elizabeth_oswald

Chapter Two hundred twenty

Jinn peered around the corner, then motioned for Kyla and Reina to follow. They sloshed through water that reached Kyla’s thighs, which made it very difficult to move quietly. Still, they tried, and Kyla supported Reina the ten steps it took to rejoin Raff’s sister.

“Thank you,” Reina murmured, for what must be the fiftieth time. At this point, Kyla wasn’t sure the female was properly conscious, so she might not even realize how many times she’d said it. She seemed to be run...

Chapter Two hundred nineteen

Raff sighed deeply. “Never known a woman who could get into so much trouble in such a short amount of time,” he muttered. Staring from Kaz to Chi Yincang, he ran his hand over the short bristles on his chin.

“I… can’t,” he finally said. “It’s bad enough that I’m here now, rather than buying new gear so I don’t get my rear handed to me if I face someone strong in the tournament. My best chance to find my sister is to win my bout and have the criers callin’ my name a...

Chapter Two hundred eighteen

Getting Li ‘registered’ was surprisingly easy. They had to go back to where Raff signed them up in the first place, and give money to the harried people controlling the tables there. The greatest length of time was spent waiting for an animal handler to come look Li over. Fortunately, there was no handling involved, though Kaz did have to give Li several instructions, and the human male watched carefully as Li obeyed. When he was satisfied, he hurried away, and a new piece of paper was is...

Chapter Two hundred seventeen

As the hisses and shrieks of dying lizards dwindled away, the rain swelled, wiping away ash and blood. Kaz and Raff slept in their beds, surrounded by other warriors, and though their sleep was light, it was restful. It was almost like being in a den full of other kobolds, secure in the knowledge that you would have someone to battle beside you should the worst happen. Death would not take them unawares.

Li was busy. Images flickered through their bond, focusing primarily on the wyvern ...

Chapter Two hundred sixteen (Lianhua)

NOTE Lianhua will be Thinking of Love in the beginning of this chapter. There may be mention of kissing.

Lianhua watched Yingtao. Yingtao pretended not to notice. Lianhua was supposed to be writing an outline of the paper she would need to submit to the elders, but with the explosions and fires springing up all over, she was finding it remarkably difficult to focus.

Meanwhile, Yingtao was sitting beside the lamp, her needle smoothly d...

Final cover (at least for now) 😂

Done! I increased the contrast of the knife and shifted it to be slightly purplish (it should be blue-gray, if anything, but the purple makes it more visible). You'll also note that there are two versions. The closer one is for Royal Road/ScribbleHub, since RR has a maximum size of 400x600 pixels. The normal cropping would make Li almost vanish at that size, which is Unacceptable.

And now I'm going to go write 😅

Cover 2 Take 2!

I shortened Kaz's face, made his and Li's craniums a bit larger, and lengthened Li's neck. I also swapped out the knife for a version of the Woodblade, rather than the Broken Knife. Is it better?

Chapter Two hundred fifteen (Kyla)

“Who. Are. You?” Jinn asked again, and this time, her voice was low and angry. The growl was almost worthy of a kobold. Then confusion tainted the fury, and she asked, “Who sent you?”

Kyla poured more of her dwindling power into her shield, trying to figure out how long she had left before she had to run. If she did run, where could she go? She’d long ago learned to use her small size to get rid of larger pursuers, and there was a  narrow, stinking tunnel do...

Chapter Two hundred fourteen

Something was going on in the city above, and Kyla didn’t even want to know what it was. Mei had stopped foraging for metal and other edible, and was now hunkered against Kyla’s leg, whiskers quivering every time the tunnel shook around them.

Frankly, it was terrifying. Every kobold knew that tunnels only shook right before they collapsed. If you were fortunate enough to get any warning at all, the best thing to do was run. But Kyla couldn’t. The round passage had finally widened ...

New cover for Broken Knife?

I've been working on a new cover for TBK. This will probably be used for the first book when I actually publish, but I've also had some readers say the original cover looks kind of like a Furry (a person in an animal costume). Which I don't really see, but....

In any case, do you like this one better than the original? I like that Kaz is more dynamic. I'm not 100% sold on having him hold a broken knife, rather than the Wood Knife, but it makes more sense for the cover. ("Why is this guy...

