my arm. "Easy there, sorry. You're looking for me?"

"Oh, yuck." I'd stepped on a gnome. I really hoped this gunk came off. I tried to scrape it off my black flats. "Yeah, I'm Danielle, we have an interview at seven thirty?"

"That's right!" Sam smiled and she was beautiful. Her silver hair fell over her shoulder. "You're human, right?"

"Yes."

"No super powers, no glowing in the dark, can't morph, nothing?"

"None of the above."

"Perfect. You're hired. We need someone on the team that can magnify and direct our power but that means you can't have any of your own interfering."

The gnomes at our feet stuck their little green hands in the air and yelled all together, "Interfering!" in their tiny voices.

Sam kicked a knot of them away. "Let's deal with this first."

Part 8 or All chapters

--//--

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Running With Scissors Pt. 6

Original photo by Steve

RWS is a serial fantasy story that posts every Monday following Danielle, a regular girl stuck in an irregular world where unicorns serve as judge and jury, gnomes have infested the south district, and a minor god reports the weather on the nightly news. 

See the whole list of blogs here.

--//--

Part 6

"Where is the closest gas station?" I asked the ghost in my phone. "Can you even do that? What do you have access to?"

"Everything. Did you know there are cats on the internet? A lot of them."

"Yes, I knew that."

"Gas station approaching on the left."

I turned into it and parked in the back. It wasn't gas I needed, but a change of clothes and some breakfast. "I'll be right back. Look up cats on Roombas if you get bored."

"What is a Roooooomba? Roombahhh, Roooombaaaaaaahh, Roomba."

"It's a little automatic vacuum."

It was a little odd talking to my phone like it was another being, but I just tried to picture someone sitting at their computer on the other end of the line. I left the device on my dashboard and popped the trunk. In the corner was an unmarked duffel bag. I dragged it out of the back and checked the contents.

Leave it to my mother to make sure I had a go-bag packed and ready. I fished out a bagged pair of slacks and a plain, bright teal shirt, remarkably unwrinkled for all the time they'd spent stuffed away. I traded my tennis shoes for a pair of black flats, put my hair up in a smooth bun without the aid of a mirror, and changed in the back seat without too much fuss.

The 7-11's breakfast options were disappointing but functional. When I returned to the car the ghost excitedly recounted her experience with the cats on Roomba, cats in sinks, cats in boxes, and cats otherwise where they didn't belong.

"The Roomba, on the other hand is quite annoying. It doesn't work very efficiently, tracks all over the room at random- there's no rhyme or reason to it. I could make a better one. Where do I learn about programming? Turn right at the next intersection."

I flicked my blinker. "Start with Wikipedia." I recognized downtown. I was coming from the opposite direction than usual, but with my internal compass sorted I tracked past one-way streets to find a small corner of free parking not too far from my final destination. My phone had gone quiet.

"Hey." I said at it. "You still there?"

"Programming is very simple, I don't understand why someone hasn't fixed the Roooooomba."

"Probably because they like seeing their cats on it, look, I've got to get to an interview so I need to hang up. Does that, like, turn you off or anything?"

"I will sit in the internet and program a better Roomba."

"Ok, cool. I guess. Have fun."

"Do you have a cat?"

"No."

"We may need to get one when my better Roomba is ready. For testing."

"Right. Testing." Of course. "Good bye." I hung up on the ghost.

Two blocks away from the office address, I heard shouting. People were starting to gather on the corner, traffic was stopped in every direction, and a policeman sat on the curb half-covered in a green slime-like jelly talking into his walky.

"We need backup. Riot gear. Tear gas. Mallets. Boxing gloves. Anything." His hand darted out and slapped the pavement. When he lifted away, green slime stretched between his fingers and a tiny red knitted cap with a cheerful pompom on top was all that was left. I couldn't identify what he'd squished. "Hurry. We're being overrun!"

Part 7 or All Chapters

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Running With Scissors Pt. 5

Original photo by Steve

RWS is a serial fantasy story that posts every Monday following Danielle, a regular girl stuck in an irregular world where unicorns serve as judge and jury, gnomes have infested the south district, and a minor god reports the weather on the nightly news. 

See the whole list of blogs here.

--//--

Part 5

The Queen's mouth opened. She had a lot of teeth. Her thick tongue flicked like a snake across my face and I just knew it. I had volunteered to be a snack. The dragon said, "YOU TASTE LIKE YOU TELL THE TRUTH."

