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The issue of race in America has come to a head once again, as a black person by the name of George Floyd was recently killed by a police officer who knelt on his neck. This ignited large protests around brutal responses by the police in both inside and outside of the United States. The […]

Furcon cancellations around the world have reached a new milestone as the virus continues to prevail, with a total of 60 globally as of today. This week, Furrydelphia, Denfur, EAST and Rusfurence has announced that their events will be held next year. On June 4th, Denfur said in a tweet that their host hotel prematurely […]

Werewolf By Night is a legendary horror comic from one of Marvel’s golden ages, the late 1970’s. Now it has returned in a new incarnation, this time written by Taboo (of the band Black Eyed Peas) and Benjamin Jackendoff. From Marvel’s web site: “The pair previously worked together on a story for Marvel Comics #1000 that focused on Red Wolf and will now be teaming up with acclaimed comic artist Scott Eaton on Werewolf By Night. The series will introduce a brand-new character to the Marvel Universe in a story set in Arizona. The new Werewolf will be a young man named Jake who will be dealing with the effects of a family curse while trying to protect his people. The events of the story will also be driven by the outcome of March’s Outlawed one-shot.” Issues of this 4-issue miniseries are on the shelves now.

image c. 2020 Marvel Comics

Roo and Tugs continue the Coronavirus/COVID-19 trilogy by looking at it from a new angle with the Moms of Furries!


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MUSIC

Opening Theme: RetroSpecter – Cloud Fields (RetroSpecter Mix). USA: Unpublished, 2018. ©2011-2018 Fur What It’s Worth. Based on Fredrik Miller – Cloud Fields (Century Mix). USA: Bandcamp, 2011. ©2011 Fur What It’s Worth. (Buy a copy here – support your fellow furs!)
Space News Music: Fredrik Miller – Orbit. USA: Bandcamp, 2013. Used with permission. (Buy a copy here – support your fellow furs!)
Patreon - The Tudor Consort, Inflammatus, Creative Commons, 2010
Closing Theme: RetroSpecter – Cloud Fields (RetroSpecter Chill Mix). USA: Unpublished, 2018. ©2011-2018 Fur What It’s Worth. Based on Fredrik Miller – Cloud Fields (Chill Out Mix). USA: Bandcamp, 2011. ©2011 Fur What It’s Worth. (Buy a copy here – support your fellow furs!) S8 Episode 27: Moms and Rona - Roo and Tugs continue the Coronavirus/COVID-19 trilogy by looking at it from a new angle with the Moms of Furries! NOW LISTEN! SHOW NOTES SPECIAL THANKS - The Moms of Furries - Check them out at https://mofurries.com/  Kit -

What does a secret cult, a shapeshifter, a femme fatale, and a penis-stealing opossum have in common? Well, it is that they all appear in this book! Burnt Fur is an erotic/horror anthology by Blood Bound Books themed around animals (ironically, not all of them furred). From talking animals to shape-shifters, and all the way to humans in costumes, this collection explores not only the horror of being hunted as a prey by a non-human being, but also the one that even we as humans can cause against ourselves.CW: This book contains graphic depictions of gore, cannibalism, torture, mutilation, rape, bestiality, among others. The anthology opens with "The Moon in her Eyes" by Sarah Hans. This is the story of an aging werewolf who meets Hannah, a human girl, after she escapes from her abusive father. Compared with the rest of the anthology, probably one of the tamest stories when it comes to the violence or scare factors, but easily makes up for it with what it is and does: a somber character development story with a solid outcome. Next comes "Mallard's Maze" by Joseph Sale. This is the tale of Phaedra, a girl on the run after watching a murder committed by a man in a duck mask. For starters, Sale's story stands out for me because not only is it the only story in the whole anthology written in present tense, but, more importantly, the all-around feeling of paranoia that permeates it really settled well with me. However, the ending, while satisfactory, did feel like it came a little out of the blue. In "Salivation" by Theodore Deadrat we follow the thoughts of our protagonist, an unnamed goat who gets an unhealthy fixation on a deer he meets every day at the subway. What starts as a simple fascination turns into something more sinister as our protagonist thinks more and more about his prey. One of the shorter pieces in the anthology, and the page-turning writing makes it feel go even faster. "The Hamford Pigs" by N. Rose is when things start getting more graphic. In this story, Toby, a police officer, gets invited to join a club founded by his late father, one which demands absolute secrecy and for him to wear a pig mask as they go on their activities. While I'll admit that maybe it's not the best story to read in the current political climate, the story does pose some interesting questions about, as another reviewer once noted, “duty, morals, and responsibility.” Next is "The Willingness of Prey" by Paul Allih, a tale about three friends who share one interest in common: vore—but what will happen to this trio when one of them reveals a way to fulfill their fantasies? Without going into much spoilers, the multiple POVs in this story really help to crank the horror since we, as the audience, are the only ones getting the complete picture of everything that's happening all the way to its satisfactory conclusion. Next comes "6 Dicks" by Rachel Lee Weist, a black comedy about Wax, an opossum on a mission. Said mission: to steal six human dicks to craft a skin suit from them. Overall, a pretty fun read, though it might be the only one I'd consider to be a little gratuitous given one very specific scene near its end. In "The Others" by C. M. Saunders we see a difference between the protagonist and the narrator. In this story, James meets Marilynn on a blind date, a girl with the ability to see things that others can't, one of which is a very mean and jealous panda. While reading this, I couldn’t help but to get vibes of r/NoSleep, given the casual tone of the story and how most of it read as a second-hand experience. Next comes "Randall Rabbit." In this story by Elliot Arthur Cross we follow Fred, a young man who recalls his life in a foster home after one of his clients shows up dressed in a bunny costume. While the ending was more than satisfactory, it also felt like most of the horror in the story came from the ending alone. The morale of this story is simple: Don't fuck with rabbits. Dealing less with horror and more with the erotic side of this anthology we have "A Concubine for the Hive" by Rue K. Poe. This is the tale of Lora, a woman in an unhappy marriage who decides to take advantage of her husband's bee allergy to get rid of him, which leads to several unforeseen consequences. Sweet sex scenes notwithstanding, Lora's ultimate fate did leave much to be desired for me. #TeamRandyForever A mix of erotic and body horror come together in "Five Nights With Teddy" by Thurston Howl. This be-careful-what-you-wish-for story deals with Dante, a furry fan who goes to meet the eponymous Teddy for a chance to be transformed into his fursona, each night getting closer to his goal, for better or for worse. A very unsettling story, with the main character's way of coping making it even more so as the nights go on. Next comes "Oh Piggy, My Piggy" by Matt Scott. In this story, John is awakened by Potter, his pet pig, who has recently gained the ability to talk and... well, let's just say that the title of this story sets the right expectations from the go. In some ways, this story reminded me of "A Concubine for the Hive," especially in how John also deserved better than what he got. In "Ware the Deep" by Stephanie Park we follow Zachary, a werewolf who's on the lookout for his next meal and ends up picking a girl he meets at a bar, one with an obsessive for and unusual interest in sharks. Extremely well paced, this cat-and-mouse story will have your eyes glued as you wonder who'll come out triumphant. Well, who am I kidding? We all know who was going to win, but, as the saying goes, "The journey, not the destination matters." Featuring transformation horror at its core, we have "The Molt of a Diminishing Light" by Michelle F. Goddard. In this tale, Amara, a shape-shifter, decides to go back to her original form after the "magic" disappears from her relationship with her human husband. Most of the story deals with Amara's painful transformation as she takes a walk down memory lane, unaware that her husband is on his way. Will he be able to accept her for what she is or are things doomed from the beginning? Somber and nostalgic. Last, but definitely not least, we have "The Victims" by James L. Steele. In this story, a female wolf recounts to one of her newborn pups about a yearly ritual that he'll eventually have to take part in. Every year, for one day only, evil spirits are given full control over their bodies and in exchange these spirits leave the world alone. As expected from this kind of spirit, what they decide to do with their new, temporary bodies and the aftermaths of it make up the bulk of the story. Body horror, dread, and somberness are all over the place, more than making "The Victims" a great way of finishing this collection. Overall, a fun and disturbing anthology with a wide enough variety for fans of horror. This book will make you cringe, will make you sad, will make you root for some heroes while hating some of the others, and will keep you on the edge of your seat most of the time. However, as much as I liked several of the stories, I have to admit that I'd have mixed feelings recommending the anthology as a whole due to some of the subjects contained within it and the way they were handled. If any of the tagged warnings might offend you, this might not be the best book for you. If, on the other hand, you think you can stomach through all of them, pick this one up. I can assure that you'll have a beast of a time.

