For shame this has no comments; for shame! This is one of the most exciting chapters yet, and things are really coming to a head! Some wonderful dramatic moments, and some wonderful heartfelt ones too. You really REALLY need to get someone to draw these faerrets of yours; they're simply too wonderful.

Yes, I think the faerrets would translate well to illustration. What more, I have to chase them out of a scene sometimes, since they always seem to steal the spotlight! I shouldn't be too surprised, I suppose-- furries do love their colorful, shiny, silly-talking things.

Tea?

Tea.

Battle silverware for the win! I know I said it once before, but the action in this chapter is really gripping. And of course, Chib-bib is so very entertaining. I'll wait patiently in your garden, nomming your carrots, for another update!

Thanks, Neko-bunny. I tried to keep the cuteness and action balance in this chapter, so I'm glad that both turned out well. :) I'd say we succeeded in creating faeries who aren't annoying! An advancement for the fantasy genre!

*has the faerrets wait with you, parading their utensils victoriously*

Much better than Navi.

Navi: "Hey! Look out! Hey! Hey! Listen! Watch out! HEY!"
Link: "SHUT UP!!!"
Navi: "...Hey!"

>_< Navi...

Yeah. Navi...

Hey, very good!

Thanks! What did you like about it?

Wow, an action filled chapter, I'm exhausted after reading it (mostly because I had to re-read the past chapter to remember somethings and an endless journey to my dictionary to try and understand most of this -it took me three tries to come up with the right definition for constable-).

For me it was a hard to follow chapter, with all the crazy characters, the faerrets and Flots, doing and saying the weirdest things, that I wasn't sure I wasn't getting because of my poor english of because they weren't meant to be understood.

Another part where I was at a lost for quite a while was the beginning of the invasion, since at first I took "villagers" to mean the inhabitants of the invaded fortress, not the invaders, I had to read it quite a few times to get it right.

I still thing some of the finer points of faerret speech scape my limited capacities, but since I'm not beholden (another one hard to find the correct definition) to them, I will postpone any efforts to further understand.

It was quite a twist in the story, I had wondered how you were going (does that verb tense exists?) to join the two main arcs of this story, but I never expected such a dramatic collision of threads, now I'm very curious about what's to happen.

At least Rea and Jax have reunited, and I hope both the constable and the King can keep their heads cool and come to an understanding, I would hate for them to be at odds over a misunderstanding when they should be working together.

Wich brings a point I'm not too comfortable with, I understand they are in a hurry, and it has been established that the constable is a man of action, but I can't believe they launch an all front attack to an impressive fortress without first getting some information about who's fortress they were attacking, perhaps then they could have found that King Alaster was regarded as a just and peaceful ruler, and perhaps found a non aggressive approach. (Again, perhaps they did consider all options, but if they did, we readers were left out of that loop).

As always, I emphasize my request for more details on the workings of magic, and the difference between draconic magic and whatever other kinds are there. As a physicist I have a tendency to look for conservation laws everywhere, yet I haven't see where Tara gets the energy to power all the spells she's been weaving. Also, but in a related note, you wrote "The leopardess patted him on the back, careful not to scatter his strength charm as she pushed him along", but latter you have him tossing guard overhead, so exactly how hard is it to dispel this thing, I can lift nine times my weight but I must be careful not to lift it with my back?

All in all a wonderful addition, solving a great plot point, but with many others still open, and now not even a clear "evil" that must be fight on.

I'll be waiting for the continuation of this saga.

Congratulations.

I admire your dedication, Tod! I would be exhausted too.

I often use a dictionary in the middle of reading stories too, and I've only got one language to worry about. Words are stars in the sky of the page— beautiful, numerous, each one unique, each one having its own life.

I can see why you'd have a little trouble knowing who the "villagers" are, now that they are in a different town. To me, villagers come from a village, not a castle or a city. A subtile difference, I admit. In all of Adept Paws, villagers = Rea's people.

It is normal not to understand the faerrets 100% of the time. I understand about 50%. They speak strangely because they think as fast as they fly and get bored talking plainly (and they want to show off how clever they are). The Grand Stoat talks plainly, however, because he has to make agreements with non-faerrets and needs to be understood.

"Beholden" means owing duty to someone because they helped you. Did you think it was a verb like "gotten"? If so, I apologize. English likes to trick people.

Yes, "I had wondered how you were going to join..." is proper English. Your teachers should be proud.

Well, the other characters do complain about the plan in this chapter, but since Constable Toskun is in charge, he had the final say. Toskun is, as you said, a man of action-- what's more, he is in charge of keeping people safe in the village of Lagan, so getting the adepts back safely as soon as possible was his top priority.

Chib-bib said he had been "spying" and "sneaking" in the castle. That's how the villagers knew exactly where to go once inside the Citadel.

Since they live deep in the forest, the villagers have very little contact with the outside world. (Rea says at one point that she had never even been very far outside the village before.) This is why they don't know if Alaster is a friend or foe.

*takes a deep breath*

Okay. About the magic.

There are 3 types of magic in this world: Dragon magic, Blood magic, and Guild magic. Dragon magic is borrowing some of the background magic of the Universe to make spells (the dragons and the villagers use this). Blood magic is stealing someone's life energy to make spells (the Winged Lords use this). Guild magic is sold to you by an organization called the Guild and comes from a big magical gem that they found deep in the earth (everyone else used this, until it VANISHED MYSTERIOUSLY ).

