A Late Happy Birthday...

...to Ki Chard or, as Keel would fanatically remind me "His name is Vininiska! Not that human name!"

(Ki's birthday is September 18th.)

This year, this gregarious, overwhelmingly adorable, endearing, curious little drakoon with a big heart and a feisty terrier temper complex blew my scientific perceptions sky high and out of the galaxy. Because of him, I got interested in the digestive biology of predatory animals and I questioned what is right and wrong in regards to all animals. I found out how human digestive systems work too and so, it is because of Ki, this perhaps insignificant imaginary character that I now know how to possibly heal myself. It's because of Ki that my outlook on the world has changed - and it all started with my wondering how it is scientifically that Ki gets sick. Well, thanks to him, I do know that now. I know what is right to feed what type of animal. I know that diet can either make or break your health. The Earth's immune system starts in the sea - ours starts in our digestional tracts.



So today, I hold up my proverbial glass (of cider) in homage to Ki, the little drakoon full of fire and spark who completely blew my world away.

Thank you Ki. I look forwards to understanding you more - and this crazy species called Homo sapiens - even further.

Safe - EBV3 Excerpt

This one's especially for you Rachel! I've been at a loss lately for finding pieces that I can post on here, because I'm past the sequences where I can really post things for a lot of the characters, but here's a part early in Ki's living with the Everska Sxyarne that is a bit of a very small turning point concerning how he views his new world. Also, this is the first time in a long time that I get to post a scene in its entirety! Hopefully you enjoy.

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It felt like his stomach was boiling, the walls of his stomach oozing with almost painful discomfort. Ki’s feeling of being healthy had evaporated the moment he had fainted and woken up to the smell of blood still heavy on the air. Limp in the mound of blankets with Kelveniska standing over him, Ki had felt well enough at first, considering he had just fainted, only really feeling confused, but as he had remembered why he smelled blood, he had started feeling sick again. The door to the room had clattered open then with such brusqueness that he had jumped, his heart almost stopping and in through the doors had come Sukra and Alkane, covered in scarlet. They had turned to look expectantly at Ki, blood smeared on their bodies so liberally it was as if they had rolled in it, their hands gripping the hilts of swords wet with fresh greasy redness.


Ki had been transfixed. Not even the butcher had ever had that much blood on himself. He certainly hadn’t had it around his mouth, painted on theirs like gross icing. They could have been eating something messy, like stew, but Ki knew, staring at them, that they hadn’t been, the arterial stench of them making them look even more like murderers. He had never seen anything so grotesque or terror-inducing. Thick in his mind like the smell of the blood was the thought that the two drakoon had just killed somebody and from their slight smiles, they had liked it.

He had been unable to stop staring at them, his body beginning to shake, the world seeming to move around him more slowly than usual and in silence. He had a vague idea that Kelveniska had started yelling at the guard pair, that he was telling them off for something, but he could not hear anything, his ears ringing. Sukra and Alkane had looked startled, then almost insulted and they had walked off into the privy, miffed but they had moved slowly, so slowly that they almost stood still. Their departure had not helped Ki. He was still frozen, the blood smell bitter on his tongue. He could taste the blood. Instinctually he recognized the wretched smell of demise. Kelveniska had crouched down to watch him, blocking Ki’s view, but the sight of the two men covered in blood had already been embroidered into his memories. Shivering, Ki had scrambled up to Kelveniska like a terrified baby puppy and the drakoon had let him, holding him close until the blood smell had started to go away. Feeling weak, Ki had leaned up against the man until he had fallen asleep and he had awoken with the drakoon still watching over him.

Almost, he had been okay, huddled under several blankets and a mat like he was still five but something had felt wrong with his stomach. Kelveniska, noticing that he was awake had made to touch him and Ki had abruptly found himself facing the personal reality that he was not human. Hunter probably would have felt okay after a bit of sleep after smelling and seeing what Ki had seen, because Hunter just adapted to those sorts of things. Hunter had always been easygoing and positive. He would have tried to figure out the reason why the drakoon had been killed in the night and wouldn’t agonized like Ki on the point that it was dead, that Sukra and Alkane had killed it. Hunter would have agreed that it was bad that it had been killed, but maybe it had been done for a reason, maybe in defence?

Ki didn’t think like that, though for a long time he had been trained to. Now Ki was afraid, in a place where strangers who were killers lived and he was trapped with them as his cavalier neighbours. As Kelveniska reached for him, Ki shrank back, becoming as-dragon without even electing it and hissed, curling under a ball in his den of blankets. He forgot reason. The scared little animal that had always been inside of him was instructing him to hide away from the predators of his world. Other drakoon, specifically older ones were his mortal enemies. His panicked mind told him that he was in grave danger.


Hours passed, then two days and Ki remained perpetually terrified. Every move, sound and smell made his heart race. Kelveniska kept whispering to him, trying to reassure him, but Ki had not been rational enough to believe him even when he had been sane. Ki trembled constantly in his blanket den, eyes wide, heart hammering against his ribs. His stomach felt like it was twisting inside of him he was so sick with fear. Kelveniska offered Ki food again and again, but the smell of it was too alike to blood and Ki was too nauseous let alone mistrusting to take it. He growled at it and flicked his tail, seeing the meat not as food, but as a predator. He had no interest in food or water, even though his belly was empty and his throat was parched, his body weak. Ki’s muscles ached from being poised so long and at some point his injured hindleg had started bleeding for a while, but he ignored it. His bodily discomfort mattered not when he was so afraid. Everything was a predator, poised to kill him. Ki would not have trusted his own shadow if he had been able to see it. His entire being was focused on avoiding being killed by a predator and in his mind he was cornered. If he moved, if he broke cover, he would die…

Kelveniska laid down on his stomach in front of him and watched him worriedly. The emperor was not doing his paperwork today nor had he done it yesterday, not that Ki remembered what paperwork was. He watched Kelveniska with extreme suspicion, his muscle twitching half into a growl.

“Vininiska. Vininiska qytqe yz.” said the drakoon, but his attempt at easing Ki’s mind was again lost. ‘Qytqe yz - it’s okay’ just sounded like a nonsensical rival noise to Ki and he curled back his lip, voicing a livid threat.

The door opened and Ki smelled Sukra come in, but he did not look. He and Alkane had been banished by Kelveniska for scaring him and he could smell that they were annoyed, which only made him more petrified.

“Kelveniska.” said Sukra in a short voice. “Kelveniska qoai hensimk…”

“Na.” growled Kelveniska, disagreeing with whatever Sukra was saying without looking at him.

“Kelveniska.” snapped Sukra, arguing something. Ki heard his name and the word ‘kinton’ a lot, then Medyq mentioned several times, but he did not register the meaning. Sukra came into his view, a syringe cocked in the drakoon’s hand, its lethal point glistening and Ki remembered Medyq drugging him to transform. That had hurt… Ki slowly and unsteadily got to his paws, shaking off the blankets to free himself, twitching out his lethal tail, watching the syringe from under the bone ridges that scuted out over his eyes. He raised his wings, trying to make himself look bigger and stretched his legs, ignoring the twinge in his sore quarter. He would not be hurt by a syringe again. He would attack first and destroy it. The drakoon stopped arguing and Sukra muttered a pensive warning, pulling from a pouch on his sword belt a coil of leather and chain that Ki’s sharpening brain knew as a lead. Kelveniska got up slowly, staring at Ki.

“Vininiska, hana…” said Sukra, the words sounding like a challenge. Ki bared his teeth and growled louder, his voice a menacing rattle. Sukra’s expression hardened and he seemed to ready himself, the clip of the brutal braided lead in one hand, the end of it and the deadly looking syringe in the other. Sukra might as well of been holding a knife, for how Ki took the sight of it. Kelveniska backed out of the way, back behind Sukra, looking alarmed.

“Qoai Vininiska.” muttered Sukra dankly. Ki shifted his weight, almost kneading the blankets beneath his paws like a cat and then went still. All he could see now was his enemy. Sukra smirked, baring his teeth. “Qoai…”

Ki jumped, snarling as he leapt towards the syringe, jaws wide open, reaching paws hitting Sukra’s arm. Ki swung his head, distracted as he felt Sukra wrap his other arm with the lead around his neck, the adult drakoon growling something in his ear, then he felt the needle point pierce his hide and he thrashed, trying to get away, but he had miscalculated. Ki’s animal mind reeled. He had not thought Sukra would be so fast, faster than him and as his hurt hindquarter gave under his weight, he realized drearily that he had not counted on that either. He should have been panicking, trying to rip into Sukra’s face with his teeth, but the shaft of the syringe’s point was being pushed deeper under his skin and suddenly he was only nervous, the blind panic pushed away then conquered by the new sedative in his blood. Sukra gently put him down on the floor and Ki stood shakily by his leg, staring dazedly at a random crate along the wall, shivering. Sukra held the needle in his neck for a moment longer then pulled it out of Ki’s flesh, putting it away then calling to Kelveniska, who came and hugged Ki tightly about his shoulders.

Overcome, Ki started to whimper as the painful knot in his stomach came undone and unbidden he tried to get as close to Kelveniska as he could, huddling against him. The fear trickled away, the scared animal becoming less scared until it was calm enough to smell the creature holding it and relax. He leaned against Kelveniska until Sukra muttered a suggestion that Kelveniska transform, then the drakoon did, but Ki was not afraid. Kelveniska smelled no different as-dragon or as-elf. He was the same creature. Instinct, strong and undeniable made him scramble close, holding still as the drakoon turned and roughly licked his face. Ki was hardly aware of Sukra bending over his injured leg to look after it. Pinned under one of Kelveniska’s front paws and his wing against the drakoon’s side, Ki started to feel what the drakoon had been insisting that he was.

Safe.

