The rollercoaster note is still in effect: this will be a scary ride, but it will arrive safely. Ada is not a pushover.
Something was wrong with Bear.
We had cut our way through the stalker tunnels. Our trail was littered with corpses, and we had just killed our fifteenth beast. It hadn’t gotten easier, not at all. I was so worn down, I could barely move. My body hurt, the ache spreading through the muscles like a disease, sapping my new strength and making me slow.
Bear stumbled again. I thought it was fatigue at first, but we had rested for a few minutes before this last fight, and it hadn’t helped at all. I had kept her from serious injury. She’d been clawed and bitten once, but the bite had been shallow, so it likely wasn’t the blood loss.
Bear whined and fell.
Oh god.
I dropped on my knees by her. “What is it?”
The shepherd looked up at me, her eyes puzzled and trusting.
I flexed, focusing on her body, concentrating all of my power on her. What was it? Blood loss, infection…
The faint outline of Bear’s body glowed with pale green, which told me nothing. I had to push deeper. I focused my power into a thin scalpel and used it to slice through the surface glow.
It resisted.
I sliced harder.
Harder!
It broke, splintering vertically into layers, and I punched through it. It was almost like falling through the floor to a lower level.
Bear’s body lit up with pale blue, the glow tracing her nerves, her blood vessels, and her organs. I had never before been able to do that, but that didn’t matter now.
Toxin. She was filled with it. I saw it, tiny flecks glowing brighter as they coursed through her like some deadly glitter. I had to find the origin of it. Was it from a stalker bite? No, the concentration of poison wasn’t dense there. Then what was it? Where was it the highest?
Her lungs. That fucking glitter saturated her lungs, slipping into her bloodstream with every breath. I had to go deeper. I pushed with my power. Before, it was like trying to slice through glass. Now it felt like punching through solid rock, and I hammered at it.
The top layer of the blue glow cracked, revealing a slightly different shade of blue underneath. I hit it again and again, locked onto the glitter with every drop of willpower I had.
The tiny specks expanded into spheres. What the hell was that?
I pounded on the glow, trying to enlarge it. The spheres came into greater focus. They weren’t uniformly round; they had four lobes clumped together and studded with spikes.
What are you? Where did you come from?
A flash of white cut my vision. I went blind. It lasted only a moment, but I knew I hit a wall. I wasn’t going any deeper. I would have to work at this level.
I blinked, trying to reacquire my vision.
My thighs were glowing with blue.
I jerked my hands up. Pale glitter swirling through my arms and fingers. This dust, this thing was inside me too, and I couldn’t identify it.
We were both infected, and it was killing us.
Panic drenched me in icy sweat. I wanted to rip a hole in my legs and just force the glitter out.
Bear whined softly like a puppy.
I was losing her. She trusted me, she followed me, and she fought with me, and now she was dying.
“You can’t die, Bear. Hold on. Please hold on for me.”
Bear licked my hand.
The urge to scream my head off gripped me. Wailing wouldn’t help. If only I could identify the poison.
Why couldn’t I identify it? Was it because it was inside us and it had become part of us? Or was I just not strong enough to differentiate it from our blood? It had started in the lungs, so we must have inhaled it.
I took a deep breath and exhaled on my hands.
There it was! A trace of the lethal glitter. I focused on it. The four-lobes spiked clumps, swirling, swirling… Something inside me connected, and I saw a faint image in my mind. The mauve flowers. We had been poisoned by their pollen.
I flexed harder, stabbing at the pollen with my talent. The tiny flecks opened up into a layered picture in my mind, and the top layer showed how toxic it was…
Oh god.
We were almost out of time. We needed an antidote. Now.
I strained, trying to access whatever power lay inside me, the same one that showed me the Grasping Hand and gave me the stalkers’ name. It didn’t answer.
Please. Please help me.
Nothing.
We would die right here, in this tunnel. I knew it, I could picture it, me wrapped around Bear, hugging her as we both grew cold…
No. There had to be an answer. We hadn’t come all this way to lay down and die. We did not kill and fight all these damn stalkers –
The stalkers. The stalkers went to the lake to drink. The flowers were all over the shore, but the stalkers had died because the lake dragon had torn them apart. The flowers didn’t poison them.
