elizabeth_oswald

Chapter Forty - Double, Double, Toil and Trouble

The library was open, but no strange teachers lurked there. Instead, an elderly man introduced himself as Sir Zachary, and said he was a retired librarian. Now, he covered the libraries at any of the schools when one of the current librarians was ill or away for any reason. He valiantly attempted to persuade them to leave Pandy, Winston, and Miss Cupcakes outside the library, but gave in when one of the older students told him Chancellor Blackwood had allowed it.

At last, he was convinc...

Chapter Thirty-nine - Secrets That Lie Between Words

Thaniel and Eleanor went their separate ways after promising to see each other at breakfast, and Thaniel took Pandy to his room. There, the boy – with great reluctance – pulled out some of the books Lian had told him to study and began to read. They were all fairly low-level primers Pandy had read in game, so she returned to her hiding place under the bed and began to grind her skills once again.

She continued this through the night and by the time Thaniel gathered her up to take he...

Chapter Thirty-eight - Never Judge a Book by Its Magic

As soon as the doors closed behind them, Suzanne stopped, offering the two younger children a deep bow. “I’m terribly sorry,” she said. Her voice was unusual; slightly husky, with a bit of an accent.

That was odd, because all of the characters in Gacha Love spoke perfect, unaccented English, and no mention was made of any other languages, so where had the accent come from? Though, Pandy reminded herself, this wasn’t really the game, but a world Keros’ magic had a...

Chapter Thirty-seven - What's in a Name?

The dining hall contained only three tables for students, and one long table for teachers. Only Eleanor and Thaniel sat at their table, while the other two contained a few older students. No other first years were present, as far as Pandy could tell. Likewise, the teachers’ table was also half-empty, with Chancellor Blackwood sitting at the center, Mr. Benjamin to his right, and a thin older woman Eleanor identified as Ms. Davenport on his left.

Pandy wasn’t allowed to sit in Thanie...

Chapter Thirty-six - Pantheon Postal?

“I don’t know,” the god said, eyes narrowing as he stared at Pandy. She was fairly certain this was the first time he’d ever really looked at her, and he seemed to be examining something that lay beneath her fur. It made Pandy’s skin twitch.

“Do it again,” he said finally. “But hold still this time.”

Hold still? Pandy thought for a moment, then bit her cheek for what felt like the hundredth time that day, though it was actually only the thirty-eighth. No...

Broken Knife Chapter Three hundred sixty-nine

<That’s it,> Li said, settling back on her haunches. Her graceful crown of horns gleamed as she stretched her neck toward the sun, closing her eyes in relief. It had taken nearly three years to locate the last of her siblings, and by that time the runes had well and truly taken hold. Li had spent the last week slowly cancelling out the ‘viscid’ rune, and now her sister, Aldryn, was free.

Kaz touched Li’s nose with his own, congratulating her. <That was well done.> 2025-03-10 18:34:07 +0000 UTC View Post

New Tier names and images

Now that we're well and truly into Lucky Rabbit (I hope you're enjoying it!), I'm going to change tier names and images. I thought I might make the tiers as elements (Fire, Nature, Water, or Lightning) and the images would be selected from the following images (I know the tortoise's toes are a little wonky, but they're made of lightning and I already spent hours on these 😂 I'll fix it later if he's picked). Now, I only have three tiers, so which ones do you prefer/would make ...

Chapter Thirty-five - Just When You Thought You Knew What Was Going On

Thaniel spent all of the next day in bed, but by the time lunch came and went, it was obvious to Pandy at least that he had fully recovered. In spite of Timon’s best efforts, the boy whined constantly about wanting to get up, especially after finding out that Eleanor had asked after him. Timon finally left the room after warning Thaniel to stay in bed, was gone for about fifteen minutes, and returned with an Eleanor who was barely recognizable as the same child who had originally met Thanie...

