Excerpt from The Angel Tree

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For #LineByLineTime : Tearful scenes

Christie sat in her favorite rocker and slowly moved back and forth, staring at the display.  “My children loved to do this sort of thing.  All three were always making things, drawing pictures, and every Christmas they would make an ornament for the tree.  They were so creative, so – so lively, so…” she stopped and began sobbing.  “They were so alive, and they’re not anymore.  Ronnie, Donnie, Juliet, my babies, they’re gone.  James, my husband, they’re all gone.  I’m all alone, and I can’t bear it anymore.  I can’t stay here anymore, I have nothing left!  I want to die!  Please, just let me die!”   Her throat closed until the last was a whispered scream.

Excerpt from “Dr. Doolittle’s Daughter”

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This first line just drifted into my head and blossomed into a story. I wanted to get the idea down. If you have anything to comment on it, please let me know. I’ll expand it more, but this is how it begins…

We called her Dr. Doolittle’s Daughter. Not in front of grown-ups, of course. We’d get into a lot of trouble if we did that. They’d probably call it bullying or some such, but it wasn’t. Becky Sue Hubert was weird, for sure, but at least it was INTERESTING weird.

She could talk with animals. Anybody can talk TO animals, but nobody else I ever knew of could understand what they said back. Some of us who knew asked Becky Sue what our pets said about us, but she wouldn’t say. At first, she looked at us like we were crazy and denied she could understand them. But after a while, she would just roll her eyes and walk off.

People learned to take better care of their animals in our little town. Some folks we knew were mean to their critters. Nobody knew how she found out, but pictures would wind up posted around town. Nobody could prove it was her posting the pictures, but we knew. Some of the pictures were so bad, my dad would have to go talk to them. My dad? Oh, he’s the county sheriff. Sheriff Tommy Lee, he is. I’m his youngest son, Barney.

Becky Sue and I are in the same class, just like we’ve been since kindergarten. Our school and town are so small, there’s only one class for every grade. We don’t even have a high school. When we finish the 7th grade we’ll be bussed to the high school in the county seat. We’re in the 5th grade right now, so we have some time. But as my dad likes to say, I digress. I don’t know what that means, but it sounds funny and makes him laugh when I say it.

Usually, Becky Sue stuck to chatting to pets and livestock, but sometimes we wondered who – or what – else she talked to. Her dad was a veterinarian and a good friend of my dad, so the families would have cookouts on the weekends sometimes and sit around and talk a lot. Becky Sue didn’t talk to humans much and spent most of her time drawing pictures of animals. She gave me some pretty good sketches of my dog, Pepper.

One night after eating, everybody was sitting at the picnic table in the backyard, just chatting. I was throwing a ball for Pepper when I heard my dad complain about some guy.

“We all know he’s making meth somewhere, but we haven’t found it yet,” he said. “We figure it must be up in the woods somewhere, but that’s a lot of forest to look through and we haven’t been able to trail him.”

I saw Becky Sue drawing, but I figured it was another animal picture. Then she stood up and walked over to my dad and put her sketchbook in front of him. He started to brush her off with that smile adults give kids who interrupt them and her dad started to say her name. You know how that goes. My mom leaned over and looked at the picture. “Becky Sue, what is that a map of?”

All the adults stared at the sketch. I slid over and looked around my dad’s shoulder. Becky Sue was a good artist. The map was easy to read. She had even labeled the highway and put a compass on the sketch, like a real map. There were trees and hills, and a little line to show a road that branched off the highway. It was labeled, too. The road wound through the trees and ended where she had drawn a little shack.

The grown-ups were real quiet. I felt goosebumps rising on my arms. Our dads looked at each other. Her dad finally looked over at Becky Sue and asked, almost in a whisper, “Becky Sue, where did you get this?”

Becky Sue kept looking at her feet, or Pepper, who was sitting on them. “A friend told me about it,” she mumbled. “He wanted me to make the guy go away, because he likes to hurt the animals around the shack. He said a really bad smell is there. When you said the guy might be making drugs in the woods, I thought it might be the same guy.”

I’ve never seen grown-ups look like that. I got a little queasy and the barbeque we just finished felt like it might want to come back out. Becky Sue crouched down and petted Pepper, who licked her hand like he licked me when he knew I was upset. Her shoulders hunched up around her ears and she kept her face down.

My dad turned around on the bench and lifted Becky Sue up and sat her on his knee like a little kid. He held out his other hand to me until I went over and sat on his other knee. I wouldn’t have acted like such a baby, but right then, I felt like a little kid. I was glad none of my friends were around to see. Well, Becky Sue was more or less a friend, but I could tell she was a little scared, too.

Becky Sue’s dad and mom stood behind her and put their hands on her shoulders. Mom came around the table and put her hands on mine. I could feel his hand on my back sweat a little. He rubbed my back like he did when he was thinking hard.