Furry Galaxy 75 Book One: Pandora’s Box is a novel of “a clean anthropomorphic space fantasy” written by Van Hill Millvele. It’s a family friendly novel designed to “introduce family members to the furry fandom.” I received an advance copy for review. The story seems to be about ancient prophecies and three people who must come together to release Pandora from a magical/technological set of boxes that are actually ancient pottery?It’s not often I have to use a question mark in a review like that, but unfortunately that’s the case with this book. It’s incredibly hard to follow what is going on and why half of the time for various reasons. These boxes I mentioned, that are really ancient computer pottery, seem to have viruses mentioned that can mess with them but somehow also magic maybe preventing some people from using them? It’s too confusing to fully understand. The writer has a habit of suddenly throwing huge concepts at you with minimal explanations. In the first few chapters the idea of being able to come back to life after dying exists, tons of races, what seems to be an important government and religious system, magic, science, robot people, smart AIs in computers, alternate universes, and time travel are all things mentioned. Oh, and I guess for some reason some people’s timelines can be locked down somehow? There’s so much information being dumped at once it’s almost impossible to keep track of it all. It doesn’t help that some of that information doesn’t even seem important either. The exact kinds of sugarless gum flavors a character likes as an example, why did that need such a specific attention? Then there’s so many characters thrown at you so quickly there’s no way to remember them all. I think at least 20+ characters were mentioned by name within the first few chapters. It’s unfortunate too as almost all of these concepts are explained in dialogue. Unfortunately the characters don’t speak to each other like regular people making it extra awkward to read what is supposed to be so important. The story in general also feels so erratic, it’s hard to focus on what is happening or even know what is important. Out of nowhere, a character is suddenly dumped as they find out the person they are dating MARRIED their friend with absolutely no warning, as an example. Another issue I found was how simplistic the writing was in general. It reminded me of the kinds of books I read to my daughter when she was five, though honestly a bit clunkier. “Toby walked slowly to the shuttle bay. He was a Lycan and looked sort of like a husky. Toby had fur but no hair, but his markings made him look as if he did. He was dressed in black pants and a blue shirt.” This is the first sentence you see in the book as an example. It’s choppy and certainly doesn’t get people excited to read forward. Which, if the book has the goal of introducing family to the furry fandom, is a very bad sign. I personally found the book exhausting to try and read. Now, the goal of the book is to introduce furry to family members while keeping clean. I would say it doesn’t succeed purely because of how exhausting it is just to read the book. Even in the attempts to explain furries have so much hand-holding it feels overkill.“Furry fingers looked different from Human hands because they had paw pads. Some Furries had only paws, but most had fingers.”In a world with Zootopia, The Secret of Nimh, Watership Down, Robin Hood, and even the Warriors series of novels people can understand anthropomorphized animals without needing it explained that simply. Or if it needed to be, it could be done so more subtly. Perhaps he shakes hands with a human and feels the skin under his paw pads then says how it’s interesting it always is feeling a hand so different than his own. I do not want to leave this entirely negative however, so let’s try to leave some strong constructive feedback. First, the idea in general of a clean novel designed to help transition people into reading furry writing is honestly a marvelous idea! So would potentially having a book designed for younger audiences specifically: there’s furries out there with kids too after all. Second, the general concept of interesting ancient technology could be an interesting draw. Or a prophecy of some kind. Or multiple universes. Or the differences between magic and science. Or government versus religion. There’s FAR too much going on here and here needs to be more of a focus. Also, if a character isn’t completely vital to the story they shouldn’t be in it. Pick a single lane and try to keep more focus on it while only using a couple of these other things if they are needed to tell the story.Finally, the writing in general needs to be far more fluid. Even if this does end up focused to be for young readers, there’s plenty of examples out there that show they don’t need such strong hand holding. Catwings is a phenomenal example, while also keeping quite furry in nature.So to be blunt, I could not bring myself to finish the entire story. It simply was too confusing, written too choppily, and was not engaging enough for me to do so. Life is too short to read through books you are not enjoying. However, this was an advance copy. So perhaps some work could be done to try and clean it up so it can be something better before release. If it comes out without major changes, I hate to say I cannot recommend purchasing or reading this book.

Hello readers and welcome to our next Furry Writers’ Guild spotlight for Pride Month! Today we’ll be interviewing Den Leinir Turthra Jensen! Their pronouns are either they/them or it/its. We could tell you more about them, but why when they could do it themself? Let’s get to the interview!

FWG: Tell the guild and our readers a bit about yourself.

Leinir: I’m originally from Denmark, but moved to the UK about a decade ago, as my better half is from there and it was easier for me to relocate. We now live together with a good friend, and our pet two legged rat in a doer-upper bungalow in the English Midlands. Usually, I’m a pretty relaxed sort of person, and quite enjoy cooking a bit of food. Especially for people who enjoy it, which luckily is the case most of the time.

I’m not a full time writer, so my everyday thing is being sponsored to work on free and open source software, primarily in the KDE project, where I work primarily on the KNewStuff, Calligra Gemini, and Peruse projects. Recently, I also became involved with The Tail Company (guess what they make… no, not just tails, but yes, also those), for whom I maintain their Android app, for controlling their DIGITAiL and EarGear animatronic gear.

FWG: What is your favorite work that you have written?

Leinir: Oh no, the scary question! They’re my babies, I couldn’t possibly chose… One of my favourites, though not only for the story itself but also everything else surrounding it, is probably my story about a society where we have carnivores in a modern society very similar to our own, and the kind of effects that might have on society. It is set in a Denmark, where the first pack of wolves in over a century recently established themselves. That is to say, that has happened in our world, but it functions as the catalyst for the story as well. This story started out really just with that in mind, and without any proper plot behind it, the way most of my stories do.

