Chaos Critter Tails: Hector and the Forging of the Sword of Incredible Power and Beauty, Chapter 01
This week, Tod starts something new - a cozy fantasy serialization. We've also provided the regular supply of critter pictures.
Cozy Fantasy
Tod here this week. At Superstars I went to a class on Cozy Fantasy - which I discovered is a really hot genre right now. During the class, I discovered that a lot of the elements of my writing style are “cozy” elements. However, I don’t usually pull in or follow all the requisite tropes for the different cozy genres.
But I thought it would be fun to try.
So I borrowed (sort of) the setting from one of our other fantasy stories, and am working on troping it up for Cozy Fantasy.
But first, our critters!
Critters and the Yellow Croc
And now our feature presentation…
Hector and the Forging of the Sword of Incredible Power and Beauty, Chapter 01
Hector and the Forging of the Sword of Incredible Power and Beauty
Black fur flying wildly, Hector ran down to the dock, the sun warm on his back. His four legs quickly slipped into that syncopated pattern that all Newfies referred to as a galumph. With a spring from his mighty hindquarters, he launched himself into the air. The long, slow, low arc ended with him belly flopping into the water. He enjoyed the feel of the cool water seeping through his still warm fur.
A few minutes lapsed as he floated in the cool water when a smaller splash alerted him to a friend. As the water receded from this splash, it resolved into an orange tabby Maine Coon cat.
Ralph, his neighbor, swam up to Hector. “Ready?”
Hector yawned the deep yawn of a content Newfie. He appreciated that Ralph didn’t talk a whole lot. Sometimes you want quiet. Ralph was a good, quiet companion.
Hector grunted. “Yep. Except today, we need to swim across the river. I forgot to get tea for the meeting today.”
Ralph responded by heading across the river.
Hector followed behind. “Thanks pal!”
Beside him in silence, the cat swam. Each enjoying the cool water, the warm sunlight, and the feel of freedom that comes from being strong in limb and mind.
Hector was much larger, but he was moving more mass. His strokes were long and sturdy, his webbed toes pulling him forward in powerful lurches.
Beside him, cutting through the water was Ralph, a small blob of red orange. One could have thought the cat would drift behind, but his movements were faster, more graceful, as his own webbed paws kept him close. His stamina not flagging.
As usual, their swim became a race. This time across the river instead of out from the dock and back in.
Hector shook water out of his eyes and put a little extra oomph into his swimming. He climbed out just ahead of Ralph. This is what normally happened on the first race. The Newfie’s greater strength let him pull ahead, but there would be a second race. Ralph hung in there until the very end. Sometimes, he managed to beat Hector in the first race, which is what made everything fun.
Of course, sometimes Hector won the second race. Like he planned to today.
Without pausing to shake, the big Newfie ran into the tea shop on the shore. He left the shop at a run, a small, water-tight package tied around his neck.
With a burst of white foam, he leapt into the river.
Ralph shook himself into action - a smaller splash joining Hector in the water.
They reversed course, back towards the dock.
After his brief lead from his running jump, Hector started to fall behind.
He reminded himself, I have the stamina to keep swimming. I just can’t go as fast as Ralph. But today, we’re doing something different.
The big Newfie stayed a tail’s length behind the Maine Coon cat, a black shadow behind the orange tabby.
At least until they were almost to the dock. Then, Hector took a deep, panting breath and worked his legs harder. He even tried wagging his tail as fast as possible, thinking that every bit should help.
And it did.
Just barely.
He floundered ashore a nose length before Ralph and collapsed onto the sand.
The Maine Coon padded up and looked down at Hector’s panting face. “Good swim. Meeting soon?”
With a sigh, Hector lumbered to his feet. He shook his fur out.
It started at his nose.
His jowls flew out, spraying drool along with the water from the swim. Next, his ears started to shake. And then the big, fluffy ruff of his neck, fur flying out, standing on end, water sprinkling through the air, forming a rainbow in the early morning light. The shake continued to work down his body, his whole torso waving back and forth, back and forth. It worked down his torso. By the time the shake reached his tail, his face had stopped moving. And then his tail went into action, swinging like a huge brontosaurus tail.
The big, furry appendage flung droplets and the scent of wet dog everywhere.
Ralph watched him and waited for the rain of dog water to stop. Hector knew why Ralph was waiting. He’d seen what happened when the cat shook before Hector a few times. They’d both discovered Ralph had to shake dry a second time after Hector.
In a long sentence for the cat, Ralph had explained to him. “Using extra energy that should be for naps is bad.”
Ralph’s performance mirrored Hector’s, starting with his face, without the jowl action, of course, shaking down through his torso.
“That was fun,” Hector panted at Ralph.
“Swimming fun. But drying important.” Ralph licked his paw and wiped one eyebrow. A cat smirk drifted across his face, and he nodded to the barrel just a few feet from them.
Hector choked back a laugh. For all his companion liked to swim, Ralph was never happy until he was dry again. Good naturedly, the large Newfie lumbered over toward the open barrel drier and climbed in with his friend.
