Next Feathered Hearts chapter will drop on Wednesday + Teaser · 5:26pm Jan 16th, 2022
I have to say, folks... I’ve been very happy with how the last two chapters have been received. There’s been tons of positive feedback, and I’ve picked up a slew of new likes and watches. So why not keep working on it? The next chapter will be draft complete and off to prereaders today. After that, it’s a new chapter of Eros I’ll aim for next weekend, and then I’m back to working on the next chapter of Harmonic Resonance.
My latest dose of Testosterone is starting to kick in from my implanted pellets, so I imagine I’ll be having a very good time with the latter two. In fact, I’m going to be putting in a brief but potent R-rated sequence into the main story. It won’t be long and no clothes come off; comprising just a short sequence of what’s shaping up to be a 13,500-word chapter. But it will be there, so consider this your first content warning. I will also put one in red text in the Author’s Notes at the top of the chapter when it launches, so I will have no sympathy if anybody is surprised. 
Call it a little flavor for the chapter, and part of what gives our griffon and human heroes all the more reason to fight for each other. It also contains a few indications of what ongoing aftereffects the potion-spiked cider had on them, some of which will be surprisingly important and practical in war.
But I’m not going to show you that now. Instead, here’s a teaser from the early part of the next chapter. For those who have read the original story, I’m sure you can pick out a few pieces of dialog from it.
“Decanus?” Gilda called out as she approached the young Magus, to which Nydia did not seem to immediately hear her. “How are you doing?” she asked as she got closer, to which the hawk-headed eagless suddenly snapped her eyes open. They went wide as they locked on Gilda, followed by her leaping up and saluting crisply. “Centurion,” she offered in greeting, trying but not succeeding in keeping her voice level. “How may I serve?”
“Decanus.” Gilda said as she saluted back. “You may serve by seeing to your own needs right now. I just wanted to let you know that you fought very well during the battle. We might have lost many of the Marines to lightning if not for your defense against the two corrupted Magus.”
“Thank you, sir,” Nydia muttered, a little shyly. “But…” her beak quivered again as tears glimmered in her eyes.
Gilda’s face softened. “I overheard the Ravens say that you had to fight First Stave Tunica up there. I’m sorry, but for what it’s worth, that wasn’t the First Stave. Just a crow-accursed Cloven Parasite wearing him like a shell. There was nothing you could do for him, and no way to bring him back. For he was already dead, and his broken body but a puppet under Cloven control. So you must let him go.”
“I know, sir, but…” She visibly struggled to control her emotions. “It still hurts.”
To Gilda’s surprise, the knowledge that some of her soldiers were suffering even worse than her after the battle gave her the impetus to master her own still-roiled emotions, knowing that as their leader, they needed her to be strong so they could draw strength from her in turn. “I know it does. And I wish I could take that hurt away, but I can’t.
“We need you at full strength, and your mind unclouded. You have a little time before we set off again, so my orders are to rest and recharge as much as you can,” Gilda instructed, then glanced at the sewn-up wound on her side. “Will that… scratch... you received hinder you?”
“Yes, sir. And no, sir.” The Magus Knight nodded and looked towards where the Marines had gone, then shook her head. She muttered something Gilda couldn’t quite hear before turning towards a quiet corner, sitting on her haunches and taking a meditative pose, her glowing staff floating above her. “I will be fine and fit for duty. I simply request some time alone.”
“You’ll have it,” she promised, deciding she would ask Imlay to order his Marines to stay away from her for a bit.
“Centurion,” a new voice addressed her; she turned to see Spear Jade Jumentum saluting her. “Forgive me for asking, but I must know—do you still wish for me to carry the human?” she asked. “You would understand that I would greatly prefer not to.”
“No,” Gilda answered emphatically. “Because the Magus says he can walk, and I now need you on the front line after the loss of…” her voice trailed off as she suddenly realized that the Spear was the only earth griffon she had remaining other than Giraldi; the other four had been lost to the initial Cloven ambush along with their heavier axes, crossbows and shields. “I’m sorry, Spear. They deserved a far better end than a cowardly Cloven attack.”
“They did not even get the chance to fight, sir. Nor did I,” Jumentum said quietly. “I felt completely useless in the battle, able only to shield the Ambassador’s aide. I could not even swing my axe or so much as fire a single crossbow bolt because every enemy that attacked was felled so swiftly.”
“Such were my orders,” Gilda reminded the larger eagless, “and you carried them out. You did your duty, and you were far from the only one who felt useless. One or two crossbow bolts cannot even begin to match the power of even a single human weapon,” she said pensively, then raised her eyes to her sole surviving earth griffon Spear.
“We will both have plenty of opportunity to fight, both in the air and on the ground. So keep your bow loaded and wits sharp, Guardsgriffon. We will likely need them before this day is done.”
“By your command,” she saluted, going off towards the humans at Gilda’s instructions to inform Imlay that Nydia was to be left alone. And when she was done with that, she was to report to Giraldi, seeking a new assignment.
After watching her leave, Gilda made her way towards Chris, Tara and Marco, who had sat down on rocks to tend their weapons. She wasn’t sure what maintenance they required, but they appeared to be cleaning them somehow; Chris had run a long rod with a white cloth wetted with something down the tube of his wooden rifle that came back covered in black. She could see the same effect on Marco’s A-R, which he had surprisingly taken apart and was withdrawing a slightly complicated looking cylindrical assembly from.
