Gallery

There wasn't much to the room that Blanco was confined to, so naturally he discovered most of its secrets and intricacies fairly early into his childhood. From his hatchling days he had discovered the thin paper pamphlets on the shelves, pages glued together with years of damp. He had torn the first one to shreds while trying to open it so he had begun to treat them carefully, prying them apart with thin splinters of wood that were pushed into the corners of his...

"Don't go outside." It was the mantra to Blanco's life since the moment he was born. His earliest memories were of the inside of this room, looking up at his mother's grim countenance as she relayed the sombre warning. Outside was dangerous, he would die out there, she said, it was better for him to stay here and let her provide for him. He had nodded gravely in response, agreeing to stay within these four walls for a...

“And don't come back until you've found dinner!” Dozer's parting words rang in the three juveniles' ears as they trudged into the forest away from the Pachy village they lived in. “Who does he think he is?” Raspberry grumbled, kicking a rock and making it skitter across the forest floor. “An adult who's stronger than us?” Alkonost suggested. ...

The feeling of wet clay under Roseate's claws never got old. He scooped another clawful up the bank and pulled it towards the pit he had designated as his nest site. It was far enough away from the river to avoid the flooding typical of the season, worth it obviously but he did wish for a shorter journey to and from the riverbank. As the mud began to dry quickly in the brisk spring air, he hurried to pack it tightly in a circle around the pit. As he sidled aroun...

"A beautiful night for it," the crested Cryo said placidly, staring up at the stars. "A cold night for it," the piebald Utah interjected. "It isn't that cold," the spotted Alberto scoffed, earning him a scowl from the smaller carnivore. "We should be going," Gildír continued, like they hadn't been interrupted at all, "Come along...

Knowing how deeply obsessed her sister was with humans, Kisse was just as surprised as Dexter when Roswell turned down his invitation to explore the Alpha Labs. She had come along anyway, of course, because they were a trio at this stage and being parted felt odd. Still, she took no notes, no observations of the various human mechanisms they passed by as they worked their way down. Dexter was the opposite, peering into every cupboard he could open and leafing th...

Dacia sat nervously in front of the two court members as they assessed her offerings. The pile of red peppers sat innocently in the light, their banana shapes glistening under the false lights of Atlantis. They somehow seemed different here, their rosy charm amongst the leaves diminished to the plastic gleam of their waxy skin lying flat on the grass. She chanced a look up at Jasper and Clemmons, the two court members that were processing her offering, and saw t...

The labs contained a wealth of knowledge hidden in their wretched bowels and knew he must brave them to further his understanding of the human menace. He knew very few scholars of humanity that could also read their runes, so he frequently descended alone into the old halls. The sight of the preserved specimens were familiar by now, and where once they had frightened him he now greeted them as old friends. It couldn't hurt to pay a modicum of respect to such for...

"I ain't a flier," Tony warned the two Cryos as they pulled him above the snow and onto the plateau. "We know," Drift said through her clamped teeth, rolling her eyes and making a show of rolling her eyes. Brook was pushing him from behind so Tony couldn't see if he was being as impetuous as his sister. "You need to get out more." "And here I am!" Tony exclaimed, gesturing ...

"Have you been up here before?" "Of course not, I'm just following what the old man told us," Tiramisu grumbled, clambering over another steep incline. He turned back to help Foxglove climb after him but Thistle forged ahead as she usually did, without help. She was waiting around the slight bend in the path for the two of them, staring out across the land. "It's so strange...

Fire season, the death of the old to make way for the new. The forest razed to the ground only to nourish the fresh new buds once spring came back around. It was almost beautiful if you weren't the one being burned. Raspberry kept her head low to the ground as she rushed through the burning woods. She and Miku had been by the lake at its centre, not realising their way back had been set alight in the meantime. As if t...

Fire was common this time of year, but it never made it any less dangerous. Out on the plains, Kaiwi had seen a buzzard drop a flaming stick into the grass to flush out small creatures to eat. Now, four days later, the fire was reaching the edge of the Dead City and a gathering of volunteers had assembled along the boundary to plan for the worst. Kaiwi had raised the alarm immediately but it had taken time to mobilise the cooperative citizens of the city togethe...

Wet footprints followed the striped raptor through the labs as he quietly padded through the halls. It was all new and he had to sit down frequently, his lungs short of breath and his legs aching. He remembered so little of life before, he wasn't sure if this was normal but something felt wrong about it. He tripped over a set of bones on the floor and lay there, staring ahead for a while before sitting himself up. The bones smelled strange, and they were shiny l...

Adolescence, the burgeoning emergence of hormones and increased appetites and the sudden change in how others perceive you. Roseate had been a ghost for most of his youth, slipping between different territories and not making waves wherever he decided to hunt. He had noticed now that when he encountered the owners of these territories now they were less likely to just let him walk by unchallenged. As he grew close to his full size and his dimorphic markings had ...

Petrichor couldn't help but stop and stare at the deep green canopy overhead as she walked in Callahan's headstrong wake. Isla Kela had been a distant memory for the smooth raptor, not particularly unpleasant but far enough away that she was uncertain about any welcome home reception she would receive. Her feet trod the forest ground like clockwork, like she had done it a thousand times before, and she probably had done at some point. Callahan was still the one ...