What developed as I wrote was a bonding tale that made one beta reader tell me, whatever else I did to that story, to not change the ending as they thought it had made them a better person. If I never make another person think that, I will be contented to know that i at least made one person feel that way. The story, and the recipe that goes with it, can be found in The Furry Cookbook, which exists only as a frankly glorious hardcover version the creation of which I am proud to have been a small part.

FWG: What do you think makes a good story?

Leinir: Characters. Believable ones, with more depth than you encounter in the story itself. The ones that leave you wanting to know more, about them, and about their world. The ones who can keep a conversation that isn’t necessarily just for the plot.

FWG: How long have you been in the guild, and what changes have you seen with regards to how writing is handled since joining?

Leinir: I’m a brand spanking new member, with my actual membership proper less than a month old. I have, however, been hanging out in the guild spaces for several years now, and I have seen the guild go through a couple of series of changes. When I joined, the guild seemed in a little upheaval, and since then it has pulled itself together substantially. When I joined, it was really mostly to hang out with a bunch of people who also write, but what I found was not only friends, but encouragement and help with building skills that have come in more than a little handy since.

Until joining, I had no real desire or plans to attempt to write anything for publication, and here we are now, with several stories in a variety of anthologies, a small set of contributor copies on my shelf. Even a recipe to go with one of those stories, thanks to The Furry Cookbook I mentioned before.

FWG: You are agender correct? Can you explain what that means to you to the folks reading this interview?

Leinir: Certainly can! Usually, when describing this, I will just say that it means I don’t have a gender, but of course that is something of an oversimplification. Gender, it seems, is a case of multi-dimensional geometry. The simplistic view on it tends to be the idea that there is just one axis with male at one end and female the other, which at least on many companies’ websites sees to be interpreted as absolute values, so you can only pick one of those.

My own version, which also is a simplification, but which catches at least a fair bit more of the nuances of reality, is to have three axes: The male/female axis, to put you anywhere between the two. An inclusive/exclusive axis, which lets you suggest whether your position on the first axis is a mix of either extreme, or an absence of the one to which that position is nearest. And finally, the strength axis, which lets you position the strength of affiliation with the position on the first axis.

Given that bit of geometric fiddling about, for me, I fall fairly in the middle on the first axis, and on the second axis somewhere fairly near to the exclusive side, which puts me at more or less having an absence of gender, rather than having one. And then we get to the strength axis, which is where I feel occasionally like a bit of an impostor. Not in a terrible way, not really, but more because the strength of my gender identity is not particularly high.

What this means is that while i was born with male primary sexual characteristics, I do not really suffer very much from dysmorphia, or even dysphoria. That is to say, I would prefer not to have these things, but from there to actually being disgusted by them like some are, or it having any kind of effect in my day to day life outside of everybody calling me him a lot, it doesn’t affect me any great deal. That is not to say that it doesn’t have some semblance of effect, because of course it does – see for example my textual facepalming above about binary gender choices in random web registration forms and the like. It simply means that, really, for me, day to day, it is at most an inconvenience and a disappointment that the world is so stuck in a binary, when the real world is so much more fuzzy.

FWG: You’re also asexual! What part of the asexual spectrum do you fall under and what does that mean to you?

Leinir: This is a slightly more… new discovery in myself, so I’ve not thought as deeply about how to describe it as i have with my gender… But, with that in mind, there is a similar thing going on here with the axes, though I’m not sure how to label them. However, one thing that made me think I was not asexual in the past was that well, I do occasionally do the sexy stuff, and I do enjoy that when it happens. I greatly enjoy wearing slinky clothing, like spandex and the like, and I have been a rubberist for longer than i can remember. Rubber being, of course, one of those materials that seems to have all manner of sexual connections, with people having this funny idea that if you wear rubber, it’s a sex thing. For me, then, being asexual is not really a case of being repulsed by sex the way some are, or anything like that, rather for me it means that it is not something I desire, not something I seek out.

I am a highly tactile person, and those materials I mentioned earlier play into that. My entire thing is about hugs, cuddles, stroking, brushing and raking hair, that sort of thing, in that kind of way which means it could involve sex or not, and I really could care less about that. The same for the various aspects of kinkiness that you might encounter, like bondage, even vacuum beds: Everything that I actually do seek out, such as those things, are not sexual in any real way, they are, in effect, about comfort. They are about calm, relaxed pleasure. Nothing more, and nothing less. Sexytimes? Sure, that can be fun, I guess, but I just… don’t really care, i guess.

FWG: What does Pride mean to you?

Leinir: Pride to me means, well, a few different things.

For us, now, where we live, at least to a degree, it is mostly a celebration that we have for the most part arrived at a point where we are not discriminated against in any real kind of big way. There is more to be done, but this seems to be mostly a kind of reluctance to just remove legislation wholesale which has some semblance of reasoning, without having something more reasonable to replace it with. And I kind of get that. Blood donations for gay men, weird requirements about self identification, and other nonsensical things like that notwithstanding.

It also means fighting, and solidarity. We may well be sort of mostly okay where we are, but that does not mean it is like that for all. Pride for me, for us, is then also a way of showing our support for people who do not share the privilege we have for living in a country that at least tries to do these things with some semblance of humanity in mind. Where we are considered people.

With that in mind, it also means memory. It means that pride today, where we live, is remembering that those who came before us fought for our right to be who we are, without having to apologize or hide, without having to fear for our lives.

FWG: Was there a bit of a journey or story to you uncovering your identity? If so, would you be comfortable sharing with us? 

Leinir: Unlike the story told by so many, my journey has been a calm one, supported by those around me. Going through thinking I was bisexual, and even gay, and finally discovering that it is… not quite straightforward enough for that kind of labeling. Because what’s it called when your husband married someone they thought was male, because they didn’t really know any better at the time, and who doesn’t really seek out sex anyway? Gay doesn’t perhaps seem to fit that, but there’s not much in the way of terminology to match, and so queer, in its vagueness, kind of fits. But even that feels not entirely right, and so I simply keep discovering and learning. Maybe that is where my own little part of this huge journey is a little different: I do not feel these things strongly enough for it to be something that stops my life, and with those around me supporting me, it is much easier to explore it, and simply let the discoveries happen when they want to.

FWG: How do you think being agender and asexual has inspired or affected your stories? Have you written agender or asexual characters into your works?

Leinir: I imagine it must have a strong effect on my stories that I do not seek sexual gratification, and that I am tactility… if not obsessed then certainly attached. My stories tend to have a lot of affection in them, but while I have had a whole range of different types of relationships in them, they are never strongly seeking, they are never fiery passionate, not in the way that one might see them in a lot of popular work. Not even going so far as some of the various almost-porn (with which there really is nothing wrong, don’t @ me ), it just is not really something that tends to pop up in my mind as a motivation point for the characters.

Some of them certainly turn out to have desires, and those do get fulfilled – even if usually after fading out, or perhaps refused because motivation and no you don’t always get to have the thing – but it is usually a motivator in the story. I sometimes wonder if this reduces the scopes of what stories i can tell, but also, as such motivations don’t really work for me as a person, I would feel uncomfortable trying to work them in. It would feel, perhaps, a little disingenuous. In other words: Yes, my asexuality has most certainly affected my writing, and being agender means I have, well, a few characters with either entirely unspecified gender, or explicitly no gender, and a bunch of varieties on that whole handwavy thing.

