《The Coin of Fate》Chapter 63 good actions are always...
Advertisement
"Who are Gwinnett and Penelope you ask? Well, they are guests DUH! Those are not faery names AND I did not tell you they were 'the faery of something'.
Actually... The faery of something does exist, she's pretty funny to be around.
You did not actually ask about them? Well, my library, my rules. I wanna tell you about them so I will!
Gwinnett is a driad or to be more precise she's The Driad. She was the first Champion of the first God of Nature that was ever born.
She was called 'The Forest's Fury', cutting a branch or two is not a problem, the tree can survive that and sometimes is even beneficial.
Cut a tree and she will come for you! She made, with some godly help, her entire homeworld a verdant forest. A paradise really! Filled with life, tree loving creatures pranced everywhere and the bones of anyone that would kill nature acted as fertilizer."
-Bee May, the faery of knowledge
"Is nature cruel? Or because it's nature it's normal?"
Tom loved this escort mission, he was just walking and hunting. Pretty relaxing overall, the hard work was done by the kid. He looked a lot like a girl but was male, Little Wolf was really useful, his excellent sense of smell and hearing was a boon for the soldiers and for him. The nights were peaceful, they just had to empty the carts, turn them on the side, extract some planks from the sides and put them in between the carts. A walking fort, it was not as good as a real stone fort or the one they made in one year in the middle of the Hardwood forest but it could help them repel an assault. The other nights at least, this night Tom was fast asleep as usual, it was hard to be relaxed in hostile territory for a soldier but he trusted his instincts and he knew that the worst predator in the forest was Little Wolf himself, or the droppers but they were with him so...
A scream made him jump to his feet he, like the other soldiers slept with the armor on and weapons close by, readied his weapon and rallied his companions. Training kicked in, they divided in smaller teams, four to five each, keeping their backs protected, looking at every side for possible enemies. The night was moonless and darkness invaded the world, the trees and their leaves, their branches were oppressive fingers that strangled them, only the fire in the middle of the camp gave them sanctuary. The fire, light, heat, vision, protection and blindness, the fire was their best ally and worse enemy. The soldiers kept their eyes away from the fire, the forest outside the fort was lightly illuminated, the long shadows moved from time to time but they stood togheter. They knew that they were safer inside, togheter, Tom waited for John to speak, their leader was speaking with Little Wolf when they started their restful night. No order came, the voice of John was not heard, there were rumors in the forest now, in the little time it took for the soldiers to get ready and in formation.
Advertisement
A flurry of movements, thuds, screams, Todd knew he had to do something.
"Rotate," he whispered, his companions moved covering for him, his eyes left the dark undergrowth, he swept with his eyes the camp, the other soldiers, he easily found John, his armor different and recognizable, no Little Wolf. "Hold," he said and then marched towards his superior, Tom noticed that John's eyes were unfocused, his face white, he was shivering faintly. Tom gripped John's armored shoulder, his eyes searched outside the fort again for anything, he found nothing, the shuffling continued but the screams were being silenced. He heard a bleat, another bleat answered from the other side, Tom checked the little fort again, Little Wolf and the two droppers were missing, the strange woman, Miria? Mira? Maria, Mary? Her, she was missing too.
"Hey sir, do you have orders?" He called while keeping a strong grip on John's shoulder.
"L-l-Little W-w-Wolf," John whispered while shivering.
"What about him?" Tom asked.
"H-h-He's dangerous!" John screamed.
"Sorry sir," Tom spun around and punched him in the face, then he took the helmet that was on the ground near John and he messily put it on his head. "Get a grip sir, we need orders not chaos."
John touched his cheek, looked around him, most of the soldiers were looking outside of the fort, towards the forest but some... some were looking at him, the seniors, the veterans were looking outside, keeping their companions steady and ready for whatever was happening outside. The younger ones, just out of training were looking for him, for orders, for something to do, to not think for themselves, to not let the fear of a fight, of getting hurt, of death get the better of them. He failed them, he was failing them.
John got up, fixed his helmet, turned around and punched as hard as he could Tom in the stomach, he had the gall of jumping back and selling an "oof" while clutching his belly.
"Insubordination will not be tollerated soldier!" He yelled, "thanks," he whispered. "You will walk until the capital, will be the last one to be served food and will be on pot scrubbing duties!"
"Really?" Whispered Tom, "fuck, next time I'll leave you on the ground sobbing..."