Chapter Thirty-four - Rabbit Resolve

Timon turned out to be a red-haired boy of about fifteen, who was very calm and respectful while Mistress Rose was in the room, but flopped down on the empty bed as soon as he was certain she was gone. The doctor had coaxed Thaniel into taking the Restorative draught, watching as some color returned to his face, then instructed Timon to watch Thaniel and make sure he ate and drank if he woke.

“Ahhh,” Timon said, folding his arms behind his head, “this is the life.” He rolled his...

Chapter Thirty-three - Carrotspace

Thaniel didn’t stir until a bell rang, letting everyone know it was time to prepare for dinner. Then he groaned softly, lifting his head just enough that Pandy’s ribs could finally expand into a shape that was more round than trapezoidal.

<Thaniel?> she asked, pushing against his head as it lowered again. <You need to get up. If you miss dinner, they’re going to come looking for you.> She thought for a moment, then added, <Ellie will probably be there.>

She...

Chapter Thirty-two - Oops

Thaniel gaped, but the boy who had spent the last few weeks pretending to be a pirate had no chance of resisting the pull of a dark, hidden space. He moved forward, having to crouch only slightly to enter the small passage. The wooden stairs creaked softly in protest, making Thaniel pause and swallow hard, but he took the next step, and then the next.

The stairs descended in a curve that was so tight Pandy wasn’t sure an adult would have been able to take them without sitting on their...

Chapter Thirty-one - Rooms and Riddles

The school really was a miniature Condor. In fact, if Pandy had been dropped into the entrance hall and someone told her this was Condor, her only response would have been, “It looked bigger from the outside.”

Mr. Benjamin pointed out each area, none of which surprised Pandy in the slightest. To their left was the door leading to the classrooms, while off to the right were the rooms for students who lived at the school. Straight ahead lay the dining hall, whose doors s...

Go read Lucky Rabbit!

Lucky Rabbit should now be available to the appropriate tiers. Copper Fuergar get chapters 1-10, Gold and Mithril get chapters 11-30. Mithril will shortly be getting some full books to read (my back catalogue, as it were), as well, but I'll make a post for you when I get that done.

Please let me know if I missed unlocking any chapters. I think I got them all, but Patreon doesn't make this easy.

When reading LR, you'll notice there are chapter t...

Today!

I'm volunteering at my daughter's school this morning, but I'll move Lucky Rabbit to the appropriate tiers ASAP when I get back. I'll make a post when it's done, because I don't think it'll notify you. I'm excited for you all to read it!

I'll also re-drop some older books, especially Grimalkin's Test, since I'll be starting the sequel to it this weekend.

Chapter Three hundred sixty-eight

Kaz sat outside Katri’s hut, reflecting on the difference five years had made. The Longknife tribe had struggled to fit in at first, being pushed back up toward the mid-levels in spite of Ija’s support. Not that Katri had accepted that support, not in the beginning, but when her first pair of pups were on the way and other members of the tribe began to ask for mates from nearby tribes, she’d unbent enough to become a Magmablade subsidiary. After she actually got to know their cousin and...

Chapter Three hundred sixty-seven (Li)

Li flapped backwards, torn between the desire to defend herself and fear of hurting her maybe-siblings. Even if it turned out these dragons weren’t family, they still bore runes, and so couldn’t be held accountable for their actions. Though… She blinked, trying to focus on the runes inside the dantian of a white-scaled female that was twice her size and making a very good attempt to bite her.

Like the gold dragon who might be Li’s mother, the white dragon’s danti...

Chapter Three hundred sixty-six (Li)

Viscid was the worst rune, even in unborn hatchlings. Li focused on the most recent egg the xiyi had brought her, ignoring the deep ache in her dantians and channels, and pushed on the rune. It had a sort of branch at the ends of two of the strokes, and these were always hooked into the dantian itself, in some way that Li could barely understand, much less imagine. No matter what she did, there was always at least a little damage left behind when these hooks were r...

Lucky Rabbit and Tiers! (Tears?)