Sniff Him on The Nose (EBV3 Excerpt)

After three posts for Sunny, I thought I should treat you brave few readers with an excerpt. In honour of Sunny, it's cat centered and as such, hopefully you'll find it amusing, as cats can be pretty charming animals. Elven cats may be able to speak in mindspeech, but they're still quite alike to the fiendish little house devils that cat lovers adore. Dansen, in particular, is very idiosyncratic and deserves his own youtube channel, but unfortunately, he's not a real cat, so I can't film him. In this part, Ki tries to get information out of Dansen, but Dansen won't budge, not unless Ki plunges his head in the cold waters of culture shock... slightly edited.



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Sukra got up and he followed him out the door and Sukra let him follow him all the way across the office to the doors at the other end of the hallway, where there was some mail waiting, pushed under the door by the guards on the other side. Ki stood beside Sukra and watched him sort through the mess of letters, tossing some aside to Alkane who looked disapproving, opening others to read them while not looking at some of the letters at all. He held an unintelligable letter up in front of Ki’s face and said something the man obviously found personally amusing then went to his post by the door, leaving the messy stack of letters waiting for Kelveniska on the desk. Ki looked at the letter again and felt a little ill as he realized that human hands had written it, for in the bottom left corner there was stamped the Escavian Coat of Arms. Under that was the name of the Escavian Viceroy, Samuel Fletch.


The letter was very long, the hand writing cramped and rough compared to the more fluidly written drakoon letters around it. Ki felt a hollow feeling inside looking at it. This was a communication from home, but he couldn’t even read it to figure out what was going on because it was written in a language that he still couldn’t understand. He couldn’t even write anything back. He couldn’t send anything, any message asking for help to save him and his brother from this place. Ki couldn’t look at it anymore. He looked up and Sukra was smirking at him maddeningly, Ki comprehending at once what the drakoon had found so funny about the letter. All at once Sukra seemed incredibly cruel; how could any decent person find it amusing than another being was trapped somewhere where they did not want to be, that they couldn’t even call for help when a letter from their homeland came?


“I hate them all.” muttered Ki crouching down in his place beside the desk and glaring over his knees.

Kelveniska scolded Ki for sitting the way he was and told him to transform when he came in. On went Ki’s halter, then the day persisted, Kelveniska answering all of his letters including the human one (Ki noticed he took a little longer than usual reading that one, grimacing as if he found reading it painful) and then went to work again on his machinery schematic. Ki was intensely bored, every single hour a torment. Was sitting here going to be his existence for the rest of his life? Didn’t drakoon ever go outside? He was sick of being inside and of seeing these walls. He wanted to see something new and he wanted to run. All his keepers ever let him do was eat, sleep and follow their commands. It was an immensely dissatisfying life and since it was always dark in the dreary barren windowless office, Ki felt rather depressed. He could almost feel himself going insane from it. No wonder he was so grumpy, when he was essentially living like a prisoner in captivity.

SERIOUSLY, do you ever do anything other than write or draw? Ki growled at Kelveniska halfway through the painful day. Kelveniska told him to be quiet and gave a sharp reinforcing tug on the lead. Ki rolled his eyes and flopped down, putting his head between his paws. That man never does anything interesting. Doesn’t he have secretaries or something who could do all this writing for him? He’s rich. He should.

Yet Kelveniska did not have any secretaries and except for mail retrieval, the sketzine did almost nothing to help him in his never ending flow of paperwork. Ki pitied Kelveniska, but he knew that he himself actually had it worse; his only current job was to eat food and, evident from their imposed lack of activity upon him, to get fat. Ki drearily cast a look across his thin hindquarters and ribs, every bone in his body seeming to stick out to him. Yes, he needed to get fatter he supposed, but he also needed excersize too. He didn’t want to turn from a weak scrawny creature into a weak portly one. He looked across at Sukra and Alkane. How do they keep so trim, when all they do is stand there?

“Vininiska, larx!” ordered Kelveniska, shaking the lead at him. Ki had been growling under his breath. He turned his head as he smelled Dansen coming and hissed at the cat, who dared to come and rub up against him anyway.

Vyze Vininiska, you seem to be growling a lot. Why are you in such difficulty? asked the cat, sitting down infuriatingly in front of him.

Why is it that a stupid cat is the only thing I have to talk to? grated Ki mentally. Dansen cocked his head.

I, stupid? I don’t think so. You should put a better guard on your thoughts Vininiska, thinking like that isn’t seemly. said Dansen. Ki growled. I can’t help but hear when you think so loudly.

I think loudly? demanded Ki, feeling violated at having his thoughts read.

Oh yes. You should think much quieter and be more specific about if you’re just thinking to yourself or not, or else anybody can hear. said Dansen, looking as smug as the Cheshire cat. Obviously though, growing up in that dreadful human place you never had to learn because nobody there had the capacity to listen to you. From what I’ve heard, humans don’t have magic like us.

The cat licked a paw. You never had anybody to talk to who understood, did you?

I don’t want to talk to you. snarled Ki. Get away from me.

No, I don’t think I will. I had news, you know, considering that human, but since you’re so rude, I don’t think I’ll tell you. said Dansen, still cleaning himself, wiping his face with his dampened paw.

That human? repeated Ki, his heart suddenly pounding.

The only one in Sloveniska. said Dansen amusedly, licking his back leg and tail now. My mate knows all about that one. She’s been following him with quite a lot of interest.

Is Hunter alright?! cried Ki, the sound he made a high pitched keening shriek.

That hurts my ears. said Dansen, getting up and stretching exuberantly, curling his fluffy tail over his back. The cat padded over to Kelveniska and pawed at his leg. Kelveniska, Kelveniska, let me into my den please.

Kelveniska pulled open the biggest bottom drawer of the desk and Dansen jumped inside, sticking out his head for a moment. Thank you Kelveniska. I’m going to sleep now, you have a nice day. Don’t worry about keeping Vininiska quiet for me, you know I can sleep through anything.

“Aya Dansen, cwid hensin.” said Kelveniska and as Dansen popped his head down Kelveniska pushed the drawer closed, then immediately went back to work. Ki stared.

Alright, that might have just been the most peculiar thing I have ever seen. thought Ki, trying to say it to himself. A cat that lives in a desk…

Ki tried to be patient waiting for the cat to finish his nap, but after only ten minutes he couldn’t stand waiting anymore. He sidled up beside Kelveniska and pawed at the desk drawer where Dansen was, trying to wake him up.

Dansen! Dansen what about Hunter? Please tell me! said Ki, switching paws to scratch with his other as the first got too tired. Dansen didn’t answer. He didn’t even meow.

DANSEN! chirred Ki. Dansen! Wake up! Please! I can’t stand it, I need to know! Is Hunter okay?

For at least a minute, nothing happened, then an aggravated, drowsy yowl echoed from within the drawer. Stop scratching, you’re hurting the desk. Kelveniska; open the drawer. I must speak to Vininiska where I can see him.

Kelveniska sighed heavily and opened the drawer, Dansen slowly peeking his head out until he and Ki were nose to nose.

Alright Vininiska, I shall admit now that you have a stupendous capacity to be greatly annoying. said Dansen levelly. He seemed tired. If I tell you something of what my mate Manuska told me and you do something for me, will you leave me alone?

Ki cocked his head. That didn’t sound like a good deal. He wanted to know everything that Manuska knew about Hunter.

Oh I can’t tell you all of that. Some of it’s quite controversial, Sukra would have a fit if he discovered I’d told you and Kelveniska isn’t very pleased with the idea either. said Dansen. But I can tell you a little. Now, will you agree to that?

What’s so controversial about Hunter? demanded Ki.

Well firstly, the fact that he’s in our territory. Humans don’t belong here Vininiska. It’s very dangerous. said Dansen. The cat cocked his head. So?

Ki shifted his weight and looked aside. He really, really needed to know about Hunter. Even if it was only a little bit of information, it would be something right?

Fine. What do you want me to do? asked Ki.

Dansen inclined his head towards the blandly watching Kelveniska. Stand up on your hind legs and sniff noses with him.

Ki recoiled, disgusted. I’m not doing that!

Dansen flattened his ears. You are if you want to know about the dog-human! Why are you disgusted by it? It’s how your species says ‘vyze’ when they’re dragons you dolt. It’s like both individuals saying ‘Vyze, how are you’ and answering ‘oh fine’ without actually speaking it. You have to learn this Vininiska, it’s how you can gage health in another animal.

Why would I want to know that? snapped Ki.

Well, firstly because it’s a way that you can determine where you yourself stands within the hierarchy of a group and secondly because if they’re an opponent you can learn whether or not you have any advantage. Also, every animal species in the world but humans do it.

Ki grimaced. How badly did he need to know?

Really badly; Ki turned towards Kelveniska and tensed his hindquarters, ready to stand on them, then it occurred that he had no idea what he was doing. He looked back at Dansen. What do I do?

Sniff him on the nose. Isn’t it self explanatory?

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Easier said than done Dansen! Humans don't sniff noses with each other, so while what Dansen is asking of Ki is completely innocent, Ki has a habit of thinking of everything in human terms - in this case, innocent nose snuffling gets turned into something more akin to a kiss in Ki's poor humanized brain, so the prospect of sniffing noses with Kelveniska - another dude and an older one - freaks the hell out of him. One of the best things about Ki is his ability to tell right from wrong - surprising amongst drakoon - but at the same time, he often gets things wrong, especially when cross culture stuff is concerned. Eventually though, with a lot of pushing and shoving, the little guy adapts and conquers the strange situations that he encounters...

EBV3 Excerpt - Dream - Chapter 52 Start

Whenever I read parts of my manuscript now, I try to think of how I'd conceptualize them in my development art project. I just read a part before this where I thought I would show the change in season by a classic change in colour palette, from soft green to orange, to blue grey and in this, I think I would use very bold tones of red in green, like what I used in some of my older paintings. When I work with acrylics I often enjoy the use of bolder, harder colours than when I normally colour things, which I think is kind of interesting. (Of course that's partially because paint kind of infuriates me.) In any case, enjoy this excerpt from Emperor's Blood where we get to see some interaction between Ki and another character. Draft.


