Tag Archives: horse

The Shape of Family – Part Four

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It’s Tuesday, so strap in for about 1,000 words of this wild and weird shapeshifter story!

<- Part Three – Wild

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The Shape of Family

Part Four – Priority

by Rick Cook Jr.

Sadie felt the malevolent presence leave them as Marie’s twin rode their backtrail. She panted and snorted with relief when Marie finally let her rest a bit, walking along the road that would lead to the capital.

The other girl was in danger. Sadie refused to think about it. Not her problem. She had saved Marie, wasn’t that enough?

I’m not their mother. Continue reading →

The Shape of Family – Part Three

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Time for Part Three of The Shape of Family! There will be no more new POVs after this Part, just Sadie, Claire, and the uh… thing below.

<- Part Two – Wings

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The Shape of Family

Part Three – Wild

by Rick Cook Jr

The thing that was not a bandersnatch followed at a safe distance. He knew her by the scent of blood. Scent was curious; he did not always possess it, and wished never to need it, so abhorrent was it to him.

He should take her now. If it wasn’t for that thing under the girl…

What is it? he wondered. Not a horse, that much he knew. It was interesting, piquing the curiosity that came with the bandersnatch, but he overrode its instincts for his own. There might be time for curiosity later, once his quest was complete. Once his bloodline was secure. Continue reading →

The Shape of Family – Part Two

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And away we go with Part Two of The Shape of Family! This Part is entitled “Wings”.

<- Part One – Shadow-Dancer

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The Shape of Family

Part Two – Wings

by Rick Cook Jr

Wing Captain Claire Claymonte wanted to stay and search for the rider of this beautiful horse. It rankled that they were not able to sneak up and catch him unawares. But if the Forest didn’t kill him, a patrol probably would.

She sighed as they mounted up and Sergeant Combs continued to work his skill at calming on the animal. Dark blue and gray patches on a coat of midnight black. She had never seen horseflesh of this variety before. Her white stallion Moxie was a sight to behold, but pure white breeding was in vogue even among the civilians. A horse with coloring like this one… Envy of the entire military, she’d be. She could claim it as spoils of the road if she wished.

“Hand over the saddlebags,” she said to Combs as they left the forest and took up the route. Continue reading →

The Shape of Family – Part One

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Part One of a Seventeen-part serialized story, firmly in the fantasy camp, so fantasy fans rejoice? Find a Table of Contents at the bottom of this post.

This is the start of Volume 1 of my Shapechangers series. If you’ve read this one, you can hop on over to the start of Volume 2, The Wings Take Shape, right now!

The Shape of Family

Part One – Shadow-Dancer

by Rick Cook Jr

From Sind’s Sundry at the edge of town, Sadie bought the star map and a singed pamphlet with the last of her silver and struck out for the skinyard, fingers twitching to be gone. Sind hisself hadn’t said a word. No one had. They all knew she was going, that she couldn’t be stopped.

She tucked the papers within her pack and hucked it over her shoulders, ignoring the tension in her neck and spine. Just a little ways, she thought. I can make it just a little ways.

Her feet pounded the packed dirt, and though it was getting on dusk and all the changers should have been on their way back, the road lay empty.

She sighed as she passed the tall barricades and entered the skinyard, and here discovered why the changers hadn’t left for home. Naked as the day they first changed, they stood in a circle in the corral of sand and gravel. Eyes on her. Continue reading →