If you want more of Will and Fiona, and running into them in my other stories just isn't enough... give my romantasy series a chance!
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Nottoofar || Book 1: Leaf & Paw
Chapter 1. The Edge of the Clearing
Fiona ran. The snow was knee-deep; and branches caught on her cloak and her hood. A few times her horns snagged on especially low boughs, once making her stumble and fall. Her hands sank low, filling her sleeves with snow. She fished her bag out of the drift, rose, and trudged on. The woods were growing thicker; but she carried on, until her whole body ached, and each breath as if cut through her chest. Finally she could do nothing but lean her back against a tree next to her and close her eyes.
And that was when she heard them. Two male voices, loud and rowdy, were coming from her left. Fiona stilled, pressing her bag to her chest. The idiocy of her actions was sinking in. The only weapon she'd taken from her former home was a rather dull knife that she'd wrapped in a cloth together with a loaf of bread.
The men didn't seem to move, and she wondered if they'd set a camp. She couldn't see the fire, though. She forcefully sniffed. There was definitely a faint smell of smoke and meat roasting dancing in the frosty air.
Fiona took a slow careful step in the opposite direction.
"Hey you!" the third male voice called to her.
So much closer! She frantically looked around.
The man was large, his rugged red face twisted in a scowl, his arms full of scraps of firewood, bark, and dead branches. She recognised the typical garb of the Men of the Green Marshes.
"You, ginger! Stop right there!" he barked, throwing his haul aside.
Fiona hastily pulled her hood over her head and picked up her skirt.
The man gained on her just a few moments later. The whole time he kept shouting to her, his harsh voice ringing in her ears. He grabbed a corner of her cloak, tripping her; and she floundered, making high-pitched, terrified noises.
"Where are you– Hey, what's your hurry, little girl?" he jeered.
He was pulling at her garments; and she thrashed, clawing at the ground, grasping at the naked, prickly twigs of some small shrub.
"Hey, don't– C'mon, don't be scared, girlie! I'm not going to hurt you!"
Fiona didn't need her magic to know that the man was lying. And once he saw who - what - she was, he would have even less qualms about doing whatever he wanted with her.
A low growl, the kind that immediately and certainly conveyed the size and the strength of its owner, rolled and bounced between the trees. Fiona whipped her head - and stared at an enormous bear standing on the edge of the clearing.
The man released her skirt; and Fiona incidentally lurched forward, away from him and towards the beast.
"Ancestors, spare me," the man breathed out and started backing away on all fours.
The noise that rumbled in the animal's throat was more of a grunt now, and sounded rather lazy. Clearly, it didn't perceive the man a threat, and thus worth even the smallest effort. Fiona froze between them, her eyes on the beast.
She could guess by the sounds behind her that the man was retreating. It was known that one should never run away from a bear; and Fiona castigated herself for momentarily hoping that he would.
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Away With the Fairies (The Swallow Barn Cottage Series, Book 2)
RomanceFiona King has lived a sheltered life. Her father and her husband have been making all possible choices for her, always telling her she was too odd and too clueless for the real life. When she's offered a contract to illustrate children's books, wil...