Summery fields stretched as far away as the horizon, rows upon rows of potatoes and squash roasting under a warm dry sun. Ki could taste the heat in the air and there was a divine odour of dry greenery that he had always liked, combined with the flavour of ripening apples. Horses grazed nearby in a paddock fenced with white washed boards, chestnut, sorrel and bay, express horses like Snip had been, fine boned but shaggy, small yet swift with feathering on their slender legs. Ki leaned back in the scratchy old grey wooden rocking chair on the veranda of the red painted farmhouse. It wasn’t his farm, the one he had grown up on, but it was comfortable and soothing and nobody was there but him. There was a scruffy black dog resting at his feet on top of an old scrap rug woven of tidbits of fabric and on top of the veranda railing there sat a ginger tabby cat that was washing itself. If Ki breathed in deep enough he could smell a lake nearby and the sand on the road that led to it beyond the orchard trees that shaded the property. In the yard a flock of little red chickens clucked under a fairytale blue sky that had been swirled with clouds.

Nobody there but him and his animals. Ki sighed heavily in relief. This place was paradise. If he never had to leave it he would be extremely happy.

“It’s not real you know.” said a voice from in front of the door. Ki lazily looked over, recognizing his friend the dragon.

“This place? Yeah. I know. It’s too good to be real.” said Ki, slowly rocking the chair, the motion soothing him. The world seemed real enough as the dog looked up at him with big soft brown eyes and wagged its tail. Ki stopped rocking to reach down and pet it and felt reassuringly fine black fur sweep against his fingertips. The dog put its head back down and moaned contentedly as the dragon came closer, its sharp claws clicking against the wood of the porch.

“You have a vivid imagination Vininiska.” said the dragon, sitting down and staring contemplatively at the dog. “Is that a dog? A real dog?”

“Yep.” said Ki, smiling sleepily at the paddock where the horses were and beginning to rock again. Everything was so green and lovely. There were white flowers planted near the pasture and one of the horses was straining to get at them through the fence. “That’s a real dog.”

“I’ve never seen a dog. They’re not something from here you know. We don’t have them.” said the dragon, twitching its tail as it peered at the cat. “And that, Vininiska, is the oddest looking cat that I have ever seen. I can’t help but disapprove of the colouring of it. Shouldn’t it be black? Or grey? Or white? Shouldn’t its fur be longer?”

“Nope. That’s a real cat.” said Ki fondly. “Not like your cats. He doesn’t speak. He doesn’t listen. All he does is purr and ask for pets. He’s a good cat. A normal cat.”

“Doesn’t look normal at all to me.” said the dragon, peering at the horses. “Those horses are peculiar as well. What are those little red things? Food?”

“Chickens. They lay eggs. Nice animals.” said Ki. The dragon recoiled.

“You don’t eat them? That’s very strange Vininiska. Very strange.” said the dragon. Ki did not have the energy to glare at it.

“You’re much stranger than the chickens. I don’t even know who you are.” said Ki. “You just appeared one day. Who are you?”

The dragon seemed to grin at him. “Who am I…? What sort of question is that? We met a long time ago.”

“I don’t remember.” said Ki. “Do you know where Hunter is? There‘s nobody I can really ask besides you.”

“The not-dog? I know. Of course I know. I know everything - almost - didn’t you know that?” asked the dragon, quirking its head. Its lips did not move when it spoke; it simply held its mouth open.

“No.” said Ki, running a hand through his hair. In this dream, it was perfect hair, not short ticked drakoon hair that stood up impossibly, but longer, silkier hair like a human’s, like Hunter’s but as black as soot.

“Well. You’re very strange you know.” said the dragon. “Yes but… ah, yes. Hunter. He’s fine. He’s doing better now. For a while I was not sure if he would live, but he came through in the end. He’s actually managed to make himself quite happy, so I would not worry about him. He lives by a waterfall. The one I worry about is you… are you doing any better? It’s been almost four and a half months since you came home to us.”

Ki sat up and in the distance, his idyllic dream of a farm with no problems started chipping away, the details going first, the landscape, then the animals, then the chair Ki sat on, then the smells. The dragon remained, its yellow eyes and pink mouth stark against the colourless world of the dream. Ki had the strangest feeling that it was real, that unlike the farm of his imaginings the dragon was truly there, sitting there with him in his mind, touchable, reachable, like he could have met it in the real world and continued a discussion with it. He wasn’t dictating what it was saying or what it was doing. It had no smell, yet for some reason Ki did not expect it to have any smell. It was not really a creature that should have one.

“I suppose… I suppose I’m getting better.” said Ki hesitantly. “But… you know I don’t really know what better is. Better just feels different to me. Was I ever really healthy?”

“You were when you were born. You were very strong then.” said the dragon, as if it had been there.

“Well. I can run while holding my wings up now without falling over. My tail barely makes me trip at all anymore and I can outrun both of Kelveniska’s sketzine. I can almost write my name. Um. I suppose you don’t care about that.” said Ki.

“Not particularly, but I’m gladdened to hear that you are improving.” said the dragon sighing as it stood up. “I’m afraid I have to go prematurely Vininiska. Be good today. I’ll keep looking out for that human of yours if you concentrate getting ready for the war that’s coming.”

“Wait!” said Ki, standing up. “Why are you going? You’re the only person besides Dansen that I can talk to! What war? Please stay and tell me! Why do I have to get ready for war?”

“This land is always at war with somebody.” shrugged the dragon. “Hasn’t anybody told you that?”

“No!” yelped Ki. “I got deported here just so that I could be a soldier in some war?!

“No. You’re the one who’s going to make the war.” said the dragon, staring at him speculatively, pausing in mid step. “Well, I’d love to stay and talk to you longer, but you’re waking up. Goodbye for now Vininiska. Be good. Be ready.”

The Other Way Pt 2

I figured it was time for another installment of my alternate reality short of my trilogy Emperor's Blood, 'The Other Way.' In this regrettably last part, we get to see into Eva's head a little and we start to find out how a carnivorous drakoon kitten (the drakoon word for baby cat and for baby drakoon is one and the same - their language is so much more simple than ours) survived without its own kind, especially its parents to look after it. It was from this story and pondering Ki's remarkable survival as an infant without his real parents that I decided that drakoon are born independent, as reptiles are though still needy enough that they need the protection of their parent(s).

These are the glory days of Ki's young life. It is here, in his youth that he is strongest and most capable, but this is also the turning point, because like the dinosaurs in at the end of the Late Cretaceous, traumatic change is coming for him...
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The paper in her hands wasn’t promising. Eva bit her lip, noting direly that her foster son was still barely managing to keep above failing in most of his academic courses, though he had excelled, getting the top grades in the entire school at Equestrian where his instructor commented that Ki should really be in a grade or two above, he was so good. He certainly wasn’t being challenged by his equestrian course. The instructor recommended the seven year old as a potential for making his career with horses. He’d be good at it. Meanwhile in Art, Ki’s grades were very strong, but not the best and the instructor comment was ‘…shows general disinterest in drawing anything besides horses, which he is very good at for a seven year old, but I’d like to see him draw other things too. His dragon was good, even though it was purple. It had a striking resemblance to the Fallan God Riveera, the sky dragon god of the afterlife with the tail spines Ki drew it having.’

Ki was ever a peculiar child. He was moody, as highstrung and flighty as a sand horse yet as stubborn as a cow while at the same time he was quiet, so quiet that sometimes you could forget that he was there. He had always been quiet though, for as a baby he had been unnaturally silent, so silent that Eva and Mattie had both worried, but all for not, because eventually when he had spoken – he never cried or bawled; you had to gage his mood from his facial expressions to see if he needed anything – he had spoken better than most four year olds, at only six months from his adoption. Of course they had had no idea how old Ki really was, but from his tiny size, Eva had guessed not much older than Hunter. At first the baby Ki had seemed rather put off by his new surroundings and had crawled under the bed many times before they had thought to block it off. Now, at seven, Ki was still crawling under the bed to hide and worse, because recently he had discovered a way onto the roof and there was simply no coercing him down from there.

He was also a very picky child. As a baby when they had offered him milk he had turned his nose aside just like a food critic. Ki had refused to drink any of it and had clamped his tiny jaws shut when they had tried to give it to him anyway. Eventually Eva had given up; perhaps Ki was older than she thought – and she had soft boiled an egg up and while not altogether sure that what she was to try was healthy at all for the tiny orphan, she had mashed the egg up, than offered it to Ki who had barely sniffed it before gobbling it up. This had seemed alright, until Eva had gone to Seamist to ask for advice with feeding the fussy baby to make sure the egg was alright and a woman had told her she’d be better off with carrots. Ki had taken only one bite of that, barely a lick before he had rejected the rest of it and refused to ever eat anymore until at least a year later. Eva had tried all matter of vegetables with him, since they were supposedly better, but her son had not wanted vegetables. He had wanted egg. Worried that he might not be getting his proper nutrition, Eva had then cut up some fish from her own dinner one night, very fine and against the better judgment of mothers everywhere, she had given it to the seemingly newborn orphan, who, Eva realized in a heartbeat, liked fish even better than he liked egg. Deciding to trust that the baby knew what was good for him, for he would have turned aside from anything else, Eva had next tried chicken with him, then a bit of beef and mutton.

Ki had taken to meat like a falcolf to the sky.

