Ah, can you smell it? The oaky scent of a fresh installment in The Wings Take Shape.

If you’re new to the story, head to Part One and start from the beginning!

Last week, Sergeant Marie Mollen helped keep order in the Red Forest while her twin sister, Captain Renee Mollen, decided what they should do. Their home had just come under attack from a foreign enemy, and they were barely outside the city when it started.

Private Jonathan Sawyer, a secret Skinchanger, took flight as a hawk to gather intel for Captain Mollen, and they rushed to the gates of the city based on what he had to say. Marie and Renee’s old Sergeant, Regina Hughes, came bursting out of the exploded gate, fleeing the capital, and Renee helped escort her to safety.

They flee to relative safety in the bloody wood while Sergeant Marie Mollen leads the chasing soldiers away with three of her Winged Riders to fight them off.

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The Wings Take Shape

Part Three – Reunion
by Rick Cook Jr.

Renee urged silence as they worked. The foreign soldiers had scarcely passed them by, Marie’s presence flitting away on a high of anger and excitement. Regina Hughes was not just injured, she was pinned to her horse, biting on the leather reins as Tanner and Jon removed the crossbow bolt from the thrashing horseflesh and finally through Regina’s backside.

Regina fell from the saddle only to be caught by Tanner, and he set her down against the red bark of the tree, preparing bandages. She sucked in breaths, seething through teeth clenched tight.

“The rutting bastards,” she hissed. “Can’t believe I let them get a shot at me.” Continue reading →

Tuesday has come once again and it is now time to delve back into the world of shapeshifters, twinners, and more with Part Two of “The Wings Take Shape”!

If you’re new to the story, head to Part One and start from the beginning!

Last week, Jonathan Sawyer, hiding his Skinchanger abilities from the empire, found himself a recruit of the elite military Winged Riders under his twin friends Renee and Marie. They have set out upon their first mission together when the capital comes under attack from a foreign hostile takeover. They barely escape into the Red Forest with their lives and must decide what to do next.

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The Wings Take Shape

Part Two – Fight or Flight

by Rick Cook Jr.

“This is insane!” Marie shouted, holding the reins of her horse as it tried to bolt once again. They had no horse-whisperer and she felt the lack keenly. The others all struggled with their horses, too. They weren’t far from the edge of the woods, maybe a quarter mile, but it was dread dark here, the light strangled under too many branches overhead.

Only then did it occur to Marie: “We’re in the bloody wood.”

“Sergeant!” Renee shouted from atop her horse. Not Acacia. She’d had to give up that scout’s horse for something hardy, and in every way she had emulated Captain Claymonte with a stout white mare.

Marie pulled her horse forward to Renee. “Renee?”

“Take Scout Irons and find us a clearing. Send for me when you have it.” Continue reading →

WELCOME back to Panning For Clouds! It’s Tuesday and I’ve got Part One of a new serial novella all set up down below. If you read “The Shape of Family” as it was posted last year, I have good and bad news for you. The good news is that you will soon be able to buy that novella on Amazon for a buck under the title “The Shapes We Take”. The bad news is that you cannot read it right this very moment as it is being prepared for Amazon Kindle. I hope to have that out by the end of the month!

Other good news: Having read “The Shape of Family” will give you some decent insight into several of the characters, but it is not necessary to understand what is happening in “The Wings Take Shape”, so you can hop right in and enjoy!

The way this works, if you’re new to the blog, is that I will be writing and posting a new Part (Chapter) to “The Wings Take Shape” every Tuesday until the novella is complete. It will remain free to read on the blog for an undisclosed amount of time, at which point it will be taken down to get the same Amazon treatment while I prepare to write and post the third novella. That may be later this year, or it may be the start of next year. Not sure!

So join me on the continuing adventures of the Winged Riders! I have a lot of fun things planned for this story and I’m excited to be coming back to it.

A real quick recap for those who haven’t read the first novella:

1. Sadie is a shapeshifter that takes on the form of a horse to sneak her way into the capital and rescue her shapeshifting nephew who has gotten captured.
2. Claire is the captain of a squad of Winged Riders, elite soldiers of the empire. She and her Wings catch Sadie as a horse.
3. A creature known as the cadshee attempts to abduct the young scout Marie, killing her horse in the process. She rides Sadie to the capital to warn of the cadshee’s increased daytime activity. The cadshee is a creature of smoke and oil, capable of shifting his form to become anything he likes. He is the last of his kind, bent on reviving his species, which requires young, fertile mammals to carry his brood.
4. Marie is a Twinner, capable of emotional bonds at distance with her sister, Renee, also a scout. Renee and Marie meet on the road and Renee is abducted in the place of Marie. Marie and Sadie go to rescue Renee, but only manage to get Marie caught and Renee rescued.
5. They meet back up with Claire. Sadie reveals her shapeshifting to Jeffrey, Claire’s Sergeant, so that he agrees to help her find Marie and then Sadie can get on with her own mission of saving her nephew.
6. Claire is investigating a cult in the village of Stalbridge. She accuses Jeffrey of collusion with this cult when he is acting suspicious. Jeffrey knocks Claire out and takes Renee, fleeing on Sadie as a horse to try and rescue Marie.
7. The cadshee knocks out Jeffrey, misses Sadie shapeshifted as a mouse, abducts both Marie and Renee and flees to a secret chapel he used to fool humans into doing his bidding once upon a time.
8. Claire and her Winged Riders are injured during a skirmish with the cadshee, and Sadie discovers she can harm the creature when none else seem to be able to.
9. They find information on the cadshee’s cult in Stalbridge and go after him, to try and put him down before he can enact his plan of rape, murder, and a new era of darkness as his brood sweeps across the land.
10. They are losing the fight until the cadshee reveals that he is the father of Sadie’s skinchanging people, also revealing the names of creatures that were lost to time. Sadie becomes a dragon and they fight to the death, Sadie ultimately winning and taking the cadshee’s powers of smoke and oil.
11. She and Jeffrey have two children, both of whom are also creatures of smoke and oil. Sadie has nightmares that they will mask the world in darkness. Her nephew, Jonathan is rescued and is interested in becoming a Winged Rider.

*****

The Wings Take Shape

Part One – Recruits

by Rick Cook Jr.

The capital of the Empire stared down at Jonathan. He hated the place, but it was home during training. His fellow recruits waited with him in the practice yard. Waiting for their results.

Waiting to find out if they were Winged Riders.

Aunt Sadie was in attendance with her two toddling boys. He only wished he had her air of nonchalance. She favored him with a brief smile while talking with Claire Claymonte, famed Wing Captain. The rumors had it that Captain Claymonte wanted him for her retinue, and he knew the reason why.

Jonathan Sawyer was a Skinchanger. Continue reading →