Imp of the Week - Storrinags

I've created a number of strange creatures for the Impcatcher novels. This is another page from Garkosio's Guide to Imps, which is the most widely used reference book in Tal's world. This is Tal's copy, with his annotations in blue.

 

As always, comments welcomed! 

SFFS 27/2/2016 Sorrel Swordless - part 4

This is my snippet this week for SFFSat. SFFSat is a place where a number of authors post snippets from their written works, and give the opportunity for comments, support and encouragement. Please also explore the other blogs that are part of this group - you can find the information here.

This is part 4 of a complete short story (in snippets) set in Sorrel's world. For those who have already read the Sorrel novels (and if you haven't, you should - they're good books!) this is set after the end of Sorrel in Silver - but you don't need to have read the novels for it to make sense, and it doesn't contain too many spoilers for the main trilogy. Part 3 is here, in case you missed it last week. A giant horror has crept up on our hapless heroine, and she suspects it is going to eat her...

I was wondering what had become of my co-pilot. Kelhene was smart, capable, and could wield a sword if need be. She wasn't as good as me, but she ought to be able to distract the horror for long enough for me to get to the aeroplane and barbecue it.

I wished a certain dragon of my acquaintance was around, but he was busy on the surface with his fellow dragons. 

 

The brute suddenly shrieked, a high-pitched wail that I was pretty sure meant it was angry. If this had been a true ruzdrool I would have said “angrier” - an ordinary ruzdrool is only calm and peaceful when it is either dead or very dead. This definitely didn't fit that category. It lunged, and I flung myself sideways desperately. I began to wonder if it had paused simply out of surprise. Perhaps it had never seen a human before, and needed time to decide if I was good to eat. I was disappointed, though not totally surprised, that it had reached a positive decision on this tricky question.

Three spikes slammed into the ground where I had been standing a moment before. I was already tumbling through the red grass towards the water. I didn't know if super ruzdrools liked water, or if they could swim. I wasn't a great swimmer, but I had no chance of out-running it, so a swimming contest suddenly seemed like a smart option.

As always, comments welcomed!

Imp of the Week - Clyriass Imps

I've created a number of strange creatures for the Impcatcher novels. This is another page from Garkosio's Guide to Imps, which is the most widely used reference book in Tal's world. This is Tal's copy, with his annotations in blue.

 As always, comments welcomed!

SFFS 20/2/2016 Sorrel Swordless - part 3

This is my snippet this week for SFFSat. SFFSat is a place where a number of authors post snippets from their written works, and give the opportunity for comments, support and encouragement. Please also explore the other blogs that are part of this group - you can find the information here.

This is part 3 of a complete short story (in snippets) set in Sorrel's world. For those who have already read the Sorrel novels (and if you haven't, you should - they're good books!) this is set after the end of Sorrel in Silver - but you don't need to have read the novels for it to make sense, and it doesn't contain too many spoilers for the main trilogy. Part 2 is here, in case you missed it last week. A giant horror has crept up on our hapless heroine, and she suspects it is going to eat her...

I had a sneaking suspicion I was about to find out what it felt like to be a giant ruzdrool's dinner. I suppose in a sense it's fair – I've eaten ruzdrool meat before. They're just about edible, assuming they don't eat you first.

Except that so far it hadn't gone for me. Ruzdrools are virtually brainless. Nothing but hunger, savagery and more hunger. I'm assuming they have fond feelings for ruzdrools of the opposite sex, but otherwise they aren't friendly towards anyone. This creature was different – in a weird way, it almost seemed to like me. I couldn't think of another reason why it hadn't already tried to drive one or more of its spikes into my heart. There was no way it could believe I was a potential mate – so why wasn't it attacking? We had been facing each other for at least a century. All right, perhaps thirty seconds, but my initial description felt more believable. Why hadn't it lunged?

Not that I was complaining, you understand.

 As always, comments welcomed!

Imp of the week - Zilberdasks

I've created a number of strange creatures for the Impcatcher novels. This is another page from Garkosio's Guide to Imps, which is the most widely used reference book in Tal's world. This is Tal's copy, with his annotations in blue.

As always, comments are most welcome!