Next Eva tried mixing small amounts of vegetable into Ki’s eggs, which worked, but the baby didn’t seem to like it as much. While Hunter was still being nursed Ki was getting a full set of teeth and Eva set out to introduce him to more solid food which Ki rarely liked unless it was heavy in protein like the egg. He didn’t like bread or grain. He hated oatmeal. He did eat cheese, after a careful introduction grew to love it, so long as it was the tasty, salty kind that wasn’t bitter. Ki absolutely refused to consume anything bitter. As he had grown up he had stayed picky, disliking raw vegetables and constantly trying to sneak anything they gave him that was vegetarian to his brother, complaining that it would make his stomach hurt. Hunter never complained, but Hunter was large and hale, as healthy as a horse with an appetite to match. Hunter ate nearly anything. Eva was lucky if she could convince Ki to take a lettuce and salted butter sandwich, even with threat of punishment hanging over his ears and it was becoming painfully apparent that Ki would rather starve than eat even the most well dressed of salads. If there was any egg or cheese cubes in the salad, Ki could be trusted to ferret them out from the humble greens which he would then do everything in his power to ignore as he ate the tastier bits.

Ki was an abnormally finicky eater, Eva had long decided, but there were other things which were strange about him which she had no explanation for. She could not explain how he had never caught even a mild sniffle, all the times that Hunter had been sick. She could not explain that dreadful incident the first Krissmus when she had turned around to see him standing under the turkey in the fireplace, his socks aflame yet seemingly unaware of the fact. She had screamed and had been terribly relieved when she had seen that his feet were completely unscathed, but then she had been a little disconcerted by this later, for time and time again Ki demonstrated that he did not have even the slightest notion of when things were hot or when they were cold. He didn’t seem able to feel temperature. More confusingly, he didn’t seem effected by it at all and he could go out in mid winter wearing next to nothing for hours when the temperatures were at their worst when most children would have froze and come back absolutely unaffected, as if it was summer with not even any frost in his hair. His nose never ran when it was cold. Hunter always returned with his nostrils running like a broken well pump and hoarfrost stuck to his hair, but Ki always returned pristine. He never even got cold hands.


Eva had to make Ki layer up in the winter, fearing that people would call her a bad mother and whisper that she was an unfit parent for the orphan if she let him go about as he wanted. In summer it was a struggle to keep a shirt on the boy, because she didn’t want anyone to see how his ribs stuck out, or how painfully thin he was no matter how much she fed him. Ki seemed unable to get fat, even enough to cover his sharp bones. Eva made a compromise with the child by making him very light summer clothes, enough to cover him but still let him feel the wind. Ki seemed to very dearly like feeling the wind though Eva had no idea how he still could with no sense of temperature.

Eva put down Ki’s grade paper and rubbed at her temple. So many of his grades were close to failing. She knew he was smart – he could beat her at chess, which everyone agreed was very difficult – but he didn’t seem able to apply his intelligence to most of what was taught in his schooling. Eva gloomily checked his score for Fallan and saw that that at least was one academic course that he was good at. He wasn’t terribly awful at Science or Biology or History either, but he wasn’t great. He was rated very good at English, so long as no serious grammar or creative writing were involved. Ki didn’t care for technical things.

The subject of all her thoughts rushed in like a hurricane, skidded to a halt beside her, heaving and panting, then opened his hands to show her that he had caught a little green grass bug. Eva barely had a chance to look at it before he was rushing off to show her sister, than throw it out the window, all the while breathing as hard as horse after an entire day of hard riding. Eva frowned at that, stepping out to catch him as he came back and feeling his skin beneath her fingers burn, as warm as it was stone if heated by a fire, an unnatural heat. Nobody normal got this warm after merely running. Ki giggled at being caught and hugged her arm, clearly wanting to play with her, but Eva was worried.

“That’s enough roughhousing Ki. Come help me make dinner.” said Eva, hugging him from behind so that he couldn’t see the worry on her face.

“But I wanna play!” complained Ki, writhing in her arms like a puppy. A very, very warm puppy. Eva could feel his body heat through her thick woolen sweater.

“After dinner.” promised Eva. Ki twisted and peered at her, his large inquisitive eyes as golden as the twenty-four karats that her mother’s wedding ring had been made of, a ring lost in Eva and her sister’s childhood. The loss of the relic had always haunted Eva’s father – it had come from Earth and had been a family heirloom. Ki stared at her, sniffing, suddenly no longer hyper.

“Momma what’s wrong?” asked Ki and Eva blinked, astonished as always by her foster son’s uncanny perceptiveness. He always knew exactly how she was feeling. Exactly. Mattie and Hunter too. Ki never just asked how any of them were feeling – he just seemed to already know. When Mattie had been angry at Ki for chasing the chickens when he was three Ki had somehow avoided her for a week straight, hiding in all manner of places until Eva had finally managed to trap him so that Mattie could reassure him that she didn’t hate him. Ki had been so emotionally wounded and traumatized from that experience that for a year he had barely gone within twenty feet of the chicken coop and had absolutely refused to collect the eggs for another two, going in through the gate to the run like he was walking to his death, all the while acting like a cowering dog fearing a beating. As far as Mattie had said, all she’d done was yell at him for spooking the biddies. Instead it seemed she’d put a fear of divine retribution into Ki’s heart. He still wouldn’t touch a chicken unless it was dead, which was rare, since they only ate the cockerals that they didn’t want. The hens they kept until they died of natural causes, then they traded them to be made into dog food.

“What are you worrying about Mom?” asked Ki, his face turned to hers, tucked under her chin.

“Nothing you should worry about.” said Eva as gently as possible, putting him down and kissing him on the head, then spreading her arms to try to make him excited. “Come help me wash potatoes!”

“I hope you’re okay.” said Ki worriedly, staring at her gesture rather blankly. Eva grabbed his hand and led him to the sink, grabbing a stool and putting it down so that he had a leg up. She turned the crank on the water pump that loomed over the stoppered brass sink and good spring water gushed out. They both drank a glass of water each as the sink filled up, then in went the potatoes to be scrubbed, golds from the autumn before, a bit wrinkly and eyed, but still good enough for the frying pan. Ki scrubbed them with the dish brush while Eva set to work cutting away the bad bits from the potatoes that passed her foster son’s meticulous inspections, putting the potatoes she finished in a bowl with a bit of water to keep them from browning from oxygen exposure. After all the potatoes were clean and edited of inedible parts Eva gave Ki a plate and a grater at the table while she built up the fire in the stove from the morning meal’s embers, then with fresh butter she greased the big old cast iron frying pan that her mother had taken so much pride in. Flicking water onto the stove’s metal surface, she tested it for heat and when the water spat back at her, she moved on the frying pan, throwing in another spoonful of butter. Ki gave her his first plate of potatoes which she threw in the pan, tossing in some dill weed and sea salt for seasoning.

“More potatoes Ki!” said Eva and Ki quickly brought her plate after plate of gratings until all the potatoes were grated and in the frying pan, sizzling in the butter. Eva turned the potatoes over and over, making sure they were evenly seasoned and crispy on all sides, than she directed Ki to go get Hunter and Mattie, as well as some eggs. Ki was torn between being leery and excited about the latter demand, but he obeyed anyway and soon as their family was sitting down Eva was cracking tiny bantam eggs into the frying pan beside the potatoes, the yokes as orange as sunset. One more dash of seasoning, a flip, than Eva served everything out onto four plates and placed them before each member of her family. Making sure everyone was seated and comfortable, Eva took her place, than they held hands and thanked the planet and the horse goddess Spiira for the bounty before them. They thanked the god of catastrophe for letting them have it.

And, I pray, Eva added silently, that my son gets better someday.

In the flickering light of the tapers, dyed green for Spiira, they ate their dinner.

Eva tried not to notice how the candlelight made her son’s eyes glitter like a cat’s.

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In this sequence, one other thing which I got to do was explore the diet of northern Escavians and think about how they lived. Like the Irish in historical times, Escavians use potatoes as well as other hardy vegetables that keep well for survival and the recipe described for fried potatoes is actually one that I use, only I use olive oil for my pan instead of butter. Olive oil wouldn't be very common on Rimer, if it exists there at all, so since there are plenty of cows and sheep about, Eva uses butter. I thought pretty hard about this part; potatoes are plants after all, and thinking about Ki's carnivorous biology, I wondered if this would be okay. In the end I decided it was; potatoes in this sense are 'predigested' - aka cooked, so the starch in them has been broken down, so while the carbs in the potatoes do nothing for him, he can at least have them run through his digestive tract without them causing him any pain. Also, he's eating eggs here too, the item from which he has mostly survived his childhood through. Eggs are a perfect protein rich food, so by eating them, Ki's at least somewhat meeting his youthful need for protein and luckily, if there is one thing which farms have a lot of, it's eggs. Ki has access to an almost limitless supply of them and I can imagine that on nice days, when the tide is out, Ki and Hunter might run out onto the tidal flat and gather food there.

Time and time again I've questioned Ki's survival and what he can and cannot eat. The answer is, he can't metabolize most of what humans eat, because most of what Escavians eat is imported from Earth. Just like chocolate, garlic and onions are all deadly toxic to dogs and cats (NEVER feed them to your pet - NEVER!) there's a great many alien things from Earth which just don't sit well with Ki's stomach or the stomachs of most other native carnivorous Rimarians. Come on - it's logical. Humans are still basically eating a diet from another planet, so why would specialized creatures like the native carnivores be able to eat their food? Carbohydrates of any kind do nothing for carnivores (that's right and that's why your pets should be eating grain free diets) and carnivores don't have the capacity to digest starches, (only hardcore herbivores can really do that) so it makes sense that Ki would be allergic to a lot of the things which the humans would be eating, especially the salad greens, which are raw. His poor digestive tract just can't handle the hellish culinary roughage known as salad, nor could he eat a potato if it was raw.

To date, I have firmly decided that drakoon are allergic to at least spinach, possibly also garlic, onions and cacao as our pets are.

Also, the reason Ki won't eat anything bitter? Bitter things are often poisonous!

