Scavenger

By Meyari McFarland

Noa's life revolved around scavenging for valuables left behind when global warming melted the ice caps and flooded Seattle. Her little nest in the Web was all she had other than her flipper and the precious cybernetic mods her Ma had gotten her. It was a hard life but all that Noa knew.

One day, a month or so after a drift-ship nearly ran into the Web's support struts, Noa explored somewhere new. What she found threatened to either end her life or transform it forever. Unfortunately, the only person she could call on for help was War Tooth, military outcast cyborg orca from the local pod. Without his assistance Noa's one chance at a better life might drift away before she had a chance to catch it.

Scavenger is an exciting cyberpunk story of survival, hope and the bonds that can form at the margins of society.

• Language: English
• Publisher: MDR Publishing
• Release date: Apr 4, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311519979

Meyari McFarland

Meyari McFarland has been telling stories since she was a small child. Her stories range from SF and Fantasy adventures to Romances but they always feature strong characters who do what they think is right no matter what gets in their way. Her series range from Space Opera Romance in the Drath series to Epic Fantasy in the Mages of Tindiere world. Other series include Matriarchies of Muirin, the Clockwork Rift Steampunk mysteries, and the Tales of Unification urban fantasy stories, plus many more. You can find all of her work on MDR Publishing's website at www.MDR-Publishing.com.

Book preview

Scavenger

By Meyari McFarland

Only after her nest door was sealed tight against the rain and intruders did Noa dive into the water below. It was only a dozen feet or so but hitting the water always made her flinch from the impact. People said hitting water was like hitting steel. Noa knew better but it still hurt to punch through the surface tension into the world below.

*Didn't expect to see you,* War Tooth said.

Noa screamed the last of the air out of her lungs as War Tooth swam up underneath her. His mouth gaped open in silent amusement, tail jerking with the force of his laughter. She glared, not that War Tooth knew where her eyes were. He always looked at the light patches on her warm-suit's shoulder, not her face.

*I hate it when you do that!* Noa snapped at him.

*And I love it when I make legs scream that way,* War Tooth replied. He snapped his jaws at her. *Food or scavenging?*

Other Books by Meyari McFarland:

Fitting In

Artifacts of Awareness

A Range of Debts Collection

The Nature of Beasts

Captured Debts Collection

Repair and Rebuild

Infinite Horizons Collection

Tales from the Dana Clanhouse

Storm Over Archaelaos

Infinite Dreams Collection 2

Published by Mary Raichle on Smashwords

Copyright ©2014 by Mary Raichle

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Requests for permission to make copies of any part of the work should be emailed to [e-mail]

This book is also available in TPB format from all major retailers.

Dedication:

This story is dedicated to my parents for making me take endless swimming lessons as a small child so that I would overcome my fear of the water. I'm still afraid but not to the point of panic. Thank you!

Table of Contents

Scavenger

The Web

Afterword

Scavenger

Noa licked her lips before peeking out of her nest's door. Her mouth was sour with nerves but nothing, no one, looked back. She looked up towards the Web stretched overhead, to each side at the empty cables covered with sea spray and then scanned down towards the ocean below.

Still nothing.

The anchors of the Web looked clear as far as she could see. Every cable stretched up towards the gray, cloud-filled sky, though most of the sky was hidden by the dark masses of plants growing at the higher levels of the Web. Here, where her nest hung from a major support beam, it was as dark as dusk unless