SFR Presents logo

The Science Fiction Romance Brigade Presents is a blog hop with up to 200 word snippets of science fiction/Romance we have written, published or unpublished. The Excerpt below is from a work in progress, tentatively titled Both Sides Now. This is from the point of view of Roi, who is calling himself Kevi, just after he has recovered consciousness in a maze of hay bales, aware through his empathic sense that someone near him is in pain..

He knew the direction—the pain pulled at him. But he had no idea of the route.

Another, much brighter light bobbed toward him from the left. “What are you doing out of bed?” Doctor Alsyn, Roi identified the man who’d come up beside him. The vet apparently knew were he was going.

“Do you have a pain killer?” Roi replied. “Not for me,” he added hastily. “But someone in this hay maze needs it. I was trying to find her.”

Doc seemed to sag. “No,” he said. “No pain killers, no anesthetics, no antibiotics. A little tape and gauze, but mostly we’re boiling rags. And the pain—how did you know about that?”

“I’m an empath,” Roi replied. “I feel emotions and sensory impressions. Zhaim did a very effective job of blocking most of my abilities—I can’t read minds, or teleport, or do most of the other things you’ve probably heard R’il’noids can do. But I can’t not hear emotions without deliberate effort, and ignoring pain is like not hearing someone screaming. It’s like keeping my fingers in my ears. How about herbals like willow bark? I’m sure I remember seeing willows in that valley. Or hypnosis, or ….”