The Howling Forest & Other Stories

This will be a thread with links to my Felarya stories posted on deviantART.com. Viewing requires an account there due to the maturity content flag. As an alternative, most of these stories are also posted on my account at Eka's Portal. Comments/suggestions are welcome and if you like a particular scene or story, let me know. I'm not asking for detailed critiques, but if you spot any misspellings, grammatical horrors, or logic errors, feel free to point them out. I've been asked about the reading order by several people. For those who are interested, I would recommend simply starting at the top and working down the list. This isn't a requirement, but certain things happen in the first few stories that have an impact on ones that take place later.

One brief note: Several stories are broken up into multiple numbered parts. This was not done by choice; it is due to deviantART.com's size limit of 64 KB for text submissions.


***CHARACTER LIST***
This is a very basic list of characters I've written about in stories thus far. Some of them have very minor, but important roles. I don't have a "main" character, per se. However, if I had to choose, it would be a toss-up two of my slug-girls: small, harmless Felecia and giant, voracious Marsha.

Anara - female tomthumb
Felecia & David - miniature chameleon slug-girl & male human (non-native)
Frisca - female tomthumb
Galya - giant female fire naga
Luana - female human (non-native)
Marsha - giant slug-girl
Matta - female neko (shaman)
Nicholas - male human (non-native)
Normeda & Maasma - giant slug-girls
Parlan - male human (non-native)
Quincy - male tomthumb (leader)
Ronaldo - male tomthumb
Rosalak - male neko (shaman)
Satasha - female neko
Serimela - miniature female web-shooting dridder
Stephandra - ancient dryad
Xulia - giant female orchid mantoid
Zosia - lamia (non-native)


***THE HOWLING FOREST***
These stories primarily take place in and around an area called the Howling Forest, which is an ancient place guarded by an immensely old dryad named Stephandra.

All Is Not As It Seems
A quick story involving an unusual couple: a human named David and a miniature slug-girl named Felecia. Slug-girls never seem to get enough attention.

The Belly Of The Beast - 1
The Belly Of The Beast - 2
David discovers some interesting secrets about his slug-girl wife of nearly five years. With the assistance of a friendly dryad, he tries to help her fulfill one of her deepest, darkest fantasies as a gift on their fifth anniversary.

Long Live Queen Marsha?
This is a very short tale of Marsha, the giant slug-girl who is a childhood friend of Felecia's. No deep meaning here, just good, wholesome slug-girl vore with delusions of grandeur.

The Making Of A Queen - 1
The Making Of A Queen - 2
The continuing story of Marsha as she moves forward with her plans to become queen of the marsh nekos.

Nekonip
Tails within tales, the story of a orphaned neko named Satasha and her encounter with Felecia's tomthumbs.

Neko Games
This is a small tale of the Satasha's life in the Vorchek homestead. The neko plays with her tomthumb friends and then takes a fateful trip to the edge of the Howling Forest.

The Little Dridder That Could
Serimela is a very troubled little dridder who finds herself all alone in a dangerous world. Through luck and determination and perhaps a bit of divine intervention she tries to find a new home. Along the way she learns more about herself as she deals with some harsh realities.

The Dridder Strikes Back
Cries of victory and defeat … but mostly defeat. What happens when a group of desperate tomthumbs tries to assault the dreaded dridder's den?

Galya's Portal Problems - 1
Galya's Portal Problems - 2
Galya's Portal Problems - 3
Galya, a giant fire naga, discovers you don't have go through a portal for it to bring trouble to you.

Quincy's New Game
David's Halloween ghost stories end up unsettling Quincy more than he cares to admit. Later that same night, the tomthumb finds himself confronted by nightmares that have become all too real.

Verdoya Tribe
This is not so much a story as it is a brief history of the Verdoya tomthumb tribe and how they came to live in the Vorchek homestead.

Isham And The Golden Watch - 1
Isham And The Golden Watch - 2
While out on a stroll near Safe harbor, Isham runs across an interesting find - an antique golden pocket watch. Letting curiosity get the best of him, he soon discovers that some watches do more than tell time. This is the first time I've written a story where the main character was not my own. Isham, of course, belongs to French Snack.

Stuck Together - 1
Stuck Together - 2
Normeda and Maasma decide to play matchmakers, slug girl style, when they discover Isham and Elia have romantic feelings they seem unwilling to admit to each other. This one is set in Ravana3k's village of Safe Harbor. This is my second story involving Isham. Both he and Elia belong to FrenchSnack.


***FELARYA PARK***
French Snack came up with the idea of a Jurassic Park setting, using Felarya creatures instead of dinosaurs, and called it Felarya Park. Several writers have contributed stories to the series. The post that started it all can be found here in this very forum: Felarya Park.

