S_Winter

Chapter 34: Being Honest

The ameshek was silent for a long moment. 

‘You spared my life,’ she said eventually. ‘I recognise that and am not ungrateful for it. Even if you attacked me first, that is the nature of the world we live in. I know that you would have gained much if you had killed me. Yet you chose not to. Why not?’ 

Dominic eyed her, wondering what he should say to the question thrown back at him as if a tennis ball returned over the net. The full truth, ...

Chapter 33: Breaking Bread

In the end, Dominic had chosen not to say anything about the goddess to the lionesses. Nor did he mention the verging-on-betrayal of the ameshek leader. In fact, all he ended up telling them was that he had started the process of securing the Place of Power, and that he had to come back when the sun set on the next day. Even then, he was pretty sure that the ‘Place of Power’ went over their heads. 

But that was fine – they didn’t need to understand. For now, they were willi...

Chapter 32: A Threat

Dominic sighed and then released his elbows, allowing his arms to return to his sides. 

“You say you need me as much as I need you? Then promise that you won’t declare a Holy Crusade if I, or any of those I might convert to follow you too, choose to leave. Promise that now and I’ll agree to follow you.”

The goddess tapped her furry thigh with one hand. 

“As long as you promise in return that neither you nor any of those you might convert to following me w...

Chapter 31: A Small Cub in a Very, Very Big Universe

“Uh…” Dominic felt rather blind-sided. While he and his father had nominally been Christian, it’s not really something he’d paid a huge amount of attention to. His father had gone to church at least once a month and when he was younger he’d been obliged to go along. Sunday school had been fun when he was six, and he’d really enjoyed all the stories about guys getting eaten by whales, men making the walls of cities collapse by blowing horns, and small guys taking on giants with o...

Chapter 30: A Drop of Blood to the Goddess

The rock didn’t feel like it should. That was his first realisation. Instead of being a hard glassy substance, it instead felt like…jelly. But Dominic didn’t have very long to contemplate the oddly yielding nature of the rock as his paw abruptly froze, trapped. 

He found that he could still move the rest of his body, but his paw itself was absolutely stuck. He couldn’t pull it out, couldn’t push it in further, couldn’t even flex it or extend his claws. Panic rising in h...

Chapter 29: Strengthening

In the end, he was a little disappointed at the lack of fanfare – nothing seemed to happen in acknowledgement of his choice. Not until he noticed that the ameshek’s eyes were open and gazing at him. Evidently his theory about the creature being kept in an unconscious state until he’d made a choice was right. 

‘Are you OK?’ he sent to the creature, feeling more than a little awkward. How was he supposed to start a conversation with a creature he’d just almo...

A list of Markus' Bound as of Book 4 Chapter 27 (Taming Destiny)

Hi everyone,

Due to several requests for a list of Markus' Bound, I have managed to find the time to create one. Here is a link to a googledoc containing a table with the list of Markus' Bound up to this chapter (note that I've only included his 'band', not the majority of the samuran villagers who may not be joining him on a permanent basis).

Note also, please, that elements of the list may change as we go along, however I will not be keeping it up to date with the book....

Chapter 28: Doesn’t Come Back To Bite Us

‘Thumbs up,’ he thought at the message, watching the words dissolve before his eyes. 

‘What did you do that for?’ demanded Leo a moment later. ‘I thought you wanted the Place of Power? And surely that big dog would have been worth plenty of Prey Points!’ 

The health bar of the large wolven ameshek filled a little, the worst of its – her – wounds healing. She still had a long way to go before she would be fully healed, but a...

Chapter 27: Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down

Dominic stared at the ameshek. It looked…tough. He’d been pleasantly surprised with how easy the other ameshek had been to kill – for him. After all, his original encounter had seen him coming off worse from a fight with their weakest member. But this one looked like trouble. 

What choice did he have, though? He darted a look around the area. The other ameshek had formed up at their leader’s side and were looking at the lions with angry gazes. There were seven of the smalle...

Chapter 26: The Players In Place

The stage was set, the players in place. Nerves had been making Dominic’s stomach feel filled with butterflies up until now, but now that they’d actually settled into position, his nerves had vanished. All that mattered was the hunt and keeping his lionesses safe. 

And winning. That was important too. 

‘Now,’ he breathed silently, sending the message through the pride chat. As if one body, the whole pride of lions leapt, their passage through the ai...

Chapter 25: In Sight

Dominic jogged through the trees once more, this time alone. If he could sweat, his fur would look like he’d just been swimming. As it was, his nervousness was less obvious, but still very much present. 

Almost religiously, he checked his storage space every few moments, making sure nothing had changed. Each time, it was fine, but then he’d check it again a few seconds later. Far too much hung on a success with this initial gambit. 

He felt the eyes on him, saw some ...

Chapter 24: Death by Storage Space

The main thing that Dominic had to take into account was the fact that he didn’t want to be fighting on two fronts. As he’d already considered, if he took the war to the kesh first, there was no guarantee that the sonic wolves wouldn’t get involved. Not that he thought that they would ‘protect’ the kesh, but if the fight took them onto the sonic wolves’ territory, Dominic suspected they would attack. 

