No Biting!

Children's book written by Travis Newville. Part of the "Puppy Kids" series.

             Logan was an amazing little boy. He loved to play like puppies do. All of his favorite shows had puppies in them. Logan wanted to be a puppy very, very badly. Puppies were his favorite animal. Logan loved everything about puppies.

             Logan liked cats okay. Nothing that cats did interested Logan very much, though. Sometimes cats were grumpy, and they didn’t really cuddle that much. Cats made Logan sneeze a whole bunch, too. Logan’s grandma had a cat that slept all of the time. They just weren’t as cool to Logan as puppies were.

            Logan thought puppies were so awesome. He also thought puppies were the cutest animal ever. They could do tricks; play fetch, high five, and roll over. Puppies could run very, very fast. Logan loved the way puppies gave him kisses. Everything that puppies did made Logan smile.

            Logan thought it would be fun to act just like puppies do. He barked at his parents. Logan howled at the moon. He crawled around on all fours; just like puppies do. It was so much fun being a puppy. Logan thought he might be a puppy every day.

            Logan got a little out of control one day when he was pretending to be a puppy. He bit his little brother’s finger. Logan thought that was what a puppy would do. Boy, was Logan wrong! Logan’s little brother started to scream, and he was crying very loudly.

            Logan didn’t mean to hurt his little brother. He just wanted to play like a puppy. Something was terribly wrong with Logan’s little brother. Little brother just could not stop crying. Logan’s heart sunk down to his stomach.

            “I’m sorry, little brother!” cried Logan. He felt very bad for hurting his little brother. He loved his little brother a whole bunch. They were best friends. Still, little brother just kept crying and screaming.

            Mommy came in, and hugged little brother tight. She scolded Logan. Mommy said, “How dare you bite your little brother, Logan!” It made Logan feel even worse that his mom was so upset.

 Mommy grounded Logan to his bedroom for the rest of the night. Logan tried to apologize, but little brother just kept on crying. Mommy didn’t really want to hear his apologies, either. Logan felt terrible.

Daddy came in Logan’s room that night, but only to tell Logan he was very upset with him for biting his little brother. Even Daddy was upset with him. Logan felt very alone when he was grounded to his bedroom.

That night was so awful for Logan. He could hear everyone else laughing and playing. If only Logan would have thought more about what would happen, before his little brother had gotten hurt. Logan was so sad that he just sat in his room crying.

Being a puppy sure was tough. Logan just couldn’t understand what had happened. Why can he bark, but not bite? He didn’t understand. Logan did understand that it was lonely being grounded. Logan vowed never to be a puppy again.

The next day, Logan woke up to his little brother playing with his toys. He just smiled at Logan. He wasn’t mad at his big brother, at all. “Little brother, I’m so sorry!” Logan apologized. Logan hugged his little brother.

Mommy came in when she heard them playing. She asked, “Did you learn your lesson, Logan?” He nodded his head yes. Logan sure did learn his lesson. It was not fun to hurt his little brother.

“Oh yes, Mommy. I’m never going to be a puppy ever again!” he cried. Logan meant it, too. It was terrible for him to see his little brother so upset. Logan never wanted to see his little brother cry like that ever again.

“Logan, you didn’t get grounded for acting like a puppy. You got in trouble, because you bit your little brother and hurt him very badly!” Mommy explained. “Look. You gave your little brother quite a bad bruise.”

Mommy was right. It was a terrible bruise, on little brother’s arm. It looked just like a circle of Logan’s teeth. He didn’t know that biting his little brother would hurt him. Now, Logan understood what had happened.

Logan gave his little brother the bruise by biting him. It wasn’t because he was being a puppy. “I’m so sorry,” Logan told his little brother while he gave him a big hug. “I won’t ever bite you ever again. I promise,” Logan said.

The two boys, or puppies, were together ever since. The two had the most fun whenever they pretended to be puppies. Logan taught his little brother how to be the best puppy he could be. Logan and his little brother played many more little puppy games.

The People Must Eat

An excerpt of

Chapter 1 – The People Must Eat

From the manuscript, "Morningstar"

            Riley Morningstar hurried along the busy streets of the port town, Chivalice. Of course, she was running late. She almost always forgot to turn the curtain over before she went to bed. It was very hard for the girl to wake up when her room was still pitch black. In fact, it was all but impossible. She always seemed managed to get on the dock boss’ bad side. Today was the third time Riley was running late for work this week, and her boss was sure to give her fits about this one. He’s even threatened to fire Riley if she was ever late again. 