The Mantoid Attraction
Corporate sponsors meddle with the park in an attempt to create a "main attraction" (thus the pun of the title) in order to generate more profit. Things don't go quite as planned.

Meet The Mantoid
In this continuation, Xulia meets Maria and Joseph face to face with no cage separating them for the first time since her capture.

Thanks for posting this! I love your writing and now I can make sure I catch it all.


We really need to drag out Felaryan Park again... my main story dragged me away.

You've certainly made your mark as an outstanding writer in Felarya. Each of your new stories is a pleasure to discover and read... and then reread several times.

Jætte_Troll wrote:

We really need to drag out Felaryan Park again...

Indeed! I've lost track of whose turn it is.

Wildthing's next part involves Xulia, so I'm waiting on that one before I proceed. As to the other stories, I'm not sure. There are numerous exhibits that could be developed into their own stories. And, of course, there is always the possibility of a story told from the point of view of a hapless visitor. I thought someone was working on that at one time, but it may have been abandoned.

I think the turns were sort of odd as some story parts were broken up. Though, technically, it would be your turn next, FrenchSnack.

Hmmm. If Wildthing is doing the next part, I'd rather not cross-post. But if the story really has fallen to a standstill, I could do something next.

Felicia's not harmless if your a melon I haven't been working too much on Felarya Park recently, I kind of thought it was dead. I reckon I could get something out for end of this week early next week though, although I have exams tomorrow and thursday so they come first

I really like your stories, particularly the ones staring Quincy and Serimela.

Wow... I think those are the best stories I've ever had the pleasure of reading... amazing...

Though I've always wondered - where is the Howling Forest.... hmmm....

Jætte_Troll wrote:

Though I've always wondered - where is the Howling Forest.... hmmm....

Yeah where is the Howling Forest??

Jaette_Troll:
Thanks for the kind words. I'll be sure to update here when something new comes along. And I agree about Felarya Park. It's too good an idea to be abandoned. I personally would love to see more of Simon and Ione's story (when you have time to spare from Fenja and Grip).

French snack:
I'm not sure about marks being made, but it's good to hear people have enjoyed my stories. I've had notes (some of them quite irate) at my lack of writing progress... And here I thought editors were supposed to be demanding. One day, some of our characters will have to meet - though I'm not sure they'll thank either of us (depending on who is involved).

Wildthing:
If you happen to be a melon in the vicinity and Felecia is hungry, you're in deep trouble. The comment about feral melons on dA actually gave me an idea for a story I will write one day about one of David's experiments that gets out of hand. It should allow Felecia to safely indulge her predatory instincts - with humorous results. Felarya Park isn't dead - far from it. Xulia's tale still has some legs to it - giant, spiked, pink legs... I'll be watching for your next part. Jerald & Gower's encounter with Xulia is something I'm looking forward to. Be sure to keep up your other writing as well - you have some good stories in the works. Too good to be left unfinished.

JohnDoe:
I'm glad you enjoyed reading them. I've certainly enjoyed reading yours. Quincy has grown on me as I've written more about him. Beyond slug-girls, I do have a fondness for tomthumbs and tiny characters in general. With most of the focus on the bigger denizens of Felarya, it's easy to forget the smaller ones can be just as interesting. Of course, Serimela will be happy to hear she has another fan.

SuperPieGuy9:
Well, that's some very high praise. There are many good writers out there who contribute to Felarya. A number of them are in this very forum. If you haven't already, make sure you browse through the stories being added to the Felarya group on deviantART.com. More are being added all the time. Regarding my own - I'm still writing, just a lot less frequently than before. It doesn't help matters that I tend towards longer stories. The next one (involving Marsha, Normeda, and Maasma), which is moving with slug-like deliberation towards completion, will be longer than Galya's Portal Problems...

-

As to the whereabouts of the Howling Forest? That hasn't been decided yet, mainly because it hasn't really come up before. Along with the forest itself, there's also Black Mountain, which is Galya's home, and an enormous marsh (unnamed) where Marsha and friends live. It is likely the area will be quite distant from where most stories and characters are currently concentrated in Felarya. It's a big world after all, and not all of it has been mapped yet. That may explain why there are so many cartographers running around being eaten.

timing2 wrote:

I've had notes (some of them quite irate) at my lack of writing progress...

Well take your time, timing! I'd rather have a good long story that took a long time to make than a quick crappy story that took a short time to make!

timing2 wrote:

One day, some of our characters will have to meet - though I'm not sure they'll thank either of us (depending on who is involved).

