Plum Parrot

M70

Morgan rifled through the bookcase, trying to figure out if any of the volumes were worth anything. They were in a room that must have been one of the officer or instructor quarters. They’d had to fight a shimmering, luminescent man wearing ghostly pajamas and wielding a longsword with deadly s...

O18

The first few days of academy classes went by in a blur for Olivia. Her favorite part of the day was during the morning when she and her cohort would find a quiet place in the first-year library to study runes. The library, even the limited section for first-year students, was a magnificent place...

M69

Drillmaster Groll stepped forward, his heavy foot clanking against the cobbles in the courtyard. Morgan took a good look at his armor - the way it encased him from neck to toes in heavy-looking blue-gray plates. Even his joints had little articulated plates on them. Morgan knew there was a name f...

M68

Morgan looked at the heavy wooden gates and the human-sized gap that had opened between them. He wanted to continue, to see what he could find and learn in this strange place, but he found himself preoccupied with the idea that Issa had almost died just a few minutes ago. He looked at her, and so...

O17

Time went by very quickly in their Core development class, and it seemed like mere moments had passed after Sange spoke to her when Adaida was shaking Olivia’s shoulder, letting her know it was time to move on. Olivia stood and stretched. She’d been trying to feel differently attuned currents...

M67

The sisters were high in the sky, shedding their pale luminescence over the open cobbled roadway leading to the imposing gates. Morgan and Issa had come down the road to wait for the mysterious guardian that was supposed to make its appearance at midnight every ten days. Yan had acted as if the t...

O16

The sandwiches were good; Olivia couldn’t argue with that - the bread had been fresh, and the meat and vegetables slathered in a rich sauce had filled her belly nicely. While they ate, the cohort continued talking about relative age, and Olivia, for the first time, was introduced to how the Sys...

O15

Happy Saturday, Patrons!

Olivia did her best to tune out the chatter in the enchantment lab while she began to study the runes in her text. Many of the other students were doing the same, quietly reading through their list of runes, but many others were babbling in outra...

M66

Tal-dak and Shinra were Morgan and Issa’s second opponents to leave behind a chest. While Issa studied the chest, Morgan looked around at the much more sparsely populated cluster of tents. Most of the remaining challengers were sitting or standing near their tents, talking or eating, but none o...

M65

The chest the two Bogoli sisters had in their camp didn’t look like a System generated treasure chest. At least, not one that Morgan had seen before. It was long and shallow, more like a toolbox than a chest, crafted from a shiny dark wood with bronze metal corner plates. No runes were apparent...

O14

Olivia dreamt of dark pits and mutilated corpses; she dreamt of writhing tentacles and terrible crunching bones. Often she was running through endless winding tunnels, something close behind her, and above her terror was a terrible sadness because underneath the wails of her pursuers were the sob...

M64

Morgan sat across the fire from Issa, watching her meditate. She’d gained a level and gotten a new skill called Hexing Shriek. When he asked her what it did, she had said that enemies she affected with it would feel more demoralized and suffer from reduced Energy and stamina recovery. He’d no...

O13

Olivia looked up from her bowl of hot cereal and asked her cohort, “How often will I get to visit home?” The collective chewing and crunching around the table slowed down, and then Rald swallowed loudly and answered her.

“Well, you’re free on weekends. We have a week at midsummer an...

M63

When the blue lights began to fade, allowing Morgan to see his surroundings, he found that he and Issa were standing on a stone platform on a hillside overlooking the high valley where the Citadel sat. There were some tremendous differences between what he saw in the valley now versus what had be...

O12

Olivia watched the door click closed behind Yunsha, and then she turned back to the group of people at the far end of the room. She slowly started walking toward them, doing her best to plaster a smile on her face. She was about halfway down the hallway when a small figure charged toward her from...

O11

After Gan-dak showed her off to his friend Tilia, a willowy, winged Ghelli woman, he announced that she could let her concentration drop and that Olivia had passed his exams. “I’m done? So I’m in?”

“Oh yes, you’re in, more than in; I’m going to recommend you receive a full sch...

M62

The ancient road leading up the side of the box canyon had been easy for Morgan and Issa to find. When they’d ridden through the scraggy orange hills for a few miles, they started to make out the stony sides of the northern edge of the canyon. Following ridgelines from there had been easy, and ...

O10

"I'll be waiting here, Olivia. Just relax and follow the instructions of your evaluator." Yunsha smiled warmly, her blue-stained lips parting to reveal very human-like teeth.

"Yes, Olivia, my name is Mrs. Poyle, and you can follow me. I'll take you to your evaluator." She gestured to the do...

M61

Morgan and Issa rode over to the circled wagons. The Cadwalli started to clamber out from behind their cover and gather in a group, watching the two of them approach. As Morgan and Issa neared, an older Cadwalli woman wearing a beaded leather skirt and vest strode forward, waving her hand. "Welco...

M60

Morgan and Issa were noticed almost immediately by the Shadeni riders. Several of the riders peeled off from around the wagons and came toward them. Morgan remained calm, making sure that he didn't go too fast or make threatening movements; he wanted to give this situation a chance to resolve wit...

O9

Nearly as soon as her vision faded to black, a pinpoint of light appeared in Olivia's view that slowly widened to reveal a new scene. Momentary vertigo assaulted her as her body tried to make sense of the sudden change of perspective. She was no longer standing in a comfortable tavern looking int...

M59

Morgan and Issa sat on one of the new stone benches that circled the hilltop where the Colony Stone rose out of the ground. Actually, it was a Town Stone now. Arthur had explained that the colony had reached a milestone with buildings that had allowed him to expend some System credits to upgrade ...

Part 2 starts today!

Dear Patrons,

Thanks for sticking with me! Today is the first chapter of part 2 of the story. I have been working on three different arcs, one with Morgan and Issa, one with Olivia and one with Bronwyn. I'm only going to be posting Morgan's and Olivia's arcs for now, because I've found that...

M58

It's the last day of the month, and I only have 2 chapters left in this arc. I am going to post them today so that those of you who don't want to renew your Patreon can see how this arc wraps up. That said, Tuesday's and Wednesday's posts are going up right now, so the next post will be on Th...