I jumped to my feet and ran to the nearest corpse. My talent reached out and grasped the body. There was pollen on the fur and on the muzzle and a faint smudge in the lungs, but none anywhere else. Not a trace in the blood. They were immune.
The poison had to be eliminated in the bloodstream. If it was purged in the liver or any other organ, there would’ve been traces of it in the blood vessels but there were none.
I flipped the stalker on its back, shaped my sword into a knife, and stabbed the corpse, slicing it from the neck to the groin. Bloody wet innards spilled out. I dug in the mush, pushing slippery tissue aside until I found the hard sack of the heart. I carved it out and pulled the bloody clump free.
Flex.
The heart glowed with blue. Toxic. It would poison us, too, but there was a slim chance we could make it. It was the difference of might-be-dead from the stalker heart or definitely-dead from the pollen. We didn’t have hours, we had minutes. The heart had to be the answer.
I put it on a flat rock and minced the tough muscle into near mush. I scooped a handful of the bloody mess and staggered over to Bear.
She was still breathing. There was still a chance.
I pried her jaws open and shoved a clump of the stalker mince into her throat. She gulped and gagged. I held her mouth closed.
“Swallow, please swallow…”
Bear gulped again. Yes. It went down.
“What a good girl. The best girl. One more time. Let’s get a little more in there.”
I forced two more handfuls into her and flexed. The concentration of pollen in her stomach dimmed. I had no idea if the immune agent in the stalker blood would spread or if it would be broken down by stomach acid. It didn’t matter. We were all out of choices.
Bear let out a soft, weak howl, almost a gasp. It must have hurt.
“I’m so sorry. I wouldn’t hurt you if there was any other way.”
If I ate the heart now, there was no telling what it would do to me. I could pass out right here, and we would both become stalker dinner.
About twenty minutes ago we had walked by a narrow stone bridge that spanned a deep cavern. There had been a depression at the other end, a little cave within the cave. I’d thought it would be a good place to rest, because the stalkers could only come at us one by one, but I had wanted to get out of the tunnels. At the time, it seemed better to just keep moving. It seemed like forever ago, but it had just happened. We had to find a place to hide, and that was the closest safe spot I could think.
I should be able to find the bridge again. I just had to follow the trail of bodies and make it there before the poison got me.
I picked Bear up. She felt so heavy, impossibly heavy.
I spun around and trudged back the way we came.
First?
I was so close! Lol
Confirmed 🥇
First??
First?!
Closest I’ve ever been!
That’s okay…I still get to read the installment!
thank you, thank you, thank you!
fingers crossed for Gordon’s surgery.
I can’t wait for the rest!
+1 good luck Gordon
+1 May the surgery go well and the recovery even better!
Loving this story!
The BDH needs to work on their chalantness. Several of us were obviously haunting the blog for the newest InBearance post.
ahem…. we are extremely fluffy BHD 😉
Ehhh Tink? I just came in from the garden and washed my hands, after planting the summer pots… Ever tried to keep your computer clean with dirty hands 😉 ?? But it was great to come in, all out of breath and hot, and come across the next installment, ending with a cliffhanger! Had to make myself a cup of tea first to enjoy it again 🙂
And I really hope life becomes easier again for our favorite writers, after dishwashers, operations and all of that. Am thinking of you.
House Andrews has done the impossible – I can’t wait for Mondays. LOL
Three more days!
Just imagine such a cliffhanger on a Monday, that would’ve been FOUR days!
🙂
+1
Thank you. Enjoying the ride.
Oh no! This ride is too scary!!! I can’t wait for Monday!
Ah Bear! *clutches pearls*
I totally wasn’t haunting the blog waiting for the next instalment… pressing refresh every couple minutes… 🫣😭😂
Best wishes to Gordon’s with his surgery! And I really hope your hands/wrists feel better soon, Ilona. I’ve dealt with arthritis-like symptoms in the past and it’s not fun when your hands don’t work like they should.
Also, ModR, you’re a hero at managing us very fluffy, very patient, very, very non chalant BDH members. 😆
I feel a little represented by this comment . . .
This is going to sound weird, Ilona, but try Voltren on your hands. It is a topical anti inflammatory and mild pain killer. It is about the only thing that works on my hands and knees. You can get a small tube in the pharmacy. If it works for you, then you can purchase it in larger tubes in Costco. Costco has a generic brand that is just as effective. Not all generics work as well as the original, but Costco’s does.