FWG: Do you feel like the issues that affect the outside world involving your identity affect your writing within the fandom or not?

Leinir: Frankly i am not sure. The parts of my writing which are, I guess, sociopolitical in nature tend to focus on other things than sexuality and gender identity, and for those it rather has a tendency to sneak in, because, well, in my head there just isn’t anything wrong with it. That is not to say no conflicts arise, because they do, but it tends to not really be a main motivational factor for any antagonist, or even protagonist, it just is a thing which is there.

In my less deliberately commenting work, conversely, it does seem to sneak in more often. Not so much the gender related ones, but rather the asexuality ones I mentioned just before; the hugs, just casual cuddling and contact. With the social distancing that is currently so front and center (and likely will be with us for a very long time, and rightly so), it feels like maybe I need to think very carefully about how to frame that in the future.

FWG: If you could convince everyone to read a single book, what would it be?

Leinir: Well, that is a question and a bit! A couple spring to mind, I’m sorry, I cannot do only the one.

One being the Helliconia Trilogy by Brian W. Aldiss, which was my first proper entry into serious, highly conceptual sci fi. The thing is nearly as old as I am, but that doesn’t stop it from being the thing which made my young mind go all funny with idea. That it is also the book I was reading when our house burnt down in 1995 might have had some effect in cementing it in my mind (and no, that was a long time ago, we’re all out the other side and all we lost was belongings, everybody was safe, including the animals).

The other book is The 40,000 At Gehenna, by C J Cherryh, which is not as religious a book as the title suggests. It is, without going into it too deeply, a story about a colony of artificially grown and, effectively, hypnotically programmed humans who were in essence dumped on a newly discovered planet and, due to some social upheaval at the other end of their supply lines, ended up having to fend for themselves on a world where life already existed before they landed. The programming included some base stipulations to ensure they would love and take care of that world, and the book explores what that means and how that kind of broadly termed instruction might be interpreted.

Finally, I will mention that i am right now utterly engrossed in a book by fellow FWG member, JFR Coates, whose space stoats and the immense hardships they live through in Reborn and the sequel Traitor are currently bringing me as close to tears as anything has for a long time. I am not yet through book two yet, and already hunger to spend more time in this world, and consequently am delighted to know there is a third book on the way. It is astonishing, and if you haven’t grabbed copies yet already, you absolutely, definitely should go and do so right now. Perhaps finish reading the interview first, but definitely go and grab that.

FWG: Any last words for our readers and guild members?

Leinir: You should be immensely proud of the wonderful, supporting place that is the Furry Writers’ Guild, and furry in general. When I joined in the late 90s, this was a much maligned community, which mostly just ignored the trite commentary by others about these weirdos and their fluffy or otherwise animal things with human type stuff also going on. As time passed, I got to watch, and experience in person, how this evolved into one of the most welcoming and aware communities out there.

When the internet went insane and people realized just how prevalent, shall we just say certain political thoughts, were, we were able to look around, frown, and be a bit confused, all the while the world outside praised us for being the one place that had really not allowed that lot to spend any amount of time with us outside of a few, scattered, and decidedly tiny and unwelcome parts. It is a wonderful thing. Be proud. Furry or not, just the fact you made it to here means you have some interest, and have at least some awareness of that fact.

We would like to thank Leinir again for this wonderful interview! You can find a list of their published works on their Goodreads account and follow them on Mastodon. Stay tuned for next week when we feature another member of the guild for pride! Until we meet again, may your words flow like water.

 

 

Let’s face it: Furry fans are going to notice a manga with a title like Reborn As A Polar Bear (aka The Legend of How I Became a Forest Guardian). Check out this description: “After devoted mountain climber Kumakichi Kumada falls into a ravine, he wakes up in the middle of a forest in another world… as a polar bear! Now this tough Ursus maritimus is looking after six werewolf sisters on the run from the humans tyrannizing their clan. Keeping his wits about him and using his knowledge from his past life, the next ‘mountain’ for him to climb will be making a comfortable life in the forest for everyone!” It’s written in by Chihiro Mishima, and illustrated in black & white (with some color pages) by Houki Kusano and Kururi. Take a look over at Yen Press.

image c. 2020 Yen Press

We’re excited about the new open source AV1 video & image codec. Nearly every major tech company seems to be behind it, so what’s the motivation? Our sysadmin doggo Riley and software developer wolf s0ph0s join to go on a deep dive on the history of AV1, what features it will bring, when it will start to appear, and how it even works.

FurCast is sponsored by Twin Tail Creations. Use coupon codes REDWOLF or BLUEFOX to save 15% on silicone products during checkout. Free FurCast Themed Colorations are also available which can be applied as a color choice to your toy purchase.

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Discussed:

• AV1 is a free video codec with more intelligent image compression that takes advantage of how good computing power is getting, while being 50%+ more efficient in bandwidth than most existing solutions
  • Developed by Alliance for Open Media
  • Backed by: Amazon, Apple, ARM, Cisco, Facebook, Google, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Mozilla, Netflix, NVIDIA, Samsung, Tencent
    • More support from: BBC, AMD, Adobe, Hulu, CableLabs, Polycom, VideoLAN, Vimeo, Twitch, AND MORE….
  • Built off a foundation of Google’s already deployed VP9, Google’s planned VP10, Cisco’s Thor, and Xiph’s Daala
• Existing codecs:
  • Today’s older H.264 is a licensing nightmare, the successor H.265 is even worse
  • Apple didn’t like VP9’s licensing or battery consumption
  • DVD uses H.262 (MPEG-2), Blu-ray uses H.264, and UHD Blu-ray uses H.265
  • Cisco’s OpenH264 decoder announced in 2013 saved Mozilla $9.75 million a year
  • H.265 carries 23 patents
  • NVIDIA’s matrix of codec support for encoding & decoding on various GPU models
• AV1 is already here!
  • YouTube has a beta setting you can enable, plus a playlist of videos known to support AV1
  • Netflix has started deploying AV1
  • LG’s latest gen SmartTV models have native AV1 decoding
  • AOM’s timeline has hit phase 4.
  • It is rumored Apple will announce AV1 support at the next WWDC or hardware release
  • Chrome and Firefox are getting AVIF support
  • AV1 bit-stream frozen in December 2018
  • AV1 encoding with SVT-AV1 is now faster than H.265
• AV1 uses Opus for audio by default, which sounds good compared to other codecs
• Netflix wrote a tech blog on using AV1 for images, aka AVIF format
  • Farm photo example
  • Barn door photo example
• AV1 is very smart
  • Perceptual Vector Quantization
  • Variably Sized Blocks
  • Lapped Transforms
  • Chroma from Luma Prediction
  • Support for new motion types such as warped motion
  • Film grain synthesis
  • and much much more
  • JPEG in comparison primarily uses Discreet Cosine Transform
  • Do I look like I know what a JPEG is?
• Three encoders:
  • Reference encoder (proves every concept but very slow)
  • rav1e backed by Xiph Mozilla and Vimeo
  • SVT-AV1 backed by Netflix and Intel

[Tech] The New AV1 Codec

According to the Wikipedia page, Jungle Beat is a CGI animated TV series out of South Africa, featuring the dialogue-free adventures and antics of various African animals. Later, the series was expanded into the adventures of Munki and Trunk. (No prizes for guessing what species they are…) Well now this year Munki and Trunk are on their way in their own feature film as Sunrise Productions presents Jungle Beat: The Movie. “One morning, the animals of the jungle wake up to discover that they can speak. They’re even more amazed when they learn the reason why: There’s an alien in the jungle! Little Fneep has come to conquer the planet and has brought some crazy tech with him, including a translation device that lets them talk for the first time. Unfortunately for the intergalactic Scaldronian empire, but fortunately for the jungle, Fneep is a terrible conqueror: He’s homesick, he’s crashed his ship, and he’s no match for the antics of Munki, Trunk, and the gang.” Keep your eyes open: The producers are planning a world-wide on-line release party at the end of this month.

image c. 2020 Sunrise Productions

Been a hell of a week. 