After a long minute, he finally cleared his throat. “Okay, Becky Sue. I’m not going to ask about your, uh, friend. I know most, uh, informers like to give information in secret. But I’m going to ask all of you, but especially you kids, to not say a word about what’s happened tonight. Not one word. If this guy finds out we have some information, well, bad things could happen. To me, to you, and to the law enforcement officers who are trying to stop him. Or he might just run and do this all over again somewhere else.”

He put the hand on Becky Sue’s back under her chin and stared into her eyes. “I want you to promise me something, Becky Sue. I want you to swear, if you get information from a, a friend or whoever, that you will not give it to anybody but me.”

“Or her parents,” Becky Sue’s dad interrupted. “In fact, I’d feel better if she just let us be a go-between. I don’t want anybody noticing she’s been talking to the law before a bust.”

“What if there isn’t time?” Becky Sue whispered. “What if I’m at school and you’re both working?”

I wondered who – or what – she might be talking to at school, since there weren’t any animals allowed on the school grounds, but then I remembered all the birds that were always flying around. “Just tell me,” I heard myself saying. “Nobody pays attention to me texting my dad. Or my mom. They let me use my phone between classes, since Dad is the sheriff. In case of emergency, you know?” I gulped, wondering why my mouth always got in front of my brains.

Excerpt from WIP Tales of the Lunatics: Skyshaker and Moonsinger

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For #LineByLineTime – “Misunderstandings”

Moonsinger pointed her tail at Shadowstalker. “Remove the shackles from this male immediately!”

Shadowstalker looked quickly at Loper, who only stared back and shrugged, passing the problem back to him. The older male shuffled his feet and switched his tail, but finally stuttered, “We – we can’t!”

The elderly female Striker stiffened. “YOU DARE! You dare to defy a Den Mother in her OWN DEN!” Her voice thundered in the cavern and echoed back from the passageways. Almost every Lunatic in the cavern cowered, covering their heads, including the beta males who had roused her ire. The shackled male only tipped his head sideways, watching Moonsinger change her tail from a pointer to a club. Striker changed her tail to a club as well.

The shackles on the male rattled as he moved in front of both females. “No,” he said.

They stared at him. “You would protect these two males?” Moonsinger demanded.

“You didn’t listen,” the male said calmly. “He didn’t say they WOULD not. He said they COULD not. There’s a difference.”

The females’ tails relaxed and they both sat back, moving their gaze to the beta males.

Shadowstalker and Loper exhaled noisily. Loper raised his head just enough to nod jerkily. “He speaks truth. We were not given the keys. We were to deliver him as he is.”

Moonsinger narrowed her eyes. “Then how can they be removed? I will not leave shackles on someone who risked their lives to save one of mine.”

The male before her shrugged. “That’s no problem. I’d have freed myself a long time ago, but I wanted to see where they were supposed to deliver me.”

Excerpt from Tales of the Lunatics for #LineByLineTime “Midnight Blues”

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Skyshaker shifted, slowly switching his tail. His head lifted and he inhaled deeply, sifting odors from the cavern air. Moonsinger tilted her head, silently asking what was wrong. He shook his, unable to determine why he was uneasy. The fire was warm, the sand was soft, his belly was full. Why did he feel he needed to be up and hunting?

Moonsinger began to tense up, reading his body language. She jerked, looking over at the opening to the nursery cave. Skyshaker caught his breath as a small weight settled on his front paws. He glanced down to see the two rescued kits. The older had brought his little brother in.

The pack leader bent his head to the little ones. The older stretched up and put his mouth to Skyshaker’s ear. “Watch my brother. Bad ones come. I need to gather our sisters.”

The two adults stared at each other. “Wait with your brother. I’ll go alert the others.” Skyshaker motioned for Moonsinger to protect the little males. She curled herself around them as Skyshaker moved silently to the nursery opening.

He took a deep breath and realized a new scent was on the breeze blowing into the cave through the opening on the outside wall. Bad ones indeed were coming. The air stank of the rogue he had killed his first day and the killers of the boys’ mother and pack. He slid across the room next to the opening and vibrated his throat in the inaudible signal he had trained the females to react to.

The females remembered their training well. Shadows moved without sound, plucking up their assigned kits and climbing the nets on the walls to the ledges above. The nets rose with them, leaving them out of reach of attackers. Skyshaker set himself ready, his fangs covered so they would not shine in the dark.

Excerpt from Project Burning Bush (a work in progress) for #LineByLineTime : “Morning Scene”

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The smell of burning wood and the rustle of movement snapped the four teens into wakefulness. Nita and Harper were on their feet before their eyes were completely open.

Luthor stretched and yawned. “Morning already?” He rubbed his face. “Guess breakfast is up to me and you again, Nita.”