The Other Way - Part 1

The following comes from a brilliantly written unfinished short story that was based on the concept of actions and choices having resonating consequences in history. The idea of this story, 'The Other Way' was a second generation of this idea, coming from the original 'The Way it Should Have Been' in which the choice one character makes completely changes the outcome of the story (Emperor's Blood) in a seperate reality. This is how much I think about my stories. 'The Way it Should Have Been' was rather mystical in a way, while 'The Other Way' was based upon the choices of the human character Evangaline Chard or 'Eva.' Eva plays a fairly big role in EB, even if she rarely if ever appears - she is Ki, the protagonist's surrogate mother and it was in thinking about her during the writing of my graphic short 'My Brother is Weird' that I thought that her choices would have had a huge influence on Ki's life - and how it turned out the way it does. Eva, being Ki's foster mother, is responsible for his health, but she doesn't know that he is not human so she has no idea that his needs as a carnivore are very different from a normal human child's like Hunter's. Thinking about her, I tried to figure out why this character, this caretaker guardian, doesn't do something about the fact that something is obviously wrong with Ki as he suffers under the heavy yoke of how humans live their lives. You would think that any logical mother would call a doctor when their young son's body temperature rises above 100, yet Eva doesn't. In the end, I came to the conclusion that some legends from our modern culture, such as governments dissecting new species such as aliens if they find them, would transcend into Rimarian culture and thus into Eva. Eva knows something is gravely wrong with Ki, but because she is afraid of what the government might do to him, she doesn't tell them. She doesn't take him to the doctor.

But that is all canonical - the concept behind 'The Other Way' is that Eva does bite the bullet. She does take Ki to a doctor - and ultimately, he is discovered by his own species, far sooner than he is in the real story. This is particularly interesting, because when Ki is a child - or rather, a kitten, he's a very different person than when he is older. As a kitten, Ki's still waiting for his real parents to come for him and he is in fact very cynical of his human family, but as he gets older and he gives up on his blood family finding him, he loses that cynicism, turning it towards his unknown relations who in his head never bothered to even look for him. That's Ki. Imagine how affronted he is, as a near adult when his own species comes to town and he is forced to face them - as well as his own identity. In this story, Ki is in the transition between feeling cynicism towards his human family and to his real one.

'The Other Way' is incomplete. However, the parts that are, are written quite beautifully and are a personal model for how I want EB to be written, so here's the first chapter.

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It just didn’t look right. Even with looking at illustrations of dragons, Ki’s dragon didn’t look like he wanted it to, but there laid the problem, because he was not sure what it was supposed to look like, just that everything he was doing was wrong. He was trying to draw a particular type of dragon he knew, but he had no idea what kind it was. He had tried describing it, but he didn’t even know what colour it was, just how it felt, big, full of teeth and powerful, a king predator of predators.

Perhaps the problem was that he usually drew horses. He wasn’t used to drawing dragons. Dragons were different; they had wings, spines, claws and teeth where horses were gentle and hoofed. You couldn’t make a horse scary, at least in Ki’s opinion, but he had never been afraid of a horse and he was afraid of a dragon. How did a dragon make itself scary? Just by walking up to you and hissing? Maybe you didn’t even see it coming. Maybe a dragon would come from behind and bite the back of your neck like some falla did. Maybe dragons just seared you dead in an instance with their fire, than ate your cooked flesh. Was that how dragons hunted? Was that how they killed?

Ki usually didn’t really care much for dragons, but drawing a dragon was his homework for Art Class, so he wanted it to be better than everybody else’s. Hunter’s dragon was horrible looking, a big ugly red thing that didn’t even look remotely real. Its jaws were twisted and gnarly and a gusher of drool was falling from them, while a spurt of orange colour represented fire. Its eyes were yellow.

Yellow. Ki thought that that might be right. Dragons and predatory animals usually had yellow eyes didn’t they? He grimaced. He didn’t know for sure. He didn’t like adding a detail if he didn’t know for sure that it was real and factual. What would become of his standards if he just used any old colour? He might be too clumsy to draw something absolutely realistic, but he could at least give it realistic colours. He owed it to himself and common sense. Ki hated things which didn’t make sense. Mathematics was a good example of nonsensical things which he hated, which also happened to be the homework that he should have been working on but wasn’t, preferring the dragon assignment.

But what colour is a sky dragon? wondered Ki in frustration. All his references were black and white. It said in the description of the Tarnese Indigo Dragon or Sky Wolf that those were blue, but so were Wind Drakes. Tiger Dragons weren’t blue. They were green or grey, with splotchy, stripey markings to make them blend in with the old growth forests where they lived. Ki liked the idea of tiger dragons, but they looked nothing like his dragon, whatever it was. It didn’t feel like his dragon was blue. He would have known if it was blue, but what other colour could it be? Wraith Dragons were tawny and grey. Ki’s dragon looked nothing like a wraith. He frowned at the heavy spines he’d put on its tail, wondering if they were right, laboring yet again over the addition of them. Why couldn’t he just decide and be simple like other children?


“Ki! Are you doing your homework?” called his adoptive mother Eva.

“Yes!” said Ki, staring angrily at his drawing. Why can’t I get this right? It’s going to bother me for ages if I can’t!

“Are you working on your math?” called Eva again.

“I’m not done with Art!”

“Ki, it’s almost time for bed, you know you should work on your math!” called Eva.

“Yes Mom!” said Ki, ignoring her suggestion as he continued to eye the paper. He had no idea what colour to make his dragon, though he was pretty sure he wanted to make its eyes yellow. Beautiful, golden yellow with a hint of orange, like his eyes. Ki grimaced; he really wasn’t sure whether to hate or like his eyes. They were too unique. He’d never seen another person with eyes like his.

A cacophony on the stairs announced the arrival of his brother, Hunter, raced into their attic room and leaped up onto Ki’s bed, displacing some of the mattress’ lumpy stuffing as he leaned over Ki’s shoulder.

“I knew it! Momma sent me to see if you’d switched to math yet!” hissed Hunter. “Why haven’t you coloured your dragon yet? Just pick a colour! Teacher won’t care if it looks real or not!”

“I care.” grumbled Ki. “Hunter, can you tell Eva and Mattie I’m on math anyway?”

“Nooo.” said Hunter, hugging Ki around the waist. Ki tried to wriggle free, grabbing at Hunter’s wrists, but Hunter was stronger than him and squeezed him instead of letting go.

“Hey let go!” hissed Ki.

“Work on math then. Colour the dragon purple.” said Hunter.

“Dragons aren’t purple.” snipped Ki.

“Do you want a mark in art or not? Colour it purple.”

Ki wanted to kick Hunter in the crotch. “Dragons aren’t stupid purple! I’m not colouring it purple! Absolutely not!”

“So it’s a white dragon?”

“Shuddup! It’s dark I think.” said Ki angrily, almost crying.

“Hey Ki it’s alright.” said Hunter, loosening his grip and rubbing his face in Ki’s hair. Ki shook him off grumpily.

“No it’s not! I have to get this dragon right! I have to!” snapped Ki. He gulped, realized Hunter had been apologizing and immediately felt bad. “’m sorry Hunter. I’m just frustrated.”

“I know. Why don’t you leave your drawing and sleep on what colour it is?” suggested Hunter.

“Mattie told you to say that.” grumbled Ki.

“Momma’s smart.” said Hunter. “Now do math!”

“Can’t I sleep on it?” demanded Ki.

“Momma said if you sleep on it you won’t do it. She also told me to hug you and help you get it done an’ that you can’t go to bed until it’s done.” said Hunter bossily.

“She never said that.” said Ki, crossing his arms. “That’s all you.”

“Yeah but it’s better than me tackling you right?” grinned Hunter. Ki giggled.

“Maybe, but no hugs! I don’t like them!” said Ki. Hunter stuck out his tongue at him.

“Hug’s the trade for the help. Y’gotta let me hug you or I’ll give you no help.” said Hunter stubbornly. “You should like hugs. Hugs mean you’re loved.”

“I know I’m loved without being touched.” said Ki, wrinkling his nose. “Besides, your armpits smell. I don’t want to smell like your armpits because you hugged me.”

Hunter glared at him. “My pits don’t smell! I sniff them all the time and I never smell anything!”

“Well your nose doesn’t work.” Ki pointed out. “If it did you’d know day old fish still smells good.”

“No it doesn’t. It smells rotten, like feet but worse.” said Hunter. “Only you’d eat nasty rotten day old fish Ki.”

“Why not? It’s free and I’m hungry.”

“It’s gross!”

“No it’s not!”

With a cry Hunter tackled Ki, who was pinned against the bed and Ki had to struggle madly to get loose, only eventually achieving freedom because Hunter gave it to him. Next Ki thumped Hunter in the head with his pillow and then it was a war, Ki chasing Hunter around the room as Hunter tried to find something to hit him back with. Almost crying with laughter they fell in a tangle and could not stop in time as Hunter’s stout, pudgy mother made it up the stairs. Before they could move she had swept them both into a huge hug from which there was no escape, but Ki didn’t mind, not really. He hugged Hunter and his mother with all the small might that he could muster until Mattie put them down, smiling from ear to ear. She brushed each of their cheeks with the back of her hand ever so gently, than she hugged them again, tenderly this time.

“Now then my sillies, what caused the riot?” asked Mattie gently.

“Hunter’s armpits stink.” declared Ki.

“Ki’s not doing his math an’ I offered to help him, then we roughhoused.” said Hunter more factually.

“Neither of you are old enough for stinky armpits.” said Mattie, shaking her head. “And you need to do your math homework. What if both Hunter and I help you?”

“I guess so, but th’won’t make me like it.” said Ki boldly.

“I know, but it has to be done little one. Won’t your teacher be unhappy if you don’t do it?” said Mattie.

“’an we have a test tomorrow.” said Hunter.

“Right, so if you do your homework with us now, it’ll make the test easier.” said Mattie, nodding. Ki didn’t believe her even minutely, for math was always ridiculously hard, but he knew the homework would be less painful if they helped him. They spread out their work on the floor, the boys sitting on either side of Mattie, who very patiently walked Ki through his homework, always making sure he thoroughly understood a question before moving forwards beyond it. When it got dark in the attic they moved down to the kitchen table and by candlelight they worked with mugs of sweetened peppermint tea in hand, until Eva came around to see why Hunter and Ki had yet to go to bed. Ki finished his last question, roughed in some purple crayon into his dragon drawing as he ceded to Hunter’s logic regarding the matter, then they all shared some celebratory cookies and drank the last of their tea before they went to bed with a story about a friendly magic dragon named Puff.

