Charlene Teglia

Haven't done a snippet for a bit, so here's one. Unedited, subject to change in final version.

Red Queen, copyright 2010 Charlene Teglia
Samhain Publishing all rights reserved

We ran for the sheer joy of being alive and strong. We played chase and tussled. We sang in full-throated harmony to the world of human civilization. Wolves are here!

Our song bounced back to us and faded, giving way to a chorus of crickets and the distant hoot of an owl.
Then a new song rose. Piercing and clear, the call of a bird of prey followed by a sort of rumbling roar that made the hairs on my spine stand up in alarm.

Challenge? Announcement? While I tried to puzzle out the sound and what creature could have made it, the answer marched into view, five-fold.

They looked like something out of a nightmare parade as they padded forward on four great feet, perfectly in step with each other. They made a living vee, two to each side, one central. A scarlet banner hung between the two on the far ends. The next pair carried a golden banner, although I couldn’t make out how in the moonlight and shadows.

Ornate brass breastplates gleamed and under the brass, I could see the distinctive ripple of muscle under golden fur. As they came closer I could make out decorative buckles on the breastplates that secured the banners.

The great beasts were far larger than the panthers, larger than our canine forms, and they moved with something beyond majesty, as if they were engines of destiny. The total effect of the quintet was of something from another time as well as another world.

The wind carried the scent of lion and eagle to my nostrils and then I understood the oddly shaped, beaked heads above those bodies and the weird cry that heralded their approach.

Griffins. The griffin court had sent an envoy.