            Riley was a gorgeous young lady. Her crimson hair hung at her shoulders, even though it was being held back with a cord in a ponytail. It shone brilliantly in the morning sun. Riley’s eyes were as green as the greenest emerald, and her milk-like complexion brought out the best of them. She had a beautiful face; her lips, and eyes, had made her the recipient of many compliments. Riley’s curves were the perfect match to her beauty. Her thighs and hips turned  many men’s heads. Riley wasn’t the biggest of girls up top, but she made up for it everywhere else. Riley’s abdominal, and arm muscles were finely tuned thanks to being a fisherman. Riley was well known across Chivalice for her good looks.  

The truth is Riley hated fishing. Why couldn’t have her father, Visto, insisted she be sent away to the university with her friends? It was unjust that she was to be held back for no better reason than her father just could not bear to see her leave. It’s not that she wasn’t intelligent; Riley was the favorite pupil of most of her school teachers. Her father’s own selfishness was what held her here in this stench-filled gutter called a town. Ever since her mother had passed away, her father had been acting odd. After all, he did let her older sister Isabel leave to the university. Riley just couldn’t understand why she was the one who had to stay. It was so unfair that it infuriated her to think about it. She loved her father dearly, but there was contempt building for the way he acted like she was a child. So Riley fished.

 Ducking and dodging people, Riley weaved her way through the gawking masses down to the docks. Chivalice was a busy town, to say the least. Narrow streets were packed to the brim with hawkers and peddlers. Mothers dragged their children along from street vendor to street vendor hustling through the town market. The buildings were tall; some had three or four levels, and all were packed to capacity with residents. Although the town’s buildings were large and plentiful, Chivalice was quite a poor town. Their sole export was fish, and even Chivalians grew tired of the taste of fish. Families lived in houses of ten or more, and their homes were seldom more than just one room in one of the city’s large buildings. Chivalice was renowned for its poverty, and for its abundance of people. Most other countries considered Chivalice a country of lawless thieves, who were good for nothing more than spreading fish around the world. The town was a large hill with many small circular streets. All of the streets circled down the long hill toward the docks, and most curled back around and up the hill. The main avenues were cobbled stone, and the side streets were little more than packed clay. The small side streets connected each avenue to the next, and it almost looked as if the town of Chivalice was a giant spider web cast over a large hill.

Riley saw plenty of children without parents running around as well. Groups of twenty or more kids ran the streets, and no local made the mistake of thinking the kids were harmless. Grungy kids, with rags for clothes, and greasy hair dominated the side streets down by the docks. Sweat ran down their faces leaving a trail of cleanliness behind a mask of dirt that looked most cynical on those small, grinning faces. Some of them had decent shoes on their feet, but usually only because some poor sap had left them unguarded. 

When both of a child’s parents were fishermen, then sometimes that child would be left an orphan. It was a dangerous job. Only, there were no orphanages in Chivalice. These groups of children recruited new young orphaned children, and when joined together these kids were a formidable force to be reckoned with. They called themselves grunts, and were widely considered their own guild in Chivalice. The only difference being, the guilds actually paid their taxes. It was really sad that these children knew no better of how to live. They made due on what little they could grab from purses, and what food they could snatch out of the town market. Riley had always considered herself an outcast, but seeing the grunts was always a reassurance. 

“Mornin’ Riley! Looks like you’re running late again. You better just give it up, Skylar told us that if you were late one more time, he was going to send you home and let one of us have your job. Said, least he always knew where to find us.” The leader of this particular group of grunts was Ruben, and he was the only one of his group that talked amongst anyone but themselves. Riley had always thought they were actually quite creepy little children. The others just fixed their eyes on Riley, watching her every move.

“Don’t start with me Ruben. I’m not in the mood for your pestering me already. It would probably do you some good to get a real job, anyway. You bunch of sea lice. At least then you’d pay back your debt to society,” Riley said, scolding the young ruffian.

“If I had a job, I wouldn’t be able to take care of my kids,” Ruben exclaimed with his chest puffed out. He did look rather ridiculous. Ruben was a tall boy of about ten years. His cut off jeans were ragged and came down just below his knees. He was wearing a dingy red vest, and a sailor’s cap that looked like he had picked it out of the garbage and placed it on his head. “Besides, I thought I told you not to worry about us. We can take care of ourselves just fine.”

“Ruben, you’re not even wearing any shoes,” Riley said with a chuckle. With that, the whole group of kids was laughing hysterically. It was good they found a sense of humor in their situation. No one else did.

“Never mind that, Riley. When are we going to go to old man Irving’s swamp and catching some frogs together? You promised us,” said Ruben. It made Riley’s heart melt seeing the genuine dissatisfaction on young Ruben’s face. It was cute that a boy as ruthless as Ruben was known to be could also be so free spirited. Riley could tell that he badly wanted to be a normal boy, and have a normal family. He was such a good heart to have to grow up in this lifestyle.

“Well, first I need to worry about getting to work. I need my job, Ruben. I might just end up running with you grunts anyway.” With that, Riley was headed off down to the docks.