Going back to our territory, where packs of keelish had gone missing, I was both nervous and hoping to come across a squad of humans out on the hunt for keelish. I was disappointed. Foire didn’t sense anything, nor did we come across any humans or signs of them. Thinking of it, I was not at all surprised that, if they were here, they had left no trace. One of the first things I was ever taugh...
2024-05-01 03:55:25 +0000 UTC View PostSorry for the delay today. It's just been a low productivity day--can't get my mind to work how it should, but still got the chapter done, so there! Hope you enjoy!
What is truth? The absolute, the will of the forgotten.
What is power? The presence, that of the divines.
When will they come? The past, they never have ceased.
Where is the tower? The ent...
Chapter 123
Sybil’s easy agreement quickly led to the two of us luxuriating and languishing in the hot sands. Just as I’d imagined in my vision/visit with the [Administrator], the heated sands elevated the bath beyond anything I’d experienced before. The warm grains scrubbing through my scales along my shoulders and arms under my sonic magic’s assistance were amaz...
2024-04-27 01:41:07 +0000 UTC View Post
After I ripped the terrorbird’s head from its neck, I let the body slump to the ground and rolled my shoulders. I hadn’t thought through the wisdom of throwing that first one. Though it was the smallest terrorbird I’d seen, it still weighed hundreds of pounds, and I’d slung it over at its mate without thought or preparation. Between that and ripping the head off of the second with s...
[Treel POV]
Treel woke to her mate’s nuzzling, and as she stirred, she gently nipped at Foire. He dodged her halfhearted attempt, then nipped back at her cheek and half bit half licked her frill there. His tender roughness sent a little thrill through her, and in response, Treel easily submitted to his flirtations. It wasn’t long, however, before she nudged him with h...
2024-04-25 04:51:33 +0000 UTC View PostWhat kinds of new prey and enemy do you want to see? Of course, I have my own ideas, but I'd love to see if you have anything that you'd like, and try to implement them as they fit.
If you have specific ideas, comment them! The more specific, the more likely I'll take a shining to them. If you like a comment, make sure to like it or comment on it.
2024-04-24 04:56:58 +0000 UTC View PostAfter warning me of the “unknown” predator in the nearby jungles, Redael returned to his quarters and I took that as my dismissal. I still fought to restrain myself from turning and throwing myself at him, but I was able to stop myself for now, knowing that it was just a question of time. Soon I would ascend to become the absolute leader of the swarm. Until then, I would remain where I was,...
2024-04-24 04:49:27 +0000 UTC View PostYou have a chance here, Djallma. If you are able to pass the tests to enter the Veran initiate now, at only 21 summers, or even in the next two years, then you will almost certainly become one of High Veran Salmar’s apprentices. For that, you simply must put aside your idealistic approach to the conflicts between the Veratocracy and our enemies. Of your age, you are the most accom...
2024-04-23 04:23:28 +0000 UTC View PostWith a groan, Khall forced herself to get up and begin moving. As the day before, there were the annoying words in front of her eyes that wouldn’t disappear before she read them:
[Proceed towards the Divine Summit. Ascension awaits. The System guides Stines. Ascend from the Void below.]
She was stiff and sore and uncomfortable and burned and the words still made no sense… but at...
2024-04-22 05:10:00 +0000 UTC View PostAs I approached Histy, Sybil noticed my movement and stepped close enough to fall in step behind me as I passed her. I glanced down at my much shorter Beta, and she looked at me in askance, and in response, I quietly clicked my teeth together–I didn’t know either.
“Histy, you seem well. You’re not gravid?” The term came immediately to me, even with its unfamiliarity. ...
2024-04-20 00:22:59 +0000 UTC View PostSeveral days had passed since my pack’s mass evolution and reaching maturity as a whole. With Took’s evolution, she was taller than my six feet, standing at least six and a half tall herself. She and Treel were among the few exceptions within our newly khatif pack. Most of the khatif had some amount of magic, even the less obvious ones like Foire and Ytte. Took and Treel, though, were a dif...
2024-04-19 04:01:12 +0000 UTC View Post[Varali POV]
Varali woke to the sound of light rain. In her eighteen years, she had come to learn that the end of the summer brought the rains, no matter how much she wished that it didn’t. There was good and bad with that, but what it meant for her today was that she would be soaked through her entire path to and from her destination. She groaned, thought about pulling...
2024-04-18 04:21:15 +0000 UTC View PostFor once, my hopes and expectations of all being uneventful came true, and I accompanied Took and the rest with a wolfstag’s corpse in each arm before returning for the second and final load. The path was quickly worn down from the passage of dozens of feet carrying hundreds and thousands of pounds of wolfstag bodies. I welcomed the physical effort, the cool rain running over my scales, the g...
2024-04-17 04:40:47 +0000 UTC View Post[Skill: Adversary; 5/10
Dominance; 62/100
Pack Tactics; 4/10]
My first thought was frustration that I hadn’t gained any Stats through these hunts. I’d killed so many, destroyed the majority of a huge pack of wolfstags, and subjugated the survivors. Was this not in keeping with the way of the Keel? Was the distaste that I felt towards massacre something that disqualified me from ...
2024-04-16 03:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostKhall woke and immediately growled to let the world know she was grumpy. Her head was all fuzzy, it hurt. Her back hurt too, and she could feel her heartbeat in the scratches in her back. She groaned and fussed, but since she had woken up, Khall began to burrow out of her hasty shelter. After all, there wasn’t anything that cared that she was unhappy, and she needed more food so she could be ...
