thanh.nguyenhoang.1403@gmail.com
Stories
168
Chapters
1,512
Words
3.2 M
Comments
0
Reading
11 d, 4 h
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Mara The darkness is absolute, thick with the taste of pulverized limestone and ancient, dried marrow. I do not know how long we fell when the canyon floor collapsed. The impact should have broken every bone in my body, but instead, I am cradled in a massive, hollow curvature of smooth, petrified stone. No, not stone. A rib. I cough, spitting out a mouthful of gritty dust, and push myself up on trembling arms. My canvas flight suit is torn at the knees, my muscles screaming in protest, but I am intact.…-
24.4 K • Completed
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Mara The wind inside the Narrows does not blow; it lacerates. It howls through the jagged, petrified corridors of the canyon like a dying animal, tearing at the heavy canvas of my flight suit. I am clinging to the reinforced leather plating of Rook Calder’s back, my thighs gripping the violently vibrating ribcage of his wyvern construct. The beast is a terrifying amalgamation of scavenged drake bones, held together by thick coils of copper wire and the necrotic, crackling static of Rook’s command…
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24.4 K • Completed
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Rook The adrenaline crash always hits like a physical blow to the spine. I make it through the security checkpoints of the senior cadet barracks purely on muscle memory and the sheer, terrifying force of will keeping my knees locked. The iron door of my quarters slides shut behind us, engaging the heavy magnetic seal with a dull clunk. The second the lock engages, my vision swims. I stagger forward, one heavy hand slamming against the cold steel of the bulkhead to keep myself upright. "Rook!"…
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24.4 K • Completed
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Rook The silence in the iron-walled quarters is a physical weight, pressing down on my lungs until I can barely draw a breath. Mara stands by the door, her hand resting against the cold steel bulkhead. She hasn't run. She hasn't called the military police to drag the Republic’s favorite battery out into the canyon to hang. But the sheer, devastating clarity in her eyes as she looks at the pulsing violet scars on my chest is a condemnation worse than any court-martial. I look down at my own hands. My…
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24.4 K • Completed
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Rook The extinction code does not sound like a siren. It sounds like the end of the world. The three discordant, descending notes vibrate through the petrified walls of the alcove, rattling my teeth and turning the adrenaline in my veins to ice. The beam of synthetic, concentrated sunlight tearing into the night sky from the central tower is so bright it casts hard, black shadows against the stone, washing out the natural moonlight entirely. "Get dressed," I snap, already reaching for my…
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24.4 K • Completed
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Talia "You lied to the Admiral's face without so much as a spike in your pulse," Juniper says, her voice a low drawl from the corner of my private quarters. I ignore her, leaning over the heavy oak drafting table. The glow of the bioluminescent desk lamp casts sharp shadows over the hydro-acoustic charts I have unrolled across the wood. It took me two hours to forge the official patrol reports from our disastrous Polar Crown exam, burying the acoustic anomalies beneath layers of fabricated…-
24.0 K • Completed
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Juniper The metallic click echoing from the darkness of the vault is the sound of a secondary deadbolt engaging. It is an automated failsafe, a preservation lock triggered by the change in hydraulic pressure. "Juniper!" Talia gasps, her knees finally giving out. She slumps against the reinforced steel door, her right hand still brutally pinned in the rusted hinge. The dragon bond floods my nervous system with a terrifying, white-hot spike of her pain. It hits me so hard my vision actually…
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24.0 K • Completed
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Juniper The tempest-skiff’s repulsor engine screams as I push the throttle past the redline. I am flying blind through a Category 5 squall, seventy miles off the coast of the Aurora Sound Naval College. The wind shears against the fuselage with the force of a physical hammer, threatening to rip the control yoke straight out of my hands. I do not have a flight suit. I do not have a sanctioned transponder. I stole a decommissioned coastal glider from the civilian docks, and its heating grid failed ten…
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24.0 K • Completed
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Talia The heavy mahogany office feels like a vacuum. All the air has been sucked out of the room, leaving only the cold, mechanical hum of the academy’s localized signal jammer vibrating in my molars. I look down at the dead-man’s switch on my tactical belt. The green transmission light is gone, replaced by a flat, dead amber. Vance didn't just route the dragon hatchlings to the dreadnought flagship; he isolated my broadcast frequencies the moment I stepped into his command center. He let me play my…
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24.0 K • Completed
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Juniper The purple beam of chained lightning does not just strike the matriarch; it eclipses the world. The sound of the impact is a catastrophic, bone-rattling boom that instantly vaporizes the falling snow for a mile in every direction. The concentrated energy of hundreds of tortured hatchlings slams into Orison’s translucent, liquid-glass chest. For one agonizing second, the ancient storm dragon holds the line. Her fractal, bioluminescent scars flare with a blinding, desperate green light, trying…
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24.0 K • Completed
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