After finishing Carried Stories, I turned my attention to the last Ko-Fi story for the month, a fantasy featuring Tiatha. While it’s been a little while since I featured her in a story, her attitude remained etched into my mind. Armed with that core tenet, I pushed off reviewing her previous installments and jumped straight into crafting a new moment for her to explore. Despite having a few ideas puttering around in my mind, the concept of her interacting with a shifter quickly topped my list.
A member of the eagle tribe discovers Tiatha beneath his people’s trees, where he believes his claim to the land is enough to challenge her. The forest appears quiet, but Tiatha understands that quiet better than most. Shadows drift through the branches, roots grip the earth, and the wind carries the first hint of his arrival. For Tiatha, that silence offers the closest thing to peace she is likely to find.
This tale centers on a brief encounter with a shifter from the eagle tribe. His people watch the woods from above, guarding the territory they believe belongs to them. From that height, borders can look simple, and every stranger can become a threat. Tiatha has no interest in those disputes, but that does not mean she will let someone else define where she belongs.
I wanted this piece to focus on a single tense moment rather than a wider conflict. Tiatha is not seeking a battle, and the eagle shifter is not arriving without reason. Their meeting begins with a simple accusation, which allowed me to explore Tiatha’s indifference to someone else’s aggression. That attitude was the core of the story, and it gave the moment the edge I wanted.
Excerpt of Beneath the Boughs
A shadow crossed Tiatha’s body a moment before the gusting wind. She woke as talons struck the stone jutting from the ground beside her. She turned toward an eagle, its form undulating to reveal a man with bronze eyes and a gray cloak. “Why are you trespassing on our land?”
Tiatha leaned against the tree as she buffed her nails on her shirt. “These trees have made no complaint.”
“This is our territory. Why are you intruding?”
Tiatha tapped the tree’s trunk, and its roots shifted. As the ground rumbled, dangling leaves whirled about. When the first leaf fell, the stone beneath the intruder trembled. The shifter jumped into the air, his arms twisting into wings for a moment.
Tiatha laughed as she leaned against the tree, moss clinging to her hair. “I think nature disagrees with your premise.”
His focus flicked between the oak and Tiatha.
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