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    Tales from the Creature Keeper: Survival Critters
    Tales from the Creature Keeper: Survival Critters
    Tales from the Creature Keeper: Survival Critters
    Ebook107 pages1 hour

    Tales from the Creature Keeper: Survival Critters

    By Matthew Stone

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    About this ebook

    Welcome to a world where gene splicing is considered an art form, people are trying to push back nature and reestablish civilizations, and ancient remains, our remains, are dug up and studied, including every game, video, and meme that ever circulated through the internet. Have you ever wondered what future civilizations might think of us or what sort of legacy we might leave behind after climate change and widespread corporate and political corruption kill us all off?

    This is a self-contained companion story to the parent novel "Tales from the Creature Keeper". In it, two main characters, Zack and Xylia, and two side characters, Robin and Penny, go on a wilderness trip that quickly spirals out of control as they encounter an escaped genetic experiment, a wandering bear, giant spiders, an abandoned underground city, and food supply problems.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMatthew Stone
    Release dateJun 4, 2014
    ISBN9781310740138
    Tales from the Creature Keeper: Survival Critters
    Author

    Matthew Stone

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      Book preview

      Tales from the Creature Keeper - Matthew Stone

      Tales from the Creature Keeper

      Survival Critters

      By Matthew Stone

      Copyright 2014 Matthew Stone

      Smashwords Edition

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal use only. If those words don't mean much to you though... well, you're in luck, because of all the books I've written and will be writing in the future, this is the one I probably care least about getting circulated through specific means. Granted, I would prefer if you downloaded it where it's officially available because the statistics from those views and downloads are very helpful to me, and I'm not sure I can officially say Keep circulating the tapes like Joel and the bots used to anyway, but consider this book a gift to everyone who comes across it. Why? Well, one of the reasons I write is because I want to encourage people to think and wonder about the world more than they already do, and this book is one where that goal is front and center, prioritized over everything else.

      Table of Contents

      The Preface

      The Cast

      The Story

      The Epilogue

      The Special Thanks

      The Preface

      This book is a side story to the greater novel, Tales from the Creature Keeper. It takes place between episodes 2 and 3 and is a self-contained adventure that touches on many of the ideas and themes present in the parent novel. I designed it a lot like a video game demo, actually, making sure to pack a healthy amount of content into it so that not only will readers enjoy it by itself, but they might also be enticed into checking out the main story that the characters here come from.

      Be warned: everything in here is a little weird. For one, none of the characters are human; instead they resemble desert lizards, small bears, and six-pointed stars. There's one character who is somewhat human, but she's practically an outcast from society because of it and likes to think of herself as a wild animal anyway. The world they inhabit is one where gene splicing is considered an art form, people are trying to push back nature and reestablish civilizations, and ancient remains, our remains, are dug up and studied, including every game, video, and meme that ever circulated through the internet. Have you ever wondered what future civilizations might think of us or what sort of legacy we might leave behind after climate change and widespread corporate and political corruption kill us all off?

      If you like this, there's more where it came from. Tales from the Creature Keeper is a novel in six parts, so check your favorite ebook vendors for all six episodes!

      Episode 1 – Trapped in Town

      Episode 2 – The Secrets of the Slaves

      Episode 3 – Aliens Gnawed My Rationality

      Episode 4 – The Situation Explodes

      Episode 5 – The Diplomatic Machine

      Episode 6 – Timber River Must Fall

      The Cast

      Zack Tyler

      Just when I think I don't have anything else to lose, something else happens. So why should I hold back on becoming a feral when that's clearly where life is forcing me anyway?

      Tribe: Purebred Heatfang

      Trade: Bottom-Tier Gopher

      Temperament: Forcedly Domesticated

      Online Tag: Kill_It_With_Fire

      Leitmotif (Unofficial): Super Battletoads – Dark Queen's Freighter

      Traits and Techniques: Can expel highly combustible grease from fingers, toes, and mouth, or secrete it from skin, then ignite it. Controlling the contents and volume of the grease allows for all manner of fire arts from intense fireballs to slow-burning smolders for cooking and roasting. Also has a prosthetic tail that serves as an extendible poking utensil.

