Archive | April 12, 2018

Cataloged (written for Patreon)

“But it’s in the catalog!  See, right here. I can show you.”

“Just because it’s… all right, show me.”

“See?” He pointed at the computer screen.  “Right there under ‘other resources’.” He had such a cute puppy-dog expression that had he been looking for – asking for – anything else, Monica probably would have bent over backwards to find it for, him whether or not it was in regulations.

“I… you’re correct.  There it is.”

When the Neufield-Mason Library had been bought out by Outlanders, many of the library staff had quit in an indignant show protest – either over the Library being for sale, it being sold, or it being sold to Outlanders. Continue reading

Waiting in the Bear Empire

First: Running in the Bear Empire
Previous: Sneaking Through the Bear Empire

🐻

“Shhh,” he murmured, and sat down next to her.  He moved his hands for a moment in military sign she didn’t recognize, and then, with a frustrated expression, drew in the dust on the ground.

She could read Deklegi script just fine: one man, hunter or farmer.

Not a threat – but right now they wanted nobody to know they had been there, much less to be able to give a reasonable description of their appearance.  She nodded and lay flat on the ground, concentrating on being as quiet as she could be. Next to her, Carrone did the same.

In the silence, she could hear the occasional twig snap as the man below them moved along.  He had the quiet step of someone used to the terrain, but she had the ears of someone who was being hunted and had been many times before.  From Carrone’s expression, his ears were nearly as good.

The man was tracking something – she hadn’t left tracks, had she?  It was too late to fix that, if she had. If he came up here… Continue reading