The EQ Alternaverse ((PART 2))

i miss Wingthing's stories and all of us having something to talk about together. and geek out over.

Hey everyone! It's been a wild summer.

So... not a story per se... (I'm taking some time out from Alt-FQ until I see just where the hell the canon story is actually going)... but this latest issue of FQ was so... memorable that I had to hand it over the Alternaverse crew to read:

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Swift: Hello and welcome everyone, to the Alternaverse Roundtable Discussion of the latest issue...

Vaya: - ABOMINATION!

Swift: to come out of Canon Final Quest!

Vaya: The HELL-MOUTH!

Swift: Don’t mind her, everyone. She’s just bitter about what’s happened to Aurek.

Vaya: Just? JUST? He’s a DRUKKING BRUNETTE now! It wasn’t enough to take his muscles, his broad shoulders, his tight pants, his deliciously sardonic smirk – now he can’t even keep his glorious golden hair?!?!?!

Aurek: Shh, just breathe. Here, take some wackroot and shelter within my remarkably toned Glider arms.

Haken: So, I see Yun is trying to convert the Little Palace into her very own pod **coughcough** ARK! **coughcough** thoughtofitfirst! **coughcough**

Kit: And Cutter still hasn’t told Skywise about the whole “TimTam” situation. Really, how hard is it to spare a few panels to explain that he’s got one soul living in two different bodies?

Swift: Because… it’s New Age buckrot? And it makes no sense?

Littlefire: What’s so hard to understand? Two bodies: one soul. Like me and Kit. It made sense to you when we explained it, didn’t it, Foxglove?

Foxglove: Umm… as long as there is no follow-up question: yes. Yes, it did. Perfect sense.

Spar: Can we talk about Door? And the promised Big Bad arc that ended up resolving itself within like… two pages?

Door: Pft. As if a villain of my caliber could be turned from the Dark Side that easily!

Vaya: Yes, we all know it takes at least one night with Spar to turn that Big Bad good.

Spar: Damn straight.

Door: And don’t get me started on “Ekolin”.

Klipspringer: Beats “Han O’Tim”.

Meerkat: I think I have those earrings of his.

Coris: Sweet. Can I borrow them?

Meerkat: Sorry, who are you?

Klipspringer: Coris is the… um… non-binary, genderqueer…

Coris: I’m the incredibly femme pirate boy.

Sust: Well, hello there!

Coris: Also incredibly straight.

Sust: Heh, famous last words.

Coppersky: SUST!

Sust: What? Isn’t it cheat-night yet?

Coppersky: Fine. You go play with your pirate, and I’ll have an orgy with those hot Go-Backs I saw on page 12.

Sust: Could we… join the orgy? Because we could work with that, right, Coris?

Coris: Touch me and I’ll cut you. Anyway… the issue?

Sylas: Hmm. Bald, traumatized elf can’t bear the weight of the world and wants to return to the spirit world. That… sounds… awfully familiar.

Haken: I did love Door’s villainous monologue. “Beg the indulgence and worship the lord of all, the only Door.” Very… Dante’s Inferno, Gates of Hell. Well done, kid.

Spar: But what happened to his HAIR?

Vaya: It gets easier the more you drink, kiddo.

Littlefire: Can someone cut her off? I've worried about her liver.

Swift: Redlance’s solution to the fire was a good one. Dunno why we needed so much sturm und drang about it, though.

The Hive-Mind of the Evertree: No, Ulm! Do not choose your mortal flesh. Choose the greensong!

Melati: Shut up, Pool!

Swift: So this “final confrontation with the humans” arc is going nowhere fast. But I will say, I was pleasantly surprised that there was no mention of Leetah and Cutter’s latest unholy fetus. Because I was sure they’d milk that for like… two pages at least.

Savin: There are still three more issues.

Haken: And still Timmain’s ultimate evil agenda hasn’t been revealed. They’re leaving the climax awfully late, aren’t they?

Spar: What if… there is no ultimate evil agenda from Timmain?

Haken: Bitch, please.

Swift: Yeah, there has to be one.

The Hive-Mind of the Evertree: Can confirm!

Melati:  Shut up, Pool!

Swift: I think we can all agree that everyone who reads this will require years of intensive therapy. But the question is: Worst Ish Ever?

