Hurricane Cats

I wrote this during lunch. If you are familiar with Galveston, Texas, before Hurricane Ike, then this story takes place off of 61st street, behind the old Popeye's Chicken near the old HEB. Hope you enjoy.

Don't worry, the Dragons are still flying around in my head! They haven't gone anywhere. In the meantime, enjoy a bit of a story about Big Boy and Baby Girl, titled "Hurricane Cats."

The big, old Tom meowed loudly as he sniffed around the back of the building.  He could usually find something to eat where the humans dumped things. Despite the danger, this was one of their better spots for food. The humans were lazy and sometimes just dropped the bags on the ground, saving them trouble of climbing into the big, metal box.

He glanced back at a pair of big grey eyes, that watched him carefully from the deep grass beyond the edge of the pavement. She wouldn’t come out until he told her it was safe, and he had managed to find something for them to eat. He poked around among the bags, analyzing the many smells. After a few tries, he found one that seemed promising, promptly ripping it open with his front claws. He was immediately rewarded by a large number of chicken parts that tumbled out onto the ground. He turned back to signal his mate, but she had been watching him, and was already half way across the pavement from her hiding spot. He returned his attention to the chicken, sniffing them appraisingly to find a suitable piece as the little female helped herself to a drumstick.

A cool wind, blowing in off the gulf, sent a chill over them as they ate their dinner. They paused again to look around, sniffing the air, knowing that the wind meant a storm was coming. They would need to return to their home soon, before the weather turned worse and it started to rain. They paused from their feast, cautiously glancing around, knowing that the humans could interrupt them at any time. The little female paused, her teeth still hurting from their last run-in with the humans, abandoned the drumstick in search of something softer. She found another piece that suited her tender mouth and dug in.

A strong gust of wind startled them from their meal, sending the trash and debris skittering around them. The sudden, loud screeching of the rusty metal door on the back of the building was all of the warning they had, as two of the humans stepped out of the building. The little cat quickly abandoned her meal, darting back into the tall grass. The big cat quickly followed her, but not before grabbing another large hunk of chicken from the ripped bag. The humans shouted, but the two cats were gone before they could react. He quickly joined her on the far side of the grassy yard, where she had taken shelter under the edge of a woodpile, alongside of a old garage. She watched as he dropped the food in front of her, turning his attention to the two humans, who were still yelling at them. 

Suddenly something thumped against the wall above them. They froze, not sure if the humans had discovered their hiding spot. Much to their surprise, a piece of chicken landed on the ground in front of their hiding place. The big Tom didn’t hesitate, darting quickly out to secure the piece, and drag it back into the safety of their hide. By the time he returned, the female was tentatively licking the piece he had carried over. He meowed approvingly at her, settling down in the deep grass and the safety of their hide to enjoy the piece that had fallen out of the sky. 

The wind continued to blow, as the rain began to fall. They continued to feed, knowing they would eat as long as they could before retreating to their den. They could tell it was going to be a big storm, but they were not worried. Their den was strong, and had protected them from the humans and storms for a long time.

Drakkon Dreams Part One

The Drakkon was tired and he ached mightily from a simple hunt gone horribly wrong. The tattered edges of his wings were slashed and shredded from the fight with the Rahhol, and they fluttered noisily in the wind as he searched for a place to rest. The nest was several hours away, but in his current condition, he would not make it back tonight. Better to find a cave and rest. And ensure that his pursuers were not trying to follow him back to the nest.

His anger grew as he replayed the ambush in his mind. He should have never allowed himself to be caught unawares like that; but he had given as good as he got. At least one of the four renegades was on the ground, not moving, while another had limped back into the tangled woods with a broken wing. The others had finally broken off, responding to the calls for help from their wounded brethren, enabling him to escape. A low growl rumbled from his belly – they only broke off the fight because they thought he was done for! They would be able to easily follow the trail of blood streaming from his wounds, if they were determined to finish him off.

The Drakkon focused his mind and drew upon his dangerously low magical reserves. His breathing was labored, the dull pain in his side becoming sharper the further he flew. Perhaps some broken or cracked ribs! Hopefully nothing too bad… A red haze clouded his vision and he blinked to clear the blood from his eyes. The clouds broke and the moonlight bathed the side of the mountain in dark relief. His sharp eyes picked out a shadow on the side of the mountain, his instincts telling him it was a cave. He banked and circled, clearing his mind and focusing all his senses on the sky around him, as he spiraled down. He braced himself as he banked his wings, scooping them to slow his descent, his battered wings vibrating wildly as he slowed, pain shooting through the wing joints to every bone in his body. He extended his large claws and braced himself as he crashed into the side of the mountain. He folded his wings against his side as he stumbled and fell into the dark opening. The cave entrance was smaller than he had judged, the spikes along the top of his huge head scraping against the roof of the cavern as he collapsed in a leathery heap on the cave floor. His body filled with pain, every nerve screaming, as he skidded to a stop on the rocky floor of the cave. He raised his head to look around and the passed out, the blackness finally taking him.