They could taste lies? Could I lie if I didn't know what I was talking about?

"YOU WILL SWEAR THIS OATH FOR MY SON?"

I blinked through sticky dragon spit and rubbed my face on my shoulder. "Yes, I swear." Just don't eat me, please?

"I WILL ACCEPT THIS OATH. RELEASE HER." The guards dropped me. And bowed. That was weird.  I wiped my face on the sleeve of my shirt. "VISITS TWICE PER WEEK ARE ACCEPTABLE UNTIL MY SON COMES INTO THIS WORLD. THEN WE WILL DISCUSS YOUR ADDITIONAL DUTIES."

If I hadn't volunteered to be eaten, just what was I supposed to be doing? "Great, that's perfect. I'll see you on Thursday, then."

The Queen stepped back to her former position on the polished floor. "FAREWELL HONORED... WHAT IS YOUR HUMAN NAME?"

"Danielle."

"IT IS KESSA IN OUR TONGUE OF FIRE." The Queen tapped one claw. "HAVE IT WRITTEN." She looked down at one of her dragons-in-men-suits who swiped his fingers across a tablet. "KESSA IS GRANTED ALL HONORS AND DUTIES OF THE OATHBOUND. LET IT BE KNOWN."

I slapped the phone up to my ear, "Just what did you get me into?"

"Oh, you know. Nanny the newborn, teach him his letters and numbers, put out any fires he sets."

"Great. I'm Aunt to a dragon."

"More like... official royal babysitter."

"Thanks." I drolled. "Does the job come with dental?"

"Honored Kessa, may I escort you out?" I stared at the hand the purple-winged guard extended toward me. It was human shaped, sized, and colored. It was a very convincing fake. In fact, the whole figure was rather fetching if you could get past the giant gem-bright wings and eyes that nictated from the sides instead of blinking. They were very nice eyes, though. He reached out and took my phone. He hung up on the dragon ghost and handed the device back to me. When I reached out to take it he took my hand under his arm and began walking to the elevator.

I wasn't sure that being escorted was any better than being marched around. At least it was just the purple one and I this time. There was more room in the elevator that way.

He dropped me off at the front of the building where my small car was parked somewhat innocuously along the curb. The morning sun flashed against the mirrors. I didn't like the idea of one of them driving my car... or picking it up and flying over here with it either. I decided not to ask. I really didn't want to know.

Purple opened the passenger-side door and made an after-you gesture. "Oh, no. I'll drive my own, car, thanks."

He frowned at me, "As one of the Oathbound you are entitled to an escort. I will be happy to drive you whe--"

"No," I said. "Thank you." I did drop my phone on the passenger seat. "I don't need an escort anywhere and certainly not from one of you."

Purple's eyes nictated and he looked almost hurt by the idea that he wasn't required. He nodded and shut my  passenger door carefully. We stood facing each other for a heartbeat and I found I was reluctant to simply turn and leave. He and Green had literally plucked me from my life on their Queen's say so but they had taken great care not to hurt me which, for a dragon, probably took some doing.

I sighed, "What's your name?"

"Saker."

"And the green one?"

"Aerik."

"Well, Saker. Thank you for walking me down. I'll be back on Thursday. You or Aerik are welcome to meet me at the door. Just one of you, though. The elevator was a little cramped."

Saker gave a half bow, "I'll wait here for your return, then, Honored Kessa."

"Uh. Cool." I gave him a thumbs up and walked to the other side of my car. The seat was all the way back. Someone had been driving.

I corrected the seat and mirrors. I hit the power button on my phone and found none of my usual apps on the screen. I frowned. Flying here hadn't exactly helped me figure out how to drive back home and without a map I'd be going in circles. I dialed the ghost, all twos, and put the ringing on speaker.

"Honored Kessa!"

"Don't call me that. Where are all my apps?"

"I filed them all away. Everything's much neater now."

"I need a map out of here. It's late. I need to get home."

"It's early actually."

"A map, please." Then I reconsidered. "Why, what time is it?"

"Almost five thirty."

"Well, shit." My interview was in two hours.

"Drive out of the loop and turn right at the first intersection.

I started the car. In my rear view I saw Saker standing patiently on the curb like he could wait there all week for me to come back.

