Bitterwind

An Excerpt from Simon And Hank The Ferryman

"Tonight's the night, Hank. I feel it."

"One way or the other," the ferryman replied, stretching a kink out of his back.

In fairness, Hank had shown up at around the 401st attempt. So Simon could understand this grumbling, night after night. This was Simon's 776th attempt. He had one more left. Else... Purgatory.

"Better hurry," said Hank, "Spotted a small galleon off the coast on my way over."

Simon and Hank turned and, sure enough, there was a galleon anchored in the bay, its lanterns glowing warm in the night. They watched as a small row boat splashed down. Several sailors heaved heavy oars rowing the boat toward them and the cave. A single torch cut through the night as the pirates approached.

Simon sighed, "There's no way."

"Aye, rotten luck."

"Why don't they wait until morning?"

"Beats me. There'd be better light in the day." agreed Hank.

Simon had a thought.

"I can make this work. Yes!"

He became animated. He danced a jig, jumping up and clicking his spectral heels together.

"Nothing to lose," he muttered to himself, "If I can get them to pick me up and take me closer... That might be the best chance I've had in ... well 776 nights."

"775."

The ghost looked puzzled.

"You forgot that night you took off."

Simon scowled at Hank. Continue reading Bitterwind →

Twenty years in the making. Seriously.

Bitterwind started in 2005. Richard and I were 19 and 20 years old, drawing pirate comics in pencil on printer paper — battle scenes, character portraits, dialogue panels with proper speech bubbles. We had the world. We had the characters. We had Captain Spade, Ivo, Rose, Charlie, and the crew of the Mercy Me. We just didn't quite know how to finish anything yet.

Life moved on. The pages sat in a drawer.

Twenty years later, we made it real. Same world. Same characters. Same ham. The time finally caught up with the idea — or the idea finally caught up with us.

You can read about the origin in the comments on Royal Road, where we've been sharing the old artefacts.

What readers are saying:

"Unabashedly fun. Packed full of action and character."
— Bluffy ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ on Royal Road

"Bitterwind's goal is simply to entertain, and it succeeds!"
— Mr. Clink Clank ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ on Royal Road

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@yarronlyhams on X & Bluesky · read free on Royal Road · audio on the TKFY YouTube channel.