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• Edited
Made my decision on the Mahrya Dragons-bane stories. Next piece will be the coming of Lycene Cloud-thief and company!
Characters so far:
Mahrya Dragons-bane, a red-haired Ex-Delver of some repute who has retired into seclusion for unknown reasons. She lives in a house built into the top of a small mountain with a black-eyed apprentice she gained in exchange for goods he destroyed in town;
The Harbinger of Doom, Mahrya's erstwhile new apprentice, who has a curse on his magic and a mysterious past;
The Shipko's, a family of merchants based out of Mahrya's town;
The Stone-hearts, a clan of horse-breeders in the valley who have lots of kids; and,
Mahrya's husband, Shauntaq, who is missing for unknown reasons.
Characters introduced in next piece:
Lycene Cloud-thief, a wild-born outlaw on the run from the Interior forces;
Kuwa Shipko, an errant Shipko that travels around as a tinker and is an old friend of Mahrya;
Mars Fire-fist, an outlaw fire-mage and Lycene's partner; and,
One-Eyed Wednesday Elwin, Lycene's half-sister and someone with strong ties to Mahrya.
Also in the future are griffins, a mysterious letter, a couple princes, rebellion, a strange-magician, slimes, selkies, plumbing, and a really confused rabbit! Although some are farther in the future than others!
So I uploaded another piece I wrote in the Dragons-bane stories. It is set right after the first story, and has a bit more information on what exactly is going on with her at the moment. Please take a look and tell me if it's a better progression in the plot line than Uninvited Guests (which does kinda jump into the deep end).
• Edited
Summary: The Retirement of the Dragons-bane:

So this is my series of Mahrya Dragons-bane stories that I want to get written. The first is up and finished. The others are planned, but don't want to fall together. Basically, they tell the story of Mahrya (a former legend now withdrawn into retirement), the brat she takes as her first apprentice (who comes with a lot of trouble, not all of which is attitude and a curse), and the people who seem to collect around them whether Mahrya wants them to or not.

The situation in the first story has Mahrya in her town when she is given the brat by the town's shopkeeper, the heir of the Shipko trading empire. Some hints are dropped about the larger story-line, but most of the story focuses on how Mahrya ends up with the brat as an apprentice.
From there, there is the introduction of various characters, including:
Martin c'Erd, a strange magician from the Black Forest that comes to Mahrya for help 'fixing' a rabbit;
The Rabbit, who is not an ordinary rabbit;
Lycene Cloud-thief, the most famous outlaw in the Borderlands and currently hunted by the Interior forces;
Lycene's sister and comrades, including Kuwa Shipko, a friend of Mahrya's;
The new garrison's commander, Commander Maje, who takes a very strong interest in the beautiful landholder with the (apparently) run-off husband; and,
A mysterious scholar from the Interior who the brat is wary of.

The problem is where I start the next story, as the main story-line doesn't really advance until the building of the new garrison, which is after the things with Lycene, Martin c'Erd, and Mio (Mahrya's best friend and the Left Hand of the Patriarch). That is a few years after the coming of the brat.
         -- Solved. Thanks for everyone's input!

Thanks in advance!
Thanks, Northernwrites! I guess that's a lot of what I was having issues with, since a lot of what she's doing at this point is simply waiting. I didn't want to tell too much, but not enough is just as bad.
• Edited
Short summary: Pirate Chaser:

This is a story based in the universe of the Wild-kin Empire, my oldest creation. In this universe, there is a planet/world called Qeva (Chain), where colors always streak across the sky. It is home to a number of races that had various conflicts together and against one another, but whom banded together with their swords, heritages, and bows when ships descended from the sky hunting slaves. The ships were part of a galactic Empire of technologically advanced humans called the Mahika, who specialized in slavery and genetic tampering. Unknown to them, they had created their own doom by sending slave-hunters to Qeva, for the Wild-kin races and humans there founded the Wild-kin Empire on the technology captured through the ships--an empire devoted solely to defeating the Mahika and their rule of slavery.
Years later, a society of outlaws and escaped slaves developed on the edges of Mahika and Empire space--Pirates and the Chasers (bounty hunters) that hunted them, both living off ransoms and bounties offered by both the Downers at their base and the merchant companies. They lived under the strict rule of the Code, but when the honorable Empire finally brought an end to the Mahika, they could no longer turn a blind eye to the Pirate/Chaser Fleet. Now, what remains of the P/C fleet has come far beyond the boundaries of known space in an attempt to rebuild their shattered society away from the reach of the Empire or Mahika.
The story focuses on the E'tho'laknelai (Eye Without Escape) and its hydroponics chief, Sta'sa Skiradna (Last Outlaw), who is one of the last two living Trance (artificial cybernetic humans created by the Mahika), as they and two other ships are sent out to explore and find supplies in their new region.
Other crewmembers at this point are (prologue):
The Captain, Lana Laknelai, who is the other surviving Trance and one of the first Trance created.
Characters yet to be introduced are:
Zecunaya Se'n (One who Chooses Emptiness), a purebred Gre (think perfect warrior with cat-eyes) who threw away his name and heritage;
Cora Zycor-blood, a black-dragon-shifter half breed and part of the boarding teams (think marines);
Kuwa, a Sithon (wolf-shifter) half breed and senior medical tech;
The Unknown Factor, a mysterious prisoner captured and given to Sta'sa for observation;
And a great number of others that haven't been fully introduced yet.
Further in the future is a princess, local pirates, a brat, and old enemies.
Ah, forgot to add. I actually have the first chapter written as well as the prologue. If anyone wants to read it, they can ask and I'll post it for a bit.
Story summary: Dance of Burning:

This is one of what I'll call my main stories, which are the ones I write or have written the most on and plan to definitely finish one day. The main character is Fleeting Foreign-born, a mysterious girl with golden hair and green eyes in a land of earth-toned people. She goes around with a weapon called Vero St'taro (Soul Voice) and a king-stud named L'jin (Mottled Moon), and for some reason, she can't leave the Empire or go back to her homeland. She's an inhuman with fire-based magic, while the Empire is hostile to both foreigners and those with magic--deathly so.
Her companions at this point in the story (chapter two) are:
Ayn ka'Tress, the wayward son of a noble house that works as a spy/agent for a mysterious party called the Kingfisher;
Drmach dr'Hansova, a Detached Captain from a minor house who also works for the Kingfisher;
Togryd, a fresh-faced young solder under dr'Hansova's command who is a card-sharp with a farm-boy's face; and,
Leoith, an older veteran solder under dr'Hansova's command with a blatant suspicion of Fleeting and secrets in his past.
Characters yet to be introduced are:
Kale, a red-headed thief who somehow came under the banner of the ka'Tress household and who joins them with a message;
Vae'sworn, a smiling hunter/trader from the north with knowing eyes who is very interested in Fleeting;
The Shadow-man (main opponent); and,
An unknown boy with silver eyes and dangerous company who seems to know things about Fleeting she'd rather not have known.
Also in the future is a crown prince, rebellion, a whole bunch of nobles, a secret city, and a rather dangerous hunt right into the lair of the Shadow-man. Some of these are pretty far in the future though!
  •   1 comment
Sounds like some interesting writing ahead *ThumbsUpL*
• Edited
A note to those wondering about updates, if anyone is. Here are the major and minor projects I've listed on, off, or steadily. In short and order of importance:
Dance of Burning; Pirate Chaser; City of a Thousand Towers; The Last Shk'ada; and the Dragons-bane stories.
In long:
         Dance of Burning is my major project at the moment--I probably have about two or three books worth of plotline worked out since I started planning it seriously. In addition, Fleeting is rooted in the world I first came up with in my writing--Qeva, the world of her father's and mother's people. Probably the cream of it all is that Fleeting is among my top five favorite characters. Can't wait for whether or not her brothers come in.
         Pirate Chaser actually predates DoB in terms of initial story idea and characters, but my first couple revisions and plot-twists got lost in a computer crash. It put me off writing it for a while, and the plot isn't quite fleshed out even for the near future. A point of interest is that the universe of Pirate Chaser is actually connected to the one DoB happens in. Qeva is the founding world/planet of the Wild-kin Empire.
         City of a Thousand Towers is one of my Canvas stories, based in the world of the Foundation. A bit of a salvation story, it's the second story I came up with in Canvas, but the first one that happens according to the in-story timeline. I have the initial story-line worked out, but am not quite sure I have the gumption right now to write it due to some things coming a bit too close to personal experience. It'll be sidelined for a while, but not discarded.
         The Last Shk'ada is something like CoaTT in terms with problems--I love the character and know them, but have problems with the plot-line. In Shk'ada's case, I have a problem with the entry--I lost the perfect one to a computer crash and have been trying to rewrite it ever since unsuccessfully. I want it to be a bit more of a mysterious past, but there are too many questions that need illustrated in the beginning for that to work well.
         The Dragons-bane or Dragons-heart stories are the last on my list, and sidelined only because I've been busy with others. I have something of a long plot, but since the initial story was, frankly, quite dark and depressing, there's a bit of working out to do to have it follow the vein that worked and everyone seems to love. (Thank you everyone!). Lets just say it involves an invasion, selkies, and ...
Edited and trimmed Dance of Burning, chapter one! Didn't break quite where I'd planned, but better than before at least. :)
I read one of your stories have not had a chance to go through and review it, I did like it - and look forward to reading more of your works as I have more time.
Thank you so much for commenting, and for the compliment!
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