#im not used to sharing my work lol

[atinydragon]

Echoing Whispers Part 1

Oooooooh boy here this is. Hope you enjoy! Summary: A fairy hive desperate for money, agrees to to ‘sell’ one of it’s members who will be able to escape. Unbeknownst to them, he never intends to return after escaping. Unknown to any of them, his escape won’t be as easy as they thought.

Edit: old version

part 2: https://www.tumblr.com/atinydragon/696559479630741504/echoing-whispers-part-2?source=share Word count: 2k

Content Warnings: selling people, treating people as objects, implied animal abuse and death, mouth horror, grabbing, man-handling (kinda), and cages.

Echo regretted his decision to ride in the cage.

It had seemed like a smart choice back at the house. After all, it was where he was supposed to end up. Why wouldn't he just ride in it? It would be a bit silly not to honestly

Except this did not take into account that the puppets were made to have realistic body movements. And that the cage would be attached at the hip.

This meant that as the puppet's legs moved, the cage would be jostled about. It would happen as the thigh swung forward, as the foot hit the ground, and again as the other leg went through its motions.

And Echo was along for the ride with every movement.

He gripped the cold iron bars and braced himself against the smooth floor as best he could. At the very least he was able to keep his back from touching the bars. While he might not have wings that could be burnt against the metal, the little nubs on his back were still sensitive to it.

It was also shockingly dark under the puppet's cloak. Echo could hardly see the outline of the bars. If he lost his grip he might not find it again and spent the rest of the trip sliding around the cage floor.

Which would not be great.

Thankfully the trip wasn't much longer. Soon the puppet paused for a moment, and a long creak signaled their arrival. Though the reprieve didn't last long as the puppet opened the door and walked inside.

"Please stop walking soon" thought Echo as he nearly lost his grip.

Finally the puppet, presumably, reached the counter. A voice came out of the puppet.

Even with the magic altering it, Echo recognized Leaf's voice. He felt a twinge of guilt. This was going to be the last time he heard it after all.

Leaf talked with the store owner for a couple minutes. Then the puppet's hand came for the cage.

Carefully the puppet unclasped the cage and pulled it out of the cloak.

Echo blinked as his eyes adjusted to the brighter light. He was set down on a wooden counter right in front of a bored looking human.

The human leaned forward to scrutinize the tiny fairy.

Echo leaned away as much as he could. This was going to be the worst part.

"It doesn't have wings." said the human.

"Correct." said Leaf. "But it is still a living fairy."

The human absentmindedly scratched their neck "It is... but what good is it if it can't make fairy dust?"

Echo resisted the urge to roll his eyes. The human's eyes had nearly fallen out when he saw the fairy. No way did the smuggler not know of the uses of fairy magic outside of their dust.

Eventually Leaf wore down the human's hard to get charade. Then came the haggling.

Instead of paying attention to that nonsense, Echo looked around the room. Most of his view was blocked by the two giant figures right by him but he could still see a bit.

It wasn't as run down as he had been expecting. There wasn't the huge piles of dirt, or mouse holes, or sad animals chained up in the corners. It was pretty plain actually. Everything was some shade of brown but relatively clean. There was even of vase of colorful flowers on the other end of the counter.

While Echo was glad to not have to witness the terrible conditions just yet, it was a bit disappointing. The cleanliness and generally lack of clutter would not help in his escape. And some mouse holes would have been really convent. But at least the flowers would hopefully mean there would be more plants than anticipated. He could have fun with that.

Finally the two giants exchanged a heavy coin bag. The deal had been made.

"Well than." said Leaf "It was a pleasure doing business with you."

Echo couldn't help but look over his shoulder as the puppet walked out of the store. Guilt gnawed on his spine. He knew that he was never going to see Leaf again. But Leaf didn't know that and would never really be able to say goodbye.

Suddenly the cage was grabbed roughly and Echo was barely able to hang on. He was raised up and up until he was level with the human's face.

The human stared at the fairy, clearly scrutinizing the smaller person.