The inside was just big enough to fit two Newfies and therefore was quite comfortable for Hector and Ralph. It wasn’t a clothes dryer like you would find in the mundane world. It was a big barrel that Ralph had worked on with his wind elemental.
They got in, and Hector moved his nose along the activation glyph. He waited for the roaring sound of the wind to start. Slowly, with increasing speed, the wind built up, blowing up from below them. Hector thought about what Ralph had said. He and Ralph loved swimming, but swimming when you’re a long-haired dog or cat means then you have to get dry again. Otherwise, you get sores, hot spots, which are not comfortable. He really appreciated the fact that Ralph had been interested enough to build this dryer for them.
He felt the wind start down at his paws. It caught the webbing between his toes, lifting it just a little and tickling him. He assumed Ralph felt something similar, but wasn’t sure, since Ralph didn’t talk a lot. The wind crept up his legs with increasing speed. Soon his ears, jowls, and tail were all floating in the air.
In the early stages of building the drying barrel, Ralph had turned the speed up too high and actually blown himself into the roof. Hector had sat up on his back paws and carefully grabbed his friend and pulled him down. Fortunately, Newfies are known for soft, if not dry, mouths.
Soon, both of their fur all stood straight up. Then they turned to orient themselves towards the activation glyph. The wind changed direction and blew them down onto the ground. Then, slowly, it tilted until it was blowing straight into their faces. They both clenched their eyes shut because while it didn’t hurt, it would injure their eyes over the long term. Plus, they just didn’t have the blink reflexes that humans had.
Hector peaked one eye open so he could look at Ralph. The big, although little, next to Hector, Maine Coon’s face and flips were distended by the blowing air. Hector was sure he looked even more hilarious, but he couldn’t help it. He liked to see his neighbor with his lips being blown open. It made Ralph seem more like a Newfie than a cat, somehow.
The air continued running down their bodies. It had taken Ralph a few tries and experimentation to get this part right. He and Hector had discovered that having your fur blown straight up while it dried underneath also tangled the fur. Then they needed something to blow their fur down where it needed to go and smooth out any tangles. There was probably also some magic that helped. Hector wasn’t positive about that, though. Maybe someday he’d ask his Maine Coon neighbor.
Hector didn’t know a whole lot about air elementals because he didn’t have one. He had a fire elemental.
Giving one final shake, Hector pressed his nose to Ralph.
“I have to be getting home.”
Ralph nodded, his tail twitching, and asked, “Important meeting?”
“Yep. Basant is coming by.”
Hector watched his friend’s tail freeze for moment. Then, just the tip twitched.
“Tania?” was the one-word question he received in return.
“Of course. Basant can’t function without Tania.” Pushing down the need to giggle, Hector raised his tail a bit as he thought. “But I guess Tania doesn’t function without Basant either.”
Ralph nodded. But didn’t speak again. Instead, the two exchanged nose sniffs and went their own separate ways.
Hector ambled up the walk to his house. It was larger and taller than strictly needed for a den in which to sleep and entertain friends. Inside, he sat down on his haunches, legs splayed in what some of his friends always called the puppy sit.
He looked up, and up, at the reason for the house being so large.
It was a very tall blast furnace. Fortunately, with a fire elemental, he could turn the furnace off at night. Mundane blast furnaces had to be kept lit all the time. Otherwise, they would solidify and become unusable.
He paused and summoned his fire elemental. In the midst of his efforts, there was a knock on the door.
Knock. Knock.
Dissipating his fire elemental, Hector padded over to the door and nosed it open.
Basant Batahtis, the human mayor of Rivertown, stood outside. She was a witch and stuck with traditional black color for her attire. She omitted the that though, to show off her hair.
Basant looked down at him. This week, her hair was electric blue and standing straight up as if she’d only been through the first half of Ralph’s dryer. It was a pretty blue, but it was very straight and very tall. It set off her dark features well.
“Good morning, Hector. It is 08:00 and time for us to meet.” Her voice was smooth, and neither high nor low, but that mid tone that was comfortable and comforting.
Basant’s assistant and familiar, Tania, sat at her feet regally, with her tail curled around her toes. Tania was a cat with the long, dark gray fur and deep emerald eyes. As she had once explained to Hector, “I am not a Long-Haired Russian Blue, despite my beautiful silver-gray fur. If you notice, my fur is much longer than the so-called Russian Blue. And so much softer. I am Nebelung and thus much superior.”
Fortunately, Hector didn’t know enough about cats to have called Tania by an incorrect appellation. He’d seen people who had accidentally called the Nebelung a Russian Blue. Tania teased them for ages afterward about how they couldn’t tell the difference between her beauty and that of a common cat.
Aside from teasing people who could not tell cat breeds apart and assisting with her human witch magic, Tania helped Basant keep her schedule. Basant was prompt but needed a keeper, especially with her extensive number of appointments. At least, that was what Tania told him.
Hector shook his face, ears flopping. Fortunately, since he had just been dried, he hadn’t collected enough drool to splatter his guests.
“Oh, yeah. Come on in. Would y’all like something to drink for breakfast?”