Part 6 or All Chapters

--//--

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Running With Scissors Pt. 4

Original photo by Steve

RWS is a serial fantasy story that posts every Monday following Danielle, a regular girl stuck in an irregular world where unicorns serve as judge and jury, gnomes have infested the south district, and a minor god reports the weather on the nightly news. 

See the whole list of blogs here.

--//--

Part 4

I looked up at the dragon Queen from my spot on the floor and blinked. Her golden eyes blinked back. One of the guards nudged me with his food. "Well. Answer her."

"There is no cure." I said. You don't cure a pregnancy like some kind of virus. That was the wrong answer.

The Queen sighed heavily in my direction, her breath was like the desert wind. "YOU LIE." She said, still lacking any kind of volume control. "I WILL EAT YOU FOR YOUR BETRAYAL."

Didn't you have to be in someone's trust first to betray them? "Wait!" I scrambled backward on all fours. "Wait, you don't get it. You're not sick. You're not dying." I didn't want to die either.

"I AM ILL"

"No, you're pregnant!"

The big black head drew back quite suddenly. I collapsed on the floor, breathing fast. My phone squauked. I held it to my ear. "Sorry, say again?"

"She has six. They are fighting inside of her. She will soon only have one."

"They're fighting? Like sharks?"

"Yes. The strongest uses the others for energy."

"WHO ARE YOU SPEAKING WITH?"

"Err." I pulled the phone from my ear. "Actually I have no idea. There's some ghost in my phone." I stood up. The guards didn't help. "Look, you've got six little dragons at war inside of you, that's probably why you feel sick. It'll pass. One of them will win and you'll feel much better after that."

"I AM LOOSING MY BABIES?"

Well that didn't sound very good in retrospect. "No! No, they're uh.... They're figuring out which one is the strongest and the others will er... yield to it."

"I WILL HAVE A SON."

"Well, I mean, you don't know that until you give birth, right?" Did dragons do birth or eggs?

"I WILL HAVE A STRONG SON." She said, swinging her head close again.

"Ok, yes." I agreed, hands up. "Yes, you'll have a healthy son. A good strong dragon, just like his momma." I couldn't decide if keeping eye contact was a bad thing.

"YOU WILL STAY HERE AND KEEP ME INFORMED."

"Uh... no." I began backing up. "I mean, it's been lovely, you're all quite lovely... people." Reptiles? Man-suits? "But, I've got an interview I need to get to and I really don't have any more information for you."

"YOU WILL STAY."

"Maybe we can work out some sort of twice-per-week system? Mondays and Thursdays work for you?" I hissed into the phone. "Help me out here, how do I leave?"

The dragon in my phone asked, "Why do you want to leave?"

"I have a life to get back to, thanks. Didn't you want to get out of this stuffy tower?" The two guards finally clued in that I was backing up toward the door. They strode toward me.

"It is true, I long to see the city." I heard her sigh heavily. "Very well tell our Queen that you will take the Oath of Death for her son."

"Oh, because that's not ominous. What does that even mean?" I debated between turning to run and continuing my shuffle backward. The guards didn't seem to be in a hurry, but then again, they had wings. They could fly. I couldn't.

"I thought you wanted to leave."

"I don't want to die, either."

"No one is going to kill you."

"I'm sorry, it's called the Oath of Death for a reason." The purple-winged guard fell forward to lope on the ground like an ape or... you know, a dragon. His green partner jumped forward with a huge push of his wings. I didn't stand a chance. I turned to run and a hand fisted in my hair. One of them grabbed my shirt, another hand, my belt. I was turned around to face the Queen. My phone squawked but I couldn't hear the words.

The huge, black creature that was the Queen of Dragons made a low growling noise that shook the building. Her head went up (and up and up) until it pulled her body off the polished floor. Her talons swept dragons-in-men-suits to either side. She only needed to take a single step. Her head descended from on high. "YOU WILL STAY."

I squinted into the sound of her voice. The volume really had to come down. My phone barked again but the guards held me fast. This was a really bad idea. "I will take the Oath of Death for your son."

Part 5 or All Chapters

--//--

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Running With Scissors Pt. 3

Original photo by Steve

RWS is a serial fantasy story that posts every Monday following Danielle, a regular girl stuck in an irregular world where unicorns serve as judge and jury, gnomes have infested the south district, and a minor god reports the weather on the nightly news. 

See the whole list of blogs here.