Savin: Not with Skywise looking so pretty on the last page. That profile shot… mmm. Also, we didn’t have to see a graphic sex scene with Timmain this ish.

Chani: Or a Bobblehead Timmain!

Spar: Small mercies.

Haken: I’m suspending judgment until I see the whole train wreck.

Vaya: One thing I’ve learned: *hic* it can always get worse.

The Hive-Mind of the Evertree: You know, if you could all just set aside your sarcasm for a moment and really read between the lines, you could better appreciate the wisdom of FQ’s central thesis – the inevitability of change, the necessity to commit to a clear choice, the folly of trying to have it all. Life cannot be a series of self-congratulatory happy endings! It’s really quite deep if you think about it –

Everyone: Shut up, Pool!

it's really great to hear from you wingthing! and to read the stuff you write, even a little dribble drabble. i needed this laugh. i'm laughing on the outside and crying on the inside. this was great.

and true. i do so love seeing the swiftverse characters react to the canon. the sust/coris/coppersky interaction was my favorite. second close favorite was melati and everyone continuously telling Pool to shut up.

Wingthing, seriously, you've been way too MIA lately, girrrrrl! I SO needed this, echoing Vaeri's sentiments. Coris's indignation and contemptuousness btw is almost on par with Coppersky, omg.

I am surprised you've said nothing about this unholy fetus of 2nd recognition. I was actually waiting for Gypsy Moth to pipe in and say something.

Miss your writing, Wingthing. It's like freakin' refreshing sorbet between these overly self- important FQ courses that just tend to eternally linger on the literary palate.
Make haste, return to us!
We need more panels of Pool being told and made to shut up, out of his ongoing inner Lifetime movie!

you DO have a good point zadzi(omg forever hi hugs!) how could Gypsy Moth/Rayek/Swift NOT say anything about Leetah/Cutter having a second recognition too? i think the fans must demand Rayek and Swift one up Cutter/Leetah and have a THIRD recognition! mwahahahaha.

perhaps another son so Sunstream isn't outranked by all his sisters anymore...? XD i think i shall have to keep my poor brain occupied with doll maker creations of "WHAT IF SONS OF SWIFT AND RAYEK". expect them within an hour or two cause sharing is caring guys. <3

alright i got it done! took longer cause i went to the gym with my parents, but i really like these what if's i came up with!^^ including little drabbles cause the first one inspired me!



“And to think... I always feared any male cub of mine might take after Bearclaw...”

Swift supposed her fate had been sealed the moment she uttered those words all those millenia ago. She had considered herself fortunate with Sunstream and Venka. She had thought perhaps Gypsy was the closest but still a miss. But it seemed the High Ones were determined to see her suffer.

And suffer she did, she thought wearily as she looked at her youngest son. He was muscular and fit as his father had been in his own youth, with richly colored brown hair that was recklessly wild and tangled despite its shorter length and fair skin like his sister Gypsy. His eyes were as golden as Rayek and Venka's, like a mountain lion. But despite the absence of her wolfblood, he had gotten canines as sharp as any true blooded Wolfrider.

He was just probably almost as bad as her old mad sire had been. This cub was as wild as a feral wolf, constantly bearing a feral grin to match. He was always playing tricks, on anyone and everyone, both benign and malevolent. He was vicious, and a terror in the hunt, his chosen weapon a whip. A rarity in the Great Holt but not without its uses. He spent more time with his wolf than he did anyone else. And High One's forbid someone get his temper started. It usually required a good clout to the head to make him stop.

“Wonderful thing, Recognition.” She muttered, and her son only smirked wickedly in response.

Obviously as i sat debating on how to create sons, i remembered this little remark from Swift waaay back in the beginning of Alternaverse. and while Gypsy Moth surely embodied a few of Bearclaw's traits, this lad is probably Bearclaw reincarnate. except unable to kill the tribe and doesn't abuse people randomly. XD i have no idea whether he'd have a descriptive name like Gypsy and Sunstream, or even things out with a sound name like Venka, so he's not named. but i really like the look of him! a callback to the good old wild Wolfriders in this modern age.