Best wishes for Gordon’s surgery and recovery.
Thank you!!
Oh no, a cliffhanger!
Well, could be worse. Could be Monday..
I’m not going to lie. I had a flashback to the Will Smith movie “I Am Legend,” which I saw decades ago and will always remember because of the one scene with his dog. I trust IA, but I experienced some concern/doubt because of various movies and books over the years. I will stay positive.
I admit that I got up and walked out of the movie after the dog died, one of only two times in my life I did that.
I Google “does the dog die in ____ movie”. There’s a website dedicated to that now. Last time I got suckered into watching one of those was when a friend wanted to go see Marley and Me in the theater. Horrible decision.
I refused to watch John Wick until recently since I knew that happened. As it was, I only made it through by covering my eyes at that part until my husband said the dog was no longer visible and by knowing that all the bad guys got what they deserved.
I fully trust IA to bring Bear out with Ada. They wouldn’t let us get attached to her and then do something terrible! They understand our chalantness and emotional capacity do not extend that far (as a generalization).
Oh No, Bear! I’m still scarred by Marigold’s death in Kate 4, but I trust House Andrews on this one.
Spoiler
.
.
.
.
Bear doesn’t die 🐶
thank you. i needed the reassurance.
Best Spoiler ever!
Thank you! I can continue to read. I can’t take it if the dog dies.
*whispers* Thanks Mod R! 😀
i appreciate this spoiler/reassurance too, thank you!
Thank you! I had some trust in HA, but the reassurance is nice.
Phew. That spoiler was needed because I was like… oh no…
I was almost certain Bear will be fine but thank you. I can not take it when the dog dies.
The inheritance is the gift that keeps on giving. Never would have thought that her abilities could be used that way
Oh Bear-Doggie! Please be okay sweet girl! You got this! Oh House Andrews, how you torture your Horde!💜
wow.
this story is amazing. thank you!
❤️❤️❤️ so good!!! can’t wait for the next!
my hormones are all over the place and I wanted to cry a lot during this chapter, but I know I can hold on because good stuff is coming, and the feels must be felt, and Ada is going to kick shit and go back to her kids,
Thank you House Andrews !! My thoughts for the dishwashing and surgeries and numb hands. Just know that in the middle of all of it, you make a difference with your words and that’s magic.
also ; the DRAWING ? amazing and talented people thank you so much !
(I didn’t say nothing about Bear bc I’ll cry otherwise, I know our bravest girl will be fine)
Candice Slater is amazing https://www.instagram.com/sincerely.lorraine.reed
Mod R, you are the fairy we do not deserve 🙂 thank you !
Too short! Can’t wait for next week😁
Y’all help me, please. I cannot brain; I has the dumb. If the pollen is glowing blue for toxic, and the heart is blue for toxic, how is eating more toxins helping them? I feel like I’m missing something obvious.
The stalkers aren’t dying because of the pollen, even though they’ve breathed it in too. So that means they have some sort of immune agent.
By eating the stalker heart, Ada is taking a risk that it will transfer to Bear and herself 🙂
The illustrations have been gorgeous. This week’s is so beautiful.
Love the chapter as always. Thank you!
Oof. I am trusting HA to keep Bear alive! Gripping story. Thanks!
I’ve got everything crossed for Bear.
hold in there baby xx
loving the Chapters, they start the weekend off nicely 😃
Pretty intense!
Hang in there Ada and Bear!
Omg, the edge-of-your-seat rollercoaster! Must…wait…for…next…installment…must…be…chalant….
Eat an alien monster heart IN ADDITION to a magic ancestral memory implant/birthright sword thing?
Why is this both rediculous (but I’m so here for it) and adding to the tension… AND HOW MANY NEW MUTATIONS/MAGICAL CYBORG-LITE CHANGES WILL SHE LEAVE THE DUNGEON WITH!?
*ehem* more please 🙂
so good! am there level up when they successfully beat the poison ❤️
Thank you for the installment!
Whew! At least they are both stilling hanging in there!
Thank you for the installment and for finding another amazing artist!
I hope Gordon’s surgery goes well and wish you both quick recoveries with your various ailments.
Thank you, made my Friday!
First, Second or last one I don’t care.
The plot is thickening! That,I do care!