--//--

Part 3

The two dragon guards, purple and green, walked me through the narrow hallways of the office. We passed cubicles full of dragon-people, their wings sticking up over the walls like oddly shaped Christmas decorations. The sounds were strangely office-like. Phones, paper, typing keyboards. When a dragon lands on your street corner to take you away you don't really expect them to bring you to the local Bank and Trust.

We crowded into a human-sized elevator. Purple curled his tail around his feet like a cat. Green folded his wings down over his shoulders, an iridescent cloak exactly the right length.We only went up one floor. Penthouse. The doors opened and I stepped back against the wall of the elevator. There were no walls or cubicles here, just support beams and windows from edge to edge. A black and bronze dragon lounged in the far corner, far too large to be stuck indoors and yet she lay there, tapping a single claw delicately against a tablet on the floor beside her. Her tongue was forked. It stuck out to the side, curled in concentration.

"I can't do this." The guards didn't care. They took me by the shoulders and there isn't any fighting a dragon when he wants you to go somewhere, let alone two. I shook my phone again. It rang. I almost dropped it in surprise. The phone number was a line of twos all the way across. I answered it. "Hello?"

"I honestly had no idea choosing a phone number was so difficult. I hope this one isn't taken by someone else, there were just too many options."

It was the dragon ghost. I looked at the phone. No reception. All twos. I didn't know what to say. "No, it's not taken."

"Oh, good. This seems to be a nice place, a little cramped but I'll be cozy, I think."

"Good. That's good." That was good, right? The guards stopped me in front of the Queen. She was too large to see all at once and I couldn't stop panning my head back and forth to keep her all in sight. "Um." I said to the ghost. "Now's good. Whatever you know. Please tell me now."

The Queen looked up from her tablet. Her muzzle alone was as long as I was tall. There were a lot of teeth inside. Her gold eyes pinned me to the floor. "WHAT IS THE CURE?"

I staggered backward and fell on my ass. My ears rang. Everything was just noise and the word Cure echoing around in the blank spaces. I didn't even think she was yelling.

The ghost in my phone said, "She's pregnant."

Part 4 or All Chapters

--//--

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Running With Scissors Pt. 2

Original photo by Steve

RWS is a serial fantasy story that posts every Monday following Danielle, a regular girl stuck in an irregular world where unicorns serve as judge and jury, gnomes have infested the south district, and a minor god reports the weather on the nightly news. 

See the whole list of blogs here.

--//--

Part 2

I checked my phone. Again. No signal. How could there be even a square foot of space in this city that didn't have cell phone reception? I dropped my head back on the carpet and stared at the ceiling. It looked exactly like every other office ceiling I'd ever seen. That grid of speckled panels stretched from window to wall.

There was one upside to being a hostage of the dragons, they did have a very nice view of the city. One of the tallest buildings around and I couldn't bring myself to enjoy a twenty foot panoramic view. This office was unfortunately sparse. A big desk, a computer I couldn't get to turn on, and some empty bookshelves. No chairs.

I sighed and knew the two guards on the other side of that door could hear me. It was late, I wanted to go home, I had an interview tomorrow... but the Queen wanted a cure and I didn't have one to give her. I couldn't imagine what Yoka was thinking. Handling a week-old dragon when I was fifteen hardly qualified me for medical diagnosis.

Speaking of Yoka. I glanced at my phone again. No reception. The time read just past one in the morning. She only had a few more hours before daybreak forced her into stone. I hoped she was flying back to our apartment already. Although, without her I didn't have a clue how to get out of this. Unless Kender teleported in here to help me. I laughed at the thought and turned away from the window.

A dragon ghost cocked her head at me from above the computer. She didn't fit in the room. I shrieked and backed myself along the window away from the desk. I got stuck in the corner of wall and bookshelf with nowhere to go. Her entire body filled the room, wings, talons, tail, spikes. She was huge, semi-transparent, and followed my movement like a snake. I tried to melt into the book case.

"I can help you." She said.

"What?" I felt my eyes go wide and my voice was a little breathless. I was hyperventilating. I couldn't calm down. There was a ghost in the office.

"You need help. I can help you." She repeated.

There was really no way I could be closer to the shelves without molding to their shape, but I tried. "Why? What's in it for you?"

"I'm bored." She said and it sounded true. "This view is nice, but after a dozen years there's nothing new to look at."

"What." I couldn't even make it a proper question. "Why are you here?"

"I'm tied to this machine." She gestured at the computer I couldn't turn on. Her forearm-long claws went right through it.

