A Time of Darkness Series

Neferre is a coarse, disgusting, slightly-alcoholic elf who is discovered while in a drunken stupor by a strange child in the dark depths of a swamp. Neferre offers to escort the child to safety, only to find the little girl is a legendary dragon slayer torn from the ancient past. Together with her friends, a half-giant and a snarky sorcerer, Neferre must return the girl to her original era before her enemies can end her life. The journey becomes a real race against time when a dragon bent on revenge decides it would be preferable if the child return in little pieces. Quotes:  - Neferre stood still for several seconds, looking down at the pouting child. Eventually, she decided she was too tired and drunk to care.  - Helianthus frowned. "What? Of course I can see her! You drunk again?" The half-giant paused and went on in amazement, "Did you kidnap this girl while you were drunk?" "I dunno," Neferre said, horrified as the possibility occurred to her. "Shit. Maybe I did!" - "We will have to find a way to reach the human king," Olorun said adamantly, "without entering his lands and sealing our doom." He wriggled his fingers in a beckoning gesture, and one of his books soared from his pack and into his hand. "Who knows?" he muttered, snapping the book open. He glared at Neferre and dropped his eyes bitterly to the book, touching a long finger to the page. "Maybe we'll actually survive this."  Neferre rested her elbows on her knees and watched as Olorun flipped through the book. "Any answers in there? Like maybe how to take that stick out your ass?"  - "Return me safely to my home," the princess said, "and I shall reward you with your weight in eggs." Olorun snorted derisively. "You're joking, right?" The woman's eyes flitted in embarrassment.  "Now wait a minute," said Helianthus. "We're talkin' eggs here. What sort of eggs? Ostrich eggs?" Neferre made an impatient noise. "Hel! She doesn't have any eggs! Unless they're hidden in a very . . . delicate place." Neferre grinned at the princess. "Tell me your eggs are hidden where I think they're hidden." - "You're a witch," Neferre stated. The woman's lips slowly spread to reveal rows of sharp teeth that startled Neferre. "Yeeeees," she sang. "A witch is I. Don't worry. You are quite safe." Neferre snorted. "Am I? Getting a fly-in-a-web vibe from you." -  "Aha!" laughed the high queen with almost girlish delight. She slammed the flat of her little hand on the nearby table and the dragon statue leapt. "The idealist speaks again! You actually think the humans can live happily ever after with the elvkarin?" She narrowed her bright eyes, looking at Neferre in pity and amazement. "Don't you even yet understand? Don't you know who you are? The dragons were not mindless beasts – they were people, fierce and proud! Good dragons, bad dragons, dragons who were fucking indifferent -- Nineveh exterminated them like so much filth."

Cricket, the legendary dragon slayer who picks her nose, is back! Young and becoming ever more in charge of her destiny, she must find a cure to the sickness that cripples her or else slowly perish as her friends helplessly watch. With the help of said friends – an elven warrior, a giant wolf, and a bird-like young woman who can turn into an owl – Cricket must journey to the heart of ancient Azord and find the medicine hidden there before it is too late. -- The first time I saw Cricket, I loved her. Little did I know that skinny, goofy girl would one day grow up to be a great dragon slayer. I would have pegged her for a shoemaker. - Cricket nodded apologetically. She ripped the blankets back and hopped off her bed. Enkai snorted out a laugh, and it took her a moment to realize she wasn't wearing pants. - One only had to glance up to see the great empire that sat on floating islands among the clouds, but it seemed to Cricket that the ericine never looked up. They were content to ignore the dragons so long as they believed themselves safe. Cricket found it baffling. To her, it was like a mouse that lived in the same cave with a lion and just pretended the lion wasn't there. - Cricket glanced down when she saw a cookie slide under the wall. She plucked the cookie from the ground and bit into it, dirt and all. It was so disgusting, her eyes watered, but she was starving, so she choked it down. - Cricket frowned. "Why are you helping me? You don't even like me."  "Because you're the key to ending the dragons, dolt," was the impatient answer. Cricket scowled. - "I knew you'd be stupid enough to eventually leave Zerc," said the woman, head tilted down, hungry eyes narrowed on Cricket's face. Cricket raised a brow. "I'm the stupid one? Who's the one trying to fight the girl with the big-ass wolf?" -- Cricket found it ironic, then, that Owllwin of all people had been chosen to one day protect and care for the library. Owllwin was terribly clumsy, and not just in the cutesy loose shoelaces way. Owllwin regularly brought down shelves, shattered windows, caused fires, and injured other people. A law had been passed that banned her from the kitchen, and she was not allowed to eat supper with anything sharper than a spoon.