Gilda hadn’t seen the cleaning supplies they were using before, so she guessed they had come out of a separate storage gem. They were talking in low tones as she got closer; the first fireflies of the early evening helping to illuminate the area around them.
“—should have made you guys stay in Arnau,” Marco whispered as Gilda got close enough to hear them over the background chatter of singing crickets and croaking frogs. “Then at least you’d be safe from all this insanity.”
“Marco, I swear to God, if you don’t get off the emo-train, I’m going to hit you as hard as I did PFC Ricardo,” Tara replied shortly as she rapidly disassembled her ‘pistol’, her exasperation surprisingly strong considering that the last time Gilda saw her, she was crying in Fortrakt’s embrace. “If we weren’t here, you and the Marines would be down two rifles and probably dead from that fight! We’re a team, and more importantly, we’re friends who stand by each other through thick and thin. The ponies taught us all about friendship, remember?”
“Yeah, well, they think it’s magical,” Chris said in clipped tones. “But me? Staying together and seeing each other off is just something friends do.”
“Hey, at least we get to stay together in the Kingdom now,” Marco said with a weak chuckle. “I wonder what Reyes and the other guys back in Arnau are doing? Have they been attacked yet? Do they even know what’s happening to us out here?”
“I’m sure they do,” Tara said, her tone still tense. “But I’m more worried about the ponies right now. Do they know what’s happening? Can they send help?” she wondered aloud, to which Gilda could only roll her eyes as she got near. “I don’t even want to think of what would happen if they had to face this.”
Me neither. The PONIES facing the Cloven? Or sending HELP? By all my Ancestors, that’ll be the day… she thought derisively as Marco noticed her first and hailed her.
“Hey, Gilda,” he greeted, causing Tara and Chris to look up and turn towards her. “Hell of a day, huh?”
“I guess that’s one word for it…” she said. “How are you three doing?”
“A little better,” Tara told her. “We thought we were ready for this, Gilda, but we weren’t even close. And the Marines do this as a profession?” She fumbled her pistol briefly, then grimaced, snatching it up from the ground and running her rag almost reverently over it to remove the dirt that had attached to it. “I have a lot more respect for my grandfather now. Especially since…” her hand stilled as she gazed off into the distance again.
Gilda wasn’t sure what that was about, but she offered what comfort she could, Tara. “Be proud and stand tall. You heard the Marines and Giraldi—you all fought superbly. And I’m here to say it as well,” she told them. “Your actions were honorable and it’s likely none of us would have survived the fight if you weren’t here.”
“Thanks, Gilda. How’s Fortrakt doing?” Chris asked. “He seemed okay, but who knows…?”
“He’s fine,” she promised them. “He commanded the aerial battle well, so I’m leaving him in charge of our flyers. We lost five in the attack.”
Tara had to blink away more tears. “I’m sorry, Gilda. We did our best.”
Gilda gave her an odd look. “Thank you, but it wasn’t your fault—none of this was. They did their duty and made their Ancestors proud.”
“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died,” Chris sat up a bit straighter, speaking in an air like he was quoting someone. “Rather, we should thank God that such men lived.”
Though a griffon wouldn’t have phrased it that way, Gilda got the meaning well enough and found herself nodding in agreement. “Well said, whoever that was. We can honor our fallen later, but for now, I need some information from you three.”
“Information?” they echoed as one. “About what?” Chris prompted.
“Your weapons,” she said after only a brief hesitation, causing them to fall silent and exchange glances. “Imlay said that military personnel were not allowed to discuss them. But he seemed to be trying to tell me indirectly that as civilians, you could…?”
Like I said, the target release date is Wednesday, though I’ll let you know if that moves in either direction. Thanks again for all the feedback, and a warm welcome to all incoming readers! I’ll also try to start answering comments on the latest chapter today or tomorrow.
For everyone that do not own a text to speech function here is a link.
https://ttsreader.com/de/ obviously leave out the de/ if you'r not german
Just copy - paste the text and set the speed and language.
You'r welcome ♡
Stay snuggly and cuddle you'r fellow Brony
camo.fimfiction.net/HGKOVNTrPh_dQIegq-4XQTTfq37sBPSPcGN3_7ZAMFg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fderpicdn.net%2Fimg%2Fview%2F2014%2F7%2F10%2F671941.gif
Great start. I hope they'll give Gilda the whole picture: pistols ,rifles, machine guns, grenade launchers, anti tank weapons, mines...
Looking forward to the gun talk.
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Listening to my chapters recited back to me using Fimfiction’s mobile phone voice narration feature is a necessity for anything I write now. I do it at least two of three times before every release to catch all the typos, missing words, and awkward phrasing that inevitably crop up as I type.
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All in good time. Most of that will be addressed in that chapter, but some of them they’ll learn about a bit later.
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You’re in luck, because you’re going to get a massive one with an embedded R-rated sequence as well.
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I have to do it so as well otherwise it would be to mutch for me since i'm german and have english only as my second from three languages.
Some of my proof readers are far from stellar, but simply finding typos is worth a lot
It's also easyer to listen to proofreading than to tire once eyes out...
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Flamethrowers, Spaznas Knifes, Shotguns, ammunition types and most importantly... Gun safety.