*****

 
The sky was clear and there were few clouds to hide the bright moon. His wings were stiff and his body was sore, but he felt better than he had since the ambush. A few days of rest, some water and a couple of deer that had wandered close to the cave fortified him for tonight’s flight. He was still a long way from the safety of the nest and his nest mates; and there remained the danger of further attack, but he was not afraid. The air currents along the mountains were strong tonight, enabling him to ride another thermal up in a great spiral to a higher altitude, looking along his back trail while checking the sky around him. So far there was no sign of his pursuers; perhaps they had found other prey, or had been unable or unwilling to follow his trail. He thought about his nest mates, fearing what they would say when he returned. He sighed, knowing it would be a long time before they let him forget this trip. The nest did not approve of his far-ranging absences and never missed an opportunity to chide him for his “unnatural” behavior. His four brothers and three sisters hunted close to the nest in pairs, to better provide protection against this kind of attack from the renegades that once threatened all the nests. But the renegade Rahhol had been quiet for a long time and he was convinced that they had moved away from the area where the Drakkon had nested for many generations.
 
He felt his body slowing as pressure from the thermal peaked and began to fall off. Holding his wings rigid, he crested the top of the pressure wave and coasted along, tilting left and right for another look around. The sky was clear; there was no sign of his pursuers or any other life. Tonight he seemed to have the sky to himself. There was a scattering of clouds at this height, with enough moisture to chill his massive body. Nevertheless, he decided to stay at this altitude for as long as he could. If there were others out hunting this evening, they would be far below him.

Happy Thanksgiving from the Drakkon of the DragonHawk Saga!

Thanks for Reading!

Dave

A snippet from Dragon Hunters!

Here's a little snippet from Dragon Hunters for you:

"Reaching between a stand holding several bracelets and a small round box, she picked up a strange-looking ring laying on the worn metal shelf by itself. She held the ring up to the light and caught her breath as the intricate carving and details became apparent, her Dragon growling uneasily. The ring was formed by a pair of dragons, one gold and one silver, their bodies entwined in battle. The dragons’ heads faced each other, jaws open, terrible fangs bared. Their claws grasped at the body of the other and their barbed tails were wrapped around each other. Their eyes were glittering jewels, a sparkling red ruby for the gold dragon and endless obsidian for the silver. The ring was surprisingly light; its bulk and size led her to think of it as a man’s ring. It was both breathtakingly beautiful and frightening."

Christmas time is coming! Are you buying a Kindle or a Nook for someone in your family? You can download a copy of Dragon Hunters from Amazon for the Kindle or from Barnes & Noble for the Nook!

Thanks for reading! And shopping!

Dave

 

Good News for Dragon Hunters!

Good news for Dragon Hunters!

Dragon Hunters is now available from the Apple iBookstore and Barnes & Noble's Nook!

Help me celebrate by buying a copy today!

Meanwhile, work on Dragon Heart is proceeding along nicely. I've got seven chapters draft format and several others outlined. I hope to have Dragon Heart ready for you in early 2014!

As always,

Thanks for reading!

Dave

Dragon Summer...

What do these two photos have to do with Dragon Summer, Book 5 of the DragonHawk Saga?

One of these days I may tell you more... But we've got a ways to go yet...

Thanks for reading!


Dave

Dragon Heart Progress

Tonight I finished working on the fourth chapter of Dragon Heart!

When I decided to expand my writing to ten stories for the DragonHawk Saga, I broke up the existing versions of Gateway Station and Tycho Station, along with all of the other pieces and parts that I had saved, and distributed them among the new story ideas. Dragon Heart was at 46,302 words when I finished Dragon Hunters. It is now up to 49,290 words. I added 1001 words today!

So now on to the next chapter, The Tea Merchant's son. It consists of 6,315 words from Tycho Station and features Bane Sollar returning to Conborine to continue his search for the elusive smuggler Kalra Rbaaq.


As always, thanks for reading!

Dave

The Writing Business

Well, the writing business has been keeping me busy since I e-published Dragon Hunters. While the Kindle version appeared to upload properly. I was having some problems with the Smashwords version, which was reported as having some errors, missing parts. I've spent the last month fixing errors and making some changes.

Anyway, I like the way it came out. Both versions are updated on their respective websites and are available for purchase. I've learned a lot about publishing on Kindle and Smashwords. Hopefully it will help me to publish faster and cleaner in the future.

So now back to Dragon Heart. This main plot of the story is new, but many parts of it have come from parts I have edited out of Dragon Hunters and Dragon Betrayal, book three. So my mission now is to write the main plot line, while tying in all of the extra parts and continuing to build towards the Return of the Great Dragon.

Since Dragon Hunters has not become a best seller yet, I still have my day job to contend with. That relegates the DragonHawk Saga to the evenings and weekends. I hope to settle down into a better routine of writing the story and making posts. The story is just getting started and we have a long way to go to the Return of the Great Dragon. I'll keep you posted as best I can along the way.

As always,

Thanks for reading!

Dave