Unquiet Skies

By Sherry D. Ramsey

In 1919, racers are gathering on the rocky island of Newfoundland to attempt the first transatlantic flight. And while young Collie is excited to see the pilots arriving with their crates of airplane parts, he has larger concerns--like Awdwith and the other dragons who have taken refuge in Newfoundland's wind-swept interior to escape the now too-busy skies over the British Isles. A successful race might mean the dragons will have to move again, and Collie can't bear the thought of losing Awdwith's friendship. But when the aviators Collie has befriended encounter danger, will he be forced to choose sides?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sherry D. Ramsey
• Release date: Jul 15, 2021
• ISBN: 9781990178085

Sherry D. Ramsey

Sherry D. Ramsey is a speculative fiction writer, editor, publisher, creativity addict and self-confessed internet geek. When she's not writing, she makes jewelry, gardens, hones her creative procrastination skills on social media, and consumes far more coffee and chocolate than is likely good for her.Her debut novel, One's Aspect to the Sun, was published by Tyche Books in late 2013 and was awarded the Book Publishers of Alberta "Book of the Year" Award for Speculative Fiction. The sequel, Dark Beneath the Moon, is due out from Tyche in 2015. Her other books include To Unimagined Shores—Collected Stories. With her partners at Third Person Press (http://www.thirdpersonpress.com), she has co-edited five anthologies of regional short fiction to date. Her short fiction and poetry have appeared in numerous publications and anthologies in North America and beyond. Every November she disappears into the strange realm of National Novel Writing Month and emerges gasping at the end, clutching something resembling a novel.A member of the Writer’s Federation of Nova Scotia Writer’s Council, Sherry is also a past Vice-President and Secretary-Treasurer of SF Canada, Canada's national association for Speculative Fiction Professionals.You can visit Sherry online www.sherrydramsey.com, find her on Facebook, and follow her on Twitter @sdramsey.

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Unquiet Skies

Sherry D. Ramsey

Unquiet Skies © Sherry D. Ramsey 2019

Cover Design by Sherry D. Ramsey 2022

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior written permission from the author.

This book contains a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, entities or settings, is unintentional, coincidental, and entirely attributable to the vagaries of the multiverse and fluctuations in the space-time continuum.

Ramsey, Sherry D., 1963-, author

Unquiet Skies / Sherry D. Ramsey

Email: [e-mail]

Web: www.sherrydramsey.com

Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada

Unquiet Skies

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-990178-08-5

Unquiet Skies first appeared in Flights from The Rock, Engen Books, 2019

Reprinted in Beacon and Other Stories, 2019

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UNQUIET SKIES

Collie glanced down as the rocky ground fell away beneath them, the chill wind of the upper currents lifting his hair. He loved this moment when powerful wings pushed them up toward the blue and white promise of the sky. The height wasn’t scary, although little enough kept him from tumbling from his perch and into empty air. The ripple of powerful muscles underneath his legs felt a lot like riding a farm horse, and he clenched his knees for balance. The land spread out below, unrolling craggy brown and green expanses streaked with blue, dissolving into crinkled edges where land met deep, dark blue sea.

What’s the word on the racers?

The voice sounded in Collie’s head, deep and feminine and half-amused, with just a trace of concern. Collie had never quite got the hang of communicating mentally, so he answered aloud. The wind tore his words from his throat, but the dragon would hear.

Four teams coming, so I’ve heard. One from as far away as Australia! But who wouldn’t want to take a shot at ten thousand pounds sterling?

Do you think one of them will make it? They’d climbed high enough now that Collie could see all of northern Newfoundland below, one long peninsular finger stretching north to almost touch Labrador. He’d surprised Miss Bell on last week’s geography test, drawing the coastline of the Dominion on his slate with the finest accuracy