I'd sat at that computer for two hours trying to make it work. I'd been poking at a dragon for two hours. Had I woken her up? "What do you want from me?"

"Take me out of here. Show me some place new."

"Take the computer with me?"

"Or let me haunt something of yours."

I realized suddenly we were negotiating. Information for freedom. "How do I know you can help?"

"The Queen thinks she is dying."

"Uh... yeah, that's right." I straightened up a little bit but didn't leave my corner of the office.

"I know why. I can help."

The office door opened and two men walked in. Men with huge iridescent wings and long spiked tails. Dragons in the form of man like a suit. Incidentally, their man-shapes were wearing very nice suits. "The Queen demands your answer. Come with us." The one with more purple in him said.

I shot my attention to the ghost. "Tell me!"

"Give me something to haunt."

I didn't have anything. The two guards approached, walking through the ghost as if that were a normal thing to encounter in a high-rise office. I patted myself down like checking folds of a shirt and pants would spontaneously result in a solution. My hand landed on my phone. I held it up. "Here. This. You can haunt this."

The dragon ghost snaked her head forward in a flash. She dove into my little phone with all the wind and shake of a volcano. The building swayed with the force of it. My phone beeped and went dead. I stared at the little machine. I was going to need a new phone, now, wasn't I?

I shook it. The guards grabbed my shoulders and marched me forward. I slapped the phone on my thigh and shouted at it. "We had a deal! Tell me what you know!" It remained stubbornly unresponsive.

Part 3 or All Chapters

--//--

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Running With Scissors Pt. 1

Original photo by Steve

RWS is a serial fantasy story that posts every Monday following Danielle, a regular girl stuck in an irregular world where unicorns serve as judge and jury, gnomes have infested the south district, and a minor god reports the weather on the nightly news. 

See the whole list of blogs here.

--//--

Part 1

Hi there. How's your new year going? Me? I'm stuck under this infernal dragon guard for the foreseeable future because my well-meaning best friend had to open her big toothy mouth. Though, I guess it's not that bad here; I get fed, no one is trying to kill me, the bed could be better but I've slept on worse. I can't cure the dragon queen, though, and they're convinced I'm lying. Dragons are not as cool as you'd think. Sure they look awesome with their spikes and scales, but they'll accuse you of treachery and conspiracy at the drop of a hat. Everyone is out to get them. It gets old quickly.

Meanwhile, my well-intentioned only hope is running around the city trying to find my dog who teleported out of the apartment (again). He could be miles away for all I know. And good riddance. That mutt deserves a night on the street since turning my red pumps into a chew toy.

Something needs to happen, though. Tomorrow is Monday and I have a job interview downtown at nine in the morning. If I don't make it, someone else is going to be paying rent for my apartment and I don't have time to move all my shit.

My name is Danielle. My best friend is a gargoyle and my dog has a faerie infection. Happy freaking New Year.

Part 2 or All Chapters

--//--

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Shall We Begin?

This blog is the general catch-all for things fantasy, science fiction, steampunk, and otherwise safe for work under the name S. T. Lynn.

(For things not safe for work, check my pseudonym Tami Veldura.)

Every Monday you'll see a new installment of Running With Scissors, but that's the only for-sure schedule I have around here. You might see art. Maybe some photography. I'll be sure to tell you when a book or short story is published, and maybe even host a giveaway or two.

Current Projects:

• Running With Scissors- fantasy serial
• weekly on the blog
• Approaching Lightspeed - steampunk-in-space novel series
• brainstorming/outlining
•  Starsong - fantasy novel, wolves
• editing
• Ghostmarked, Dragonmarked, Deathmarked - high fantasy novel trilogy
• outlining
•  Living Ships (working title) - science fiction short story
• outlining

I also like to give away free stories, coupons, goodies related to my novels and such. There are two ways you can get in on the action.

1. Support me on Patreon
• Patreon allows you to donate a set amount (1$ or more) per item of content I produce. You can establish a monthly budget and you'll receive different goodies based on the size of your donation. 
• All writing will still be here for free, but donating will get you advance notice and larger coupons, advance reader copies of any books I publish, and backgrounds/avatars of art I draw.
• More information is on my Patreon website.
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• If you can't afford to support me with cash, I understand! All advance notices, coupons, and art will also be available for free through my newsletter. I get your email address and the opportunity to inform you directly about new, exciting things, and that's just as useful to me as a donation!

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