We have a terrible D&D party, people doing what needs to be done with confederate monuments and relics, Savrin relates a tale of them having a fake $20, and the Gamers(tm) are upset.

Stay safe, and Black lives matter.

LINKS Black Visions Collective -  https://secure.everyaction.com/4omQDAR0oUiUagTu0EG-Ig2 

Reclaim The Block -  https://secure.everyaction.com/zae4prEeKESHBy0MKXTIcQ2 

MOODI -  https://www.givemn.org/story/Mxmjeg 

One Petulant Gamer -  https://onepetulantgamer.net/  

Episode 465 - Defund The Police - Been a hell of a week.  We have a terrible D&D party, people doing what needs to be done with confederate monuments and relics, Savrin relates a tale of them having a fake $20, and the Gamers(tm) are upset. Stay safe, and

MOOBARKFLUFF! Click here to send us a comment or message about the show!

This week Taebyn may have actually caught his tail. We chat with Zarafa about furry life and things, and just what is a paradox?  Join us once again for some time spent.

Support the show

Thanks to all our listeners and to our staff: Bearly Normal, Rayne Raccoon, Taebyn, Cheetaro, TickTock, and Ziggy the Meme Weasel.

You can send us a message on Telegram at BFFT Chat, or via email at: bearlyfurcasting@gmail.com

Bearly Furcasting #6 - Catch the Tail, Zarafa, and Math

Here’s an “offered again” item that slipped right by us the first time around: Kyrra, Alien Jungle Girl. “Left for dead on an alien planet, Kyrra was taken in and raised by a primitive tribe of demon apes. She has no memory of her previous life and has assimilated to the ways of her adopted family, yet she still looks to the stars and wonders… Where did she come from? What’s out there for her? On her 16th birthday she gets a clue to her origins and sets out for an adventure that will take her beyond the Alien Jungle Girl she knows.” Dark Horse Press collected the original comic series (written by Rich Woodall and illustrated by Craig Rousseau) together in one trade paperback graphic novel, which is available now.

image c. 2020 Dark Horse Press

Hello readers and welcome to the first of many Furry Writers’ Guild spotlights for Pride Month! Today we’ll be interviewing Al Song! His pronouns are he/him/his. He has been published in such anthologies as Fang 8, Roar 9, Tales from the Guild: World Tour, The Furry Cookbook, Foxers or Beariefs, Sensory De-Tails, Howloween, and Difursity. As it was also Asian Pacific American Heritage Month just a few days prior, we want to present this interview as an intersectional look a Pride alongside Asian Heritage. So what are we waiting for, let’s dive in!

FWG: Tell the guild and our readers a bit about yourself.

Al Song: I’m a gay red kangaroo living near the caffeine-fueled city of Seattle. My parents are refugees from Laos, and they had me while they lived in Hawaii. I majored in German Studies and Comparative Literature when I was in college. I also took some French, Japanese, and Italian courses, since I fell in love with learning new languages. Culturally speaking, I’m a vegetarian charcuterie board of various foods that seem like they typically shouldn’t belong together. At least it always gives me something new to write about. I typically write and read queer slice of life romance and am editor or such works at Thurston Howl Publications. My other artistic love is music, which is another topic I truly enjoy writing about. Between fretboards and keyboards my fingers probably don’t like me very much.  

Off topic, but I love escape rooms. I’ve done forty of them, and they never get tiring.

FWG: What is your favorite work that you have written?

Al Song: “Rekindling” in Difursity is definitely a story I hold close to my heart. I put a lot of my identities and struggles into that short story. The protagonist is a gay, Laotian-American college student, and the story discusses the intersectionality of being both gay and Asian-American along with some issues my family and I have been through. 

“Serenity in Blue” in Fang volume 8 is another story I’m proud of, since it’s the first story I ever published, and Fang is the first furry anthology I read when I was in college. This story discusses the struggles of life after graduating from college in the modern world, along with the big topics of queerness and mental health, which are subjects that unfortunately are not often discussed in Lao culture. 

When it comes to both of these stories I wanted to bring up things that are rarely discussed and brought to light. Despite all the heaviness, these stories also contain romance and love. I’ve set out to expose audiences to new perspectives identities, while also trying to show those who have been pushed down that there can be hope out there. 

FWG: What do you think makes a good story?

Al Song: If a story makes a lasting impact (typically a positive one) in my mind, then it’s usually a pretty good one. I’ve read short comics, poems and have listened to songs with concise stories that have left me with more profound thoughts and emotions than some novel series or even shows that lasted multiple seasons. If it’s been a few years, and I’m still thinking about a story, then it’s done something right. I’m not talking about stories that have left me with a bad impression or have triggered me and won’t leave my memory banks. I typically read YA, romance, and slice of life novels that take place in the present, so when a book or short story can stand out amongst all the other books in a positive manner, then I’ll know it was worth my time. If it can also give me a smile when I think about it, then it gets bonus points.

FWG: How long have you been in the guild, and what changes have you seen with regards to how writing is handled since joining?

Al Song: I’ve been in the guild for about two years or so, but I’ve been following it for much longer, since I have friends and peers in within the guild. It feels like there are more opportunities and places to submit stories, and there are more and more diverse voices in the guild itself, which is definitely important. It also seems like there are even more opportunities to learn from one another in the guild.

FWG: What does your Asian Heritage mean to you?

Al Song: It means a lot to me, since it’s shaped my life and its experiences in so many different ways. Being born and raised in the US with a Laotian background has its challenges, but I would never trade my ability to speak Lao for another language or trade my culture in for another one. When I grew up I wished that I could just be like everyone else, but I realized that my identities are incredibly important. I’ve been exposed to so much good food, music, and people who have built me up and helped me through life. It also seems like many people within the US don’t know anything about Laos. I recently had to explain to someone where Laos is located and that Lao is a language. It gives me a chance to teach people something new about the world and broaden their horizons. 

Unfortunately, being both gay and Lao-American can make things more difficult than they need to be. I don’t feel like very many people in queer circles can understand what I go through as an Asian-American, and in Lao spheres queerness is usually a taboo topic, so it feels like I can’t really discuss it with my family. The toughest thing is that I usually don’t feel like I have a place where I can truly belong. Despite all of this I think my identities have helped me become more empathetic with others and what they go through, since I’m always a fish out of water.

FWG: How has being gay affected or inspired the stories you write? Have you written gay characters into your stories?