Swift watched proudly as her youngest son stood at a distance from a target, his bowstring drawn taut and his golden gaze focused forward. He was still for a long moment, as if a part of the forest, before a soft sigh of breath and the arrow flew, as if propelled by it. Unsurprisingly, it landed in the center, a kill if she had ever seen it. She smiled and slipped off the branch she had been comfortably nestled in and approached her son.

He turned to her with a gentle smile that brought back memories of Joyleaf's smile. Indeed, her son seemed to recall his grandmother with nearly every action and word, despite the fact he had his father's eyes and his hair was a far darker color than hers or Sunstreams. He was a mystic to be sure, like his elder brother Sunstream, yet he seemed to be more down to the ground instead of in the sky. A gentle, solemn wisdom. It was many a time he had soothed tempers with a soft word, or suggested a solution to a problem that had baffled more experienced elves. And his warnings whenever given were to be heeded.

Had Venka not been her firstborn, Swift had no doubt she would have chosen her youngest son to lead the Wolfriders. And she knew they would have been in the best of hands.

this was totally unintentional, but i guess since i did a Bearclaw fashioned kid, i then subconciously to do one more Joyleaf inspired, hence the green leathers! I like the thought he'd be more of a wolfrider than Sunstream, but with an earthy kind of wisdom rather than the dreamy one Sunstream had.



okay this guy i have no drabble, just a phrase. Cold Fire. figured Swift and Rayek might as well have an unholy redhead spawn in both universes ^^ so he gets redhair from his great to the nth grandma Huntress Skyfire, though he wears it similar to how Rayek does. but he's very much a child of the current generation, which is why the fashion and even the tattoo or paint around his eye in a nice shiny gold color. so pretty much Cold Fire describes his personality. Fiery and cool at the same time.^^

Wow, awesome, Vaeri!

So your possible visions of the Multitude have caught Rayek's eye, and I kinda had to write this.

Rayek watched the image materialize in the Scroll of Colors. Even since he had read that half-baked excuse for fanservice called Final Quest #20, he had been tormented by the same question – was the Recognition that produced Gypsy Moth the counterpart to this latest unholy unit of Man-Swift and Leetah, or would a THIRD Recognition soon strike the Palacemaster and his mate?

One possible future took shape… a son, on the cusp of maturing… with wild brown hair and skin almost as fair as his mother… a mountain lion’s eyes… and canines sharp as any Evertree Wolfrider, bared in a feral grin. He brandished a whip in one hand as he clambered onto the back of his enormous wolf. Rider and mount let out a combined howl that echoed through the forest.

Rayek dismissed the vision, and immediately hailed Melati on faraway Homestead.

“So… tell me about this Recognition-control pill you’re working on.

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Again, the swirls of colors resolved into another possible future – another thread in the Multitude. Rayek watched as his youngest son took aim with his bow and arrow. He had the smile of the long-departed Joyleaf… and her gentle ways besides, Rayek could tell. And he possessed a languorous, sylph-like beauty, as he slowly moved through the forest in search of his fired arrow. As Sunstream was a child of the stars, so this lad was a child of the forest… the embodiment of every human legend about the hauntingly beautiful Hidden Folk... impossible to resist…

“Oh drukk,” Rayek muttered. “Swift!” he hollered down the corridors of the Palace. “Sust is NOT allowed in the Great Holt ever again!”

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Red hair. Gold eyes. Golden paint around his eyes… Rayek ran that particular thread in the Multitude forward and backward, regressing the boy to an infant in Swift’s arms, then returning him to maturity, as he lounged in a tree branch in his brightly colored leathers.

“Swift… are you SURE there isn’t something you want to tell me?”

“Red hair is a recessive gene. It could be something left over from… Huntress Skyfire…. This… this is only one POSSIBLE future, after all…”

“Uh-huh. And it has NOTHING to do with you playing Settlers of Catan with Klipspringer ALL last weekend?”

inspiration begets inspiration begets inspiration. i love it!! these were really really entertaining to read! Rayek's reaction to number 1 made me literally laugh out loud. recognition control pill...XD ohh yes, if they had this child as a third recognition...Gypsy Moth would have been a walk in the park in comparison. i could imagine these parallel reactions. Rayek canon: “Well I’m not going near that little monster! She’ll try to eat me!” vs Rayek what-if: "I got to get away from this monster! Tam, he's trying to eat me!!"

number 2...again, the ending comment made me laugh out loud again. of course Rayek wouldn't want Sust going after his boy! XD

and number 3....ahh drukk i forgot about Klipspringer! XD damnit that was totally and completely not my intention at all!! XDD what's settlers of catan? it sounds like something similar to dungeons and dragons. poor swift, ending up like Halycon who got pregnant by that redhaired plainswaste elf....XD

what were your personal reactions when you saw these boys and read about them wingthing?^^ if i can ask!