Echo gritted his teeth. He really really wanted to flip this guy off or do anything. But he also wanted to be left alone as soon as possible. Then he could slip through the bars and be off to freedom. Hopefully that wouldn't tip this human off to the fact that iron only affects fairy wings.

Regardless, making the giant mad would only prolong this dreadful experience. So Echo would have to keep his cool somehow.

"Sal! Get in here!" yelled the human abruptly.

"Do not cuss him out." thought Echo as he clamped his hands over his ears. "Do not tell him to shut his fat mouth."

After some more unnecessary yelling, Sal appeared. "Yeah boss?"

The human, Boss apparently, handed over Echo's cage to Sal. "Take this to the back."

Sal also decided to inspect the fairy. "Really? It has no wings, why'd you buy it?"

Oh boy, Echo was really excelling at self control today. He was only glaring the human's soul away. There had better be a blueberry bush nearby because he certainly deserved a reward.

Boss shrugged "What does it matter, it still has magic don't it?"

"You're right." With that Sal turned and went back through the door he came from.

Past the doors was a large room filled with cages.

Echo looked down at his own cage's floor. He really didn't want to see all the creatures being cruelly kept here. There was no way he'd be able to stand looking into their eyes and not freeing them. But he couldn't. It was too risky and he had no way to get them back to their homes. So he had to keep looking down. Bad enough that he had to hear them...

It was really quiet actually. No whines or growls or even the clicking of claws on metal. In fact it was almost completely silent, save for the sound of the human's shoes.

Unable to stop himself, Echo looked up around the room.

The cages were empty.

All of the cages were empty.

Some of them had their doors shut and were cleaned to were you almost couldn't tell they had been occupied. Others doors hanged open, with bits of fur or feathers or droppings still left in them. But every last cage in the room was empty.

A cold icy dread crept over Echo's bones. This made no sense. Theses humans were known to have a large collection of magical creatures. That was how the hive had found them. So where was their collection?

Echo shook his head. He was panicking for no reason. So what that literally every cage was empty? Surely they just had a couple big sales recently?

Right?

Sal finally crossed the room, arriving at another door. He opened it.

Inside was a very dark room that's only light was what trickled through a small window slit and what came from the bigger room. It was empty except for a large cage and the odd equipment next to it.

Echo recognized the equipment. It was very similar to how the hive powered the puppets. There was a large barrel connected to a black metal box on top of a table. Inscribed on the box were various runes that would translate collected magic into the desired form. These seemed to be making it into a liquid and then depositing it into the barrel.

There were more tubes going from the box to the cage.

That was when Echo finally realized that the smugglers did have one occupied cage.

Curled up inside was a demon of sorts. They were alarmingly thin, with nothing but rags on. And a thick metal caller that the tubes from the box were connected to.

"Ah. That's why." Echo thought as the cold came back "Instead of having to take care of a bunch of animals they just suck the life out of them. And then sell it." He was going to be sick. Maybe he'd still have a chance of escape. Though Echo wasn't sure if he could be happy about it, as it was going to come at the expense of this person getting killed.

Did he dare to get them both out?

Before Echo could even try to think of a plan, there was a loud click as the lock to his cage had been unlocked.

Suddenly Echo's vision was filled with the human's hand. He couldn't even squirm before it was wrapped around him.

Sal roughly pulled the fairy out of the cage. He seemed to be aware of the fairy's urge to bite him, as he quickly dropped Echo into the larger cage. Not even bothering to open the door, just shove his hand through the bars and let go.

Echo tumbled to the ground. It hadn't been a high fall at least.

The demon shrunk back away from the noise, their tail curling around them. It was an odd tail for a demon, thicker and it didn't have the usual spike at the end.

A slam sounded through the tiny room, making Echo and the demon jump. Sal had left them alone.

"Okay" thought Echo "now time to..." he turned towards the bars. While the thick bars were spaced far enough that he could have easily walked through them, wooden planks twice his height had been attached to them. "...escape."

This was fine. Totally fine.

