#katuk

At that moment, I heard a noise or more accurately many small taps and thumps. A quick look around me explained it. The humonsters were back. They’d scrambled over the mounds on either side and came down in front of us, behind us, and to the sides of us lying on top of the mounds. I’d last seen roughly 25 of them scrambling for cover among the mounds, but here there were 50, maybe more. They…

Unless I chose to fly upward, I had nowhere to go to dodge the shot. Even if I wanted to, that went against the whole point of being first. This was the kind of shot I was here to take so someone squishier didn’t have to. Of course, Katuk was right behind me. His armor was every bit as good—which turned out to be important because the Guardsman’s rifle turned out to be automatic and not every…

I looked him in the eye (to the degree that I could through a helmet) and said, “We’re all going to die and you with us. If you get out, that means the whole planet goes. Whether people I care about die because of the Nine or because the Xiniti make the sun go nova, they’re dead. So congratulations, you’ve made this whole situation so bad that you have no hold on us because we don’t have anything…

That’s what we needed a new mystery attacker, “Do you know what it is?” Izzy shook her head, “I don’t even know if it’s coming in this direction. It feels extremely spread out.” “That’s not good,” I said. “I think we need to be ready to take to the air at any second. If there’s even a hint that it might be coming this way, tell everyone.” The curl of her lips hinted that I might have said…

Katuk blossoms in summerKatuk blossoms in summerKatuk shrib in summerPotted Katuk shrubKatuk in spring recovering from winter frostKatuk blossoms in springKatuk plants for salePotted Katuk in winter Katuk, or sweet leaf, is a fast-growing perennial shrub vegetable. It grows to over two meters, usually with multiple stems unless strained to have one stem. It is said to be one of the most popular…

Kals glanced in the direction of Katuk. She’d arrived just after Tiger, and said, “I’d like to help.” Haley looked at her, “Are you sure? You were training Julie.” Katuk spoke before Kals could reply, his voice level, “I was instructed to warn you if you do something that put you at serious risk. I want to help Nick as well, but going with them would put you at serious and unpredictable risk. In…

Fonts of Magic: Part 1

Amy’s mouth twisted as she eyed the glowing object. Part of me worried that she wasn’t in costume, but given that the message had found her, it was too late to worry about revealing her identity. The North American Wizard Council had probably known from the moment she appeared on our world. In an accent that wasn’t quite Irish, Scottish, or English, but some alternate universe’s near relative,…

“Right,” Amy said, “except they’re terrified of blood magic and that means they’re terrified of me because I’m connected to the most powerful blood magic-based construct they’ve ever heard of.” I thought about that, “I’m surprised they didn’t go after you when we were done fighting The Thing That Eats.” (more…)