Kestrel Creed Chapter Seven

Happy New Year!

Here is another installment of Kestrel Creed and the Febrile Felon.

Again, it is a draft that has had a feather-pass of editing. I want to get more of the work out here for you, so I am being lax on the editing. Fear not, the whole work will get a strong-arm fix before it is ready for publication.

If you are new to the Kestrel Creed story, don’t forget to start with the Prologue .

I hope you enjoy the story.

Please feel free to comment.

CHAPTER SEVEN

  

Creed stomped through the bat-wing doors, into Bankleyville’s ‘Woody’s Rustbucket Saloon and Boarding House.’ His upper lip was curled back, exposing teeth. It was not a smile. The odds he’d gotten any news from the local law did not bode well.

Nika thought she heard him utter a curse. Of course, she never knew if he was swearing or not – his people had such colorful panoply of slang.

“Any luck…?” she started, but he interrupted her.

“These louts didn’t mistreat you, did they?” he asked, glaring at both Knife and Roose, each in turn.

She smiled. “No, silly. They were perfect gentlemen.”

Kestrel Creed Chapter Six

Merry Christmas!

Here is another installment of Kestrel Creed and the Febrile Felon.

I will be finishing up the draft of Part II before the end of the year, and will also finish posting the final chapters of Part I. Look for at least one more chapter before year’s end. [Part I has the prologue and 9 chapters]

If you are new to the Kestrel Creed story, don’t forget to start with the Prologue .

I hope you enjoy the story.

Please feel free to comment.

CHAPTER SIX

 

“Mommy, I’m hot,” whined the boy two tables down. His mother wheedled, “Sebastian, drink your Coca-Cola and stop complaining.”

Those two sat alone at their table, the father no doubt off working. The Midnight restaurant, named after another of the local mines, was indeed sweltering today. It was an oven despite the overhead ceiling fan, and the additional portable fans whizzing and buzzing, positioned at intervals atop the high display case behind the bar. Even combined, the fans did little to ease the afternoon heat.

Creed sleeved his brow and took a long swallow of his water. Only crumbs remained on his plate, now. The sandwich had been tasty, ham and swiss. Nika was still working at her beefburger sandwich, and Knife noisily slurped the dregs of his frosted malted, his ‘Miner’s Hash’ long gone.

Kestrel Creed Chapter Five

Don’t forget to start with the Prologue .

Hah. Insomnia strikes.

I have enough lucidity to edit, so here is Chapter Five. This was a fun chapter to write, and it didn’t seem to call for much editing. That may be the insomnia talking, I’ve been up for a long time. Again, this is not my last editing pass over the chapter.

I hope you enjoy it.

Please feel free to comment.

CHAPTER FIVE

 

The door to the sheriff’s office slammed closed. Nika leaned out the window of the Ford as Creed approached.

“What’s got your knickers in a bunch?” she asked. She couldn’t keep from smiling as she poked at him. Turnabout and all.

The town of Chloride, named after the high-grade silver ore found there, held no luster for Nika. The crudely painted, and poorly spelled sign boasted of the little town, “popyalation 1,000 to 2,000” and declared it was “a centor of mining – fer many miles ‘round.” Nika had laughed aloud as she read.

Just a little update

Hi Friends.

Wanted to let you know that I performed a little revision on Chapter Four. I added a tasty tidbit about the adversary that I had intended for a later chapter but realized I needed to slip it into Creed’s account of his dreamwalking. Enjoy.

Also, look for Chapter Five within the next few days.

~Mark

All images and content copyright © 2011-2014 ~ Mark Adam Thomas

Kestrel Creed Chapter Four

Don’t forget to start with the Prologue .

Hey friends, thanks for your patience. I had a very good November, despite being sick. It has taken me up until now to catch up with my normal life, which is why this chapter is so late in getting posted.

I have decided to just let you all read the chapters as drafts, with little editing. Once the draft is complete, I will begin editing in earnest. That may not happen until Mid-January. I hate delaying but things are what they are. I am plodding along as best I can. Thanks again for your patience.

As I stated, these chapters are ROUGH drafts, so keep that in mind when you cringe while reading them.

Thanks again for your interest in my Kestrel Creed novel, and feel free to leave a comment.

EDIT (12/13/13): I added some important information to the latter part of this chapter, and corrected a few typos I had missed on my first pass, as well as performing minor wording changes here and there. Hope it doesn’t throw you off.

CHAPTER FOUR

 

Nika stared at the campfire. She started to rise, but sighed heavily and sagged back down onto the dusty fringed Arabian-patterened rug she sat upon.

“Pacing won’t bring him back any sooner,” she said to the empty air.

Creed had left just before dusk, and he wasn’t back yet, damn him. She raised her head again, skyward. The stars told her it was well past midnight. She might have consulted her father’s pocket watch, but Kes had made her promised to use the timepiece only when she could not otherwise divine the time “from nature’s signals,” as he’d said. Creed was strict, sometimes even a hard taskmaster.  But she knew it was for her own good. At least that is what Creed kept telling her.

“How else, Button,” he’d said, “are you going to find your way in the pitch of night?” Nika chuckled. Always Button, but she didn’t mind, it was what her father had called her. It was Creed’s staunch opinion that “timepieces are a crutch.” He was probably right, as usual, the meanie. There was so much to learn, and Creed’s knowledge was so vast. Not just about the stars, but in most all things: bushcraft, weapons, the way of people and their motives, and much, much more. It made her head spin; there was such a wealth of knowledge in that fella’s head, all the things he was teaching her – about being a hunter. A survivor.