2024-04-14 07:34:42 +0000 UTC View PostIn my chosen calling of wandering the entirety of our continent, I have seen most of our world’s natural treasures and creatures. Once, I would have been so arrogant as to say that I had seen all there was to offer. The massive migratory cities of the Indlovu and their ufudoluk mounted Sanctums to Shandr’s deepest mines of the most precious of metals, from the tended wilds of th...
2024-04-13 04:36:21 +0000 UTC View PostMy immediate reaction was to snarl back, my lips curling and exposing my fangs to this aggressor. But… she wasn’t. It was me and my pack, and we had wiped out every other member of her family. Maybe this female was the long time matriarch of the wolfstags, or maybe she was a first-time mother. Did that matter to me?
I was shaken from my thoughts as I watched the wolfstag snap at...
2024-04-12 04:19:23 +0000 UTC View PostHey all! I've gotten around to adjusting and editing and adding to the original version of Divine Path, since the poll was pretty decidedly in its favor.. Find here the new and improved version for the prologue and first chapter! From this chapter onward, chapters will be at least 2,000 words each (this here is 2,087, so at least this long). I said in the poll that the planned length of...
2024-04-11 03:59:29 +0000 UTC View PostIf you're here early... congratulations! I'll have the free episode up in an hour or so. You're so lucky!
Unfortunately, Ytte was unable to move massive mounds of earth as I’d hoped, so, instead, we gathered up armfuls of soil and larger stones, and piled them up in the mouth of the secondary entrance. Foire detected no other wolfstags around the second entrance, so while I left half o...
2024-04-11 00:49:37 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 110
Among ones so violent, find the merciful.
Among ones so dull, find the quick.
Among ones so foreign, find the friend.
Among ones so weak, find the protector.
Among ones so hasty, find the deliberate.
Among ones so flighty, find the absolute.
Among ones so boorish, find the considerate.
-From the ins...
2024-04-10 02:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostWhat you need to understand is the possibility of intellectual discovery! Yes, for a Veushten to enter New Nievtra is for that same person to run many risks, but we never saw the keelish as anything more than beasts. With the establishment of a civilization, we can see how their minds work! We always thought that all that ruling over the keelish took was strength of fist, but their ...
2024-04-09 03:30:53 +0000 UTC View PostMan, I feel foolish with the timetable I said before. In my defense, I suddenly needed to reschedule three flights, and that sucks in a big way, and did take precedence. Anyway. Enjoy the last chapter of the double days!
I watched as my keelish swarmed over the last of the living wolfstags, the whimpers of the canines dying out as the last of their number were exterminate...
2024-04-08 05:36:39 +0000 UTC View PostHey, thanks for reading! I know I've been a touch slow on these updates compared to the public ones. That'll change starting tomorrow, once I'm not quite so stressed by all this. Do know that the second chapter will be up tonight, significantly earlier than last night, which I think only barely passed by as yesterday by my clock. Regardless, you Patrons are the BEST!
This...
2024-04-07 23:34:45 +0000 UTC View Post“Everyone, eat your fill! Don’t eat so much you get sluggish, we got more hunting to do! Leave the bodies, then follow me!” My voice filled the area as I stepped close, cut a leg off the nearest body, and began to eat it as I walked towards the wolfstags’ den. The plan was to ambush them before they reached the corpses of their fellows, so we needed to be there and ready before they wer...
2024-04-07 07:00:00 +0000 UTC View PostIt didn’t take much instruction for my pack and the new, temporary additions to be ready to leave the security of the den and begin our march to the wolfstags’ territory. In order to keep ourselves as strong as possible, I brought every single one of my pack with, Sybil easily agreeing to come along and bringing the rest of the more reticent members of the pack. My predictions and hopes for...
2024-04-06 23:54:41 +0000 UTC View Post“The Apotheosis of the Gran Verat laid its foundation in his youth–his steps taken to found the Holy State of the Veratocracy were divinely led, as he is deity himself. Those originally disparate tribes, spread around and without guidance, quickly found themselves bowing to his supreme knowledge and power, becoming his willing subjects. For centuries after, he consolidated his d...
2024-04-06 03:57:36 +0000 UTC View PostAfter thinking and deciding that a demonstration of strength and competence was all I could realistically come up with, I spoke again. “You can see what we did today, what our hunters were able to bring to the den. We have enough to eat, and we eat until we are full every day. These… thunderfangs are a plague in our territory, though they also are an acceptable source of food. We have found...
2024-04-06 03:54:44 +0000 UTC View PostI didn’t take long to show Solia and a couple other keelish how I wanted the more complete skins removed from the wolfstag corpses, but I did explain to them that after scraping all the flesh off the remaining leather, the skins should be cured. Solia especially could help with that, and I framed the low, steady heat necessary to create a cured leather that wouldn’t go rancid as a practice ...
2024-04-05 03:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post[Skill: Quaking Claw acquired.]
Internally I cheered while desperately wanting to look more deeply at the effect of the [Skill]. Regardless of my desires, though, I needed to continue guiding the pack quickly back to the den. After all, this many full-grown wolfstags was enough for the entire pack for two days, if we held back a little. Only two days… I mused over that as we made our wa...
2024-04-05 03:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostWith Foire leading us, our pack approached the lair of the wolfstags. I planned for this first ambush of ours to be quick, and to take, at most, ten of our prey. Any more, and we couldn’t guarantee that none would escape. We wouldn’t be able to return with our “gifts” with that many on our tails, so I was trusting Foire to be absolutely sure about how many of the wolves there were, and ...
2024-04-04 03:05:17 +0000 UTC View Post