Ki fell asleep wondering if dragons really could be friendly and smiled into his pillow at the crazy little thought. Still, at least it was a cheerful idea.

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Another concept I explored in this piece was the concept that while Ki has absolutely no memories of his past (this is not like J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter) he might still subconsciously know that he is a dragon. The dragon Ki struggles to draw in this piece is an as-dragon drakoon - Ki's own kind, a species which bares a distinct resemblance to the death god Riveera's species because it is from Riveera's extinct species that Ki's sprang. Ki's even right when he says his dragon is a dark coloured one, because his species are black when they are dragons. I have noticed, watching my own art, that when I draw things, I often end up drawing somewhat to my own emotions - and this can colour my writing too. If I am very lonely, I draw lonely things and write of characters who love each other, because I miss loving. In this, Ki draws a dragon not because it's his art class project really, but because he misses his own kind, whether he knows it or not and is trying to bridge a connection, whether he knows it or not. As a child, before he is fully 'domesticated' by Eva and Mattie, Ki's survival instincts are a lot sharper than when he is older. Ki chases chickens. He doesn't know what to do with them, yet he still chases them, just like a kitten plays with a fly or a border collie puppy herds a duck across a yard. It's in his instincts and it's in his subconscious. This is a huge difference between what we understand (humans) and what we don't understand (animals.) What does it feel like to have a strong driving instinct to do something like hunt? We cannot really know. Our instincts as humans tend to be very muted, at least from my asexual female perspective.

I hope you enjoyed this installment of 'The Other Way.'

Ki Meets Admiral Ykaren...

...and is bribed with tea.


This was in one of the most recent versions too and I just couldn't lose it. Here's the new version of this piece of humour.



“Firstly, we have tea. And cheese. I know you smelled the cheese.” said Ykaren. Ki forced himself not to think about the cheese.

“Why do you have tea?” demanded Ki.

“Well, the humans like to eat it for some reason yes? So we decided we should figure out why. Now we have a large amount of tea in our hold and nobody likes it. It doesn’t taste good, it’s far too dry.”

Ki stared at him. “Humans don’t eat tea. They drink it. You’re supposed to add water to it and boil it.”

“Ah. Why would they do that?”

“I don’t know. They boil a lot of things for no reason.” said Ki, shrugging. “Why else?”


Hope you enjoyed! For some reason I hear Ykaren talking with Peter Dinklage's voice haha.

Blood - Emperor's Blood Excerpt

The following is an excerpt from Chapter 37 of my manuscript Emperor's Blood. (As you can tell, this one's a cliffhanger!) Fifth (or sixth?) draft of EB arc 2, unedited. (Written today.)

I'm sorry that I haven't had much to post lately. Most of it's been too spoilery for public eyes!

I'm having a lot of fun writing Ki's POV in this draft so far. I think it's going to work (hopefully) and that I'm not going to do another bloody version of this arc in six months. (EB arc 1 is finalized.) I want to move on to writing Kill Copper (the next book in the trilogy) damnit! I've a great deal of hope for this draft though. The characterizations are a lot better, there's more equality in the distribution of writing for the protagonists (though Ki obviously still gets the most screen time, being protag #1) and things are a lot more true to the very first draft. (EBV2. The (two?) versions before V2 never made it even into the second arc, which is okay, because those ones sucked. Tech problems gloriously killed them.)

Yay! Enjoy!

All material (c) Rosanna P. Brost.
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A scream of pure unadulterated agony slashed the still silence, making Ki leap awake, heart pounding. Had it been real? Or his imagination? He’d heard a scream once upon a time and Eva had told him that he was just dreaming as he had ran shaking to her bed. He looked around, then remembered that he couldn’t see, that there was no light and he shrank back, further under the blanket, straining to listen, flinching at the light sound of the rain outside, which should have helped him calm down under normal circumstances.

“EEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRHHHHHHHHHRRRRRRRRRRRERR!”

Ki nearly fainted at the shrill, animalistic call that rang through the corridors of the keep, then the snarling that followed, beastly and harsh. Something pinged metallic out in the halls, then there was a fierce cry and another animal snarl, then a gargled scream of pain, then something metal hit the floor as more growls sounded.

“Lys! Lys, yin Sketzine! Lys!” snarled Kelveniska. Ki jumped at his voice, suddenly realizing that the drakoon had left him, that he was somewhere near the door, shouting through it like he was goading on attack dogs. “LYS!”

There was a ferocious reeling animal snarl, then a disturbing sound like a breaking egg, then cruel quiet for a moment before a chorus of angry sounding whines accompanied by excited shouts, then whispers. Somebody was being praised like they were heroes. Ki huddled deeper under the blanket, pulling a mat overtop of himself too. He had the feeling that somebody had just died. He had a feeling that they had been murdered.

“Cwid Sketzine, cwid.” said Kelveniska breathlessly through the door. “Cwid yin Sketzine, hana…”

Ki closed his eyes, grimacing. He wanted the sounds to stop. He wanted to know for sure what had just happened and why it had just happened. He wanted - blood. Ki smelled it, as heavy as perfume on the air. Blood. Rich, full of iron and scarlet, cloying, so potent that he could practically taste it. Blood, not the stuff you get when you cut your finger, but blood, arterial blood, blood straight from the heart -

Somebody was definitely dead. Ki fainted.

Alternate EB Intro - Part 1

The following was an alternate version of the opening for my book Emperor's Blood, which was created because at one point, I was iffy about the beginning which is still in use today. This alternate version was scrapped because though I liked the new characters of Dr. Winsor and his wife, I did not like how Ki was being characterized though I did like his rare attention for details. I also liked Hunter's quick introduction to Rimer as a different place from Earth, but this is better explored in the current version of EB. Some aspects of this piece survive in the current version of the opening and please keep in mind that this is not the prologue, but just the first chapter. This was written at least a year ago and at this point, is unedited. Part 2 to follow.

“Hunter Chard, following the previous question - in what year did our species arrive on Rimer?”

Looking up from his own notes from where he sat at the back of the room, seventeen year old Ki Chard watched his brother’s face, wondering if Hunter would know the answer to such a potentially difficult question. Realizing that his staring might be distracting, Ki let his attention drift throughout the airy wood panelled examination room. Along one wall of the third story room windows had been opened to let the rich summer wind drift in, sweeping in the myriad scents of the city and its daylight. The exam room itself was arrayed so that the students sat in stone bleachers, looking down upon their teacher, who usually stood where Hunter did now, in front of the chalk scuffed black slateboard beside the wide wooden teacher’s desk.

Directly above the slateboard and Hunter’s head was an woodblock print of a snarling female falcolf. While the main high school in Seamist was popular, it wasn’t important or rich enough for a full painting in every classroom, so prints had been bought instead. The prints supposedly represented the goddess Kayli Calmspring of learning, her expression to warn idle students from slacking off in their studies, but Ki had seen better renditions of the god in his time and knew that the prints looked nothing like her. For one thing, her facial stripes were completely wrong. Though Ki was not the sort of person to mention it, he remembered details well, facts sticking in his head rather like nut butter. Sometimes it was even hard to stop thinking about such things and at the moment, as the prints had for perhaps the entirety of his high school education, Ki was irked by the lack of accuracy in them.

Unfortunately, he also wasn’t one to volunteer a solution. That was Hunter’s job. Where Hunter was charismatic and outgoing, Ki was reclusive and meek. Nobody could ever tell what had gone wrong with Ki and since he had been raised the same as his foster brother, all anyone could do was blame Ki’s anti social tendencies on the fact that he was an orphan. Unfortunately, in Ki’s opinion this view did not hold much in the way of merit either, because the simple truth was that unlike most orphans, Ki did not actually particularly care that he had never met his parents. Bluntly put, it was Ki’s belief that if he never met his parents or discovered what had happened to him, the lack of truth would not bother him in the slightest.

“Um. I believe this is a trick question.” said Hunter momentarily. Ki looked keenly at him, intrigued by his proclamation.

“Oh? Is it?” asked the teacher in charge of the oral exam. He was rather tall and balding, a friendly enough individual, but not one Ki had ever really liked. His name was Donald Richardson.

“Well yes sir. You haven’t stated what calendar you want the answer in, or if you’re talking about humans in general, or just the exploratory team of the U.N.E. Griffin. Also, if we’re talking humans in general, then you have to take into account that humans arrived in three groups, several years apart, counting the exploratory team.” said Hunter, sweat beading on his face as he stood in his too-warm school uniform, rather than the simple sarong he would of usually of worn on a summer day. Ki wasn’t sure what the difference was between winter and summer, other than appearance, but from a young age he had ascertained that whatever the difference was, it had a big effect on the people around him, while none whatsoever on him. Hunter called it ‘temperature’ but Ki had never had the faintest idea what temperature was, only that sometimes it made Hunter shiver and others it made him stink to high heaven.

Like now.

Ki glanced at Richardson irritably, wanting the man to hurry up so he and Hunter could leave.

“Ah, canny are you?” said the teacher, pleased. “Well, answer all the questions within the question then Mr. Chard.”

“Er, yes.” gulped Hunter. He had been hoping to dodge out as much as possible. Ki snorted.