Settlers of Catan is an alternately fun and INFURIATING resource-strategy game. I initially had a whole subplot there where Swift and Rayek stop arguing about whether she's cheating on him and start arguing about whether it's the most "human" game ever invented (resource exploitation, trade deals and empire building) or whether it's the most "troll" game ever invented (because anything cool humans have on Abode almost always turns out to be bought from the trolls). I imagine Rayek refuses to play it because he never gets the cards he wants and ends up threatening to just nuke everyone's settlements.

Awesome character designs, all three! Number One is suitably terrifying - I'd be like, okay, off to the Egg with you. Aurek, you worked miracles with a Cheipar, see if you can civilize this beast! And on seeing Number Two, my first thought totally was "OMG, it's a boy dryad! EVERYONE in the Great Holt would be all over that! The poor thing would need a bodyguard!"

So I'm curious where you see Cold Fire hanging out. His fashion sense screams "hanging out on the Sea Wolf being a badass pirate" but the gold paint makes me thing either new age Oasis (which is desperate to be seen as "hip" and "with it" after the Red Snakes and their crew left) or over on Homestead, where all the cool kids go for college!

lol.....i swear to god i wasn't insinuating Swift would cheat on Rayek! probably shoulda made Coldfire's hair darker or something. At least in his universe, Rayek definitely knows its his....man, paranoid over Skywise and now Klipspringer!

the game sounds pretty interesting. i'd probably be horrible at it because i'm usually only decent at staying a few steps ahead, not really much of a strategist. my planning might help me maybe, though?^^0

i don't know if even Aurek could help 1! he never dealt with Bearclaw, and he'd probably just walk away in silent frustration thinking "screw this, i'm gonna end up like my lifemate and kill this kid if i stay" after one too many pranks....mud in the crotch of the breeches or something XD

2 did end up a bit femmy...thought maybe it was just me XD i love the idea of him being like a male dryad! i kinda wanted one of the boys to have powers, and i was half tempted to make him a plantshaper, but i got so focused on the Joyleaf aspect i didn't really flesh it out. hmm...i wonder if he would be the type to visit any fur that wants him..?

ahhh Coldfire! he was...well pretty mishmash. i think my overall theme with him was Cricket saying "The cubs all have strange fashions these days". but i couldn't do any of the shaved head, not with those luscious locks from Rayek. i think i largely saw him hanging at the Great Holt with his parents. but when you asked and mentioned the other places, i thought maybe he pulled a Littlefire/Cricket, and visited the different tribes in his youth. maybe he didn't really like any of them enough to stay but liked aspects of the cultures and brought them home with him.

plus i saw the facial markings and decided one of these boys really needed some...XD he just ended up getting it. it felt weird with 1, because wolfrider's generally didn't do the whole body painting thing, except a smear of blood after a hunt. oh god i could just see 1 strolling into the holt with his latest kill, and blood smeared and slapped all over his face and arms. bloody handprints everywhere!

...damn just realized, it's a shame they didn't have hair vines...i could definitely see 2 wearing some greenery threaded through his braids.

I was going to say that #2 has my vote (if we're allowed such things) but then I had another thought.  

Why do we have to choose? Why not twins... or triplets?

*Whines* I don't care, I just want a new installment!
*Bangs counter* I've suffered so! My gawd, you've seen what we've all had to deal with. I need I need I need! Gimme Gimme Gimme!

heh heh...

