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Warp Resonance

Page 10

by Cedar Sanderson


  Looking at the lights reflected off the unmoving alien, Susan didn’t think so. Tamara had called him ‘my blessing, my deathbringer. I never thought I would die, when I needed it, and now, in my time of peace and retirement...” The pencil had slipped on the page there, in an untidy scrawl, and Susan was pretty sure that was when the old woman had come out here to die. But why Tamara had thought she was immortal? The alien made anything seem possible.

  Prrittica wrote quickly. Susan read it, leaning very close to make out the words and smelling his acrid scent, like burning oil, most strongly. “We have not met. I will see you again. Will you teach me?”

  She blinked. “What could I teach you?”

  “Childhood?” Prrittica stood up, towering over Susan as she sat on the doorstep. It tucked the book into the bag, and the shell on its back flipped open, revealing huge, shimmering wings that the bug spread as it stepped out of the shed. With a harsh burrr of noise, the alien flew in the opposite direction from the approaching chopper. Susan, carefully holding Tamara’s journal, ran out into the garden.

  Prrittica was almost out of sight already, its dark body glinting in the light of the setting sun when it flew over the trees. Susan turned to look as her father settled into a landing. She wondered if he had seen the departing alien, and how she was going to explain all this to him. Quickly, she tucked the journal into her jacket pocket, following it with the gloves. One tore, and she knew she would have to figure out what to use next time she wanted to read it, but it was too good a mystery to give up easily.

  Ready to go home, she walked forward to meet her father, who was running through the garden in the near dark. Susan readied her story, knowing she couldn’t- wouldn’t – lie to him. He’d understand the promise to Prrittica. ‘Dad, there was this gigantic bug... and can I have a cat?’

  Contents

  Warp Resonance

  Voyageur’s Cap

  Little Lost Bird

  Girl Talk

  Girl-Bug-Cat

  AUTHOR BIO

  Cedar Sanderson was born an Air Force brat in Nebraska and spent her childhood enroute to new duty stations. Her formative years after her father left the Air Force were spent being home-schooled on the Alaskan frontier. She removed to the "more urban" climes of New Hampshire at the beginning of high school. She has had the usual eclectic range of jobs for Fantasy/ SF authors, ranging from Comedy Magician to Apprentice Shepherdess. She counts the latter as more useful in controlling her four children and First Reader. Her fascination with science dates to her early childhood spent with her grandmother on the Oregon coast studying the flora and fauna and learning to prepare a meal from what she could glean from a tidal pool. This lead to a lifelong interest in science, cooking, and herbalism.

  At present she is attending college in Ohio pursuing a STEM major in forensic science this time around. Her first two times in college were for theology and liberal arts. She is maintaining an average of nearly 20 credit hours while running a household, an entertainment business, and writing multiple novels on the side. This has the result of leaving those watching her indefatigable efforts panting in exhaustion.

  OTHER TITLES BY CEDAR SANDERSON

  Pixie For Hire Series:

  Pixie Noir

  Trickster Noir

  Dragon Noir

  Children of Myth Duology:

  Vulcan’s Kittens

  The God’s Wolfling

  Short Fiction:

  The Twisted Breath of God

  Little Red-Hood and the Wolf-man

  One-Eyed Dragon

  The Eternity Symbiote

  Memories of the Abyss

  Snow Angel

  Sugar Skull

  Stargazer

  The Dwarf’s Dryad

  Plant Life

  Fairy Little Sister

  Mindflow (published by Something Wicked)

  Milkweed (published by Mythic Delirium)

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  Table of Contents

  Warp Resonance

  Voyageur’s Cap

  Little Lost Bird

  Girl Talk

  Girl-Bug-Cat

 

 

 


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