      Tale: Sick of being stuck in a town in the middle of nowhere with seemingly no future prospects, he seeks to learn how to survive in the wilderness so he won't have to rely on the life support system that is civilization. Some desire to show up his highly industrialized home country may also be involved. Originally he planned to flee into the wild with a couple of slaves under his command, but having no idea where they are now, he's become forced to either stand on his own two feet or give up entirely.

      Xylia Higgins

      The toxins in my barbs can kill most tribesfolk within minutes. But I won't use them if you're nice to me!

      Tribe: Purebred Nymph

      Trade: Wilderness Survivalist, Hatter

      Temperament: Lonely Feral

      Online Tag: None

      Leitmotif (Unofficial): Aquaria - Remains

      Traits and Techniques: Body is human-like, but enhanced to live indefinitely in seas and oceans. Has irregular patches of scales on body and long fairy wings that are actually strong fins, allowing for high speed and maneuverability underwater. Hair contains chlorophyll to provide energy and oxygen supplements from sunlight. Lily in hair grows naturally. Barbs on wrists and ankles secrete a powerful toxin designed to paralyze the nervous system.

      Tale: The extinct human race is regarded with some degree of scorn in the world, and because Nymphs aren't much more than aqueous humans, they tend to be a tribe that's shunned by default. Xylia has come to embrace this ostracism over time and used it to cultivate a sense of independence, though it's also left her with a bit of psychosis. She splits her living between hunting like a wild animal and crafting hats and accessories to sell.

      Robin Unwin

      The main reason geniuses are so great and effective is because they are min-maxers. They’re only geniuses in certain select areas, meaning they also have more dump stats than the average character, so I think I’d rather be a Mario.

      Tribe: Purebred Grizzly

      Trade: Student, Aspiring Astronaut, Unaccounted Factor

      Temperament: Domestic Feral

      Online Tag: Kidd_Keen

      Leitmotif (Unofficial): Commander Keen Episode 4 - Oasis

      Traits and Techniques: Possesses greater strength and endurance than most adult tribes, partially because of his young age and in spite of his small size. His thick natural fur is like a flexible full suit of armor and he has good ripping and shredding claws despite having not yet reached physical maturity. Has a keen curiosity about the world that has been cultivated and encouraged by both his parents, leading him to experiment with engineering machines and structures. Learning about digital archeology performed by the data delvers in his world has made him especially keen to research human history, culture, and technology.

      Tale: The son of a spiritual leader and a seasoned traveler, Robin seems to have absorbed and recombined his parents' best traits. They instilled in him the desire to soak up knowledge like a sponge and he now carries more trivia and perspective than most adults despite, or perhaps because of, no formal schooling. Being a kid though means he also has just enough obliviousness to keep him from realizing when he should shut up. Since he's significantly far from the age where he'll know what he really wants to do with his abilities, he freely shares his likes and discoveries regardless of whether people can understand them and sparks wildly without care for what other people may think.

      Penny Ramsbotham

      Uh... I'll just go with whatever he wants...

      Tribe: Purebred Skitterstar

      Trade: Constructor, Plumber, Tunneler, Infiltrator (almost unintentionally)

      Temperament: Quietly Domesticated

      Online Tag: None

      Leimotif (Unofficial): Freedom Planet – Relic Maze 1

      Traits and Techniques: Carries six tough, stone-like ambulatory prongs on her back in a star shape, one to cover each limb: neck and head, tail, two arms, and two legs. Can curl up into a solid ball by turtling beneath her prongs or dig through solid material by stand the prongs up on her back in a drill-like configuration. Each prong can also be swung independently, allowing for multi-directional shovel swipes and spear jabs. Also has sharp eyelashes and natural protective covers over eyes, letting her scratch and dig through soft soil just by blinking rapidly. Fine claws and relatively light weight allow her to scale most vertical surfaces and ceilings with ease.

      Tale: The Skitterstars and Halfquarries go way back with an alliance spanning generations, but Penny's parents viewed it as a shackle and warned her that she would

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