A final encounter with Dana. Ketrick and Tyra in a last stand at Alexander's castle. A fitting end for Heydar. Marco hunts for Tyra with a crossbow. Angel makes a surprising revelation. (Much violence)

Teaser: The adventures of the ladies of the Eerie Saloon continue. A mystery is revealed. Laura tries to adjust to her new condition. And two more transformations occur.

* * * * *

Eerie Saloon: Seasons of Change - Autumn
By Ellie Dauber and Chris Leeson (c)2005
Part 2 - November

Sunday, November 5, 1871

Milt Quinlan walked directly to the bar. "Good afternoon, Shamus. Do you mind if I talk to Jane for a few minutes?"

"I don't see why not," Shamus said. "We isn't exactly swamped with customers right now. Sit yuirself down someplace, and I'll be sending her over to ye."

Lady Dana requires Ketrick's services and seals her fate. Tyra is forced to betray a friend who never was. Another Lord is killed and the valley teeters on the edge as the plot unfolds.

A girl is unhappy, or Angel turns jealous. A meeting with Marco and Drago Giovanni in the tavern. Wanda uncovers a secret. Drago takes a girl home to Paolo's castle. An unpleasant encounter with Alanna Borodin. Drago sends Tyra to the guards, or a spear is bent. Plans are made, or hanging cats by the tails. A lesson on Batuk for the new aristocracy.

Tyra confides in her sister. Tyra learns a few lessons about herself during her stay at the slave camp for serum girls. Tyra learns a dance. When a girl goes too far and must be rebuked. Tisa's plan for Tyra, or a brand from a woman's hand makes all the difference. What could happen when a 300 year-old man brols a virgin. A bitter lesson learned.

This is a very short story I'd written a while ago that just started with the image of two odd figures climbing out of a mud hole. I began theorizing what they would be doing there and where they were going next. The following story is the result of that bit of daydreaming. :)

Out of the Mud

Copyright 2007 by Heather Rose Brown

Tyra meets her former love-slave and makes a decision. Frightened at her changes, and appalled at her sister's plans for her, Tyra forms a daring strategy to stay free at the cost of part of herself. Tyra's changes become complete, and she discovers what a being a sister means. Still, can a woman with the slave gene ever truly adjust to the world around her?

Zhor is a planet where the mysterious Overlords rule, where men and women live for centuries and are permitted to be themselves. There, a young warrior's love and dreams are shattered when he wakes up one morning as a serum girl, a beautiful woman with the DNA of one of Zhor's finest slaves. Her old life destroyed, she must not only fight to hold onto her identity as she is forced to make a new life as a woman, but also to keep her freedom, not easy when her body insists that she would be happiest branded and collared.

Just a quick add on to the previous 3 chapters. More to come later.

DD

Omnibus edition of this week's releases of Game Theory.

I've now caught up - that is, this release is only about three thousand words behind where I've written up to, but I'm busy clacketing away to stay ahead... :-}

P.S. I've been increasingly unsure if my genre-tagging is accurate, and have fallen into the dilemma of certain aspects of the plot that maybe should be signposted in the tags but haven't been, largely because they only emerged - even in my own mind - as the story progressed. (But also, in some cases, because to do so would be a massive spoiler. :-}) But I do worry that the tagging may no longer accurate and would welcome feedback on this.

P.P.S. <geek>I switched to Scrivener partway through this week's work, and with it to a different way of exporting to HTML. You should only be able to see the join if you view source. :-)</geek>

Omnibus edition of this week's releases.

Synopsis: The captured Therobelin comes face to face with the warrior goddess Crystalia, who forces him to confront his true feelings about the state of the world he has sworn to protect. (Part 3)

So Grandma was wrong about all Sorcerer's being evil wizards. That doesn't mean that they aren't dangerous people to be around. Imps and demons, pirates and bandits, you just never know what you are going to run into as an apprentice of a merchant slash Sorcerer. Nor the impact it will have on your life.