EARLY ACCESS | Unreleased Chapter Excerpt #3
The below introduction is the same for all 3 unreleased Flights of Foundry excerpts. Feel free to skip ahead to read!
Hi all!
Below is a segment of writing that I am presenting this Sunday, September 20th, 2026, as part of a reading of Thicker Than Blood at the annual speculative fiction convention, Flights of Foundry! I have been invited to share my work and speak on my design and illustration process throughout the convention weekend, closing on Sunday with this reading.
I've picked excerpts from three unreleased chapters to share at this event, and I figured it was only fair to let Patreon supporters take the first look at it. Bear in mind that this piece of writing and its two companions are excerpts, so don't worry if you feel you've missed some context. Don't fret though, all three of them are from the first third of the story, so you won't be needing your context hat for too long (I find this meme very amusing and very pertinent).
If you've never heard of Flights of Foundry, I highly suggest you check them out! They are an annual, weekend-long, virtual convention touching on all aspects of the speculative arts—that is to say, writing, drawing and painting, poetry, editing, sound, comics and any other form of art, that all contain subject matter pertaining to the genre of speculative fiction (sci-fi, horror, fantasy, dystopian... essentially anything not based in strict realism). This year, there are over 200 panels spanning Friday to Sunday, with programming around the clock so that everyone all over the world can participate! This will be my first year not only speaking at but attending the convention and I'm really excited to share what I have with all of you.
If you are a writer, artist, creative, or just generally interested in anything I just said, you can register for the convention at flights-of-foundry.org/registration ! Free and by donation tickets are available, but this event is a fundraiser to support more programming for the speculative arts, so if you have the means, please consider including a donation with your ticket.
Okay, that's everything! The first excerpt is below, available to lovely paid Insider supporters <3
I am looking out the window above the sink, trying to track a clump of snow as it floats towards the ground, seeing if I can find one as soon as it flies into the light from the house. I don’t notice a figure hanging back, just out of reach of the light, until a rabbit scurries by and drops dead in front of it. The blade flies so fast that I could have mistaken its glint for another snowflake catching the light, but by the time I register what has just happened, the rabbit has flopped to one side and there’s no mistaking what’s embedded in its throat.
Dark red blood starts to flow from the animal, seeping into the snow around it, and the figure steps forward from the shadows and grabs it, pulls the blade out, flicking the blood off with their gloved fingers. Most of their face is covered, bundled up with scarves and goggles and hoods and hats, but they pull down the scarf over their mouth just enough to grin at me. Two sharp canines on the top row of teeth, like me, except theirs glint the same way the blade did, and they have four more on the bottom. They hold up the rabbit, tilting it in my direction, and kick the blade towards the house.
Then they turn away from me and the light of my home, and start towards the woods.
“Wait,” I think I say, forgetting I’m inside and they aren’t. Of course, they don’t hear me, so in a frantic effort not to lose this strange spirit running around killing rabbits at the edge of town, I drop the dishes I was cleaning and run out of the door and around the side of the house, barefoot and all, to where they had just been. “Wait,” I say again, a little louder this time. They are no longer under the light from inside, but I hear the crunching of their footsteps in the snow go still.
It’s at this moment that it strikes me that I have no idea who this stranger is; that I have just run outside into the snow in the middle of the night, completely alone, front door unlocked and wide open, with absolutely nothing to help myself should things go wrong. I am about halfway between them and my front door, with the blade they had left on the ground not too far from my feet. Trying to make as little noise as possible, I inch my way over to it. One of my feet sinks into the snow where the rabbit had been, where its blood still is. It is still warm.
I pick up the blade. The handle is wrapped in leather and is only just starting to cool, like the bearer had had it clutched in a tight fist for a long time before throwing it. Holding it in front of me, hoping to appear more brave than I actually am, I ask, “Who are you?”
I realize I am at a catastrophic disadvantage when the reply doesn’t come from in front of me, but rather from over my shoulder, back towards the open front door. There is a soft thud, and I spin around to see the hunter leaning comfortably against the side of the front porch, the rabbit in the snow bleeding out again. They laugh quietly. It’s a voice that I’m not expecting, one that softens me a little. “I offer you a gift and then you turn it on me?”
I don’t let go of the blade but I lower it a little, realizing how cold I’m getting. My joints are starting to ache, or go numb, or both, and my teeth are chattering. The awful, painful cold of the snow is biting into my feet. “How was I supposed to know that’s what it was?” I try to stop my voice from shaking as the sentence comes out. “I have no idea who you are or what you want.”
“I don’t want anything from you,” the hunter says, shrugging a little. “You just happened to be there when my food showed up. You seemed interested enough, so I thought I’d share the experience with you; pay it forward, something like that.”
My gaze flits to the rabbit, staining the snow by their feet. I am suddenly reminded of how hungry I am. “Right.”
The hunter nudges it with their foot. “You can have it.”
I blink at them. An entire rabbit, and a fresh one at that. Just offered to me, with no second thought. I let the blade drop to my side and start toward the animal. I can smell its blood hanging in the air, mixing with the snow falling. But it only takes a step or two for icy jolts of pain to bolt through the soles of my feet and into my legs, and I realize that this can’t be all there is to it. No stranger shows up in the middle of the night, goes hunting outside your house, leaves you the weapon, and then offers you the spoils for free. “Now you want something from me.”
The hunter grins though a gap in their scarves. “Just a warm place to spend the night. That’s all.” Those teeth again.
I hesitate. What will Ariadne think about this? Yes, she has a big heart, but inviting a stranger into our home in the middle of the night, especially an armed stranger, probably falls outside of the threshold of her kindness.
A light gust of wind slips down through the woods and into me, freezing me to my core immediately in my thin clothes. I have a fire going inside; it’s mostly embers, but it’s warm. I can either take my chances with this stranger and start tomorrow with a full stomach for the first time in months, or I can go to bed hungry again, and try to pass this all off as a dream.
“Well?” The wind hasn’t gotten to the hunter, but I can tell that they won’t last forever out here. Our winters are ruthless; whatever is under all those layers is slowly freezing from the inside out, and the way they are leaning against the side of the house tells me they’ve been on their feet for a while.
I sigh, eyeing the rabbit again. I hope I’m not making a mistake, Ariadne. “Fine. Come in.”
That grin again, and they perk up enough to stand on two feet and away from the wall. I cut past them and swipe up the rabbit as I do, letting them in the house before closing—and locking—the front door behind us.
Inside, the hunter slumps into the first chair available, and I immediately see their walls starting to come down. They begin to rid themselves of all their layers, dropping them to the ground without any regard for politeness or tidiness as a guest in our home. Eyeing them carefully, I place the rabbit in the kitchen sink alongside the dishes I never finished cleaning, and grab some blankets from my bedroom. When I come back, there is an actual someone in the house, not just a hunter.
“Hello,” the someone says, turning to face me, “I’m Heidi.”