Minji rolled to her back and groaned. “It was not a dream, then? Ow, my back! This ground is far too hard. Perhaps next time I will try the hammock you suggested, Luthor.”

Nita collapsed crosslegged on her silver emergency blanket and grabbed her shoes. “Phew,” she muttered. “Need to do some laundry, but how?”

Harper heaved a sign and reached for his shoes as well. “Laundry, sure. I want a cup of coffee and a breakfast taco, myself. Mom was all ‘that’s unhealthy!’, but Dad always got some for both of us when he took me to school. School, huh. Wonder what Mr. and Mrs. Williams are doing right now?”

Project Burning Bush (WIP) for #LineByLineTime: “Dusk”

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“The sun is close to setting,” Nita pointed out. “We need to find someplace to spend the night. We don’t need to be walking around in the dark, even with flashlights. If anyone is searching for us, we’ll see their lights.”

Minji pointed at a rock wall close by. “That looks like it will make an adequate shelter. If it gets chilly after dark, the rock will radiate heat. We will have our backs protected.”

“Not a good idea,” Luthor disagreed. “That rock will radiate heat all right and all the wildlife, including snakes, will be snuggling up to it.”

The other three teens stared at him. “So what are you suggesting?” Harper demanded. “Build a fort out in a clearing? I don’t think we can do that before dark.”

Luthor rolled his eyes. “Very funny. We need to get up to the top of Enchanted Rock. Fewer snakes, less wildlife, especially predators. Plenty of big boulders to put our backs to and they’ll radiate heat, too. Not to mention we’ll get a better view of the area.”

Nita wrinkled her nose. “I really hate to admit this, but Superman might actually be right.”

Harper groaned, loudly. “You want us to climb a mountain after we’ve been hiking all around it? I’m tired, I’m hungry, and more than a little freaked out! Why can’t we stay down here?”

“Snakes!” Minji snapped and pulled on his arm.

Despite Harper’s grumbling and groaning, the quartet made it to the top of the dome and found a large flat top rock with a lack of snakes. As the light of the sun slowly faded, Luthor pulled a firestarter kit out of one of his many pockets and started a fire with the sticks and branches he had collected during the climb.

Nita curled her lip at the snake Luthor was skewering and found a way to the top of the boulder. “You three can eat that nasty thing,” she told them from above. “I’ll be up here looking for signs of life and eating my sandwich.”

With the coming of true dark a breeze picked up and the teens pulled out their jackets and Luthor dug out several emergency blankets. “I always carry some of these. Habit.”

He was stretching up to offer one to Nita when her hand snapped down and clutched his. “Superman! I see something! It looks like firelight!”

WIP Excerpt: Tales of the Lunatics: Book 1, Skyshaker and Moonsinger

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For #LineByLineTime – A long hard day…

“Whoa! Whoa! Stop! Stop, now! We need to rest!”

The male in front slowed his steady lope and looked at the other two males. “Stop? Already? Why?” He shook his head and the muzzle around his snout rattled. “We’ve barely begun!”

“Barely begun?” The younger of the three males stopped to wheeze. “We’ve been running for hours! We need to catch our breath, have some water! Rest! How can you keep going like that? You’ve been in a prison mine for years!”

The oldest male collapsed, his breath whistling in and out. “Loper,” he gasped. The youngest male staggered to his side and groped for his water canteen. He fumbled the cap off and trickled its contents unsteadily in his commander’s mouth. After a few moments, the old male managed to swallow without choking. Loper gave him a little more, then took a couple of gulps himself.

The male in front rattled his muzzle again as he shook his head. “No stamina,” he muttered. “What have you been doing all this time, lying around the fire grooming yourselves?”

Loper gave his commander Shadowstalker another drink and took one himself. Then he looked at the unnamed male, and his skin rippled with shame. “You need water, too. How can you – I mean, the muzzle…”

The third male snorted. “Never mind the muzzle. I can’t even hold the canteen with these coverings over my limbs and tail. All I can do is run.”

Loper hissed and bounced over to him. “Hold your mouth up, I’ll pour some water in.” He did so, and the male swallowed without difficulty. Loper shook his head. “You’re not even breathing hard! I can’t believe it!” He recapped the canteen. “Neither of us have been lying around anywhere. We’ve been on a hard march to reach the mine, after we received orders. I just don’t understand how you can be in such better shape when you haven’t been able to run in years!”

The male shrugged and his web of shackles rattled all over him. “In the mine it’s work or die, and I’m too stubborn to let them kill me.”

His head jerked up and his ears pricked toward the ravine they had been running above. “Something’s being chased! Maybe our next meal!” He bounded off to the edge, looked down, and hissed loudly before leaping into space.

