Plum Parrot

Victor 14: The Bathhouse

Ponda ended up having to jump down into the pit and help Victor out. He lifted him by his good arm, and swung him over his shoulder, then clambered up the side, with Yund giving him a hand. “Take him to the infirmary; we’ll pick you guys up after Zan’s fight.” Yund reached out to clap Victor on the shoulder but thought better of it, pulling his hand back. “We’ll get you to a bath to...

Victor 13: Underdog

Victor didn’t remember a lot between climbing out of the ring and slumping down against the wall in the roped-off area. There were only a handful of fighters standing around or laying on the wooden floor, everyone else presumably dead, injured, or off fighting in a pit. He remembered Ponda’s big meaty hand on the back of his neck, guiding him along the walkways above the pits, then his gruf...

Saturday delivery: More Victor Chapters

Dear Patrons - I'm running a little low on FWFW backlog, so I'm going to give you four more chapters from Victor's story today. Back on track with FWFW Monday.

Let me know if you like/hate anything, please.

Cheers!

Plum

M75

Morgan and Issa had found their roladii about a half-mile up the valley from where they’d tied their leads. As Issa had predicted, they’d pulled free when their supply of food had run low. Still, they hadn’t wandered far and came running when the two adventurers whistled. Issa was hugging and scratching Gopp, and Morgan did the same, running his hand over his mount’s dusty back and scra...

Victor 12: Crowd Favorite

Yund clapped Victor on the back, put his big, meaty arm over his shoulders, and led him back to their staging area. On the way, he said, “I told you those things are weak. You made minced cutlets of ‘em. Listen, your next fight isn’t in this bracket; we gotta wait for the first bracket fights to wrap up, so you might have twenty minutes or an hour. Go shake out the cobwebs, get some water...

Victor 11: Berserk

Victor didn’t sleep well the night Vullu left. He lay in his cage, feeling like he had way too much room to himself, and listened to the sounds of all the other prisoners. They came drifting over the wooden slats, between the bars of his cage, snoring, mumbling, farting, and rustling around in the scratchy hay. Victor used the piss bucket twice, always looking back and forth in the dim room, ...

Victor 10: Alone

“It’s a shame, but it’s the reality we live in, Victor.” Vullu was trying to sound composed, but Victor could see the pain in his eyes. He felt guilty for making the older guy feel like he had to comfort him. Vullu should be dealing with his own grief, not trying to console someone he hardly knew.

“Yeah. It sucks. Anyway, I’m sorry for your loss, Vullu.” Victor moved to his ...

Victor 9: Massacre

“That’s right, pull that rope next to Lesha!” Ponda shouted at Victor. He wasn’t sure who Lesha was, but he figured it was probably the Ardeni woman standing nearby. He grabbed the rope and yanked, and Ponda hollered, “Good!” He bent and pulled on a brass latch, and a massive section of the floor started sliding toward Victor, slipping underneath the wooden planks where he was stand...

Victor 8: Rage

Victor had to tiptoe when he returned to his cage with Ponda because he didn’t want some pissed-off pit fighter to toss shit at him for waking them up. He didn’t know if they’d actually do that, but Vullu had seemed serious about the risk, so he figured he wouldn’t take chances. He’d crept to his corner of the cage, curled up on some straw, and gone to sleep, listening to Yrella and V...

Victor 7: Core

Yrella hadn’t been lying about Yund not giving days off. The next morning and day went just the same as any of the others Victor had experienced in the Wagon Wheel. Wake up, get breakfast, workout, and go back to your cage to be bored shitless until the next day. At least it seemed to be going that way until the Boss, himself, approached Victor’s little trio as they were working on his axe ...

More Victor Chapters

I've written a few more chapters. They aren't on RR yet - still waiting on cover art. I'll probably post them all over the course of a couple days, though, so you all might as well have an early crack at 'em.

Appreciate any feedback!

O23

In the middle of the night, Olivia’s Core leveled again. She’d been a little surprised, but not terribly so; Sange had told her that early Core levels came quickly. She wasn’t too worried about hitting level ten from cultivation because she knew that only a tiny portion of the Energy she cultivated went toward her personal level, most of it went to her Core improvement, and until she star...

M74

When they entered the courtyard, it was empty save for Von-dak, who stood idly in the center of the open space. When he saw Morgan and Issa, his expression brightened, and he waved them over. “Let’s begin your lessons; my time is limited with you since you won’t be staying.”

“There’s a limit to how long we can stay here?” Morgan asked, stepping down the short stairway to the...

O22

Olivia slipped her book into her ring and stood up, stretching. She, once again, had lost track of time in the library and seemed to be the only occupant still studying. She winced as she straightened her wrists over her head; they were sore from combat training. Commander Grobak had them doing grappling drills over and over, and Olivia’s wrists and forearms were covered in bruises from yello...

