A Piece of Flash from the Lunar One Universe

I know it's been a while since I posted a snippet from the current Strays of Lunar One novel. Those will be returning as soon as I clear the current backlog. In the meantime, here's the most recent piece of flash fiction I wrote for Another 365 Days of Flash Fiction.

It revisits Tallie and Chitin from the short story Earth & Lunar Dreaming, but occurs a little after the time they met Oliver from The Unwilling.

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Cat Nip and Star Anise

 

“Now, this is the way to spend a day off,” Chitin declared, flopping onto his back in the carefully tended lawn.

The view above was one of which he never tired. Earth. The world of his ancestors hung above him, still mostly red and brown, still sick from the wars that had been waged and the lack of care humanity’s forebears had shown, but it had survived.

“For you maybe!” his daughter snarled, her green-blue eyes sparking with annoyance.

She was weeding the garden like he’d told her, her small face scrunched with disapproval.

“You planted it,” he reminded her, the mild tone of his voice a warning.

“You didn’t say I couldn’t,” she retorted.

“I shouldn’t have had to,” he reminded her. “Anise is a controlled substance on Lunar One.”

And it had been ever since the first hunters had used it to try and draw the weres out of the human population.

“You can’t go around planting it, just because your latest boyfriend dumped you.”

“Why not?” Tallie demanded. “It’s not like he didn’t deserve it.”

On that, Chitin silently agreed, but Stella had put her foot down. What Tallie had done was dangerous, even it was well-deserved and a punishment fitting the crime. Roland had tried to make their adoptive daughter high enough on catnip to over-ride her inhibitions.

Unfortunately for the young wolf, catnip only made Tallie hyper, not stupid, and she’d outrun and out-hidden him until the effects wore off…and then she’d gotten into Stella’s licensed crop of star anise and planted it in one of the boy’s favorite haunts.

If she hadn’t gone overboard and sent him a planter of the stuff, her little nature project might have gotten out of hand and affected every wolf on the station. They’d alerted Stella, at about the same time as Chitin had stepped on the garden bed Tallie had put it in.

He’d gone running for hours, doing circuits of the observatory to run through the stuff, over…and over…again...right after he’d locked the doors and called Stella for help. The effects of her dart were still wearing off, and Chitin couldn’t think of a better place to let that happen than here, watching the world turn below them...while Tallie cleaned up her mess.

“The Sentinels are ensuring he’ll make better choices in future,” he assured her.

“Which is?” she demanded.

“The effects of an overdose of star anise aren’t pleasant,” Chitin told her mildly, “…and then there’s apologizing to the other werecats on the station.”

Tallie snickered.

There’d been a time when she’d been the only one, but that had changed…and the ‘other cats’ were retired mercenaries, older, and experienced fighters with devious minds. Tallie liked her adoptive aunts and uncles.

Can I visit?” she asked, and Chitin shook his head.

“Not until we’re sure Roland’s got the message.”

“When he gets out of the tank, you mean,” she corrected.

“Maybe…” Chitin admitted, although the boy was going to be in and out of the regen tank for weeks.

Shifter justice was tough for a reason…and neither the wolves or the cats wanted to boy among them until they were sure there wouldn’t be a repeat offense.

Tallie had gotten off lightly.

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This story won't release until early next. In the meantime, if you're looking for more short fiction or poetry, you can find them in some of the previous books in this collection, the links for which can be found here: https://books2read.com/rl/Gw8Oaz.