Cloud's Portfolio

2. PICKING UP THE PIECES Archie was, at last, allowing himself to mourn. He sat next to Mistress’ head, occasionally licking her cheek, and letting out long, low, keening wails of loss for his mother. She would have been proud of the way he’d reacted to the emergency. She’d drummed the point...

Dust from the last rock-slide was still coiling through the air, visible in a thin spear of light which lanced through a hole in the cavern roof some fifty feet above. Striding into the spotlight were two dessert camouflage clad soldiers carrying hefty battle-packs. One of them was tall, stocky...

It would be easy to say that before the previous Totem of Man, Jacques Thuram, crashed into her life Ellie was a ‘normal’ young human woman, but that invites the inevitable question of what constitutes ‘normal’. Ellie was both as unique and idiosyncratic as the next girl but she didn’t stand out...

1. Loquaciousness does not come easily to me. I have seen much, and spoken of it little, but there are those who persist in pestering me to do so. It seems that nothing short of a full and frank account of my understanding and involvement in the adventures of Ellie Baxter will suffice. I have...

1. KNOCK-KNOCK There was a cautious knock at the door but Elsie didn’t notice, sunken, as she was, deep in contemplation over the cryptic margin notes of her newest fairy textbook. But the soft rat-a-tat didn’t escape the notice of her hyperactive fuzzball, Archimedes. His little black kitten...