Excerpt from Project Burning Bush

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A Work in Progress

For #LineByLineTime – Killer Chapter Endings

“We should compare notes on training. That’s some impressive wetwork on your part.”
“What a professional phrase. You, too, are an expert in black ops?”
“You sound pretty professional yourself, Dragonlady.”
Luthor stared at all of them. “What are you talking about? What’s wetwork? And black ops? Doesn’t that mean something bad?”
“I think we should have a long conversation soon,” Harper murmured. He looked around them. “But not right now. And not here.”

Excerpt: Project Burning Bush

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(A Work in Progress)

For #LineByLineTime: The Good Guys Win

Everybody swung around as one old woman cried out.  People screamed, pots were dropped, and everybody ran, except the pregnant girl, still sitting by the fire, and the old man, who gripped his staff in shaking hands and stepped in front of the teens. 

Four horsemen stared back at them.  One pointed toward the deer carcass as he chattered excitedly in Spanish to his companions. They nodded, their mouths open and their eyes wide as they looked at the four teenagers.

Nita didn’t take her eyes off them as her hands slid to her knives still hidden in her jeans. “Apparently they’re upset we caught a deer.  Sounds like we did a big no-no.  They also think we look way too much like their bosses.  I’d assume that means they’re the bad guys.”

“Not to mention the way the locals ran off screaming.  Wonder if these are some of the guys who were here before?”  Harper scratched his chin. “Maybe we should go hide somewhere, too?”

Minji stood straight, then marched, shoulders back, to stand beside the old man.  “I will not leave Dark Moon Rising and Singing Water to them. They are brave, but helpless.”

“Maybe I can scare them,” Luthor growled, and flexed his arms, waving the bloody knife in his hand.

Harper shuffled backward.  “I’ll just stand behind the tree, shall I? I wouldn’t want any of you to trip over me…” He trailed off as he reached the tree and darted around to crouch behind it.

“All of you shut up and let me talk to them and stay out of my way.  I just killed a deer and four rabbits.  These guys are no challenge.” Nita’s hands were in her pockets now.

Minji sniffed. “There is a large difference between hunting animals for food and killing a human,” she began.

Suddenly all four horsemen drew sabers and charged, screaming and waving their weapons.  Before the others could move to escape or defend themselves, there was a knife in the throat of the foremost. He toppled sideways off his confused horse, who stopped charging and turned in circles, dragging its rider. 

Another knife appeared in the middle of the second rider’s torso.  He dropped his saber and clutched at the knife, his mouth open and his eyes wide.  His horse also stopped charging to step nervously side to side as the rider swayed and fell back across the horse’s rump before the horse’s movements made him slide to the ground, his feet slipping out of the stirrups.

Before Nita could aim at the other two riders, Minji snatched the staff from the old man and screamed at the one coming at them. She swung her staff at the man’s sword arm.  There was a loud crack and the blade dropped to the ground beside her.  Her attacker yelled and clutched his arm as it flopped loosely, the bones in it moving in different directions halfway between the elbow and wrist. Minji spun on one foot as the horse and rider moved past her.

Her momentum slid the staff through her hands until she held the end of it. She swung it like a bat at the back of the man’s head.  There was a sound like a melon dropping on pavement, and the rider flipped forward, falling past the horse’s shoulder.  The horse shied, kicking at the fallen rider as his body landed at the horse’s feet. 

The fourth rider spun his horse and started to race away out of the clearing. Before he made it to the trees, the old woman their host had called Burning Wind ran out in front of them. She waved a blanket and shouted as the horse almost reached her. The horse squealed and reared.  Its rider fought to bring him back down, sawing at the reins and shouting. But the horse reared up again as the old lady snapped the blanket at its nose and screamed.  

Unbalanced, the rider yanked at the reins again trying to pull himself up, and the horse rolled backward and landed on the rider.  The rider’s legs spasmed, then went limp.  The horse rolled back and forth a few times before he got his feet under him and stood up, leaving the man on the ground.  The man did not move.

Excerpt from Tales of the Lunatics: Skyshaker and Moonsinger

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Author’s note: This is a work in progress about an alien world and alien creatures.

How to show surprise and shock for #LineByLineTime

The one-eyed guard stared through the bars at the big male. He had never in his life seen an alpha feed lesser members of the pack, but he remembered the tales from his grandsire. He turned and strode away. His movements were careful, normal. They kept an ALPHA male in their prison?

As he passed other guards, he kept his face frozen in its usual surly expression. When the others tried to speak to him, he snarled to avoid speaking back. He was already known for a foul temper, so nobody was surprised. They finally left him alone.

He kept walking, all the way past the guards’ rooms and past the storerooms buried deep within the underground complex. He walked faster, then finally ran, deep into the tunnels he had discovered there. He staggered to a stop in a small cave, his breath whistling out of his snout, partly from exertion, but mostly from pent up emotions finally allowed to escape.

He threw his head back and screamed.