New Drawing

My apologies for the late posting. I spent the weekend in Milwaukee with the school ocean science club, silently going insane while attempting to wrap my head around the questions being asked at the state competition (our team won, by the way). The trip lasted all weekend, and even though I wasn't actually competing myself, I was beat by the time I got back.

In the meantime, I offer up for your consideration the diopteron:

 

"The diopterons were not a species to be taken lightly. Many people had an innate fear of the mammoth, bearlike creatures, and as well they did. The breed was only slightly removed from their wild cousins, the tanterons--the wild cat-beasts of the forest. A lot of the natural instincts involving ripping the limbs off anything that threatened them were left in the domesticated species. That was part of the reason the troupe had chosen one to pull their wagon instead of horses."

The diopterons will be pack animals in a new world that I'm in the process of creating. They're huge, temperamental and highly intelligent animals that have evolved without eyes. The circus troupe upon which the story will focus will use one as a draft animal to pull their cart, mostly to fend off thieves and offer protection when sheltering in the wilds. There will be a lot of other huge creatures in this world--mostly mammals, after the Pleistocene era--along with other interesting phenomena such as seasonal fire storms and immortal prophets. I don't have all the details down quite yet, so I won't spoil too much more. 

Otherwise, the next chapter of Centaur Ranch is up. Diddle's off to rescue his friend from the clutches of the Shreeks, a band of huge, white, blind lizard creatures that raided the ranch. If you haven't read the first chapters of the book, the e-book is on sale at lulu.com. Search keywords are "Centaur, Centaur Ranch, and Diddle."