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Slink
Slink
Slink
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Slink

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Urzites – telepathic animals of many species found ‎originally only on the southern island of Urz. ‎
Receptives - humans who are able to hear the ‎Urzites. Only about one person in eighty or ninety is a ‎Receptive. Most Receptives can only hear the animal ‎who has chosen to be their partner, although there have ‎been recorded instances of very rare people, ‎SuperReceptives, who can hear more than one Urzite. ‎
The Warden Corps – a government-sanctioned force ‎within which the Receptive-Urzite pairs function. The ‎Wardens and their Urzite partners are mostly used as ‎espionage agents and scouts in the ongoing war with the ‎neighbouring nation of Zeranda, although some are also ‎involved in search and rescue and also in recruitment and ‎the finding of new Receptives.‎

The next Urzite stepped forward. And the next. And ‎the next. I tell you, it doesn’t sound all that hard, just ‎standing there repeating that spell, but it was exhausting ‎work. Urzite followed Urzite followed Urzite, small ‎ones, big ones, young ones, old ones; cats, dogs, horses, ‎donkeys, birds, rats, lizards, monkeys. ‎
I stopped noticing them after a while. They just ‎became a blur. I do remember that I did Umbis, though, ‎and Sanpo, who was quite absurdly grateful, and, of all ‎Urzites, Madame Uritta’s Chym. I couldn’t help but ‎wonder what she’d think of all this.‎
By the time lunchtime was over I was so exhausted I ‎was about ready to fall off my wall and it was getting ‎really difficult to get the words of the spell in the right ‎places. However, I must have taught at least fifty Urzites ‎to read, possibly twice that many. The crowd in the ‎courtyard had thinned to just the last few hopefuls and ‎quite a number who’d stayed as spectators, and as I ‎looked about I saw all the remaining candidates step up ‎to one of the other spell-casters. ‎
Amazingly, everyone who had turned up had been ‎processed. I was quite proud of us, really. That was a ‎very good day’s work. I hopped down from my wall and ‎made my weary way over to where Naya stood talking ‎to Garina and Annana. Stumpy and Syana were already ‎there, and as I approached, Hoo swept in and took up ‎her usual place on Stumpy’s head. ‎
At first, I couldn’t see Mewla, but then Naya moved ‎and I spotted her in her accustomed place in her arms. It ‎seemed we were all here. Oh, hang on, where was ‎Thimni? Even as I looked around, there was a clatter of ‎hooves on cobbles and Thimni came bounding up, ‎looking disgustingly energetic. How could she possibly ‎gallop like that when I felt about as limp as a wrung-out ‎rag?‎
‎“That was fun, wasn’t it?” she said as she skidded to ‎a halt next to me. “It’s going to change things around ‎here now that every Urzite can read. I intend to ‎recommend that the first thing they all read is the Articles ‎of Incorporation. I read them last night, and they’re quite ‎an eye-opener. There’ll be no excuse for denying Urzites ‎their rights now.”‎
I rolled my eyes at Syana, who grinned. Trust Thimni ‎to make this an intellectual exercise. I swear, that goat is ‎the most intelligent person I know, and that includes all ‎the humans.‎

In ‘Naya’, Naya related how she became a Warden. ‎Now, join Slink the fox; a bit of a rascal, somewhat ‎greedy, rather highly-strung, and locked in an ongoing ‎battle with Mewla the cat, as he takes up the tale and ‎tells the next part of the story in his own words, as the ‎team begin their training and settle into life as Assigned ‎Urzites.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherAshley Abbiss
Release dateMay 1, 2017
ISBN9781370834198
Slink
Author

Ashley Abbiss

Hello there. I’m Ashley Abbiss. ‎I live and write in beautiful New Zealand, where I live with one large dog, who looks nothing ‎like Friend from my Daughters of Destiny books. She is, however, almost as intelligent and definitely as ‎opinionated, and if she can’t quite speak in the way Friend does to Niari, that doesn’t really ‎hold her back much!‎I write fantasy, mostly of the epic variety. Let me say right up front that if you’re looking for a quick read, you’re in the wrong place. But if you like a substantial, ‎satisfying story that you can really get your teeth into, stick with me. I may have something ‎you’ll enjoy. There’s no graphic sex in my books. If that’s what you want, you’ll have to look ‎elsewhere. There is violence, and there is swearing, though mostly of the ‘s/he swore’ variety, ‎nothing overly graphic or offensive. I also write about strong, independent female characters, ‎so if your taste runs to something more macho, or something more frilly and helpless, this may ‎not be the place for you. ‎I’ve always loved wandering in different worlds, be they fantasy or science fiction, although ‎lately I tend to prefer fantasy. The only proviso is that they have to be believable worlds, ‎worlds that feel real, that have depth and scope – and they must, absolutely must be fun to ‎visit. I read for escape and entertainment, and I don’t really want to escape from this world ‎into one even grimmer. Trouble, tension, and danger I can deal with, what sort of story would ‎there be without them? Where would Pern be without Thread, Frodo without Sauron, Harry ‎Potter without Voldemort? But there has to be hope, and there has to be a light touch. Happy ‎ever after does have a lot going for it, even if initially it’s only a very small light at the end of ‎a long, dark tunnel. My personal favourites include Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, Anne ‎McCaffrey’s Pern series, and the fantasies of David Eddings, and lately, they’ve been joined ‎by J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and a few others. Of those, David Eddings was probably my ‎greatest inspiration.‎I began to wonder if I could create my own world, one just as believable and multi-layered as ‎theirs. Could I create a world with its own history, geography, social structure, deities, and all ‎the rest? One that hung together? That a reader could believe in? It became a challenge, one I ‎really wanted to see if I could meet. So I dusted off my writing skills, learned a few more, ‎cranked up the imagination, and got busy. I’d always been good at creative writing, but ‎though I’d made a few attempts to write after I left school, none of them came to anything. ‎That was until I started writing fantasy. Suddenly, I knew I’d come home. ‎I quickly discovered that I’m not the sort of writer who can plan a book (or a world!) before I ‎start. I just can’t do it. But I can create characters, and suddenly the characters took on a ‎reality of their own and took over the stories, often to the extent that they actually surprised ‎me. And the stories worked. Their world worked. Sometimes I had to go back and fix the ‎odd contradiction, but mostly it worked and was very natural and organic. Even though my ‎first attempts were pitiful, I knew I’d found where I belong. I persevered, I learned, I wrote. ‎I discovered that the characters are key for me. Once I get them right, they tell their own ‎story. I was away. There were dark days during which my stories became my refuge, my ‎characters my friends. And I kept writing. There were happy times when I didn’t need a ‎refuge, but my characters were still my friends, and they drew me inexorably back. I kept ‎writing. ‎And now, I hope my characters may become your friends too, my worlds ones where you also ‎like to walk; perhaps even your refuge from dark days. Come join me in a world where magic ‎is real and the gods are near, where beasts talk and men and women achieve things they never ‎dreamed they could. But most of all, come and have fun! ‎Happy reading.‎Ash.‎

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