Well... I make no promises on date of delivery... I do have some ideas percolating regarding the next chapter of  FQ (check the characters' dialogue up-page for some clues )

that's what I need to hear. Thank you, wingthing!

doesn't take much to keep you happy zadzi :p*tease tease*

hmm...going by the dialogue of what you posted...except for Aurek, Coris, and Savin, it includes people who we've last seen on Homestead...so i suppose we're going to have a continuation in the Navigator Arc? or at least probably more stories based on Homestead. i'm STILL waiting for that story detailing Winnowill's return to life here! :p i could actually kinda see it following Nature of the Beast...a journal entry style of Melati's observations from afar and up close. but that's just me of course.

hmm...what could happen on Homestead...? well of course there's Sylas getting used to corporeal existance, and Haken constantly hovering nearby. i'm sure there's still stories to be told about the budding 3 way relationship of Foxglove/Kit/Littlefire. the youngest undeveloped members of the story, Naga and Redfawn. definitely need to see more stories for Naga XD

hmm...i think relating to FQ, we'll be seeing some new messed upness from the Evertree. maybe some kind of threat it's able to conquer that intimidates everyone else and makes them all go "Ah drukk". Redlance might make an appearance again as a tree-craft! gee, imagine that walking around the remainder of the Wolfriders....heh.

meh that's all i've got for speculation right now.

Doesn't take much to keep me happy in terms of Wingthing's work, I just love it and love rereading it
Ooooh I would so love a continuation of the Navigator stuff!
I actually have the feeling of some kind of a war starting between the first comers . What on earth happens with Timmain after embracing 'the green song' or green way or, alternatively, a green funeral
Yes more Naga stuff too.
And ya that recognition pill damn , what the heck, Melati ! I guess this is something in line with the last stuff from the Navigator installment. It's been really barren over here in terms of FQ ughhhh god.

Aaaand I'm about halfway through the next fic.

Here's a sample. Let the wild specs begin!

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Chieftess Venka felt her spirit shed her skin, and soar high into the astral plane, to that point where the Circle of Eight met for their regular conference. Slowly, the other members appeared in ghostly form, across from her, next to her, filling in the spaces like the spokes of a wheel.

A wheel once shattered, then reassembled… smaller now, perhaps stronger, perhaps not…

Fifteen years had passed since the night the Palace of the High Ones appeared over Thorny Mountain, closing the time loop that had first stranded their kind on Abode. The night that went by many names: the Revelation, the Moment, the Reappearance. No one could agree what to call it, but all agreed it was the fulcrum upon which their history turned.

They had survived that night with their past intact, but their future was forever changed.

The Great Holt, the College, the Hearthstone elves, the Islanders and the Waveriders were all represented as before. But the Firstcomer Haken no longer appeared as lord of Oasis. Now his descendent Ahdri led the Sun Folk and Gliders in their secret desert refuge – yet her form was hazy, out of focus. The prince Brightmetal was gone as well, his place taken by his son Smokewater. The Plainsrunners were now represented by Haxhi, daughter of Halcyon, who continued to sleep in wrapstuff, her spirit still recovering from the wounds she’d received at the Siege at Howling Rock.
And where Kit had once appeared, representing the Evertree, Venka saw only darkness. Kit’s Wolfriders had flown to the neighboring planet of Homestead, and the few feral elves who had sought to return to the forest of their birth had gone silent years ago.

“Blessings,” Venka greeted her fellow leaders. She glanced at Ahdri. “We draw strength from our unity in this difficult time.”

Ahdri’s spirit form flickered like a guttering flame. She was clearly distracted, unable to hold the link properly. “I cannot stay long…” she began regretfully.

“Indeed. Let us be brief, for the sake of our kin in Oasis. Any business that concerns the Daughter of Memory?”

“The Steam Road is still trying to get back up and running–” Smokewater began.

Venka held up a hand. “Then may Oasis adjourn?”

Everyone else nodded. Smokewater coughed uncertainly. “I’m getting reports from Sarazen that they’ll need to blast new tunnels all through the fault lines–”

“And such work can wait, surely,” Venka said, not unkindly.

“They’d call you on the sending wires, but the wires are down too,” Smokewater added to Ahdri. “You might want to send someone–”

“First, we must mourn,” Ahdri said.

“Well, that’s all well and good, but the tides – and Captain Moth there can second me on this–”
“Later,” Venka ruled sternly. “Go and be with your folk, Ahdri.”

Ahdri’s spirit detached itself from the Circle. Smokewater’s form moved to the side to fill the gap she had left behind.

“I’m only saying, the Steam Road benefits Oasis just as much as it does Blue Mountain,” the trollkin king muttered. “We lost the whole track to the waterfront in that quake. And if we can’t get the trains running by the time the Sea Holt docks for winter–”

“They lost lives in Oasis,” Venka said pointedly.