There was a shuffling behind Echo.

He turned backs towards the demon.

The demon had uncurled themself slightly. Despite the fact that there was less light now, Echo noticed more... odd things about the demon.

Like that they had scales. Echo was pretty sure that demons didn't have scales. And then he noticed the wings. They were hard to spot in the darkness, but they were there folded tightly against the 'demon's' back. Demons definitely did not have wings.

Echo reflexively stepped back. There was no way. It couldn't be right? Those things live so far away and are imposable to see let alone capture.

The creature leaned forward, an arm outstretching.

"Shit!" Echo turned and slammed his hands on the planks. He poured magic into them, hoping something would grow.

But nothing did. The planks were long dead.

He looked down, he could feel seeds nestled deep under ground. But the cage's floor was metal. There was no way they would be strong enough to pierce it.

He had stood still for too long.

A hand wrapped around his waist.

Echo jolted and tried to struggle. But the thin fingers held him easily, and they raised him up and turned him around to face the creature. The creature's white eyes were focused on the fairy in their grasp. They started opening their mouth. It was wide. Way too wide. And so many teeth lining it.

And it confirmed Echo's fears.

This was a soul-eater. A magic eater. A Drake.

"No no NO NO" Echo kicked his legs around and squirmed. He was going to have the life drained out of him and then chewed up. And his magic wasn't even going to go to the Drake it was going to go to those stupid bastards.

The Drake paused. Their mouth closing slightly.

Echo was still panicking. His mind finally found something other than mindless failing to focus on. Echo bit down on the Drake's finger. His tiny sharp teeth managed to find their way past the scales.

The Drake screeched, and they let go of Echo.

For a few moments Echo felt like he was floating.

And then he hit the ground. 

His back took the brunt of the fall, knocking the wind out of his lungs.

Whenever Echo read about a character losing their breath it was a quick affair. They got hit, they wheezed, and then they were back at it.

That was not what loosing your breath was like.

Echo tried to breath in, but no air filled his lungs. It was like a thick cloth was in front of his mouth blocking all the air. He couldn't move. He couldn't even tell if he really was trying to breath or if he was just laying there. Or even feel how empty his lungs were.

All he could do was stare at the ceiling.

And he couldn't do anything about the hand slowly approaching him again.

——————————————————————————- taglist that I hopefully did right

@gtinthepot 

[chryblossomjjk]

just found out that jungkook interacts with people who aren’t me

[nmzuka]

A Happy Pride Month as well!!

Here's Ribbon and KC out celebrating and sporting their flags~

[puppyeared]

if escape rooms as team building exercises became popular im not sure if id be more excited or terrified

[francy-sketches]

working on character designs for my final project ^_^ if they look a lil familiar mind your business

[minkufu]

Anyway if youre like me and have trouble visualizing poses you have in mind, 3D models are a godsend.

The structure and proportions of the models arnt perfect even if you resize them, so I end up adjusting a LOT. I just need the general shape of the poses.

one of the best examples I have of 3D models in clip studio making it possible for me to actually complete a draw I otherwise would have scrapped lol

[if-mirrormine]

for the past few hours ive been feeling the urge to write something other than mm or wtsr so i was looking through my wips and it got me thinking which would be the more interesting one for viewers so i bring to thee another poll!!

[funkbun]

bro u can just make a website whenever u want

[dueling-jesters]

Computer broke. Here's a rough ink doodle of Grey from a while ago

[mekha-draws]

decisionmmmmmssss

why do u look so good with any secondary u weirdo

[imperiuswrecked]

So? Are you gonna stay up there all night? You didn’t look like you needed any help from this wall-crawler!

PeterFel Week 2023 - Day 6 - Honor among Thieves @peterfelweek

[hopkei]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAWANATSU! ⋆ 94.01.19

[sarah-sandwich-writes]

HOLD ON WAIT UP HOLD THE PHONE

I KNOW I WAS GONE FOR A FEW MONTHS THERE BUT HAS BLUE LIKE DON'T FORGET ABOUT ME ALWAYS BEEN A PART OF A SERIES OR IS THAT A NEW DEVELOPMENT???

