The Stones' Earthen Grasp

The Stones' Earthen Grasp is a story written and illustrated by Iron Eater. It ran in Issue 40 and can be found at s2b2.livejournal.com/225647.html and www.shousetsubangbang.com/mirror/the-stones-earthen-grasp/.

Summary

An orcish warrior must overcome the most challenging foe of all: a crush on his boss.

He had been this way before, years ago. Broken and forgotten, he had heard his battle-brothers' voices silenced one by one until the last echoes of battle faded away. There was pain. There was cold. He could smell his own gore staining the dust. He closed his eyes and waited for the vultures, but a shadow too large for a carrion-bird's fell across him. A small, numbing warmth blossomed in his chest as unseen hands washed his wounds and wrapped him in scraps of linen.

"Can you speak?" said a voice he didn't know, rich and smooth like honeyed kumiss. "I'm sorry. You're the only one I could save."

Riaag opened his eyes and knew the face of salvation.

This story has no human characters.

Connections

This story is a prequel to Seismic Gap and features the same world, cultures, and protagonists. The author strongly recommends reading this story first, as in addition to first introducing the main characters and establishing their relationship, the second story benefits from a whole year's worth of worldbuilding and writing practice.

The setting itself is very loosely based on the freeware game Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup.

Related Links

This story has no related links.

Author's Notes

This story did not have any author's notes when published. However, while the author is slightly embarrassed of its quality, she will go on record as being glad it exists, as Sarouth and Riaag have become some of her favorite characters.

Any inconsistencies between The Stones' Earthen Grasp and Seismic Gap are imaginary and never happened and are 100% intentional, anyway. Pay no attention to the author behind the curtain.