Al Song: So far I’ve exclusively written queer characters as protagonists, since I’m gay, and there are just so many stories featuring straight protagonists and characters out there, and I want my readers to be able to see parts of themselves within my characters and what they go through, and I want them to be able to ship characters without having to make them queer, since they’re already queer characters. There have been so many times I wished a series or a novel I really enjoyed had more queer representation, so I wanted go out and make that happen.

FWG: How about your heritage? Does it and your gay identity ever mix in terms of inspiration for your stories?

Al Song: Most of my protagonists are Lao-American and Gay. This intersection is probably one of the biggest topics I talk about. Not many people will know what it’s like, and I definitely want to get that experience out there, especially through such a fun medium. Furry editors I’ve worked with have mostly reacted positively to this less common perspective. It’s not often you read about queer Asian-Americans in literature, and whenever I see these characters portrayed positively it definitely brings a smile to my face. Even though I’m focused on creating stories for other queer folk and people of color, I also want my stories to resonate with those who don’t share my identities as well. I write about universal things like rejection, creative struggles, and love, but giving the stories a gay and Asian twist seems to help them show a unique perspective. I’ve taken a lot of my personal experiences as a gay man along with my Laotian heritage and have put them into my stories, because I do want to make a positive impact and to show others like me that we’re not alone in this world.

FWG: Do you feel like the issues that affect the outside world involving your identity or heritage affect your writing within the fandom or not?

Al Song: Definitely, the mainstream media could really do a better job with representation of both Asian-Americans and queer characters, since there’s a huge lack of both identities in TV and film, and as much as I love YA novels it’s not that often that I get to see queer people of color as protagonists. Sometimes we do see a character who is gay or Asian, then they end up becoming a side character and it makes me even sadder when they get all the stereotypes applied to them. In my stories I want to undo this and to show off characters who share my identities in a positive manner.

FWG: What kinds of intersectional issues have you had to deal with while being a gay Asian author? What would you like people to know about these issues and how could they help to improve to make these less to deal with?

Al Song: I’ve been around a lot of authors who think they can just write whatever they want about a marginalized group or identity that the author doesn’t share without any consultations. I understand that this is a heated topic, so let’s talk about music for a second. It’s very cringeworthy to see an actor play an instrument incorrectly on the screen, and if you’re going to write technical aspects of a musical performance or the life of a musician, then please do your research and reach out to some musicians and have them look over your work. Violin bows need to be rosined, and fretboards and fingerboards are different things. There have been times when I’ve read a musical description and felt a lot disappointment and realized the author probably wasn’t a musician. If you’re going to talk about a group of people who don’t share your identities, and you don’t want to look foolish, then maybe you should reach out. 

Unfortunately, within the fandom I’ve seen Asian characters not always presented in a great light. I’ve read stories where we’ve been heavily stereotyped and speak in broken English, ones where we become exoticized and fetishized, and at times we get shown in a negative light as the antagonist. Sometimes it’s a combination of these things. It’s definitely disheartening to see this happen within the fandom, since it’s a place I love so much. For some reason explaining to people that I don’t want someone to be attracted to me because of my race is more confusing than an AP Calculus class. It would be nice to have more writers and editors who are cognizant of this when they’re crafting stories and are publishing them. Telling someone that their lived experience is incorrect is definitely not helpful. The same thing applies to straight people who write queer characters. At least reach out to someone.

FWG: Do you have favorite Asian and/or queer authors and has their literature affected your writing in the fandom?

Al Song: Shawn Wong is probably my favorite Asian author, since he was also my intermediate prose instructor at the University of Washington. He taught me so much about the importance of writing a story with a message, along with his own struggles as an Asian-American writer with immigrant parents. He really shaped my understanding of what stories are along with how to have a more critical view of them. He also helped me realize that writing about my issues and experiences is extremely crucial, and that those things shouldn’t be hidden. One of my favorite gay authors is David Levithan. After reading Will Grayson, Will Grayson during my senior year of high school I was inspired to write similar slice of life gay romance stories that also dealt with mental health. The novel was so sad and funny, and it just made me so happy. This made me want to create joy in the hearts of those who read my stories. 

FWG: If you could convince everyone to read a single book, what would it be?

Al Song: “Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel,” by Sara Farizan. It’s a smart and hilarious YA novel about being a nerdy, young, queer, person of color, with immigrant parents in modern day America. I got to meet the author while I was a student librarian at the Q Center of the University of Washington. She gave me some of the best advice that I continue to follow today when it comes to writing. This was during a time when I had some people tell me that I was writing too much about music and romance, so she pretty much told me to keep writing about those things if it’s what I love doing. Thanks to her advice I’ve been published in multiple anthologies. 

FWG: Any last words for our readers and guild members?

Al Song: Honest art is something I really enjoy, and it’s been the thing that’s helped me garner a modicum of success when it comes to writing in the fandom. I definitely write what I know, and I’m sure most people know a good amount about themselves along with the issues they’ve been through. Every person is different and unique, so when we each put ourselves into our art it allows us to shine and stand out. It’s definitely understandable that vulnerability is a tough and scary thing, but between putting ourselves and our works out there, dealing with rejection, and facing heart-rending critiques; vulnerability is at the forefront of all of this. It can be used to strengthen us and our creativity. As cliché as it sounds, maybe you should just be your true self.

We would like to thank Al once again for this interview! If you’d like to follow him or his works you can do so on Twitter @song_roo, or on his FurAffinity page or SoFurry page. Stay tuned for next week when we feature another member of the guild for pride! Until we meet again, may your words flow like water.

Dragon Whisperer is a new full-color comic miniseries from Red 5 Comics. “In a world of clockwork and steam, cursed airship captain, Alexander Faulk, endures his centuries-long quest for an end to his torment: A Dragon! His ceaseless pursuit bears scarce reward, that is until Faulk discovers the bridge between the world of man, and the world of monsters. Her name is Rosalinda Eberhardt, and she is the Dragon Whisperer.” Written by Alex Deluca and illustrated Glen Fernandez, issues should be available now as comic stores slowly re-open.

image c. 2020 Red 5 Comics

 

Hello there FWG members! For those of you that have been with us for a long time, you will be excited to hear that we are bringing back the monthly newsletters! For those newer to the guild, we once produced monthly newsletters to tell people about things like new open markets and guild news. We’re hoping to bring this back to give all our members information to help them thrive while writing anthropomorphic fiction!

First it’s been a very busy month for the guild. We updated our website, got a new logo, opened up a new Discord channel, updated our membership listings, and voted on new by-laws and a new code of conduct. With all of our listing updates, we are showing 114 active members! We’ll keep accepting any updates as they come in, but we’re happy so many of you got the form filled out fast.

The vote to implement our new by-laws and code of conduct passed with over a 90% majority of members, so these will now be put into place. You can now see them on our website. With this in mind, this opens up several new officer positions within the guild. If you might be interested in becoming our Public Relations Officer, Markets Manager, or potentially the Cóyotl Awards Chair, please get in contact with a guild officer so we can talk to you!

Speaking of the Cóyotl Awards, where are they? We did hold our vote for the 2019 awards and have the results tallied. Issues with the current Covid 19 pandemic have made getting our normal supplies for our special coyote trophies a bit difficult as well as makes sending them out to winners tough. We are considering a special awards stream for the winners hopefully very soon and we promise to keep you posted.

