51 Results in the "The Lion & The Owl" category
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Two enormous clamshells sit atop the grill rack, each with golden brown upon their banded domes. Their crusty skin is cool enough to touch, and Niko gently detaches each layer, popping the edges before pulling them free. The thicker, unattractive mold will make a good bottom—this is the story of his life—and that makes him smile. He tosses a handful of semolina into its hallow, spreading and rubbing the grains around before laying down raw cabbage leaves. These large verdant blankets will stop the…-
112.5 K • Ongoing
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The Colloquies: Low Perceptions The majestic peak casts a shadow over the villa, a protective mother whose smothering proximity is a trick to the eyes. Memories of her many visits to this plantation unravel like a fallen scroll. Her mother and Uncle came from lands so far east of Parthia that no Roman name existed. Mother, a wealthy man’s battle bride, settled into an opulent domus in Mediolanum that soon became lonely in Roman bigotry’s shadow. Uncle, with eyes as narrow and face just as…
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112.5 K • Ongoing
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Moonlight guides him five hundred steps from the kitchen to the barn. Unease quickens his heart as the worst thoughts plague him. Shadows dancing beneath the cowshed doors prove his hunch correct. Loose hay strands litter the drive bay, where pungent tack and fresh lucerne begin clogging his nose. Warm air overhead brings his attention to the loft. There, the rangy druid sits under the tresses as coals smoldering in the floor pit cast an orange glow behind him. The serpent, Delphine, often spends cold…
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112.5 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
XXXVI: The Last Leaf Falls
A line of gray rises from the woods, but smokeless chimneys draw him to the village. No guard walks the wall. The smithy forge has gone cold, and courtyard braziers full of wood stand without flame. Pigs slumber in their pen, tightly packed mounds unmoved by his investigation. Knocking on doors yields no one, so he sets off for home under the fading day. Along the main road, he spots the villagers filing down the ridge. Two-wheel carts break up their procession, pulled by young men and full of…-
112.5 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
XXXVII: The Drunken Bath
Crimson rivulets swirl into the grate, drinking the ritual’s bloody remains. Aedan empties another bucket of water over his head, then upends it atop his basted rags, a lopsided pile of pale red. Cardamon oil forms prismatic clouds upon the water’s skin, its heady scent filling the humid air. Of all the luxuries imposed while living among these wolves, he most enjoys their aromatic baths. The steamy pool lures him into its satiating embrace. Ears full of warmth, he surfaces so the chill can bite his…-
112.5 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
Spring/Summer Hiatus
The Lion & The Owl will be on hiatus until August. I’ve written over 109k words about this Roman and his Druid, and the readership and response at Bear House was a pleasant surprise. None of these chapters are printable in their current condition, so I’m taking an editorial and revisions break until August. I aim to produce the first 21 chapters as a fanzine-style novel with light art. I’ve only collected about $510 in donations on my KoFi, so I will do a Kickstarter once all costs are…-
112.5 K • Ongoing
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Lucius Vitus Servius once said that rivalry within ranks festers like flesh rot, and if a general ignores it, he’ll lose a man as quickly as a leg. Julius recalls his old friend’s observation as he watches the murdered man’s son scowl at Kombius, a prince of the continental Atrebates. The more concerning bit of flesh rot, however, is Titus Labienus, who listens with jowls tight in resentment as the noble speaks of his time as an Ancalite prisoner. Before their first campaign on the island,…
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112.5 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
I
His name is Lucius Skipio Servius, or Skipio to those who call him a friend. He stands taller than most with a robust physique, chiseled face, and a captivating mouth no man can resist. His shorn head gleams like ripe wheat, unlike his dark, verdant eyes that run deep like river moss. Vitus Servius is bald like his son. The stocky patrician owns a vast orchard in the northern mountainous frontier. It boasts a thriving walnut grove alongside its primary crop of apples and pears. Still, his only son…-
112.5 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
II
His life is defined by how much pain he brings his mother. Twenty-two years ago, she left her princely father’s house to live with a coastal druid named Fintan, who, for all his holistic prowess, never suspected her already caught. Her pains began on the autumnal, and her unborn babe insisted on coming out ass first. The old druidess tending the delivery cut her belly to liberate him, and Ciniod reminds her grown son of this trauma every time she must force a fart. Aedan the Ancalite is a bony sort…-
112.5 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
III
Longhouses cover the white expanse. Half-built ships stretch for miles along the shoreline. The majestic forest is gone, its slenderest remains fueling barracks stoves, its thickest trunks the backbones for Caesar’s growing fleet of flat-bottom boats. Roman victory kills more than those on the battlefield. Like locusts, the legions consume everything. They slaughter livestock and leave those unfit for enslavement to starve. Decurion Servius marches through the snow, his furry boots crunching in the…-
112.5 K • Ongoing
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