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I was asked to write a bat poem, and an anthro bat story, by a English teacher friend of mine. Her school was running a whole topic themed around bats: the woodworkers made batboxes, the biology kids studied echolocation, etc. This right here is how the story turned out.
The original was for 11-12 yr olds. I've altered the language for this submission to suit an older audience. I hope you like it.
The original was for 11-12 yr olds. I've altered the language for this submission to suit an older audience. I hope you like it.
Category Story / Fantasy
Species Bat
Size 120 x 109px
File Size 131.8 kB
Listed in Folders
Very delightful story. Wonderful to see stories used for good and sour the imagination of youth. As someone who had a collage reading level since I was 8 and buts heads with education platforms for watering down always fascinating for the hat constitutes 11-12 reading levels in an age.
I am exhausted from a 12 hour workday, but nothing, nothing will keep me from reading one of your stories. This one got me teary eyed for a lot of reasons. I wish I had the energy to write more, but just know that I was enraptured from the beginning and did not want it to end.
Oh, thank you very much! It was nice to remind myself that I could write something other than werewolves :)
Sadly, I never got to go and meet those classes, much as I'd have liked to.
The bat poem got written too, but turned out to be unsuitible... turns out I'm really rubbish at writing for younger readers. Fortunately Louise wrote a poem too, which was absolutely fine - so yeah, my wife saved the day!
Sadly, I never got to go and meet those classes, much as I'd have liked to.
The bat poem got written too, but turned out to be unsuitible... turns out I'm really rubbish at writing for younger readers. Fortunately Louise wrote a poem too, which was absolutely fine - so yeah, my wife saved the day!
Well, you've done it. You've made the first anthropomorphic character I've read (that wasn't a dragon) and made it fly without breaking my suspension of disbelief. I suppose a bat was the only real candidate for a mammalian entity that flies under its own power. I've never been overly fond of bats as a species, although many of them are amazing (and handsome) creatures.
I'd like to commend you on your world-building, too. Between the explicit and implicit details, this feels like a piece of the world one could enter and explore for a long time.
It's also a strange bit of coincidence that I just recently watched an old, favorite movie for the first time in, I dunno, at least a decade. And there, in your story, is a quiet reference to it, like a shiny river stone waiting to be picked up.
I think, for me, the most affecting thing about this is it's so much like S. Andrew Swann's Moreau series. Humans and Zoomorphs are living together, though not always peacefully because of the non-human's origins. And someone like Erin gets to make friends with someone like Amber.
Color me envious.
I'd like to commend you on your world-building, too. Between the explicit and implicit details, this feels like a piece of the world one could enter and explore for a long time.
It's also a strange bit of coincidence that I just recently watched an old, favorite movie for the first time in, I dunno, at least a decade. And there, in your story, is a quiet reference to it, like a shiny river stone waiting to be picked up.
I think, for me, the most affecting thing about this is it's so much like S. Andrew Swann's Moreau series. Humans and Zoomorphs are living together, though not always peacefully because of the non-human's origins. And someone like Erin gets to make friends with someone like Amber.
Color me envious.
One of my pet peeves in furry writing is when the very real challenges of powered flight get ignored. Weight, always, is the enemy, and real-world flying critters (birds, bats, and the now-extinct pterosaurs) go to extraordinary lengths to reduce it. It therefore frustrates me no end when huge, heavy-boned dragons with tiny, ill-designed wings and no room in their bodies for flight muscles, nonetheless manage extended vertical climbs while wearing body armour and probably carrying a human adult too.
People, this is just lazy writing. Powered flight is costly - massively so - and to be convincing it needs to have real-world consequences.
Amber has been engineered for flight, but she still has very real limitations - as she discovers when she exceeds her payload capacity.
I gave Erin IBS specifically to make her lightweight for her age, and hence able to fly with Amber in the future. That shared experience is going to cement their friendship.
Overall, anthro bats are poorly served in furry fiction, despite the fact that some species (such as fruit bats) are disarmingly cute - to the point of being easy shoe-ins for character design. Probably the best anthro bat I've come across is Revar, a thoroughly intriguing vampire bat conceived by Watts Martin who appears in his stories 'A Gift of Fire, a Gift of Blood' and 'The Lighthouse'. Swann's Moreau series is, of course, superb.
I'm glad you liked the world-building; it's a setting I may well return to. I think that Amber has a long way to go with character development, and that she and Erin have plenty of adventures in store.
Such generous comments, as ever, from you Wire... thank you very much!
ps I went for Gattaca for the company name, because Moreau already appeared in 'Fate Also Smiles' and I didn't want to plagiarize :)
People, this is just lazy writing. Powered flight is costly - massively so - and to be convincing it needs to have real-world consequences.
Amber has been engineered for flight, but she still has very real limitations - as she discovers when she exceeds her payload capacity.
I gave Erin IBS specifically to make her lightweight for her age, and hence able to fly with Amber in the future. That shared experience is going to cement their friendship.
Overall, anthro bats are poorly served in furry fiction, despite the fact that some species (such as fruit bats) are disarmingly cute - to the point of being easy shoe-ins for character design. Probably the best anthro bat I've come across is Revar, a thoroughly intriguing vampire bat conceived by Watts Martin who appears in his stories 'A Gift of Fire, a Gift of Blood' and 'The Lighthouse'. Swann's Moreau series is, of course, superb.
I'm glad you liked the world-building; it's a setting I may well return to. I think that Amber has a long way to go with character development, and that she and Erin have plenty of adventures in store.
Such generous comments, as ever, from you Wire... thank you very much!
ps I went for Gattaca for the company name, because Moreau already appeared in 'Fate Also Smiles' and I didn't want to plagiarize :)
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