Thought through logically, that made the series of events obvious: th...

Chapter 23: Parasites

The lions didn’t waste their time while waiting for the rest of the pride to arrive. They marked an area with their scent – meaning that the former-human had quickly disappeared into their mindspace when Leo had squatted down. 

By leaving traces of their presence all around a particular area, it should be clear enough to the rest of the pride that this was their territory for the time being. Leo expected the lead females to recognise that and stop the pride in or near the area....

Chapter 22: Snake-oil Salesman

‘Trespassers!’ the creature called. ‘Turn back or be attacked.’ Eyeing the speaker, Dominic thought fast about the approach he wanted to take here, then connected to the mind of the kesh to send his message.

‘We wish to investigate this forest,’ he said, deciding to take a relatively soft beginning. There would be time to show his teeth later if necessary. 

The kesh stared at him, a surprisingly shrewd look in its eyes.&nb...

Chapter 21: Stupid Primates

‘Wait!’ snapped Dominic urgently in the pride chat. The lionesses froze, two with their jaws around a beast’s neck, milliseconds away from biting down and crushing them. 

‘Did you speak?’ he asked next, concentrating on sending a message to the beast in front of him. He’d quickly glanced around and seen nothing else nearby so who else could it be? It certainly wasn’t one of his lionesses. 

‘I did…you heard?’ the creatur...

Chapter 20: You Be Careful

‘You’re sure you don’t want to lead?’ Dominic checked with Leo.

‘After what you’ve put us through over the last few days?’ The lion scoffed. ‘I want to sleep.’

‘Well, since you’ll be providing directions, I don’t think you can do that anyway,’ Dominic pointed out. The lion huffed at him. 

‘At least I can relax in our mind space in between giving you your heading, though.’ ...

Chapter 19: Progress

The sun was rising on another day. Dominic had long lost count of how many it had been since the System had arrived. Something in his brain seemed to resist keeping track easily and he didn’t care enough to pursue too much. Leo didn’t care either – one day was much like another to him. 

He was tired: they were returning from another hunt. That was something else he’d lost track of. The only way he had a sense of time was both the lionesses’ increasing levels and the way o...

Chapter 18: Inspired

‘Leo, can you see this?’ Dominic asked, his tone mystified. 

‘I’m looking at it now. Are you going to take it?’ Leo asked, sounding as baffled as Dominic felt.

‘Now that’s the question, isn’t it,’ Dominic murmured. One part of him wanted to leap at it: combining Abilities had to be a good thing, right? And he hadn’t found any other creature with Stunning Roar since the scrin; this way he’d actually get some use out of...

Chapter 17: New Ability

Dominic sighed.

‘I’m not convinced about the horns,’ he replied doubtfully. ‘If they’re relatively small and don’t stick out much then…maybe. But have you seen the massive things these wildebeest have? I don’t want a rack sticking out the sides of my head like that. Have you considered how it might impact our stealth? What if they catch on things when we’re travelling through the undergrowth? Or someone grabs it and controls our head.’

He...

Chapter 16: A Nice Set of Horns

A female slunk through the undergrowth – the one Leo’s brother called Menhit. She ‘reported’ to the matriarch of their pride, Isis, then came over to Leo and sent what they had to guess was the same message. 

According to her, the wildebeests were aware that there were lions around, but didn’t seem too alarmed. Perhaps they’d only seen the lions when they were far enough away and therefore didn’t think that they were in danger. The other female they’d left behind wa...

Chapter 15: Lion’s Generosity

Pride status

Level 4 Pride (progress to next level 29/35)

Current information shared:

Health, Abilities

Dominic was pleased to see that the Pride level had increased twice – honestly, if it hadn’t, he would have been very surprised. They’d been sitting at 9/10 towards level 3 before Sekhmet had tiered up. Since a Tier 2 member counted for two Tier 1 members, that alone would have pushed them to...

Chapter 14: Teach Grandma How To Suck Eggs

It took them a while, but when they found their prey, Dominic knew that this was what he wanted to target. It was a little bit selfish, he’d admit, since they probably wouldn’t be the best for gaining Points, but at least it had the benefit of being familiar prey for the lower-level lionesses to hunt. 

They had come across the tracks of the small herd of wildebeest not that long after making the decision, and Dominic had immediately decided to follow them. The lionesses seemed ...

Chapter 13: Greet Other One

Sekhmet’s blurring was the longest yet – all the others were done before her, even those who had started later. Though the lionesses which had finished inspected their own changes first – mostly either size, or claws, or teeth from what Dominic could see as Leo looked around – they all ended up staring at the still-blurred lioness. 

Finally, it finished. The ‘picture’ sharpened and all the details became evident. 

‘She’s beautiful,’ breath...

Chapter 12: Versatile

Leo snarled as they were surrounded by the smaller predators. Irritation rose inside him: did these canines really think that they could beat the larger lions?

‘Don’t get too cocky,’ his brother’s voice counselled him. ‘They’re smaller, but we know that smaller doesn’t necessarily mean easier to deal with. Are there normally this many of them?’

‘No,’ Leo growled back at him. ‘I’ve never seen this many, and they’ve never been...