If you haven’t joined the new official FWG Discord, you’re missing out on a lot of fun. One of the new features on the Discord is our special beta reading program, so we would like to spotlight Rockie Thiger (@Thiger on Discord) for providing the most beta reads for fellow authors this month! If you’d like to learn more about this new program or simply jump into the conversation come join us on Discord.

We would also like to welcome the newest members of our guild: Rockie Thiger, David “Ryft Sarri” Yenser, Resolute, Stacy Bender / P.C. Hatter, Dan Leinir Turthra Jensen, Jensyn Grayves, Metassus, and Herr Wozzeck! We are very excited to have these wonderful writers join our ranks.

In honor of Asian Pacific Heritage Month, we interviewed FWG member Allison Thai! You can find that full interview here. We’ll also be featuring some authors during Pride Month on the blog, so keep an eye out!

One last bit of guild business, we would like to remind our members about our Microfiction Monday initiative. Any writer, non-members included, that can write a Tweet sized story has the opportunity to have it featured on our Twitter! You can learn more about the program and how to submit here.

Several new books have been released over the last couple of months including:

• Furry Haiku edited by Thurston Howl
• Whip and Boot by Herr Wozzeck
• The Complete Dragonsbane Saga by Ian Madison Keller
• Gruesome Games: Howlers Volume 3 Edited by Thurston Howl
• Purgatorio: The Ten Regions Of Furry Purgatory Edited by Weasel
• Species: Wildcats edited by KC Alpinus, 
• Difursity: Stories by Furries of Color edited by Weasel

Goal Publications also has two novels available for pre-order now including:

• Ritual of the Ancients by Ian Madison Keller
• When a Cat Loves a Dog by Mary E. Lowd

We want to express some particular excitement for Awoo, Who’s This? Coming from Bound Tales, this special anthology features members of the Furry Writers’ Guild trying to write in the style of other members. Funds from this anthology go to help the guild so consider giving it a look!

Part of our website update was making our Furry Writers’ Market better than ever before! You can find all of open markets for furry writing we can track down here: https://furrywritersguild.com/furry-writers-market/

Currently, these anthology markets are open:

• The Furry Gameshow Network (Deadline: July 10, 2020)
• Leave The Lights On (Deadline: July 20, 2020)
• Dread Volume 2. (Deadline: August 7, 2020)
• 1921: Furries In Fedoras (Deadline: October 31, 2020)
• Reclamation Project: Year Two (Deadline: October 31, 2020)
• Electric Sewer 2: Boogie Nights (Deadline: December 1, 2020)

Consider checking out our page for details and writing up a story for one of these awesome anthologies!

We know there’s been a lot going on lately, but we hope the guild can keep working together to keep making this an awesome space for all of our members. If you have any ideas for special programs we could work on, be sure to let us know! We have more projects around the corner that we’re very excited to show off when they are ready. Stay safe all of you wonderful furry writers!

– FWG President Linnea “LiteralGrill” Capps

Welcome to Issue 7 of Zooscape!

If you’re reading this issue of Zooscape, then you’ve survived the long, hard spring that lasted ten thousand years.  You’ll need some provisions before continuing on your journey.  So, please, take these stories with you on your way…

* * *

The God-Smoker by Dylan Craine

Maker Space by Adele Gardner

When the Horse Came to the Open House by K. C. Mead-Brewer

Love From Goldie by David Steffen

Riding Through the Desert by Laurence Raphael Brothers

Fur and Feather by Ingrid L. Taylor

* * *

Each of these stories is a journey in miniature, and the characters are changed by the end.  Much as you may be changed, hopefully for the better, by reading them.

As always, if you want to support Zooscape, we have a Patreon.  We’re closing to submissions for the summer, but we’ll see you in September when the season turns!

by Ingrid L. Taylor

“The hummingbird flew to the coyote and hovered above his muzzle, which was flecked with shell fragments and sea salt.”

The meadow had been hers for as long as it had taken the flowers to pass through one cycle of blooming and fading. She had defended against the larger birds, the crows and the sparrows, as yellow sun had given way to the pale autumn. The memory of her mother’s nest had dimmed, and she learned to treasure the solitary rustle of the grasses and the slow darkening of days. The coyote came with the smell of rain. She heard him at night as he passed around the edge of her meadow, keeping to the shelter of the trees.

Though it was not in the hummingbird’s nature to seek companionship, she felt a fascination for the coyote that slowly grew into love as the sleeting winter rains faded into the warm drizzle of spring. She loved him for his lonely howl that rang clear and mournful on the cold nights when she was tucked away in her nest, and she thought that someone who made a sound so beautiful surely couldn’t be bad. She was a creature of the daytime, of sunlight and flowers and sweet nectar. She was flighty as well, dashing from one flower to the next, never wanting to give a single bloom too much of her attention. She sensed a depth and steadiness in the coyote where she might rest her pounding wings and calm her racing heart.

The coyote came to the beach at the edge of the woods in the early mornings. He ate the crabs that washed up on the shore, and she watched him savor the salty crunch of their shells. Sometimes he ate the seaweed too, when hunting was lean. She imagined the cool sand was soft on the pads of his feet, and the brine soothed his throat, hoarse from his nightly offerings to the moon.

She found excuses to leave her meadow and come down to the beach, hovering over the white flowers of blackberry bushes that tangled the border from forest to shore and taking in their sparse nourishment. The coyote lay down in the sand with a crab shell propped between his paws. His canines gleamed in the early light of morning. The surf sang its endless song. It was the hour of possibility, when the moon and sun touched fingertips before they went their separate ways, and their children, the stars, closed their luminous eyes.

The hummingbird flew to the coyote and hovered above his muzzle, which was flecked with shell fragments and sea salt. His ears pricked forward, and he lifted a paw to swat at her. She avoided it easily—she was fast. The coyote stretched his lips back, and his tongue lolled from the side of his mouth.

“Who are you?” he asked.

She did not often speak to the four-legged animals, only the birds that shared the air with her, and once, a wayward cat that had passed through her meadow. She had fluffed out all of her feathers and buzzed the cat’s head, shrieking at him to leave her territory. Now unsure what to say to the coyote, she took off down the beach, zigging and zagging. He chased her, his body stretched to full length as his feet pounded the sand.

She paused above a fallen log, and he sat and panted at her with his pink tongue. The sunlight slanted off her, and the wet sand steamed as the sun rose in the sky. Soon it would be time for him to go.

The coyote rested his chin on the log, his eyes a soft brown like chestnuts that fell to the forest floor. She perched on the log and folded her wings, certain now he wouldn’t hurt her. He blew his hot breath on her. Her feathers lifted with the force of it, and she was changed in that moment—no longer a creature of air and light but weighted by the burden of meat and bone and soil that invited the decaying flesh.

The heat of the new day pressed upon her, and the coyote was gone. She caught a last glimpse of his bushy tail as he disappeared into the forest.

