Why, you may ask, am I trying to knit a turtle?

Well, I’ll tell you: Tortoise (or turtle) is one of the characters in SAGE, my BFF (Big Fat Fantasy, not Best Friend Forever). Here is a bit about him:

From The Fall of Onagros, Book 1 of SAGE

“Honesty. Everything you beg or find or earn or steal belongs to us, just like you do. Keep anything back from us or ‘forget’ to come home at least once a day and you’ll be sorry.”

Once, in a defiant moment, she asked, “What would happen?”

Her owners looked at each other, then Isa said, darkly, “Tortoise.”

“Tortoise? What’s that?”

“Not what, slave-girl, who. The Mother of Life created him when the earth was new, him and… Unicorn and…um…Dragon and….”

“Bird,” said Barand.

“Bird. – No, Phoenix.”

“That’s a kind of bird.”

“Is it? Phoenix, then. But Tortoise was made on purpose to punish the wicked.”

“Tortoise is good?” A good creature, Nerissa thought, wouldn’t harm her.

“Good? Oh, no, not him! Tortoise is evil – horrible!”

Barand nodded, supporting his wife. “He’s so bad he wants all the evil for himself and he hates people who try to use some of it. He lives in the water. He hears everything and sees everything and knows everything. Whenever somebody’s been wicked – some slave-girl steals from her owners or disobeys – Tortoise creeps up at night and bites pieces out of her, one piece for every bit of wickedness she’s done.”

Nerissa never forgot the chill this gave her.

“Sometimes he bites your eyes out or your nose off, sometimes your hand or your leg – that’s where all the crippled beggars come from. Sometimes he bites your head off and you die. Sometimes he eats you up and you’re never seen again.”

So Nerissa dealt honestly with her owners – for the most part – and obeyed them in letter if not in spirit.

~  *  ~

And here is the “flat” (or full cover) of The Fall of Onagros’ upcoming print version.

To order all three books, electronic and/or print, and to bump SIDESHOW IN THE CENTER RING (SF) and the book formerly known as SOME DISPUTED BARRICADE along in their process, join the Kickstarter campaign.

Wheeee!

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: Invent a story for adults to use to terrorize children into proper behavior.

MA