《Calf the Furless (First Edition)》Chapter 2: 8th Generation Test
Advertisement
Ugh...
He awoke to murmurs around him. He attempted to stand but it felt like his back had been nailed to the ground. He sat up groggily, tilting to the side to land on all fours before shaking his head to dispel the cloud of confusion. The incomprehensible murmurs and grunts in the crowd accompanied his journey back to reality and as soon as his mind started settling, he did his best to rifle through his closest memories.
"Good morning, calf!!", a boom assailed his left ear. Alarmed, he twisted to identify the source of the sudden noise and leaped back to distance himself from the potential threat.
Ding!
'That hurt! -'
A peal of laughter jarred him from considering the pain further and a raucous ensued as the crowd joined in on the laughter over his misfortune. He'd hit the alarm tin attached to the tree behind him on the way back and apparently, this constituted some form of comedy for these beasts. His mishaps always seemed to. LongHorn approached him and as he leaned towards Calf's face, a sudden silence settled on the crowd. The disorderly crowd split into two groups, moving away from each other to create a clear path to Calf and LongHorn. A group of important-looking people approached them, led by a small contingent of the royal archers and trailed by a single centaur. The centaur's stature was diminutive when compared to the royal archers but his majestic set of antlers, paired with the palpable thrum of ether emanating from him eclipsed the whole contingent.
The only match for his presence was the bull in the middle, whose stature outshone them all. The ground shook with each step and his whole body would sway towards each plant of a hoof. Several gulps could be heard in the crowd but no one dared even whisper a syllable. The group finally made it to Calf. The royal archers made way for the bull and the stag, who stopped directly in front of LongHorn and Calf. LongHorn righted himself and stepped to the side, nodding towards Red, the imposing bull, and bowing his head to face the space between Red and the centaur. Red stepped forward and stood next to LongHorn.
Advertisement
"Some things never change hey, cadet! Now hurry along will you, and try not to trouble your superiors overmuch, you are not here as a guest this time around", rumbled Red.
He hadn't even bothered looking at LongHorn when addressing him. This supposed display of disdain was meant to show impartiality towards Poncho the Longhorn, one of his sons, but Calf knew better than to take the gesture at face value. LongHorn acknowledged the command with a deep bow of his head before departing. There was no sense of urgency in his saunter but seeing as Red indulged him, the rest of them had no choice but endure. Once he turned the far corner and his hoof clops receded, Red's attention was directed at Calf.
"So, princeling, or is it still officially 'Calf'? Things haven't changed here as well I see. Ever the infant..", addressed Red, letting the unfinished sentence thicken his insult.
"Ehem! Last I checked General, our duties as Royal Officiators only extend as far as announcing the Prince's results. Deliberations on the next steps and his naming will be left to his highness and the oracles", intoned Green, the centaur.
"Ever the moderate, ay, Warden. Well, not that I'm that interested, but this is his eighteenth... I mean 8th Generation testing, no heir has ever required such accommodations. Even taking his shortcomings as half a being, this is just...", Red trailed off.
The general turned to walk away from the fallen Calf without another direct word to him. The warden took his place, offering a hand to help Calf up. He dusted him off and squeezed his shoulders in encouragement.
"There you go my Prince, no matter what setbacks you face, you should learn from every experience and pick yourself up again. That said,", he turned his back to Calf to address the gathered masses, "I hereby declare this session of the annual testing complete! All cadets, orderly report to your instructors for grading in the order of your testing names".
Advertisement
Green and the royal guards held their positions as the cadets filed away for their grading. Green escorted Calf to the King's residence once the town circle cleared. The escort left him to his thoughts and Calf finally felt the dread of the situation sink in. He was on his way to see the King, a failure for the 8th time in a row. He'd done his best, gone above and beyond, and used all the knowledge he had gained over the last 4 years for this trial. The first few trials had been a total bust. At that time no amount of wit could have bridged the gulf between his human attributes and those of the Taurs. He'd hit a growth spurt in his fourth year with the Taurs and though it wasn't enough to triumph over the trial, he'd managed to hang on long enough to learn from the experience.
In his fifth year his habits had earned him another derogatory name, 'Chaff', for like chaff he'd blow from vocation to vocation without ever qualifying for a grading. He didn't mind, for this whimsical act allowed him to study his opponents with minimum suspicion. He'd singled out a class of opponents to tackle for the three years before his final chance. He'd then bet everything on it and failed. He'd almost done it, he'd had a measure of most of this year's crop but LongHorn's addition to the ranks had been unexpected. This had raised the difficulty of his trial, but that hadn't been what had doomed his attempt. No! That last arrow that had held him in place for LongHorn to finish him off. The fact he hadn't detected the archer spoke volumes of their skill and the fletching was also telling. He hadn't had time to look at the knots and feathers but from the way, the arrow had pinned him to that trunk, and the fact someone had gone out of their way to dust away traces of the fletching told him more than inspecting it ever could. Green had noticed something from the feathers left on his person and had acted to conceal... something.