Chapter Two hundred thirteen

Kaz and Li returned to Raff, following the trail of char left by the salamander’s passage. Along the way, they encountered another of the beasts, a little larger than the first, and dispatched it as well. Kaz dug out its core, but strangely, he felt no urge to eat it. His body was still cycling the ki from the first core, gradually turning it from ‘other’ to ‘ours’, and something in him knew it was too soon for more. He tucked it into his pouch and went on.

Raff was surrounded...

Chapter Two hundred twelve

The whole city seemed to have devolved into a bizarre combination of stillness and chaos. As Kaz and Raff watched, every human who could dropped everything and fled, leaving the streets emptier than they had been in the several hours since Kaz arrived. Meanwhile, escaping animals fluttered, slid, and flew away.

Kaz finished his motion, using a spark of ki to burst open the lock on the wyvern’s cage before backing up quickly as the animal used the single digits on its wings to pull its...

Chapter One of Lucky Rabbit (Isekai) - Truck-kun

“We need another guard at 3rd and Main.” Pandy’s radio crackled, and she fumbled for it, trying to remember which button she was supposed to press to talk. The heavy brick tumbled out of her grasp, bouncing painfully off her knee and into the grass.

Heaving a sigh of relief, she squatted down, cursing the tiny skirt of the outfit she’d been issued for this gig. A sharp pang went through her knee, and she touched the rising lump gingerly. How would she explain that on an accident...

Chapter Two hundred eleven

It was almost dark by the time Raff led Kaz and Li back out into the city streets. Some shops were closed already, shutters or bars drawn over the doors and windows, while others were open and thriving. Kaz noticed these mostly sold food, but there were a few with armor or weapons on display. Lianhua had explained that they did this so people could see what they sold, but wouldn’t a simple picture have the same effect? And why were there so many selling the same thing?

Raff paused out...

Chapter Two hundred ten

Kaz didn’t even notice when Raff let the horses go. They were there when they entered Cliffcross, and gone by the time they signed up for the tournament. Raff said someone would find them, ‘steal’ them, and sell them again. Kaz felt a little guilty, wishing he could be so certain. In his experience, such large animals would feed a tribe for several days, and if no one was there to say they weren’t food, they would soon become so.

Still, there was nothing he could do about it, an...

Chapter Two hundred nine

Lianhua was exhausted. Not physically, but emotionally. How long had she been waiting, so close and yet so terribly far from her goal? Lifting her teacup to her lips, she gave the queen of Holiander a small, sympathetic smile.

“I’m so terribly sorry to hear that your daughter is missing,” she told the woman. “And of course I understand why you and his Majesty have gone so far as to send soldiers out to arrest someone you welcomed as a guest of your kingdom.”

Chapter Two hundred eight

Raff led the way through the streets, with Kaz close on his heels. Humans parted around the large male like a river around a stone, but Kaz was tossed around like a clump of dry moss. Only by staying very close to Raff could he be certain they wouldn’t be separated. That meant that most of his vision and attention was taken up by Raff’s broad back, but not quite all.

There were pictures everywhere. The walls were covered in them. Some were actually painted directly onto the false st...

Sing along

As you know, I've been considering doing some songs, as well as doing my own audio books. I do intend to make those audio books, and hope to start when the kiddo goes back to school in August. The chapters for those will only be available at the $10 tier, so the tier description will change at that time.

In the meantime, I made the first video of one of the lullabies I want to share. It is not, and I repeat, NOT GREAT. Please keep your expectations very low.  I decide...

Chapter Two hundred seven

Kyla crouched beneath a heavy cloth spread over several boxes. She’d been there for a good while now, and she was beginning to regret her choices.

When she decided that spending her spirit hunt in the world outside the mountain would be even better than spending it on the mid-levels, she’d thought it was a brilliant idea. Of course, a spirit hunt was meant to be spent alone, and she fully intended to stay by the gate when Kaz and the humans left.

But then Kaz saw...

Chapter Two hundred six

How could there be so many humans? The howls said that humans bred like fuergar, but this… how could Kaz possibly have prepared himself for this?

After they finished breaking down the carriage into unidentifiable pieces, the small group had set out. They didn’t really need the horses to carry anything, but Raff insisted that they would make their pretense more believable.

While many people in his country could use at least a little mana, few were trained in it, and fe...

Chapter Two hundred five

Quick Note Kaz and Raff will briefly discuss sex in a very general way in this chapter.