Heh. As long as they're not characters who are likely to eat one another. Let's keep Quincy out of Shaan's reach, and Galya well away from Roshan... :p

They'd have to be characters who are likely to travel. Galya gets around a bit, doesn't she? Milly used to wander around a bit (as mentioned here), but not as far as Howling Forest. Vuni doesn't get about much (obviously), and Lucilya is rather territorial... Ajab was once quite the wanderer (as may be mentioned in a future story), so he may have met Galya or Marsha in the past, but he's quite settled now.

Maybe Selima the ghost might wander into new territories.

French snack wrote:

Heh. As long as they're not characters who are likely to eat one another. Let's keep Quincy out of Shaan's reach, and Galya well away from Roshan... :p

No, those would not be very good pairings. Quincy, of course, would vehemently disagree. No grass naga could possibly outwit his tactical mind (or so he believes).

I like Selima, and that would be a good character to explore - there aren't many ghost characters running around in Felarya. She would scare the color out of Quincy's hair though. He'd have a heck of a time trying to come up with a defense that works on ghosts.

It would be hard, but I'd love to pull Isham free from Safe Harbor for an adventure down in the marshes. He's encountered giantesses, nekos, humans, tinies, nagas... next up would be some giant slug-girls. I'm sure Normeda and Maasma could show him a good time. Broaden his experience, so to speak.

Is the marsh that Marsha and the other slug girls live in part of the Great Marsh or around there?

Come to think about it, if that's so you could probably give a general direction to the Howling Forest based on... well, direction.

timing2 wrote:

I like Selima, and that would be a good character to explore - there aren't many ghost characters running around in Felarya. She would scare the color out of Quincy's hair though. He'd have a heck of a time trying to come up with a defense that works on ghosts.

It would certainly present him with a new (and potentially lethal) challenge. On the other hand, since she doesn't have to eat, he might find it easier to hold her attention than when she was alive.

Quote :

It would be hard, but I'd love to pull Isham free from Safe Harbor for an adventure down in the marshes. He's encountered giantesses, nekos, humans, tinies, nagas... next up would be some giant slug-girls. I'm sure Normeda and Maasma could show him a good time. Broaden his experience, so to speak.

Poor Isham. It's a wonder his nerves haven't frayed completely. Yes, that would be rather interesting. As long as he doesn't end up believing that most predators want to befriend him rather than eat him!

Jætte_Troll wrote:

Is the marsh that Marsha and the other slug girls live in part of the Great Marsh or around there?

Come to think about it, if that's so you could probably give a general direction to the Howling Forest based on... well, direction.

I don't know if it would be there or not. I suppose it's a possibility, but the area it covers is rather large. It wasn't originally intended to be anywhere near the "core" areas of Felarya.

French snack wrote:

It would certainly present him with a new (and potentially lethal) challenge. On the other hand, since she doesn't have to eat, he might find it easier to hold her attention than when she was alive.

As badly as a miniature ghost dridder (in a nightmare, no less) shook him up, for a real ghost naga Isham would make an immediate tactical withdrawl towards Stephandra.

French snack wrote:

Poor Isham. It's a wonder his nerves haven't frayed completely. Yes, that would be rather interesting. As long as he doesn't end up believing that most predators want to befriend him rather than eat him!

It's done! I took a break from working on Marsha's next story to post one involving Isham finding his way into Marsha's swamp. It doesn't involve her, but it does involve Normeda and Maasma. It'll be my entry into Ravana3k's contest. I've updated the initial post to include the links to it on deviantART.com. Hopefully, Isham's nerves weren't too frayed by the experience.

Isham And The Golden Watch - 1
Isham And The Golden Watch - 2
While out on a stroll near Safe harbor, Isham runs across an interesting find - an antique golden pocket watch. Letting curiosity get the best of him, he soon discovers that some watches do more than tell time. This is the first time I've written a story where the main character was not my own. Isham, of course, belongs to French Snack.

deviantART's text encoding is really wonky - I ended up having to resubmit the second part over again, changing the chapter breaks around because of the size limitations. I'd submit it, it'd show up as 56k characters, well within the limits, but then wouldn't appear as text in the deviation page. And this is after I'd taken care to convert all special characters to ampersand numerical sequences. I'd edit, not change a single character, save changes, and it'd show up as 67.4k. Then I'd edit, not change anything again, and it would red-flag the submission as "too large." It's irritating that you can submit multi-megabyte files for pictures but only 64KB files for stories.

My how time flies...

Stuck Together - 1
Stuck Together - 2
Normeda and Maasma decide to play matchmakers, slug girl style, when they discover Isham and Elia have romantic feelings they seem unwilling to admit to each other. This one is set in Ravana3k's village of Safe Harbor. This is my second story involving Isham. Both he and Elia belong to FrenchSnack.