“So did we! We lost a whole train’s worth of good railriders.”

“Then surely you can agree it’s important to grieve.”
“Grief is well and good, but for how long?”

“It’s only been ten days,” Haxhi exclaimed.

“Only? You know how many cogs are out of rhythm now? Ask Aurek there, what’ll happen if the Egg stops turning for ten days! I’m sorry, but they lost four elves. Four! Yes, it’s scat luck for the families of those four. But we lose folk in Blue Mountain all the time, and we don’t let it grind our gears to a halt. We can’t afford to. We have schedules to keep. Coal to ship out, grain to ship in. If we can’t get the Steam Road running–”

“You’ll make do with zwoot caravans, like you did in your father’s day,” Venka said.

“There weren’t so many humans swarming the Waste in my father’s day. There weren’t Strykers blasting sinkholes in my father’s day. And there weren’t over twenty thousand trolls depending on prompt, regular food deliveries!”

“The Sea Holt can make winter port at the Mountain,” Gypsy Moth spoke up. “Will that help?”

“A little,” Smokewater admitted. “But I’d rather see Oasis spare some of their rockshapers to help us get the tunnels open again. They’re in their rocks, after all.”

“Leave Oasis in peace,” Aurek said. “If you wish to use magic, we can ask Homestead. Or perhaps the Palace can–”

“I don’t wish to use magic!” Smokewater cut him off. “I don’t wish to go begging for help from my neighbors. I’d rather not be here at all! You think I don’t have enough of my own problems – what a wreck my grandfather behind for me to salvage! But I can’t afford to go off and weep like Ahdri and her little Oasis orchids! When those scouts turned up dead and raving and vanished into the stone itself – did go and hide in my rooms and weep? Did I come begging the Circle for help? Did I try to wriggle out of my contracts? No! Slugscat! I lost five times the warriors Ahdri did. One of them was my own grandson. And did you hear a murmur of complaint from me?”

“You lost a grandson?” Venka interjected, full of sympathy.

“Or… great-grandson,” Smokewater amended. “One of Kaleev’s boys… his daughter’s son. Morak. Good mump. He was leading the scouts… following a new fault line on the borderstone. Last month. Twenty went in, only two came out alive… barely.”

“A Stryker attack?” Aurek asked.

Smokewater nodded promptly, but Venka saw how his astral form flickered and glowed faintly blue, its edges crackling with lightning.

“You doubt it,” she said.

“I don’t doubt that’s what happened to the missing bodies. My great-grandson is a Stryker stewpot by now. But what killed them to begin with….”
“Tell us,” Aurek prompted.
Smokewater shuddered at the memory. “Sawbones – my royal healer – he said it was probably death-fumes, rising up from a fissure in the rock. When the party was overdue, I sent another dozen trolls into the borderstone. Out of twenty scouts, they found eight bodies… swollen, rotten… covered in mushrooms. And two survivors… a pair of trollkin.”

“They were raving, you said,” Venka recalled.

“They were screaming. Keening – the sound! I can’t get it out of my head some nights. And they were trollkin – thin-blooded, but enough to send... just a little. Even after their throats tore, they kept sending that noise! Bleeding from the ears… the nose. And their veins – all standing out from the skin, like… like they were swollen up, hard as rocks! Took three warriors to drag each one back to the Mountain. They had screamed themselves to death before Sawbones could even look at them. And their eyes…. Oh, their eyes… I’ve never seen troll eyes glow like that. The color of poison. Of spring slime molds.”

“Poisoned fumes, your healer says?”

Smokewater shrugged. “He thinks. But he’s never seen anything like it. He… um… he cut up the bodies to see what was happening inside.”

Haxhi and Evergreen both pulled faces. Aurek and Venka both nodded seriously. Warmask and Gypsy Moth looked intrigued.

“And?” Warmask asked, when Smokewater hesitated.

“Everything was already rotting inside. Fungal spores were taking root in their lungs – they must have breathed it in from all that screaming. And their brains… oh, never mind. I’m not boasting about it. It was foul, but it was no fouler than what happens to a skull that meets a Stryker great-axe. Slugscat… for all I know, this is some new Stryker weapon! If they’ve finally learned how to mine gas, they could be using it against us.”