Day after day, the hummingbird and coyote played together on the beach. Sometimes the chase was long and sometimes it lasted for only a few minutes. At those times, they rested together on the log. She gripped his wiry fur in her tiny feet and curled up on his back, and worried about the outline of his ribs that showed beneath his coat. His food was taken by creatures who left shiny metal teeth on the forest floor, mouths that didn’t devour but maimed and imprisoned. She had heard the cries of the animals caught. The creatures brought the scent of panic and fear, so strong that even she could smell it. It permeated the forest, and darkness spread. Flowers bloomed less brightly, their nectar was less sweet, and she had to fly farther every day to find fuel for her demanding body.

One morning the coyote didn’t come to the beach. She waited on the log, wings folded, until the sun was high overhead and the aroma of rotting kelp and dead fish choked the air. The surf rushed in and covered the sand. Pebbles, caught helpless in the unyielding grip of the waves, tumbled and rolled. The hummingbird watched them as the air closed around her. She looked behind her to the woods. She knew its meadows and clearings, but she had never ventured into the entangled mass of trees and underbrush that made up its dense center. Her heart fluttered, and she was afraid.

Dewdrops clung to blades of grass in defiance of the rising heat of the day. The meadow sparkled in the morning light. Petals swayed in choruses of white, purple, and yellow. She dipped her tongue into a bloom and lapped up the nectar. Its energy flowed through her, and her wings pumped harder and faster. She ascended, higher and higher, until the individual flowers coalesced into a rainbow of color below her. She flew into the woods.

She had always imagined dark and impenetrable undergrowth, but beneath the redwood canopy she saw a loamy path dappled with sunlight and dotted with small bushes. The air was wet. Pale mushrooms sprouted around the trunks of the trees, which were covered on one side with a carpet of green moss. She hovered, weighted by the ancient feel of the forest, and for the first time in her life the hummingbird sensed the depth of time, that all things pass into darkness.

“What are you doing here, little bird?” The owl sat nearby on a thick branch. His eyes gleamed in the dim light.

The hummingbird dashed behind a broad leaf.

“I’m looking for the coyote.” Her voice was thin and high in the stillness between the trees.

The owl’s eyes followed her, immense and yellow. “You would make a tasty snack before my bedtime, little hummingbird.”

“Please—Will you help me find him?”

“Come out from behind that leaf, and I’ll consider it.”

The hummingbird moved from the leaf’s camouflage, forcing herself to hover in front of the owl while her instincts screamed at her to flee.

“Have you seen him?”

The owl looked long and hard at her, then with a shake that ruffled all of his feathers, he settled deeper onto the branch. “You’re lucky that I had a good night hunting. I won’t eat you today. But your coyote was not so lucky. You’ll find him ahead. Look for the biggest tree in the woods.” The owl closed his eyes.

The hummingbird waited a moment, but the owl appeared to be asleep. As she zoomed past him, the owl muttered, “Evil roots in our home. Take care, little one.”

She found the coyote beneath an ancient redwood. He lay on his side, his ribs heaving with each rasping breath. The metal teeth, no longer shiny but stained dark with his blood, gripped his front leg. He lay in a pool of mud and hair and torn skin. There were grooves in the dirt around him where he had dug in his claws, trying to escape.

“My love,” she hovered over him, “how can I free you?”

He had bitten his tongue in his pain and frenzy, and his words were thick with blood. “I must chew my leg free, but I am too weak.”

The hummingbird brought him drops of water from a nearby stream, held carefully in a leaf that she tipped into his mouth. She found some berries nearby and carried them, one by one to his lips, until she dropped exhausted onto a low bush.

“It is not enough.” The coyote’s voice was thin and strained. “Go quickly and find the beaver. She is strong enough to chew me free.”

The hummingbird floated over him. “I don’t want to leave you.”

“Hurry— before these monsters come for me.”

She flew as fast as she could to the beaver’s den, though she was heavy with the scent of his blood and rent flesh.

The beaver poked her nose out. “What is all this shrieking and fluttering?”

“The coyote is trapped, and he can’t free his leg. Come and chew him free with your powerful teeth.”

“Why would I do that? He might devour me once he’s free.”

“Please, we don’t have much time. He’ll die if you don’t help.”

The beaver squatted on her round haunches. “Besides, I don’t eat meat. I can’t imagine the taste of it in my teeth. It’s horrifying.”

“You can spit it out. Please… I love him, and I don’t want him to die.”

The hummingbird’s feathers drooped as the beaver gazed off into the distance. A breeze passed through, carrying the smell of dead fish and rotted wood. She thought of their walks on the beach, and her heart crashed against her ribcage as if it would burst from the confines of her chest.

“All right. I’ll do it, but he has to promise that he won’t eat me.”

The beaver’s steady plod through the forest was agonizing for the hummingbird. The sun slanted low in the sky when they reached the place where the coyote was trapped.

He was gone. Only a scattered pile of bloody leaves remained. A strange sensation permeated the air, sharp and violent, like nothing the hummingbird had encountered before. She flew in furious circles over the area, looking for any sign of him. There was only the silence of the darkening forest. The beaver hung her head, and after a moment she ambled back in the direction of her den. The hummingbird watched her go and knew no word or gesture could contain this moment. There was only the bright pain that washed through her.

In the following days, the pain transformed to a sorrow that muted the shine of her feathers to a dull gray. She sat in a bush by the meadow and watched flowers nod in the wind. She thought often of the beach but couldn’t bear to return.

One early morning she could no longer stand the rustle of the meadow grass and the cloying cheerfulness of the flowers. She went to the beach, to the log where they had always met. The feel of the smooth driftwood under her feet caused fresh pain. She watched the waves topple pebbles and small sticks and thought that she could fly into those waves and disappear.

The bushes behind her rustled, and soft feet padded toward her. A four-legged creature stood on the beach looking at her. The creature had no fur, rather exposed muscle gleamed in the early light, outlined by veins and connective tissue. She drew back, frightened. It took a step towards her. She recognized the eyes of the coyote, though the long lashes and warm brown irises looked out of place in the wet redness of his face.

“I’ve waited for you,” he said.

“You were gone when I came back. I looked and looked, but I couldn’t find you.”

“They have taken my skin and fur.”

A fly buzzed around the face of the coyote, then passed through his head and continued down the beach.

The hummingbird fled, beating her wings as fast as she could to escape the horrible raw thing that her coyote had become. She stopped and hovered just at the edge of the beach, where the sand mingled with coarse grass. She could return to the meadow, live out her days among the flowers and grasses, and try to forget the vision of bare muscle and blood. But the coyote’s eyes appeared before her, sad and lost. She remembered how much joy he had brought her, and she knew she couldn’t leave him to his loneliness and pain.

She turned and raced back down the beach, where the coyote waited for her.

 

* * *

About the Author

Ingrid L. Taylor is a fiction writer, poet, and veterinarian. She lives in the desert with a black cat, a Newfoundland dog, and a yard full of pigeons and hummingbirds. When she’s not writing sad and creepy stories, she provides expert veterinary commentary on animal cruelty cases for an international nonprofit. She is completing a dual MFA in fiction and nonfiction at Pacific University, and she was selected for a Playa Artist-in-Residence award in 2018, where she fell in love with the Oregon high desert. Her stories have appeared in Red Rock Review, Dies Infaustus, Legs of Tumbleweed, Wings of Lace: An Anthology of Literature by Nevada Women, Gaia: Shadow and Breath, vol.3, and others. Check out her Instagram @tildybear for her writing news and adventures with her animals.