I plan to explain most of this soon in the story, because now the villagers and Alaster can sit and talk about it.

Conservation of magic: yes, this exists. There is a finite, but very large, amount of magic in this Universe. However, magic (like energy) can take different forms. For example, life is a type of magic (this is why Blood magic works). Rin had to be careful touching the magic on Toskun because she is alive and living creatures affect magic. Non-living matter doesn't, usually. Therefore, the air and the guards' weapons did very little against the spells, while Tara can move magic around with very little force.

Once again, thank you for asking questions about my story. It forces me to make sense. :)

Any other questions? The next chapter will be simpler, I promise!

Thank you, that's a lot more information than I expected, but don't make chapters simple for my sake, you are the author, and it's your story, so tell it as you will.

I'll be honest, I think Flot and Chub-bib are having a "most irritating character" competition. ("I'm going to fight with a fork and speak in palindromic sentences!" "Well, I'm going to do nothing useful, insist on coming on the dangerous mission, and get saved by pretty ladies when I do stupid things!") I found their quirks more grating than endearing. That's not necessarily a bad thing (it's fine to have annoying characters), but if they ever heroically sacrifice themselves I'm not going to be broken up about it.

There's been one hell of a communications breakdown, and I have no idea how Alaster, let alone Jax, could be surprised that their friends would be looking for them. I expect good explanations in the next installment!

The action scenes were pretty well-done (despite me wanting to bat those faerrets with a two-by-four) and easy to follow, so definite props there. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens. Thanks for putting this up.

*shrugs* I have long since come to terms with the fact that not everyone will like every character. And the faerrets aren't truly palindromic, but I know what you mean (and it's not a bad idea!). The idea there was to make the faerret speech distinctive, to show they aren't part of normal society.

Oh, explanations will be forthcoming; I didn't think it would be good to stop at the end of this action-packed chapter to have a quiet discussion over tea. Also, I don't think Jax and Alaster were surprised that someone came to get the adepts, but instead startled that the villagers came bursting into the inner chambers of the Citadel, past dozens of guards.

Thanks. :) I put a lot of work into keeping the action sequence paced well. I'll have to do another chapter of this soon; even my editors are getting restless!

Good chapter, Lots of action. The guards in this need some serious help, though. When someone violates the law, you don't just "adhere to the laws of physics." No, you charge directly at them despite those so-called "obstacles." You seize control of their camera- I mean, vision- and arrest them with gusto. You gotta put some soul into it, some passion! None of that "halt" crap. Take the guards of Bruma, for example. Now they show some real effort. Once, I stole an apple from an inn there. Now with one of the guards from this story, I would have walked away with over two gold in stolen goods! But with the guard who happened to be passing by, my unintended spree was brought to a quick, and final end. "STOP RIGHT THERE CRIMINAL SCUM." was what he said. Passion, real passion. And in the ten seconds it took to arrest and process me, he even confiscated my accidentally stolen fork, too. Now that's quality law enforcement.
I just can't take these guards seriously until they become omnipotent, gratuitously overpowered zealots like the ones in Cyrodil. ... On the other hand, maybe I just play too much Oblivion.


[/endsatire]

"By the Nine Divines! You've committed your final act of larceny, potato!"

I really dont know what to write anymore^^
The critic inside me urges me to write something a bit more contributive than simply “another wonderful chapter” but I cant think of anything that could possibly be improved.

So instead ill just write down everything I liked about the chapter. I liked the beginning. Actually, it rather made me laugh, or at least chuckle. (“Well, you certainly won’t be getting anywhere near my tail.” “A Tale Seeker, not a tail seeker.” ) A great and funny way to start a chapter. I like the faerret (I guess I could still call him Chib-bib ): He is quite charming with his “bouncy” nature (I like making up expressions) and funny grammar structure. “Not how, how else” Ingenious!

The action in the citadel, how our team heroes got chased through the corridors and up the elevators was extremely well written, and again, you have a rather distinctive ability to describe scenarios. Though my favourite part was probably when Flots hid behind the door and thus managed to avoid being seen by all the guards. I can admit im not really in the habit of checking the space behind the doors in my house. Ill be sure to do that from time to time.

And the plot-twist in the end was surprising to say the least, even though I was wondering when Alaster and the others would meet in this fictional universe. However it does leave us with quite few questions about this whole kidnapping thingy which of course only makes me wanna read the next chapter more.

Overall I think this was probably my favourite chapter this far. (In the Adept Paws series of course). Funny and packed with action. The Adept Paws series manages to be romantic, funny, smart and fast-paced and still “deep” in its portrayal of a fictional world – and this alone is quite an achievement!

The effort you put into these comments is always appreciated, Carl.

I think "bouncy" suits Chib-bib's personality quite well. When writing dialog, I probably spend more time on his than on anybody else's, just to make sure it's excitable and quirky enough. What's more, I am constantly looking for new things for him to do, like stand on his front paws to let others see the message on his tummy.

I was a little concerned that the chase scene would be difficult to understand, since so many things are going on at once. Glad it worked out. Also, I never check behind doors either, that's where I got the idea. Who knows how many otters we have missed?!

Well, that's the good thing about reading all these chapters in a row: you don't have to wait for me to post new ones all the time. The details of the kidnapping are explained in the next chapter.

That's some high praise for the series. ^_^ I may have to quote you on that in the future.