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The Wings Take Shape – Part Nineteen – Finale

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And here it is, the final part of The Wings Take Shape!

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

Last time on Wings, Sadie led the imprisoned Wings headed by Claire Claymonte to the city gates in order to escape. A presence Sadie had sensed took control of her body and she forced the others to flee without her, but not before gifting Claire and Jeffrey with the Totem spirits of Ursatrundle and Shadow-Dancer.

Meanwhile, Renee Mollen and her Totem-Bonded fled through the city with their families and other refugees intent on getting out of the city and away from the foreign military. They came upon Sadie just as the force that had taken control of her absorbed her completely and stole the powers of the cadshee, vomiting up what was left of Sadie before disappearing in a puff of smoke and peal of wicked laughter.

They escaped the city, but they didn’t make it unharmed. And now they must decide on their futures.

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The Wings Take Shape

Part Nineteen – Soldier On, Mad Wings

by Rick Cook Jr.

They fled Rothfort, some in their new forms and others barely holding onto the forms left to them. Renee didn’t know exactly what had happened at the city gates, but the result was clear enough.

The fight was long from over and whoever that man had been, they were not prepared to deal with him. Continue reading →

The Wings Take Shape – Part Seventeen

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Part Seventeen coming at you!

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

Last week on Wings, the preparation had begun for the assault on the besieged capital of their homeland. Rothfort was a fortress, but they had a dragon.

Renee and the rest of her Wings that had bonded with the animal spirits, the Totems, changed into their animal forms after agreeing to a hasty plan to free their families and any soldiers within the capital to fight back. It was a desperate move, but it had to be made. The longer the enemy controlled the city, the firmer their grasp on the country became.

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The Wings Take Shape

Part Seventeen – Assault

by Rick Cook Jr.

Deep in the heart of the military quarter, a woman heard a noise. Faint at first, so faint that Captain Claire Claymonte wasn’t even sure she was hearing it.

It had been a long few days in the prisons. They had beaten her. They had killed other Captains. She was sure she’d be next. Continue reading →

The Wings Take Shape – Part Eleven

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It’s Tuesday and you know by now that means it’s time for another entry in the serial novella The Wings Take Shape!

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

Previously on Wings, Captain Renee Mollen and her Winged Riders sought the village of Panagin’s Toll, Sadie the Skinchanger’s home. They found Sadie in a redwood den outside of town, much like the cadshee before her.

Jon, struggling against the Skinchanger form of Stalker and her ability to wrest control of her mind and body, tried to Change back to a human once he tracked down Renee and her Wings. Stalker had been cordial leading up to the moment he attempted to become human again, and she discovered that Sadie was a creature of smoke and oil. She roared and took control of him once more, fleeing into the forest intent on ending the creature of shadow and smoke once and for all. She called it the deceiver, a thief.

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The Wings Take Shape

Part Eleven – Abomination

by Rick Cook Jr

The entire village huddled beneath the redwood’s roots. Sadie’s den was much homier than the cadshee’s from several years back, but it was still under the earth and the people were scared.

Marie didn’t like it. She hated it, in fact. Renee conferred with Sadie somewhere out of sight while Marie and Regina took care of the soldiers and civilians. They rested peacefully for the first time in days. Wounds were cleaned and bandages changed. Stories told. The Winged Riders, having been at the capital when it was falling, had much to tell the citizenry of Panagin’s Toll. Continue reading →

The Wings Take Shape – Part Nine

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If you’ve been impatiently waiting to find out what happened to Jon, well, this is your Tuesday! It’s time for the next part of my serial novella The Wings Take Shape!

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

Previously, the last known Winged Riders and free soldiers of an empire under siege were taken captive. Jon turned into a cougar using his Skinchanging ability, killed with reckless abandon, and fled into the night.

The other Winged Riders, under Captain Renee Mollen, managed to escape and head for Jon’s aunt, Sadie, also a Skinchanger and something a little more than that these days. On the way there, wild cougars attacked and Jon came to their rescue, but he couldn’t Skinchange back to a human and fled into the night once more.

Renee tracked down Sadie in the hollow root-system of an old redwood, much like the cadshee had lived in before during their earlier trials against the monster.

Now we head back a ways and find out just what happened with Jon while he was Changed into Stalker, the Cougar.

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The Wings Take Shape

Part Nine – Stalker

by Rick Cook Jr.

Jon was losing the fight. The struggle with Stalker had begun the moment he panicked and turned into her. Bodies fell, and he wasn’t in control. He’d always sensed something different about her. Something wild and untamed. Where the others were merely forms to take, Stalker always felt like a different voice in his head.

And she was angry at being so contained.

He fought back against her when she tore open Scout Irons’s throat, forced her to flee into the Bloody Wood.

The taste of Thomas’s blood down his throat was victory. It was pleasing. It haunted his steps. He couldn’t go back to them. Not now they knew what he was. After what he’d done. Continue reading →