SFFS 13/2/2016 Sorrel Swordless - part 2

This is my snippet this week for SFFSat. SFFSat is a place where a number of authors post snippets from their written works, and give the opportunity for comments, support and encouragement. Please also explore the other blogs that are part of this group - you can find the information here.



This is part 2 of a complete short story (in snippets) set in Sorrel's world. For those who have already read the Sorrel novels (and if you haven't, you should - they're good books!) this is set after the end of Sorrel in Silver - but you don't need to have read the novels for it to make sense, and it doesn't contain too many spoilers for the main trilogy. Part 1 is here, in case you missed it last week. A giant horror has crept up on our hapless heroine...

 

    I was further north than I had ever flown before. Almost a thousand miles from Tolgrail, assuming I was right in guessing the wind speed. The Swan bobbed on the water of the lake, slight ripples disrupting the glassy surface so that the reflection of the cream biplane was crumpled. The bulbous windowed front of the Swan gave excellent visibility, though when it was in the air it felt as though I was sitting in a bubble of glass. The propellers were silent, much to my relief. It had taken six hours to get this far. The constant roar of the engines had left me temporarily deafened, which is probably why I didn't hear the brute until it was between me and my aeroplane.

    I was unarmed – my sword was in the 'plane. So was my coronet, which meant I couldn't cast sorcery. Yes, alright, I was stupid to leave both behind. The stretch of scarlet grass on the bank had looked comfortable and peaceful, and there had been no hint of ravening monsters in the vicinity. Kelhene had gone looking for fruit on the bushes, and I had intended to sprawl for a few minutes and get the kinks out of my spine.

    Which was when tall, violet and hungry crept up. I knew that an ordinary ruzdrool could run faster than I could, so this was definitely going to beat me in a straight race. I had a sneaking suspicion I was about to find out what it felt like to be a giant ruzdrool's dinner. 

 As always, comments welcomed!

Imp of the week - Cohl-imps

I've created a number of strange creatures for the Impcatcher novels. This is another page from Garkosio's Guide to Imps, which is the most widely used reference book in Tal's world. This is Tal's copy, with his annotations in blue.

As always, comments are most welcome!

SFFS 6/2/2016 Sorrel Swordless - part 1

This is my snippet this week for SFFSat. SFFSat is a place where a number of authors post snippets from their written works, and give the opportunity for comments, support and encouragement. Please also explore the other blogs that are part of this group - you can find the information here.


I've missed a couple of weeks due to real life interfering with important things like books. I warned that there wouldn't be any more Impcatcher for a while - instead, I present Sorrel Swordless. This is a complete short story (in snippets) set in Sorrel's world. For those who have already read the Sorrel novels (and if you haven't, you should - they're good books!) this is set after the end of Sorrel in Silver - but you don't need to have read the novels for it to make sense, and it doesn't contain too many spoilers for the main trilogy.

So with no more ado...

Sorrel Swordless

'Why not pick on someone your own size, you volging lafquas?'

Usually when I say that, I'm goading someone to take a swing at yours truly. Not this time - fear and anger were churning in my stomach and making my mouth sound off without me thinking about it, but for a change, I didn't want my target to go for me. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything else the horror could pick on. It was over nine feet high, with a dozen spindly legs supporting a violet, snake-like body. 

If it had been blue, and a bit smaller, I'd have called it a ruzdrool, but this looked like a ruzdrool's angry big sister. Just like a ruzdrool, where a mouth ought to be on any sensibly-designed monster, there were a cluster of long, writhing tentacles, each tipped with a vicious spike. But this had two extra tentacles, each ending in a white globe the size of a large apple, each twisted towards me – a black dot was in the middle of each globe. Normal ruzdrool don't seem to have eyes, though this doesn't stop them. This brute? I suspected the white globes were eyes, which meant as well as sensing me with whatever freakish senses an ordinary ruzdrool had, this one could see me as well. Great.

 As always, comments welcomed! The picture, by the way, is actually a fendahleen, from a very old Doctor Who episode, which has been doctored (sorry!) to be a little more like my own horror. The tentacles aren't long enough, and lack spikes, and it is a little too like a slug rather than a  snake, but it's at least close. I'll try and produce a better picture of one before next time.