Chymaera's Overture: a Shadowed Ways novel

by A N Britton

  I knew then. What I was and what I had done. I stood up and called my Emergence skin. I felt every bit of the change, it wasn’t like wrapping myself in illusion, like every other disguise I wore. It was coming home and finding myself. Being myself without constraint. All I had to do was discard the vision of the human Chy to embrace this aspect of myself. Talons emerged as obsidian black and I knew that they were sharper than any substance known to man. The pearlized armor of scales began at my midsection and flowed outward, enveloping me. My tail grew until the end unfurled above my head and I knew without seeing it ended in a point sharp as a blade and beaded with poison. The corkscrew curls elongated and turned into long platinum gray coils that writhed about my head in unison with my desires. My tongue split, twisted and stretched. The whites of my eyes spread and covered the spheres.

  I had become an adult. I had become a weapon.

  This body knew things I had not known. This body had a memory of what I had done while emerging. But this body also knew what needed doing. I retrieved my Fiddle and bow and placed them inside my torso. Fiddle resonated with me in a way that let me know it felt at ease within me. Then I knelt over Kai. I couldn’t risk giving him too much of myself. My essence could overwhelm him and then he would become my creature and not his true self. I didn’t want that. So I reached within and touched his core allowing the barest bit of my own to enter him. It would seal the breach and sustain him until I could get him to a region of the forest I had not killed. Then he could feed and heal whatever damaged remained. Once I retrieved the claw that fit within the claw marks, I pressed the sides of the wound together, willing them to knit together, to make Kai whole again.

  They did.

  Then I did what was left to do. I lifted Kai in my arms, he felt feather light in this flesh and I started northward. This body knew the way to its new home. This body had truths to tell, and I listened.

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  the forthcoming sequel!

  A Duet?

  Book Two - A Shadowed Ways Novel

  (expected release Winter 2019/2020)

  Acknowledgements

  This novel, my first, was conceived in joy and birthed, somewhat laboriously… But I have come to the end of the initial leg of this journey and I am quite returned to joy! I have a few things to say to those who have helped me on my quest.

  For my mother, Sandra Corine Hunter, and my maternal grandmother, Artieal Britton, thank you, for introducing me to the written word. I still have the first copy of Grimms’ Fairy Tales that I was given, probably before I was capable of reading them. You may have not always agreed with my choices, but you were the women who guided me, shaped me, and made me capable of making those choices.

  And to my husband, my beshert, nothing I can say would ever be sufficient to share how much I appreciate your continuous love and support during this process. You believed in my story and my ability to tell it, when I questioned and doubted. You were pushy when I was blocked or unmotivated, but were always ready with encouragement as well. I certainly didn’t always enjoy your zeal at the time, but I am tremendously grateful now. This book is more than just mine, it is ours.

  To John Francis Oliver, you are the proverbial demon with a pitchfork! (Made you laugh!) Thank you for listening to the concept and reading, reading, reading, everything I wrote. And that you for bugging me for more pages even when I wanted to throttle you for asking. You are the best kind of difficult/supportive friend.

  To Shauna Akers, OMG - thank you for balancing out John! You understand the creative process and thank you for the constructive criticism that always helped and didn’t hurt.

  To Nyadeigoi Vandi Tisdale. You were there at the beginning and you are always on my mind.

  About the Author

  AN Britton is a collector of awesome and obnoxious Tshirts. She is also a brazen lover of street fairs, farmers’ markets, and cozy nooks. You might see her out and about in the Seattle area with her husband and her bratty dog, but probably not.

  She is presumably writing.