I FEEL LIKE ITS CHRISTMAS ALL OVER AGAIN FUCK Y E A H

Okay so

I...

have been cooking

by which I mean illusions of grandeur and

schemes

And I have not been forthcoming lol Everyone kind of disappeared all at the same time so I kind of stopped talking about what I'm doing but I have been biding my time, quietly putting mechanisms into motion and plotting and occasionally cackling over my cauldron.

I finished the first draft of Blue like don't forget about me and didn't like it so I cut out all the sci-fi fantasy stuff (bye bye aliens farewell superpowers) and in November wrote a new first draft that's all contemporary romance babeee and I'm so in love with it I'm turning it into a little 3-part (possibly 4 if I can't control myself) series.

The original childhood years have been split off into a prequel novella called Red like my bleeding heart in your hand. Then Blue like don't forget about me will take place 20 years later. Nash works at Cherished Hope Nursing Home

“And what is it you do? At the nursing home, I mean.” I wipe shit off of old people. And Teddy’s a hockey player. What’s Luke, an underwear model? He shouldn’t have come.

Teddy comes back to town for a funeral and

Teddy looks at him for the first time in twenty years and every ounce of warmth leaves his expression. Message received. He should not have come.

OKAY SO AND THEN the next book will be Jo's POV and is called Violet like these delights. and MAYBE there will be a 4th from Luke's POV bc he gets to live this time by the grace of god (me) but it'll depend on how Violet goes (its current state is mostly vibes and a single overarching theme so, stand by).

Red needs a clean-up round of edits to snip out the few little threads that connected it to OG blue. And rewritten blue is basically done. I've done the major revisions and am about to start line edits and after those are done I'm sending it out to beta readers (lmk if you're interested).

There are concise actual summaries in my pinned post btw lol

WHICH REMINDS ME

The series title is Wildflowers of Deliverance. Which I'm extremely proud of. Did you notice did you notice how each title incorporates a wildflower did you did you? and the town they grew up in where Nash and Teddy first met is called Deliverance!!! It's okay I know I'm a genius.

And this brings us to the meal okay? because like I said I've been Cooking™ quietly but steadily for a few months now. ANd what have I been cooking? PLOTS and PLANS

I've decided on a pen name: Sarah B. Elisa

I've created a(nother) side blog for it that will be exclusively centered on my og writing and geared more toward readers rather than writers like this blog is: @sarahbe-writing

I'm going to create a website (as soon as I convince myself to spend money)

and a newsletter (as soon as I convince myself to spend money and do work)

I'm still waffling between trad publishing and DIY. I really like all my hats and it would be a shame to have to share them but oh my god I don't want to do all the marketing but trad pub seems hit or miss on how well they market you so I might get half of my hats taken away and still have to do the marketing bullshit UGH

anyway

OH YEAH and the OG draft I wrote for Blue? I'm going to spin it back to its OG OG roots [parkner, naturally--Return of The childhood friends to estranged almost lovers to super-powered rivals to reluctant allies to friends to lovers finally wip!!! AKA: We Were Gods (we were kids)] and that will fix all the things that went wrong and I didn't like 😌 so it's basically like double Christmas I think

[persephoneflouwers]

Anons ✨

[geoffrey]

the seperation of lesbians and gay men is a travesty. "why are there so many historic gay bars and only like a handful of lesbian bars in the whole country" why are being gay and lesbian not the same thing in this context. you dont need to fuck everyone at the bar and it is a problem that needs to be addressed if these spaces arent mutually hospitable. and this applies to most gay/lesbian spaces imo

[gey-beans]

I was inspired to continue writing one of my fics after reading a friend's incredible fic again. Unfortunately, when I began to read what I wrote, I realized the reason I'd stopped writing in the first place XD It's so bland and cringe and overly dramatic and OOC and all other fun stuff. Anyways I'm probably just going to delete the wip because it just flat-out sucks.