Apologies to Dr. Bob Bakker. But he'd probably like this so I'm not too sorry.
(Yes, I know what the actual dinosaur renaissance is. That's why Deinonychus is playing the role of da Vinci.)
Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7
Chapter 8 - Chapter 9 - Chapter 10 - Chapter 11
The next morning dawned just as cool and foggy as the last. This was usual for the Haunted Woods, and Isengrim enjoyed the frequent cloud cover over the region. Werelupes were creatures of the night, and the sun often hurt their sensitive eyes and overheated their thick-furred bodies. Isengrim and his pack used to be largely nocturnal, but over the past few years had eased into being more active during the day, to better facilitate relations between them and their diurnal allies.
Not to mention his owner was a morning person. By the time
Isengrim was ready to open his eyes, Terra was already up and about, nibbling
on a bit of bread and dried fruit for her own breakfast before she helped a
groggier-looking Pharazon get Gwyneth fed and watered. Suhel and her packmates
had gone off on another hunt. Connor was still asleep, while Lexora had been
woken up by her own coughing a while ago, and never managed to get back to
sleep.
Takeshi Shudō, the head writer for the first seasons of the Pokémon anime, wrote some novelizations of the first episodes of the anime where he went more in-depth about the society of the Pokémon world as shown in the anime. In the anime universe as Shudō envisioned it, people were legally considered adults at age 10, which is why Ash and Misty can romp around Kanto without any adult supervision, and why 10 is the minimum age one can be registered as a Pokémon Trainer.
Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7
Chapter 8 - Chapter 9 - Chapter 10 - Chapter 11
The trip to the old keep would take two and a half days from here, but they would be far from boring ones, Isengrim thought as they began their march through the forest. The Haunted Woods was full of wild beauty, and the company couldn’t be beat. The only things dampening his mood were the curse, Connor’s struggles, and the nagging fear that someone or something might have found the staff by now. After all, it had been nearly fifteen years since that keep was destroyed—more than enough time for looters to comb through the ruins.
But he tried not to let that get him down. After all, the air was cool and clean, the trees were aflame in autumn colours, and he and his party chatted and sang as they went. Lexora was quite good company, and the secondhand shopkeeper had a great deal of secondhand stories from her father about his globetrotting business exploits.
Isengrim was fascinated with everything Mr. Fitchet had seen
and done in places like Shenkuu and Krawk Island. Someday he would have to
figure out a way to travel over Neopia more widely without causing too much
trouble. The fact that he still had business ties to quite a few individuals on
the wrong side of the law had made his dealings with other kingdoms
complicated, and lately the fact had begun to set less and less well with him.
He thought that when he returned home, he should devote some time to trying to
figure out a solution.
This is a concept design for the evil version of
mirror-universe King Sombra, as the fic is a follow-up to the MLP:FiM graphic
novel storyline “Reflections”. That story arc revolves around an
alternate-universe Equestria where moral alignments are reversed, meaning that
universe’s versions of Celestia and Luna are evil while King Sombra is good.
Regular Celestia finds her way into this universe during her studies under
Starswirl the Bearded, and she and Mirror-Sombra strike up a relationship that
is severed when Mirror-Sombra absorbs the evil inside Mirror-Celestia and
Mirror-Luna to prevent them from trying to take over regular Equestria.
Celestia is also forced to seal the passageway between the universes to prevent
them from becoming inextricably entangled.
Thanks for everything, Ashley! I'm secretly hoping she organizes another chapter of Virtual Fossil Fridays in her new location. Double the paleontology, double the fun!
*For those not in the know, "la brea" is literally Spanish for "the tar". So when you say "La Brea Tar Pits" you are saying "the the tar tar pits". Let's be less cavalier with our linguistics, shall we?
This message has been paid for by the Coalition Against Tautological Place Names.
Isengrim awoke to a twinge in his leg and the smell of breakfast. No—to call it just a “smell” would not do it justice. The aromas wove a rich tapestry that told tales of sizzling bacon, hot mushrooms and tomatoes dripping with their juices, hearty black pudding, sweet and savoury beans, buttered toast, and potatoes browned to a perfect crisp.
His mouth watered as his eyes remained shut. Then someone playfully whacked his shoulder. “I was wondering when you’d get up, lazybones,” Suhel’s voice said.
Isengrim opened his eyes to see her standing over the sofa with a smirk. He offered her a grin. “How did you know I was awake? My eyes were still closed.”
She let out a few coughs and took a swig of tea. “You were
drooling, milord.”
See also: Sabrina and her Venomoth (Bug/Poison-type in a Psychic Gym?!), Agatha and her Arbok (definitely not a Ghost-type), Bruno and his Onix (I'm surprised there aren't more fan theories floating around about him being Brock's dad or some such).
“Millie!” Lexora grimaced and stood up. “I’m sorry, dear, did all this fuss wake you up?”
The grey Ogrin nodded, still staring at the odd scene below her. “Yes, and my brothers—“
A scrawny little yellow Moehog and a slightly larger, portly white Skeith pushed past her, scrambling halfway down the stairs before they, too, saw the Werelupes and stopped. “Wow!” the Skeith said as he and the Moehog poked their heads through the banister. “Mummy, are those real Werelupes?”
“We certainly are,” one of Isengrim’s thanes said with a toothy grin.
“We’ve got real Werelupes in our house!” the Moehog
squeaked, although he looked as though he couldn’t quite decide whether to be
excited or terrified.
