Where my muse goes, I follow... (Teaser) · 1:46pm Nov 6th, 2021
And it has gone right back to Feathered Hearts. I finished a new nearly 10k word main story chapter this week, and it will be published tomorrow morning or evening unless my prereaders object.
Despite what I said in an earlier blog, where I announced I was shifting part of what I wrote to the side story, I decided it needed to be in the main story for all the dialog it borrowed from the original. So, I simply stripped out the offending parts, which I decided were a bridge too far at this point anyway. I’ll save them for another time. It will open about three hours after the previous chapter ends, in the aftermath (and afterglow!) of Marco and Gilda’s true first time with the two lying in bed and chatting, contemplating their future and discussing what to tell the others when they return. It will not cross into M-rated territory, though there will be some suggestive content, including some surprising teasing of our favorite Sergeant along the way.
From there, you’ll get a center section with Gilda alone in her room, writing her daily report while considering all that happened to her and all she’s learned about humanity in terms of everything from love to warfare. As a bonus, you’ll learn what new password procedure they’ve implemented to keep out the Ibex. The chapter will conclude early the next morning with the start of a morning workout involving Reyes and Marco/Chris/Tara that leads into the start of chapter 5 of the original story--where the Cloven appear. I admit we’re going to end this on a slight cliffhanger as it will shortly be time for Gilda to face whatever music she has to.
The dialog in this chapter will borrow heavily from chapter 4 of the original story, if expanded and occasionally shifted to come from different characters. I’ve found ways to work it all in, though, and DEL definitely did have some very good lines in there. A teaser? Sure, why not. Here’s the start of the center section:
Another day, another report… Gilda thought as she rolled up the sheet of parchment that contained her latest list of deductions and observations of the humans, tying it neatly with a thin red ribbon and imparting the wax seal that had come with her command chain. The latter wasn’t just to keep it from unrolling, it was to keep the message secure; its internal enchantment would destroy the message in a puff of fire if it was opened without the counterpart unsealing spell in the possession of Tribune Narada.
If things went badly the next morning, she knew it might be the last report she ever wrote as a soldier. But she was also at peace with it, finding herself with not a shred of doubt or regret over the time she had spent with Marco.
She smiled at the still-fresh memories despite the fact her writing talons were aching; understandable given she had been working on it for an hour already, penning another report for Narada—and shortly Ambassador Strenus again—to go through.
It had been very lengthy, given all that had happened in the past day. She had opened by admitting openly that she was now in a relationship with Marco Lakan, but by choice this time—the Tribune’s likely going to find out anyway from Captain Moran, so best for me to tell her directly before she learns it from him.
Even though some of the details were probably needlessly lurid, she outlined all that had led to it, noting in particular that human males seemed to instinctively wish to prove their worthiness to females and some even seemed to greatly enjoy being dominated by one. In that sense, they were completely unlike Equestrian ponies where the females courted males, or even griffons, where both genders courted the other equally.
He honored me in several very deep and direct ways, so I rewarded him as an eagless should, she took pains to say in the letter, attempting to preempt any accusation that she was emotionally compromised or had suffered some aftereffect of all the cider and fertility potion.
She was, however, starting to suspect that those aftereffects did exist, given two confirmed increases of male stature. And that was to say nothing of her later flirtiness and teasing of Reyes, who she worried might take it out on Marco the following morning.
She chuckled and shook her head at the thought. No, he’s not like that. Still, I’d best be present for his morning workout, she decided then, setting her alarm crystal back an hour—it was keyed by outside light level; you could set it to audibly vibrate when before-dawn twilight was reached—to make certain she would be there.
Though she didn’t look forward to the Tribune’s reaction to reading her account, she had also made sure she couldn’t be accused of otherwise neglecting her other duties. She had written down everything she could remember from the movie as well as her conversations with Chris and Tara in regards to human history and culture, including the presence of large unintelligent horses used as war mounts, and the interesting evolution of at least one part of their government from what appeared to be an absolute monarchy.
The movie they watched earlier was, according to Chris, a historic retelling of real events with some major embellishments, but more or less accurate to the barbarity of the time—the human ‘dark ages’, they called them; you had to go nearly two millennia into the past, well before the Great Unification, to find its like in griffon history.
And yet, comparing the society the film depicted with the modern one found in The Warrior, it struck her as strange that humans evolved warfare using close range fighting and weaponry. Unicorn-style Longbows and even primitive crossbows had been used to good effect in the movie, so surely they understood the utility of long range weapons in war? Why, then, would they have discarded them in favor of pure melee arms?
Or had they…?
Chapter will release tomorrow morning or evening depending on how quickly my prereaders complete their passes. Be looking for it. After that, I’ll resume work on the second promised chapter of Nightmare Night, though that’s another blog entirely.
This is definitely one of the stronger chapters from the original chapter 4 and I'm glad they survived intact. Reyes is in full-on jarhead mode here and I love it!
good news! something to look forward to!