Victor 6: Afterparty

Yund practically yanked Victor out of the ring when he finally moved to climb out. He pulled Victor up into a laughing hug and slapped his back several times. “By the Lady’s swingin’ tits! That was well done, boy! You and that old Ghelli made your Boss several sacks of beads!” He reached down for Sarl’s hand and pulled him out of the pit. “Come on, men! You can rest and watch the re...

Victor 5: Pit Night

The Rusty Nail was like a bad fever dream to Victor. As the sun set and the crowd grew, he and his comrades from Yund’s stable were kept sequestered in a roped-off section of the enormous warehouse, but he could see the craziness unfold from behind the ropes, just fine. Just like when he’d been led through the streets, he noticed the wide variety of people who cohabitated in this strange wo...

Victor 4: The Rusty Nail

Victor followed Yrella through the spear forms for the third time, stepping, thrusting, and shouting, “Eyah!” Then he brought the spear shaft around, pushing it with the rear gripping hand, then stepping back, snapping the spear back straight, and moving the spearhead in a small loop. He really didn’t know what the fuck all these moves were for, but he could imagine an enemy before him an...

Victor 3: Practice

After they ate, Yrella told Victor that they’d have two hours to exercise before they had to go back to their pen. She and Vullu led him out of the cafeteria to the large grappling hall. There were already about twenty others tousling, exercising, and lounging around on benches watching. “What keeps you all from rising up? Fighting your way out of here?”

“Aside from the fact that ...

Victor 2: Status

Victor had never been religious; sure, his Abuela was, and she made him go to church when he was little, but Victor had never seen eye to eye with the Catholic idea of life and death. That didn’t stop him from falling on his knees in the hay and praying for a while, though. Hands clasped in front of him, eyes squeezed shut, he performed more Hail Marys than he ever had in his life, all the wh...

Victor: 1. Summoned

Tucson was hot in the summer; that wasn’t anything new, but today the heat coming off the pavement felt particularly nasty to Victor. He was walking home from summer school - fuck Mr. Briggs and his fucking bullshit plagiarism. Victor spat and shook his head. No, he couldn’t blame Briggs. He’d paid Tony for that essay; it wasn’t Brigg’s fault that Tony had got it off the internet. “...

New Fiction for Writathon

Hey all,

I wanted to enter the Writathon that's going on over at Royal Road, but I had too much Falling with Folded Wings already written (I've got like three months banked beyond what is on Royal Road), so I've started a new, companion fiction. It features a new protagonist who gets to Fanwath via a different means than the colonists - the connection will get explained eventuall...

O21

Eyes closed against the bright lights, Olivia strained to tune out the murmured conversations, low humming of mantras, and the crackling, popping sounds of cantrips starting up and fizzling out. She was sitting at her table in the Spellcraft lab they’d moved to after the first day of courses. It was a wide room on the second sublevel of the main academy building with a low ceiling and lots of...

M73

Morgan stood and stretched, wincing at the sharp pains in his side and back. Even with the Energy Drain and the healing potion, his ribs were still tender, and something inside him wasn’t fully healed. He coughed and moved to wipe his mouth, only to wave his stump around in front of him. “Oh, god. That’s awkward.”

“What?’ Issa asked gently, still clinging close to him, her han...

M72

It's April! Thank you to all my new patrons and those of you that have stuck with me for another month.

Enjoy!

Morgan glanced at Issa; she nodded, and they both advanced down the center of the hall toward the man that Morgan presumed was the Swordmaster. The luminescent gallery of vanquished combatants watched them in silence, some standing behind the ta...

M71

Morgan held the orb at arm’s length, slightly worried because he could feel his Core spinning faster and reaching out toward it. “Do you feel anything from this? Like in your Core?” He held the orb out toward Issa, and she squinted, concentrating, then shook her head.

“No. What is it?”

“I don’t know, but my Core is really feeling agitated; the Energy is surging in me. ...

O20

Nervous buzzing filled the air as the students groused about the test or speculated on their possible scores. Olivia’s cohort had pulled her away from Sarice when they came out; now, they stood off to the side of the building, waiting for the report. Veena had just finished a lengthy exposition about how unfair the test had been and that they should have been given more time. “How many did ...

O19

Olivia’s first weekend at the academy started with a tedious morning of lying in bed studying runes. When she had woken up, she’d seen that Rald and the two Bogoli siblings were gone, and Shani was in the bathroom. Adaida was still breathing slow, deep breaths, even now, hours after dawn. Olivia smiled and kept writing runes over and over onto her notebook pages. She didn’t know what the ...