"Eyes outside! Around a hundred possible attackers, keep the formation tight!" The soldiers tightened the ranks, the veterans eyes hardened, while the younger soldiers were looking everywhere for possible enemies, now scared. "We have walls, protection, are you scared? Are you telling me that you cannot even fight two to three enemies with a wall? Is your training so worthless? Are the sons and daughters of Arthus scared!?"
"NO!" Roared the soldiers.
A man came out of the darkness, he had a javelin in hand. He screamed, took two steps, the soldiers raised their shields, the man could hit the walls of the fort or a shield but they were sure a single javelin would not take their life, unless extremely unlucky, the soldiers morale was high, they were ready to fight. And a dropper appeared from nowhere, it landed on the poor man's back, the javelin hitting the ground harmlessy. The man screamed and tried to roll but the dropper was too big, too strong, too heavy. The dropper looked at the camp, looked at the soldier and his eyes, his face, it was laughting at them, with a single head but it put the man that was under him unconscious. The dropper turned around and slowly started walking back into the shadows, tail held high. When it was almost outside of their sight it turned its head, looked straight at John, shook his backside at him and bleated. It was laughing! Then it disappeared in the forest, after that first attack, another man and two women appeared, promptly rendered unconsious by the droppers.
Advertisement
No sound came from the forest, the silence even more eerie now, something happened in the forest. And then the droppers came, two of them, the two that followed Little Wolf around, the ones that scared the horses from time to time. They had unconscious or dead people on their back or in their mouth. They started to make a pile of people in sight of the soldiers.
"Orders sir?" Asked Tom, confused but amused.
"Yes, scrub the bowls togheter with the pots, as punishment." Said John, the older soldiers laughed at that. "Seriously now, go back to relax, I want ten men keeping an eye out, we will take four ten guards shifts. Do not leave the fort, you know what to do, wake everyone if something happens. Oh, if Little Wolf is back wake me if I'm not around, he and I have to talk."
Tom got back to his companions grumbling, "Should I stab him in his sleep? Maybe I could make it look like a dropper attack?" He muttered.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Meanwhile Little Wolf was following the suspicious guard, he was suspicious of the guard, not the other way around and the guard was a bad guard. He attacked his charge, that was bad right? So he was suspicious of the traitorous guard but, the guard knew the scout's language, that was strange too. Little Wolf was sure he would remember the guard if he ever passed near the village.
Every villager was white skinned, there was never enough sun inside the village or the forest to get a tan... Most villagers had brown straight hair, green or brown eyes, maybe black but really rare. This guard had the skin brown, his hair was curly and wavy, kept in a messy ponytail. His chocolate brown eyes were exploring the dark forest, looking for something, anything that could help him get back to the slaver camp. And the most obvious thing is the paint, Little Wolf knew that with some plant or fish you could get some paint and spread color around, the villaged used it on festivals, usually it was green or brown... The guard had golden lines under his eyes and some lines and little dots on his cheeks and nose. Little Wolf has never seen something like this he would remember.
Little Wolf had the slave leader on his shoulder, the man was fat! Like the fattest fat man he ever saw! The armor made him even more large and heavy, so he ripped pieces out of it and ate them. The cries and straining of metal the only sounds as the two men, or the man and the young White Stalker walked.
The guard gestured with his hands, without turning. "What are you doing?"
"Eating," shrugged Little Wolf, then he remembered that the man could not see him so... he shrugged again, "why are you not speaking? And, actually why do you know the scout's sign language?"
"I don't know how far we are from the encampment and I don't want to be discovered like this."
"Oh, we are far enough and why should we hide? We are going to free the slave and do good, why should we do it silently?"
"Are you serious?"
"Yes, and you did not answer me, where did you learn the signs?"
The guard sighed, "We came from the Merchant Empire, it's an empire where everything can be bought or sold, even people... In the Empire there are only two things, merchant and mech. Me? I'm merch or I was, we are trained to be warriors, we are dangerous so they take our family away. Our skills for our family survival... That was everything we knew, until a year ago, probably two. The Shadow of the Emperor appeared, no one knows who she is. The Shadow kills any merchant that mistreats the merch and is freeing the families of the warriors like mine. When she learned that I was to be sent over to the Arthus kingdom... She told me of the forest and the beast with the glowing eyes."
"Nice story, so I'm a beast uh?"
"No offence, but yes. You are eating a special steel alloy armor as we are speaking, you are pretty beastly to me."