Calf did not suspect Green of enacting the foul play himself but assumed he had dusted off the evidence to protect someone. Either someone in his camp or under his tutelage, for though he held the moniker 'The Impartial', he was still a teacher and thus not above protecting his charges. He wanted to voice his frustrations but held his tongue, for confronting Green with his suspicions would not do him any good. Green might ignore his tirade, or circle the wagons around whoever he'd acted to protect. This would not only make his investigation all that much harder with a vigilant Warden but he would have alienated the Warden in the process. One of the few people who seemed willing to at least indulge a possibility of him growing into his role as heir to their land.
Advertisement
A Guide to Becoming a Pirate Queen
Sometimes demon summonings go wrong, but that’s not always a bad thing… When a group of anti-corporate terrorists attempts to put an end to Bryce’s illegal weapon research by sacrificing her to a demon, it doesn’t go well. With her secret out and nowhere left to turn, Bryce will need to learn to navigate the galaxy’s criminal underworld in order to survive. But first she’ll have to negotiate a deal with the devil that was summoned to kill her. Content warning: strong profanity, violence, kidnapping, torture, alcohol and drug use, implied sexual situations, heavy-handed trauma, mild-to-severe piracy, poorly executed demon summoning, a rushed sapphic relationship, bad puns, really bad sex puns, dragon crime lords, werewolf gangsters, blatant spoiling of a fictional romance novel, and over representation/normalization of gay and/or queer characters New chapters on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday If you can't wait for those releases then you can find more chapters on my Patreon. It's 11 chapters ahead (about 25k words) and is currently releasing at 2x the rate of RR +there's pretty art! Also, if you want a place to discuss the series or just hang out with cool people, then I have a discord server which can be found here.
8 228The Outer Sphere
Garth Daniels is down on his luck, running from his life in a quiet little town in the middle of America when our universe is co-opted into a war between an unstoppable race of reality-hopping monsters that feeds on the flesh of living creatures, and a conglomeration of thousands of realities, nested inside each other like a matroska doll. We're the new layer. These monsters, the Kipling, can only be defeated in a reality with very specific physics, otherwise they are unstoppable, and so Earth's universe has been assimilated to give us a fighting chance. Garth must set aside everything that he knows, and think fast to adapt to the new laws of nature if he wants to survive. Cover by Asera, a cool, helpful dude, who doesn't get enough props. Go check him out!
8 142Freya
When Freya woke up, she had no recollection of who she was. She soon found out that she was a beautiful 16 years old girl and was of a noble family. Overwhelmed by questions of herself and the world around her, she decided to search for answers. To search for the truth. Follow her adventures in unveiling magic, and most importantly: herself.
8 415Romance of the Three Beasts
After spending all these years apart from one another, events unfold to force Tiger, Wolf and Dragon together again. Yet during their travels, other plots unfold, new and old friends are met, and an unseen threat lurks around the corner.
8 187The Animo Saga
Before history was well-recorded in the world of Ulakam, primordial animal spirits adopted humans, provided protection and developed deep spiritual connections with them. Millennia later, humans now host animal spirits and are split into tribes named for the species they host. Ulakam is slowly being consumed by a decades-long war pitting the main tribes against the smaller tribes and a group of bandits calling themselves "the resistance". Callida Animo was born into this world. Coming from a mixed family of generational soldiers, Callida joined the family business at a young age. In her words, she was practically bred, born, and raised to be a soldier. And she's good at what she does... which inevitably attracts attention that makes her unambitious self extremely uncomfortable. Love, loss, influence and growth. This is her story. Written episodically, this story focuses on relationships and character growth through a series of mini-arcs that connect to make a greater whole. (Honestly, the story would lend itself well to a TV series.) "Episodes" range from 3-7 chapters (at least so far), and average about 4 or 5 chapters. Author's note: I'm always thrilled to receive comments, follows, ratings/reviews, messages.... All forms of feedback are welcome and encouraged. However, I have no interest in begging readers for more engagement to get better visibility. I tried that with my last story and found the game soul-sucking. So! This constitutes my only self-promotion request. If you are reading this story, let me know what you think! I love engaging with my readers. We'll see if growing the readership organically is even possible. Thank you! 😘 Release schedule: Weekly on Wednesday afternoons
8 93Cell Phone Novel: A Guide
Everything to know about writing a cell phone novel. Learn about the structures and styles of one of the biggest literary movement from Japan. An in-depth guides on how to write your own cell phone novels - with the contribution of some veteran CPN authors - which will show you the way to make your mark.
8 135