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Kaz handed Li another piece of the meat pulled from the skewer Raff had just handed him. It was still sizzling, but the dragon ignored the heat, swallowing the chunk whole and then burping out a hot little cloud of steam.

Kaz’s nose wrinkled, and he waved his hand. That was something he hadn’t expected about taking on a human form. Scents in...

Summer!

My kiddo is now out of both school and summer school, so we're going to be running amuck, going to the pool, and all the good things. I will write every day, as usual, but chapters will be much more likely to be posted very late, if I have to finish working after she goes to bed. I just wanted to let you all know, so I don't have to bother you with lots of "Late Chapter Today" posts.

Also, my family will be going on our big vacation for the year from June 23-July 31, and I...

Chapter Two hundred four

“But what was he wearing when he transformed into a human?” Lianhua demanded, her pen scritch-scratching at the paper in her book. Raff was certain that she’d already asked that question, along with every other conceivable one, and from the look on Blue’s face, he was also mighty tired of answering. Still, he barely sighed before admitting that he still didn’t know, which just went to show that the kobold had a hell of a lot more patience than Raff had ever claimed. 2024-06-25 20:10:01 +0000 UTC View Post

Chapter Two hundred three

It was strange being human-shaped. The ground was too far away, and when he washed the charcoal dust from his body, the touch of the cool water against skin that was not only bare but meant to be bare made him shudder. He much preferred his own shape, his own fur, and very definitely his own tail and ears.

There were only two good points to the change. First, his new pants fit. Second, his broader shoulders meant that Li no longer needed the shredded remnant of his pack to...

Chapter Two hundred two

Kaz had a very good idea exactly how those two runes got mixed up, if that was the right term for it. He had two conflicting desires, however. He truly did long to tell Lianhua about the vision he got when he touched Qiangde’s core, but he also wanted to perfect his image of himself as a human, and he needed a human’s perspective on it.

He also needed sleep. Even if his body was only tired, his mind was exhausted from the river of self-doubt he’d spent the day drowning in. If he s...

Chapter Two hundred one

As the darkness drained from Chi Yincang’s eyes, Kaz turned to Lianhua. She gave him a smile that would have been more reassuring if it hadn’t been so shaky.

“He just wants to ask you more questions,” Lianhua said, and Kaz nodded before glancing at the two males. Chi Yincang was as impassive as ever, but Raff actually looked worried for a moment before his usual grin took over his face.

“Well,” Raff said cheerfully, “nothin’ we can do about that now. There’s an...

Chapter Two hundred

A hovering light orb illuminated a neatly folded stack of cloth beside the stream, with a glistening golden dragon perched on top of it. Li was fairly bubbling with excitement, and little puffs of mist emerged from her nostrils with every breath. Moisture darkened the green fabric, and Kaz reached toward the pile, intending to move the fabric out from under the dripping dragon.

Li hissed, lifting her wings defensively. <After you wash! Lianhua said you’re too dirty for clean clothe...

Chapter One hundred ninety-nine

Disjointed thoughts filled Kaz’s mind for the rest of the ride. He ate food when it was pressed into his hands, drank water when Lianhua handed him a cup, but he barely spoke, even to Li, who was clearly worried about him. The dragon kept trying to help him put his memories in some kind of order that made sense, but moments that seemed to have nothing to do with each other kept combining to create wilder and wilder theories that Kaz was forced to discard when yet another seemingly unrelated...

Chapter One hundred ninety-eight

Around him, the humans relaxed, though the horses’ eyes rolled, showing the whites around their dark irises.

“Wolves,” Raff said, shrugging his shoulders to loosen them. His hand was on the hilt of his sword, but he hadn’t drawn it yet. “If they’re not starving, they won’t attack, and there should be plenty to eat this time of year.”

Lianhua nodded, but her eyes were fixed on the largest wolf. It was a male, and he stood shoulder and head above the next largest, wh...

Pseudonyms and TikTok

I'm working on today's chapter, but something has been bothering me, so I thought I would ask you guys what you thought.

I'm debating starting a TikTok channel. I've seen plenty of videos, but I've never really gotten into it. I do know there's such a thing as BookTok, but as far as I know, no one has reviewed my books, and I like to delve into the unknown when reading, so I don't watch the videos either.

Okay, I'm rambling.

The question is, do I make an anonymous TikTok, or...