*crunch* "Oh, I'm making him lighter, so spending less energy and getting some energy at the same time, Mira called it being efficient... I think? And the signs, don't change argument! I never forget, until I do..."
"The signs are the language of the Shadow of the Emperor, she taught it to the freed slaves so they could speak without fear of the merchants or the slave guards."
"WAIT! Does that mean that the Shadow of the Emperor is one of the villagers?!"
Advertisement
Entangled Fates Book 1 - Quantum Beginnings
“By far, the greatest danger of Artificial Intelligence is that people conclude too early that they understand it.” —Eliezer Yudkowsky Hey all, we're moving over to book 2. This content is in a state of transition. The book is now availble on Amazon (includes extra chapters): https://www.royalroad.com/amazon/B07W1534R8 Artificial intelligence was nearly mankind’s last invention. AI took off like a rocket, then when it racked up an impressive death toll, it crashed before it could blossom and took most high-tech industries with it. Resistance and fears became deep-set. Two decades after the infamous Rev. 4.6 incidents, humanity hasn’t quit dreaming of the wealth and power that could be at their fingertips. A new generation of mega-corporations rose from the ashes. When one melds a quantum computer to a barely functional mental patient as a PR move, there are those who seek to profit, those who want to destroy it, and Alex. Alex Sage is a typical college student trying to keep up his grades and maybe find a meaningful connection with the fairer sex. Then, an automated semi crashes into his home, killing his family and turning his head into a pin cushion in the process. Alex awakens to find most of his memories gone and an illegal AI hidden in his brain implant. Now the pet project of a tech billionaire and heavily in debt, Alex struggles to stay valuable enough to be kept online. Still grappling with the repercussions of his injuries, and threats from a dangerous anti-augmentation political movement, there are no easy answers and threats loom around every corner. Alex must use whatever resources he can to escape from under the thumb of a ruthless corporation, while keeping those he comes to love safe. Chapters will stay up on RRL until Aug 10. It'll go up on Kindle Unlimited after that. How do you get those extra chapters I didn't have planned for RR? If you want them, they'll be in the published book. Book 2 will still make sense without them - I made sure of that. But... isn't $3 a lot for extra chapters? Think of it as tipping me for a good job and you'd also be getting my eternal thanks. If you enjoyed it so much that the idea of missing out a few chapters haunts you, I did my job as an author and made an engaging story. What's in those extra chapters? Resolving a few issues, set up for the cybernetic revolution, a rather intense sex scene with a new partner, revelations of who's really pulling strings, and a bit of set up for book 2. Complaints that people missed out on it when it was published here won't help (sorry!). I posted this for the folks who helped me shape the book, which is you all! (Again, yay!) But... Why! Why not keep it all on RR forever? My editor likes being paid for one. For two, I'd like the ability to get broader readership. If I break even on editor costs, I'll be incredibly happy. What about book 2? Drafts for Book 2 will go up around Sept 10. My draft of Book 2 is done, and it will be handed to the editor once Book 1 is published. Feedback has been even more positive. Beta readers devoured it and wanted more. I'll add a link to Book 2 once it's up on RR. I'm more or less, using you all for Beta Readers, so you get it before it's "canon" and edited. I invite active and meaningful feedback during this process. In return, you get early access to chapters. That does mean that the book content or plot might be adjusted before it gets published as I refine it. Sex Y/N? Yes. I heard the feedback, 90% wanted it explicit. You all will get the "full" experience. Will I dump all of book 2 here? Honestly, I'm not sure yet. At a minimum, it'll be up to the 75% mark as we collect feedback, much like what I did with book 1. It really depends on how good the feedback is and how nice people are. Lots of support + meaningful feedback to make it better = higher likelihood you get all the book. Will be it up here indefinitely? No, it'll probably go up on KU at some point, but I'll make sure there's enough time for a large readership to grab it here. Then we move to book 3 which already is around 60K words already. What about other adventures in the same universe/characters? Yep. Absolutely. Nothing ready to share yet though. I plan to keep those side chapters and more slice of life stories as RR exclusive. Since I'm carving this off in book-sized segments, I'll have to figure out where those disconnected story arcs belong. I'm open to suggestions.
8 142Dynasty's Ghost
A sheltered princess and an arrogant swordsman must escape the unraveling of an empire. This story is complete. *** If you enjoy this book, consider reviewing or reading my Twitter microfiction @ThisStoryNow.