“And you didn’t think this was worth of sharing with the Circle?” Aurek challenged.

“What does it have to do with you? If the Wolfriders were still running around topside that might mean something, but now… anyway, the Strykers are our problem. I wouldn’t want you calling me up to help you fight Djunsmen.”

“These borderlands… they’re near Greymung’s Havoc?” Venka asked.

Smokewater nodded.

Venka and Aurek exchanged glances. “Smokewater, this may be important,” Aurek said. “Their brains… did they rot like the rest of their bodies?”

Smokewater scowled. “That was the queerest thing. Their brains were full of holes. But the part at the back–”

A memory superimposed itself on all of them: a short, fat troll with goggles and canvas gloves, handling a rotting piece of pallid meat. “We call it the elf-knot,” the healer was saying. “It’s this lobe here, my king. Only found in those with elf-blood. We believe this is the seat of psyonic abilities…”

He turned the meat over in his hands, revealing a bloody, tangled mass of filaments. It looked like a coil of red-black twine strangling the rear portion of the brain. The elfin sending nodes.

“The other scouts, the ones who died,” Venka pressed. “Where they troll or trollkin?”

Smokewater had to think about it. “Probably mostly troll. I’d have to get out the rolls to be certain.”

“And the ones who disappeared? They were more elf-blooded, weren’t they? They could send properly.”

“I don’t know. Well… Morak, certainly. He was always one of the better senders – what?” Smokewater looked from Aurek to Venka in confusion. “What does that have to do with anything?”

welp, that's it. the war against the Evertree is in full swing! and it's...i guess it's taking elfin bloods to feed its roots and get stronger. more souls to fuel the tree. and again with the elfin nodes! XD thanks a lot melati for bringing that concept to public knowledge. perhaps the Evertree is taking some tips from the Broken Palacestone. glowing green eyes, like glowing purple eyes...

the nice thing is with this time skip, Naga is a lovely young maiden and we'll probably finally get to see what marvelous powers she has!! maybe she's lovemates with her childhood friend Redfawn, or maybe she's more for the lads if she can be bothered. or maybe she likes both *shrugs* Sylas and Tamsin should be quite comfortably settled by now, and he's hopefully much more content with his physical form. Haken is probably still a sappy happy fool that Sylas is near again.

poor Halcyon, still in wrapstuff! man that spirital damage must have been pretty severe.

a rather delicate thing to bring up, but parts of these almost actually feels like 9/11 and the reactions to it, maybe especially within the recent years. People still severely mourning the event even a decade and change later as if it just happened a few years ago and some people insisting it's time to move on for the most part. that's what Smokewater's "Grief is well and good, but for how long?” made me think of. guess cause it's still September.

that's really all i could get out of these exerpt, no little hidden tasty tidbits i can find. but plenty of interesting information....*strokes chin*

Oh man, I am so happy there's going to be a new installment, freakin' parched over here!
Damn, the Evertree is really screwing with everyone, isn't it. Totally, totally curious what's up with Timmain in this...did she become absorbed, what the heck is her role... no doubt she is part of all this insanity. Super curious about Oasis.... can't wait!

Oh wow. Can't wait to see how this develops!

*hands out marshmallows to the other campers.*

And it's up!

http://www.janesenese.com/swiftverse/greendreams.html

It all has to burn, eh? This'll be good!

Aww yeah. Operation Controlled Burn is a go, people.

well i can only guess the Evertree has been gathering power due to stolen...souls, psychic abilities...? something like that, it's getting something. poor Savah, being captured by it...and poor unhappy Yurek!

interesting though, it seems like...complete consumption or whatever by the Evertree results in glowing green eyes. Timmain is taken over! and yet still unhappy, yeesh.

yaaay grown-up Naga! what a talented child. <3 you know, i thought she had violet eyes cause of the picture Sungirl did! but guess she got Papa's eyes.

and Melati's dream is coming true <3 the one she had when she was visited Cholla and Klipspringer all those years ago when Beast was still a secret.

Vaeri wrote:

interesting though, it seems like...complete consumption or whatever by the Evertree results in glowing green eyes. Timmain is taken over! and yet still unhappy, yeesh.

The day Timmain is genuinely happy is the day the universe ends.