Short, weird, fun!

Here’s a snippet from my new novelette, Bones of Ice.

Bones of Ice follows the story of Jade, a surveyor stranded on an uninhabited planet, and picks up where On Ice left off.

***

The chamber was massive.

The air held a damp chill, and there were bones everywhere. Jade let her breath out slowly between her teeth, realizing only then that she had been holding it.

There was a faint smell that might have been rot, but it didn’t look like the Ice badger kittens had left much for microbes and insects to work on. That and the intervening weeks had transformed the abattoir of her imagining into something closer to the famous catacombs of Earth’s older cities. This cave was less ordered than those meticulously arranged assemblies of bones and skulls, but it gave her the same sensation of being watched.

“I’m here to look for my friend,” she said out loud. “Not to disturb your rest.”

Her voice echoed back, making her wince. With no one else to talk to, it had been easy to slip into the habit of talking to the world around her as she worked. When setting her deadfall traps, she often admonished them to “stay there, and don’t fall until something takes the bait,” mainly because they so often fell as soon as she let go. She talked to her bait, and her meals, and her fire. Now, though, she wished she hadn’t said anything to the bones.

It felt too much like they might be listening.

***

Bones of Ice

Stranded on an uninhabited planet, Jade’s only hope is to survive long enough for colonists to arrive and send her home. But what if they’re not coming?
12,735 words, ~43 pages

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BV9J8AW (link fixed 3/17/13 7:28pm)
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/296227
Coming soon to other ebooksellers!