“Well sir.” said Hunter, clearing his throat and pulling his scratchy collar further away from his neck. The combination of the yellow wool sweater and Hunter’s salty sweat was horrendous. Ki coughed and for a second Hunter’s eyes alighted on him worriedly. Scowling, Ki looked determinedly out the window, down the city-covered hill to the deep blue of the sea…

“For the Rimarian calendar, the human occupation of Rimer begins between the years 1 B.H. - ‘Before Humans’ - and 11 A.G. - ‘After Gaia.’ ‘Gaia’ is the name used for the original home world of our race, which our ancestors called ‘Earth,’ like dirt. Also, this question can not be answered with the Gaian calendar, because it officially fell into disuse by order of the United Nations of Earth - the U.N.E. - before our ancestors had even arrived and as such there is no record available from which to reference a year date.” said Hunter confidently, another droplet of sweat dribbling down his nose from his greasy hairline.

“Hmm.” said Richardson, smiling a little as he wrote something down. Hunter fidgeted with his shirt some more, looking almost more uncomfortable than a horse in labour. The teacher straightened from his careful notes, dipping his quill in the provided cup of water and dabbed it dry on a rag before speaking. “Moving on; why did our ancestors abandon their modern technology for the wheel and horse? Why can’t we live as well as they once did?”

“Because our ancestor’s way of living was deemed ‘wasteful’ and ‘unhealthy’ by the first explorers Zachary Fletch and Sarah Chartier, who later became revered leaders of our kind. They said that the way our ancestors lived was very dangerous, because in ancient Gaia it had harmed the planet and thus its people, which was why our species had to come here. By living with the land, instead of against it, we can preserve the land for future generations of humans and for all species on this world.” said Hunter. Ki was impressed. He would of never of thrown in that last sentence; lucky for him he wasn’t bound for anything academic.

“Hmm. Now I believe you wrote a detailed essay on this exact topic Mr. Chard?” asked Richardson. He checked his notes. “You called it ‘The Effects of Global Warming on H. sapiens.’ Impressive knowledge of latin for somebody who used to forget all the names in biology.”

“Yes sir, thank you sir, biology doesn’t much interest me sir.”

“Then I’ll ask you a new question, unrelated; in what year according to the Gaian calendar did the famous ‘World War I’ begin, what instigated it and what countries took part?” asked the teacher. Ki could not believe it; the man was deliberately trying to throw Hunter off! He glared at the man angrily. If he didn’t pass Hunter, then Ki would see the teachers underpants up the school flagpole faster than he could blink. Fuming, he looked at Hunter and was surprised to see that Hunter was calm.

“Very well sir; World War I began on June 28th 1914 with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. It was instigated partially by Archduke Ferdinand’s murder, as well as by foreign Imperialistic policy. There were two different factions during the war, the Triple Entente and Triple Alliance. The Triple Entente was comprised primarily of the United Kingdom, France and the Russian Empire, with other nations such as New Zealand, Newfoundland, Australia, Canada, Serbia, Belgium, India and Romania drawn in through politics, the United States of America joining towards the very end. The Triple Alliance comprised of Germany, Italy and Austria-Hungary.” said Hunter, rushing a little. Gulping like a fish again, he looked inquiringly at the teacher.

“You even remembered that Newfoundland was yet to become a province of Canada at that point in ancient human history.” commented Richardson without looking up.

“You said it was best to remember as much as possible sir. Newfoundland and Canada as well as the other countries may not be important to our culture, but it’s where my ancestors came from, so I took a personal interest in it.” said Hunter, giving Ki a rather guilty glance.

Ki rolled his eyes in response; he didn’t care about lineage.

“For interest then Mr. Chard, what nations contributed to the numbers of the first colonists?”

“The United States of America, Canada, Russia, Japan, Iceland, New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, various nations of Europe such as Germany, China and India.” said Hunter.

“And the original human name for Rimer?” asked Richardson, as smug as a cat after a successful hunt.

“P346576. The name ‘Rim-err’ is native fallan.” said Hunter.

“Very good.” said Richardson. “Now, what’s your reason for wanting to become a Fallan Anthropologist?”

“Sir, we so much about our species’ history, but nearly nothing about the order Falla. If I can bring some of their history to scientific light, then I will of helped in our pursuit of knowledge. There are over thirty known species of sentient falla - think of all the history there is to each species sir!” said Hunter passionately, his voice no longer hesitant. “Not just human kind would find this interesting, but the falla themselves too!”

“Falla are a lot more dangerous to study than humans Mr. Chard.” Richardson pointed out.

“I’m not scared if I can meet with them on equal terms.”

“And if you can’t?” asked Richardson.

“Then I’ll die happily in the pursuit of greater knowledge.” proclaimed Hunter nobly. Ki tried not to groan at his brother’s lack of self preservation instinct.

“Very well.” sighed Richardson, obviously finding Hunter just as ridiculous as Ki did. “I’ll strongly recommend you to S.I.R.U… but Ki?”

Ki started at the mention of his name and looked up warily, disregarding the on-the-spot jig of glee Hunter was currently performing. Whenever Richardson called Ki out it was usually not a good thing…

“He’s already been excepted into their equestrian program.” said Hunter, assuming his accustomed self-proclaimed duty of speaking on Ki’s behalf. “He was too sick to ride in their skills test, but based on the superior skills Coach Moro says he has they’re letting him in anyway. Coach Moro is a good judge they said.”

“Ah, well then no worries about your lacking academic standing Ki.” sighed Richardson with relief. Like the two brothers, he was used to Ki’s quiet manner and to Hunter being his smaller brother’s voice. For years Richardson had attempted to get Ki into public speaking but time after time Ki had failed to perform. Eventually, he had resorted to always partnering the brothers together, so when it came to presentation time Ki would not have to speak. Yet this special treatment was not really because of Ki’s profound antisocialism, but because beyond that, Ki was ill and had been since he was very small.

Richardson paused for a moment, regarding Ki.

“Ki, are you well enough to attend S.I.R.U? I’ve heard their course is quite demanding.” said Richardson.

Ki looked hopefully at Hunter, but his brother shook his head stubbornly. He was making Ki speak this time. As usual, when Ki opened his mouth his voice just seemed weak, like he could think clearer than he could speak.

“Um. I believe so sir.” said Ki, voice hardly a whisper.

“They might not think much of you Ki.” cautioned Richardson. “You’re not very big. Generally horse people are bigger.”

Irritated, Ki glared at him. “Not jockeys. It doesn’t matter what size a person is, it’s whether a horse will listen or not. Horses listen to me.”

“It’s true sir. He was riding solo a year before I was brave enough.” said Hunter. “He could trick ride when he was ten.”

Richardson shook his head incredulously, checking his windup pocket watch. “Well, I have more hopefuls to test, so you two had best get on your way. Good luck at S.I.R.U. you two. I’m expecting great things - of both of you.”

“I’ll take good care of Ki.” promised Hunter, walking up the steps to Ki’s seat and helping him up. Ki grumbled rather furiously at needing help just to stand, recalling how content he had been just sitting. Today was not one of his better days and swallowing his pride, he grasped Hunter’s high shoulder, irritated that his companion was so tall. At only five foot four, Ki was more than a little short for a guy. Hunter on the other hand, was almost six feet tall and approaching the status of skyscraper. (Skyscrapers were legendary buildings that had existed on Gaia, so tall that their roofs were in the clouds. Ki had only ever seen a few prints of them and from what he saw, they had indeed been very large.)

“You always do.” said Richardson blandly as they left the room. “It’s too bad Ki can’t take care of Hunter.”

The door closed before Ki could retort and he glared at it like it had personally offended him, which it probably had at some point, according to his memory. Hunter ruffled Ki’s short, bristly hair and as several girls walked by in the long hallway, Ki could of sworn his brother struck a pose. Ki groaned; didn’t his brother ever stop thinking about the opposite sex?

“Heehee they think I’m considerate.” smirked Hunter, pleased with himself. Ki rolled his eyes and started walking away from Hunter as fast as he could manage, so Hunter had to dash to catch up.

“Either that or they think you’re gay.” Ki commented, grinning when he saw Hunter scowl.

“No way! Everyone knows we’re brothers.” said Hunter incredulously.

“Not by blood.” Ki wickedly pointed out. Reaching the stairwell, he had to pause to catch his breath. Since he was used to being weak and in truth did not even really know what it felt like to be normal, Ki actually found it rather annoying to have people doting on him. Hunter was the only exception to this, because from the beginning, Hunter had been Ki’s protector.

In truth, Hunter’s attitude towards Ki had really started the day they had both entered public education. Hunter had been excitedly looking forwards to the day for months, planning what he would wear and dreaming of what his teacher would be like. Equally, Ki had been planning for the day too - planning to escape it. Unable to see the point in education since all he wanted to do was ride horses which did not really require much intelligence, Ki had protested the order which had come to their door. All kids had to go it said, but Ki had not wanted to and from that day until the first day of class, as well as for years after, he had dreaded school.

Six year old Ki had done everything possible to avoid it. He had hidden his new school clothes on the roof of their house where nobody but him was brave enough to go and had hidden himself in the stable, which in afterthought he would realize was a very stupid place to hide considering that he usually hid there. Almost like clockwork Eva had shown up, shaking her head as she regarded his poor attempt at hiding himself with the straw of Snip’s stall, the gelding standing protectively over him. Seeing her, Ki had tried to get onto Snip to ride away, but had not been tall enough to reach the horse’s withers, much less his mane. Cursing his short legs, Ki had glumly followed Eva to the house, where she had forced him into retrieving his clothes and donning them.

A few minutes later, a very grumpy six year old and his disgustingly cheerful brother had set off on the two kilometre walk to Seamist. So it was that Ki was forced to attend the institution which he had dreaded, not because he was worried at having his weakness exposed, but because from as far back as he could remember - which was a lot further back than Hunter - Ki had thought that there might be something odd about himself. So, that inevitable, embarrassing morning Ki would remember forever the stark detail of learning how right he had been all along. Too right in fact. The moment Ki had entered his first classroom he had realized instantly, along with the twenty children already loitering around inside the room, that he was not just odd, but very, very different. The definition of weird.