“I would like some tea, please.” Basant smiled and headed over to their normal table on one side of Hector’s house.
She took a delicate sniff. “I can smell that you’re going to have coffee. I suppose that will be okay. Are you just now getting up? Silly. You’re wasting the day away. You get up early and work, and then night is for flying and spell work.”
Tania followed Basant in, jumping up onto the tall stool on the other side of the table. She gave a large yawn, small white, pointy teeth shining as her mouth worked.
“Getting up early is silly. You always get that wrong. Daytime is for sleep. Nighttime is for prowling and more sleep.” She head-butted Hector a good morning. “And, as usual, I will like anything you give me as long as you put milk in it.”
Bounding over to the kitchen area, Hector busied himself with the pouch for which he and Ralph had braved the river. He used his fire elemental to heat water for both the tea and the coffee.
He sniffed hugely. Basant was welcome to her opinions. To his nose, both coffee and tea smelled wonderful. The hojicha was a Japanese tea from the mundane world. He woofled at the seeping tea deeply. The earthy smell almost made him choose it instead of coffee. But he decided to hold off. Coffee for breakfast. Hojicha with lunch.
Hector’s elemental followed him with hojicha for Basant and a coffee. He poured some of his own coffee into some milk and put that in front of Tania. His fire elemental moved around, manipulating everything that his paws couldn’t. Himself, he had coffee as black as his fur without even the drop of milky white that sat in the middle of his own chest. He sat on a low chair next to the table with Basant in the human chair and Tania on a stool. This way, their heads were all mostly at the same level.
Basant smoothed her black traditional witch’s robes. In passing, Hector wondered, are there traditional mayor’s robes? Maybe we could get some for Basant to give her a change.
Her words, though, pulled him back to the present.
“Hector, the annual Knight Tournament is coming up.”
His ears perked up and his tail worked back and forth. Tania used her own elemental, an ice elemental, to pull a piece of paper out from one of Basant’s pockets. It slid across the table in front of Hector. Tania didn’t speak and let Basant keep talking.
“This is a schedule of the upcoming events.”
Hector looked down at the piece of paper and painstakingly read it. “Der Ring des Nibelungen.”
His tail stopped and his ears dropped in confusion.
“I’m sorry.” Tania gave a squeak unlike her. “That’s a schedule for the upcoming Ring Cycle. They’re doing Wagner again.”
The paper whisked out of the way, and a new one came down. Again, Hector concentrated and read, “Sword entries.”
His tail started wagging again. His ears perked up. Without him realizing, his tongue slipped out of his mouth, and drool started dripping down it onto the piece of paper. Tania didn’t object, as she delicately lapped at her milk-colored coffee. Hector figured that meant she had no intention of asking for the paper to be returned.
“As you will see from the schedule,” Basant continued, “I’ve already spoken to Lillian. The two of you will create swords, and we will test them. The winner will be used by our champion to represent our town.”
“Oh, boy,” said Hector. “Another competition with Lillian? That’s even better than racing Ralph in the water.”
His eyes cast up towards the clock on the wall. “And I think I will let you keep your schedule because I have to go down and keep mine. It’s time for my second swim with Ralph.”
His mind swirled away, already at work designing a sword for the competition. Each year, the design had to be new. He wasn’t going to copy last year’s winner. No, he would come up with something unique, noble, and beautiful. Something only a Newfie would think of. Swords were tested not just on their physical abilities but on beauty and style.
Basant and Tania waved in their own way at his back as he clambered off. He knew they recognized what his brain was doing. He was already planning. They were used to this, and they adored that about him. They would finish their drinks in peaceful silence, watching Ralph and Hector swim. By the time the swim was done, they’d be gone, which was what they knew was for the best.
Because once he got back, Hector would be working. Ignoring everything else. Even his friends.
Chaos Tip of the Week
Crocs are not hats, even if Crokell is the most patient Newfie ever.
Chaos Question of the Week
What activity did you, your kids, or your critters unexpectedly enjoy?
The Anthology Canifel Started
The Magic of Yuletide contains “Ice Blue and the Christmas Rescue”
The story of Ice Blue is where the world of Canifel started - which is where I’ve placed Hector’s story. Some of the magic and lore in this first short isn’t the same as in Hector’s story. (At least, not in a way I’ve managed to make it fit yet. -Tod) But it has the same feeling as the cozy Canifel.
Chromosphere Press is proud to announce the release of its first anthology, The Magic of Yuletide, a family-friendly collection of holiday-themed short stories, available just in time for celebrating the holidays.
Ebook! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G4XM2KY7
Print! https://www.amazon.com/Magic-Yuletide-Lydia-Sherrer/dp/1950633411
Authors with stories in this delightful collection include Lydia Sherrer, Stephanie Osborn, Aaron Canton, Tiffanie Gray, and more. Foreword by David Weber!
This contains “Ice Blue and the Christmas Rescue”, the first story in our new magic Canine-Feline universe Canifel! Our story includes giant breed dogs and a Maine Coon cat who learns something about Christmas from an unlikely source - a human boy.