So I switched W in for U on Tuesday, so here’s U, as promised. Seems silly that now the alphabet isn’t in order for this challenge. Only three more to go though. Getting close!

Urban Hunt is a short story about the first day De’vii goes to the city of Crafton. The day he meets Mi’saa. They are both probably around twenty years old in this story. Give or take a year or two for each of them.

URBAN HUNT

Stone architecture, most of it blackened with age and mildew, replaced the trees and grasses over time. The hills remained, with buildings squished into place on the sloping angles, closer and closer together the farther De’vii strode into the city. The sky above them never truly changed, sitting heavy with stars and the moon a crescent to the east, but as the lights of the city claimed the darkness as their own, the stars seemed to fade.

Crafton, they said, was the best place to get a job. Crafton, they said, was a hub of houndmaster activity. Crafton…a place devoid of everything De’vii considered familiar.

De’vii stopped in the middle of the active street, feeling jostled despite no one daring to touch him or his pack. Beside him, Sou growled in the back of his throat, feeling threatened and overwhelmed, his gaze drifting upward where the windows and rooftops seemed to stare down at them like watchful hunters waiting to strike.

Fel didn’t like the place either. None of the pack did. They all told De’vii so. Loudly and vividly, sending flashes of the vines of Ay’ril Woods and the lush forests of the wilds.

“Yeah, I know,” he said with a hint of exasperation. But he sure as hell planes wasn’t planning on turning tail and running home. And when he put it that way, neither were any of his pack. Continue reading →