When Ki was little, he used to hope that he would meet somebody who looked like him, in the hopes of discovering that at least he wasn’t the only one in the world. But that day in the classroom he had learned the difference, because out of all the children, not a single one had eyes like his, or even hair. They were a typical lot; blonde haired ones with blue eyes, brown haired ones, even a dark one or two. Ki saw brown, black, hazel, green and grey eyes. But he did not see amber. He did not see anyone of pale complexion with bristly dark hair, the tips of each strand ticked with white, like a tabby cat’s fur. As the kids stared back at him, meeting his golden hued irises, everyone in the room had understood immediately.

Ki was not the same as them.

It does not matter how well you are brought up or taught; children (and adults) are automatically prejudice against that which they do not understand. Ki had grown up apart from the city for the most part and beforehand had always attributed the lack of people like them to the notion that perhaps they were rare. But even the teacher stared at Ki that day and as Hunter entered the room behind him, Hunter understood it too.

“You’re weird.” a girl had boldly called out.

Ki had wanted to sink into the floor like spilled water, but at that exact instance, six year old Hunter comprehended that nobody else was going to defend his brother. Stepping out in front of Ki, he had glared at all the other occupants of the room, including the teacher.

“So are you! Say that again and I’ll break your nose.”

To this day, Ki still could not really understand how Hunter’s brain worked, nor how such a comparatively stupid six year old had managed to understand that without him, Ki probably would have been labelled a social outcast. Of course, Ki had eventually become one anyway, particularly since on almost the same day he decided he disliked other people, but all the same, Hunter had made his life easier.

“Hey-hey Ki, slow down you idiot! You don’t want to look out of breath for Doctor Winsor!”

Ki paused on his way to the doors which would grant him freedom into the city and looked around at Hunter, panting like a hound behind him.

“This is why Eva told us to leave the horses?” growled Ki angrily. He did not like visiting the doctor whatsoever. All he ever heard from such visits was new and increasingly boring information about how mysteriously ill he was. All doctor visits really did for Ki was remind him of how much of a freak he was. Gold eyes were not a normal shade for a person. “’Let them rest’ she said.”

“Well… you know.” said Hunter apologetically, leaning on the wall to catch his breath. “Mattie and Eva both told me to make sure you went, or they won’t let you go to S.I.R.U. with me. Really Ki, it’s just a check up.”

“I don’t want a check up.” snapped Ki, shoving open the front doors and gliding as quickly as possible down the main driveway to the street, ignoring the sports team who shouted something about horses as he left.

“You have no choice! Doctor Winsor even promised to have us arrested if you didn’t come on your own! Come on Ki, don’t be a pest about it! It’s for your own good!” cried Hunter, catching up again finally. He grabbed Ki’s thin wrist, giving Ki a pained look. “Please urra?”

‘Urra’ was fallan for ‘dear friend.’ Ki sighed.

“Fine. But please remember that when Eva and Mattie feed me salad ‘for my own good’ I always feel worse afterwards.” gritted Ki, yanking free his wrist. “Don’t touch me.”

“Ki, we’re brothers.” said Hunter, aggravated. “You don’t complain when Eva hugs you!”

“That’s ‘cus she can make my life hell if I protest. You can’t.” said Ki pleasantly.

“Sure I can… ah hell. There’s no arguing with you.” said Hunter, shaking his head. “See if I don’t tackle you the second Doc says you’re well.”

“I’m not a piece of ceramic.” grumbled Ki as they turned onto the busy thoroughfare, breathing in the humid summer air. Distantly he could smell something baking and in the market, far distant and combined with the odours of the nearby sea he could smell fish. The very thought of fish made his stomach twinge hungrily. What he wouldn’t do for some right now. Fish was his favourite food and it did not even matter what kind it was, because Ki loved them all.

They continued down into the city, passing travellers and locals going about the everyday business of life. Kids played on the steps of their houses while their parents worked; horses pulling carts and carrying riders clipped by, filling the city with their smell. A shepherd tried to convince his erstwhile flock to keep moving, while a complaining smith looked on from his shop. Finally after wading through a veritable sea of sheep, in which Hunter fit in perfectly scent-wise, they reached the general store, on top of which was the office of Doctor Winsor. Climbing the stairs at the side of the whitewashed clay brick building, Hunter knocked on the door before letting them in.

The waiting area was very small, the walls painted with fading whitewash dyed yellow with chamomile and decorated with dried herbs. Whicker chairs with patchwork quilted cushions were arranged about the room and a six pane window was open to show a view of the sea. Doctor Winsor’s wife sat in attendance at the secretary’s desk, a mountain of files taking up the extensive wall shelf behind her. She was a fairly old woman, wrinkle skinned and grey haired, wearing a dress of pink linen embroidered with white flowers by her own hand. A rare quill fashioned from a falcolf feather was held ready in her hand as she looked kindly up at them.

“Oh, it’s Ki and Hunter! Nice to see you again!” said Mrs. Winsor, smiling genuinely.

This was how you could tell you visited the doctor too often - when they knew you on sight by your first name.

“Hey Mrs. Winsor! I love your dress, is it new…?” Hunter immediately went to greet her, Ki instantly making a beeline for the chair farthest from her desk.

“Not at all, but thank you for noticing!” said Mrs. Winsor, not fooled at all by Ki’s performance. “Ki, jaded as always?”

“Yes.” said Ki, unabashed.

“Ki has issues.” said Hunter cheerfully. “He’s confused by his identity.”

“Orphans usually are.” said Doctor Winsor, entering from his office. He was a short man, in his sixties with a bit of a paunch accentuated rather badly by his waistcoat. His brown hair and beard were peppered with silver, but all the grey did was make him look more noble. The doctor smiled at Ki. “So, the authorities weren’t needed after all. I could of done it you know. My brother’s a cop.”

“I didn’t realize the police made house calls for wayward patients avoiding medical treatment.” said Ki wryly and the doctor laughed.

“Not usually, but my brother said he’d make an exception for you, since he has a personal interest in you. I told you once that he was the desk clerk on duty when you were brought in as a baby…?” said Doctor Winsor.

“My past comes back to haunt me.” said Ki, shaking his head and laughing a little as he carefully stood back up. “I remember you telling me that sir.”

“Good. Now, shall we get on with the exam?” said Doctor Winsor, taking hold of Ki’s shoulder. Hunter nodded encouragement to Ki and continued chatting with the doctor’s friendly wife. The doctor guided Ki into his office, closing the door behind him and letting Ki sit on the examination table.

“I’m feeling better.” said Ki brightly.

“Liar.” said Doctor Winsor, pulling a stethoscope from his drawer. “You’re the same as always.”

“Then why the check up if you know nothing has changed?”

“Because I want you to get better, that’s why, but as always I’m baffled as to why you’re sick. I’ve monitored your diet, excersize, sleep before, but all that should be fine, yet still something about you is off. I can’t place it. Your body looks out of proportion somehow, which makes me think you should be taller. But you’re not. You’re shorter than you should be from what I can tell from my past examinations. Growing up your growth rate was very slow and still is.” said Doctor Winsor, instructing Ki to take off his shirt and placing the stethoscope against Ki’s thin chest. “Heart rate is fine. As always you’re damn pale, no matter how much time you spend outside careening about on that horse of yours and being useless.”

Doctor Winsor paused and felt Ki’s forehead, his hand rough against Ki’s skin, making Ki flinch. “As always, you’re running that god damn fever. I have no idea how you do it Ki; with a temperature this high you should be dead.”

“I feel fine.”

“Hmph! ‘Fine’ for you and ‘fine’ for normal people are two different things.” said Doctor Winsor, scribbling down a note in Ki’s immense folder. Ki could swear that that same folder never left this room. He didn’t think he had ever seen Mrs. Winsor take it out of filing. Her husband spent too much time puzzling over it to ever put it away.

“You’re unchanged.” grumbled Doctor Winsor, obviously having hoped for a variation. “Eyes open while I look - normal. Tongue - normal. Reflexes -”

Doctor Winsor tossed an egg suddenly at Ki and without even barely seeing it Ki caught it in a flash, not even breaking it as his fingers closed around it.

“- above average. If you weren’t so sick I’d recommend you for the army. You’d probably do well.” said Doctor Winsor.

“I hate killing chickens sir, do you really think I could kill another human?” asked Ki sourly.

“Probably not, but you could always pretend to be a poor archer.” shrugged Doctor Winsor, now throwing a measuring tape about Ki’s waist. “Scrawny. They wouldn’t want you in the line up anyway; you’d disrupt the uniform look of the ranks.”

“How kind of you.” grated Ki.

“Not at all. You’re too damn short. If you loosed an arrow it would only hit the bo in front of you.”

“Why must you insult me?” growled Ki.

“I don’t know. I figure at this point insults are the way to go; kindness never made you grow any faster.” said Doctor Winsor, winking at him. “This works out anyway. We’re both jaded, so we can be grumpy together.”

“I’m not grumpy.”

“You’re right. I’m sorry.” said Doctor Winsor, his face turning sad. “You know, you’re the only person I’ve never even been able to diagnose. Hurts my pride, but I’m sending a copy of your records to a young colleague of mine in Serenity. His name is Recon Sivol. He works at the hospital there - he might be able to help you. He’s pretty brilliant.”

“I hate examinations.” stated Ki.

“I know I can’t make you go.” sighed Doctor Winsor, shaking his head. “But Ki, what if this disease - or whatever it is - kills you?”

“I really don’t think I need to worry about it sir.” said Ki, pulling his shirt back on. The doctor looked like he wanted to protest, but Ki stopped him with a jerk of his head. “It hasn’t killed me yet. It won’t kill me now.”

“I hope you’re right.” sighed Doctor Winsor. “I really hope so.”

“I am.” said Ki, trying to sound confident as he went to the door. “Thanks for trying to help me sir.”

“You’re welcome… good luck.” said the doctor and as Ki left the room, he realized that the doctor had not really mentioned S.I.R.U. or Ki’s future at all. In fact, the doctor’s well wishes had been quite ambiguous.

“Come on Hunter - let’s go home.”