Today's chapter is the first of what I think will be three Li chapters, leading into the final Kaz chapter. Which means TBK will be over by Friday. At that point, I'll give you guys Lucky Rabbit, which is the story of Pandora, a desperately unlucky person who's about to find that her luck can be so bad it becomes good.

But what, exactly, will that look like?

First, once TBK is done, I give Tier 1 ten chapters of Lucky Rabbit, and ever...

Chapter Three hundred sixty-five (Li)

There were so many eggs. Eggs of all sizes and colors filled the vast cavern, and xiyi wound their way through them. Almost all of the female xiyi had stubby wings, which were barely able to carry them more than a few feet or slow their descent if they were to fall from some great height, but they fluttered around, wings flapping ineffectually. There were a few males with wings, as well, and Snen had explained that these usually remained inside their home, since th...

LR Chapter Thirty - A Boy and a Bunny Walk Into a Boarding School

Within fifteen minutes, their carriage was moving ahead, winding through a space just wide enough for their wheels. All around them, other people called out angrily or enviously, but Edgar ignored them. He sat proudly astride a great gray horse that was probably a male, but Pandy’s knowledge of such creatures was limited at best. She knew more about the Cloudmanes than the animals they were meant to look like.

Regardless of the horse’s breed or parentage, it pranced lightly down the...

Chapter Three hundred sixty-four (Kyla)

“How did I let you talk me into this?” a deep voice rumbled as a carriage trundled slowly over a too-narrow dirt road.

“How did I talk me into this?” a much higher-pitched voice replied, though there was an undertone of a growl to the otherwise youthful tones.

The curtains shifted, and a pink-furred muzzle pressed against the glass. Ears swiveled as Kyla took in their surroundings, which mainly consisted of trees and armored humans mounted on ridiculously lar...

Chapter Three hundred sixty-three (Mei)

Dihe usually won any disagreements between his siblings by the simple tactic of sitting on them. This was particularly effective on his white-furred sister, Jiu, who remained the smallest of the five. Yan, the red female, was the most likely to cause trouble, but she was also good-natured and energetic, giving in with a short squeak when Dihe began trundling forward.

Mei watched her pups as they played, gaze still watchful but far less concerned than it had been in the beginning. They w...

Chapter Three hundred sixty-two (Lianhua)

Lianhua laid face down on the floor, feeling the pressure of the Emperor’s power surrounding her. She had never felt such strength from a human being before, not even her grandfather, and some traitorous part of her mind wondered if it was possible that the Emperor had a dragon’s core. Her grandmother was only distantly related to the Imperial family, and she had had a core, so how likely was it that the Emperor himself - the product of people who were perhaps slightly too c...

Chapter Three hundred sixty-one (Ogden)

Ogden sighed, thrusting his lock-pin through the chain he used to raise and lower the platform. No one had howled for him, so he had a moment to rest, and he glanced around before touching the metal circle that cinched his belt tight. It was battered and blackened now, but it still functioned, holding a few waterskins and the meals he’d prepared for himself…whenever that had been. Three days ago? Four?

He’d never gotten used to the way kobolds told time, especially since it could ...

Chapter Three hundred sixty (Pilla)

She had waited as long as she could, but new howls were rising up from the mid-levels and the Deep. Supposedly, there was a whole city in the mid-levels, and it had once been occupied by the beasts that lurked in the dark, slaughtering any kobold tribe that dared reach too far into their territory. In some howls, the beasts were all dead, and the city destroyed, while in others the beasts had been driven off, and hundreds of captives freed. She had even heard one where the beasts and kobolds ...

LR Chapter Twenty-nine - All That Glitters

Pandy had spent hours poring over zone maps from Gacha Love, including the ones for Condor, but she had no idea what to expect when they arrived at Falconet. Thaniel had fallen asleep some time ago, lulled by the movement of the carriage, and probably trying to escape Lian’s incessant quizzing. This left Pandy and Lian effectively alone together, but besides a few steely-eyed glances, Lian just focused on reading his book.

Today, it was Healers of the Dawn: Elemental...