8 207A Light Not Extinguished [40K Dark Age What-if]
We all know the story. The Men of Iron rebel, humanity degrades into barbarism during the Age of Strife, Slaanesh is born through the depravity of the Aeldari Empire, the Imperium rises and falls and the galaxy burns in strife and bloodshed.But what if that which was ordained never came to pass? What if the Cybernetic Rebellion never happened? Can humanity defy the dark fate written in the stars with blood and sin? I DO NOT OWN WARHAMMER 40K, THIS IS AN UNOFFICIAL 40K FANWORK
8 149The 13th Loop [A Progression, GameLit, Sci-Fi Adventure]
Kyle Goldman is having a bad century, multiple of them. Kyle is immortal, destined to live the same mediocre life over and over again. Worse, he remembers each time through life. Every betrayal, every life lesson, every combat spell, he is destined to learn them all again and again. Every life he re-awakens during the Awakening Trials. Trials designed to pull out the full magical and spiritual potential of a Space Force Candidate. Depending on how well he does in these trials can change his entire career. Since this is his thirteenth time through the trials he is well aware of their importance. Even better, he knows how to cheat. Having prior knowledge of the trials and their ever increasing difficulties is the ultimate form of cheating. Especially when the rewards for completing each stage of the trial is an increased Attribute point. He's lived each life to its fullest, some dying as a famous ace pilot. Others dying as an expeditionary Marine on long range space recon. Each life ultimately leads to the same inevitable end, he makes friends, tastes happiness for a brief moment, and then is betrayed. The betrayal always changes, but always hurts the same. From there a deep spiral occurs, leading to his inevitable, but often glorious demise. This time he vows to take things differently. He still plans to ace the exams, but then he will do the unthinkable, he will resign his commission as an officer. To live as an overqualified regular citizen of the free worlds. With the knowledge of spell craft deeply ingrained in his mind from his previous lives, he is set to make try number thirteen his lucky number after all. There is only one problem. The Government saw his test scores and now they won't stop to have him in their ranks. It looks like the betrayal will come earlier than expected in this, his thirteenth try at living the same stale existence. Themes Include: GameLit Elements, Progression Fantasy, with Space Tech and interstellar battles. Schedule: Monday through Friday Cover Art: Thanks to Asviloka
8 218Of Sheep & Sisters (Tales of the Axe Book 2)
The indominatable Fraker the Axe returns! This time in the company of his older sister, this collection of short stories set in the fantasy Six Worlds of Shtar is a tongue in cheek look at what a great hero gets up to in between the times of legends and when prophecy isn't really telling him what to do. From a kitten and a rosebush, to a civil war, Fraker stumbles from one "adventure" to the next, never quite comfortable with the world outside the battlefield he was bred for. (This work is currently unfinished and will updated infrequently)
8 75Devil in My Heart
'You're my endless love, from one life to next life. When he has decided to love someone, it's not easy to move to another heart. That's why love is precious.'The tale is under the blue sky where the human world relates to other creatures among god, asura, and demon.Ryan is the reincarnation of a goddess Lyra, but in this life, Ryan is an ordinary person and a commoner. Ryan meets Lucien who is a fallen god. We can say Lucien as asura or demigod. They had met in the heaven realm, but they didn't know each other when they met again in a terrible incident in the human world. In the past, Lucien who was named Aquila in heaven was fell in love with Lyra. When Aquila fell from heaven, he was saved by Tyrone, a powerful demon, who gave him the name Lucien. Tyrone fell in love with him. Meanwhile, there is a god named Cygnus who is reincarnated into the human world to protect humans from demons. The three of them are finally reunited. So, who will you choose? God or demigod (asura)?The adventure begins when Ryan was taken by the asura. How is destiny going to be?He lifted me with both hands. Walk in the fog and then fly. I saw his face more clearly because of the moonlight. My fear was replaced with a sense of my charm towards him. His long black hair was flowing beautifully in the moonlight. His sharp eyes looked ahead. Sometimes he looks at me, but I quickly avert my eyes. This mixed feeling is like a wave. Then he took me to the mansion. Arrived at the mansion, he lowered me from his arms...*****A fresh story about reincarnation is different than usual. With a fantasy setting, readers are invited to imagine different places, such as the heavenly realm, fairy forest, crystal cave, under the lake and sea with any creature that you can find in this story."Use your power only to protect."*****If you like this story, please give it a vote. Thank you so much 🙏😊Since 03 April 2022
8 210