The plot clots. Blood FTW!
This made me chuckle…….rofl
Whew…. Is it weird that I am on the edge of my seat willing strength to an imaginary person? Please tell me that I am not the only one…
Thank you!!
Thank you! Now I have to just w*it for monday… a then for friday…. Love it!
Thanks for the chapter.
The illustration is beautiful.
Everyone is worried about Bear but since our dear author lords have already said she would survive, I was like :
Eww she is going to eat alien heart…
But she is dying and doesn’t have time to research another way…
Is it going to modify her body in order to bring immunity from the flowers’poison?
She was trying to get out but I feel like she is going deeper into the portal.
Will she end meeting the assault team or maybe what’s left of it?
But at the same time she is finding out about her power or inheritance and it feels like something best done alone or people you trust.
The assault team are dead ☠️
Wait, it’s a spoiler right?
I am talking about the team whose leader liked to occasionally take chances.
They were thought of as dead but when was it confirmed?
Not a spoiler. The assault team has missed several mandatory contact checks, are not responsive, have not turned around (meeting Ada), and the breach is considered a fatal event by the Guild 🙂
Oh … understood. Thanks for clearing it up.
wait, no that was too short.
thank you and happy long weekend to the Canadians out there!
I mean… could Mod R smuggle out *one more paragraph? Lol
Fluffy, fluffy fluffiness
My ferret ninja harness in the shop, sorry 😅
aww, but couldn’t you find a cute English hedgehog to snag a few pages more for us? Stealth hedgehoggies…. giggle.
okay, I’m not so chalant and more spikey than fluffy but aaagh they are dying!
Omg! Tense cliffhanger! Aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Ok I will breathe calmly now. Thanks!
Thank you for the warning at the beginning. I would not have survived the weekend waiting for a proof of life Monday!
Had wondered if toxins were floating around in those caves …
Weekend Cliffhanger!!!
Thanks HA for the Friday post.
Wow! Oh Noes! A Cliffy! How will the BDH ever survive?!?
I feel as if I should have guessed that pollen from that carnivorous magical plant would be dangerous.
I hope Gordon’s surgery goes smoothly and that he heals quickly and well.
Oh noes! The literary term is cliffhanger,,and according to what I found on Google it was a term to describe a situation in a serialized version of a novel by Thomas Hardy, in which the character, Henry Knight is left precariously hanging off a cliff at the end of a chapter. Leaving the poor reader in suspense until the next chapter resolves the predicament. I think that that term perfectly fits Ada’s situation to a T. Cliffhangers have perfectly valid reasons to be used to keep the reader invested in the story and encouraging them to eagerly await the next chapter. They are also, to a certain extent, used in a normal book at the end of a lot of chapters. The difference being that in reading a novel you can turn the page. and just like that, resolution. Oh well,,at least we only need to wait 3 days. Thankfully this isn’t the Monday upload. The worst is when an entire novel ends in a cliffhanger. Harbinger, the next to last Tinker story (Wen Spencer) ended with a serious cliffhanger, I had to wait almost TWO YEARS for Storm Furies to be released. So 3 days wait is easy peasy. 0_0
Yes, the cliffhanger at the end of Harbinger was a very hard wait. I am glad with this one it is only a few days or a week at the most. 🙂
I know. I was borderline angry (just kidding, I’d NEVER get mad at Wen) But I keep track of page count and started to get a bad feeling, when things were neck deep in action and the page numbers were counting down quickly. Obviously there was too much story left to fit it all in one book, so it was a case of “well, let’s cut off right here”
Thanks so much. I am loving Fridays and Mondays! I have never said that about Mondays before.
Thank you!
Thank you!
Loving this story!
trying so hard not to speculate about what will happen when she meets up with the rescue/recovery team cause Melissa and London’s lies need to be exposed about the abandon and grenade drop. With all of her changes will she be able to go home? Will she be accepted or will the Guild want to cover it up? The suspense!!!
ok back to chalant and fluffy.
After meeting Elias: I don’t think he’ll be trying to cover up. London’s in trouble 😀
Ick!!!!!!🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢.
But if it keeps our Bear & Ada alive to kick ass I don’t care. As long as I don’t have to swallow it🤮
going ti see how far behind I was to first, as I tight we might not had an instalment today with the medical appointments etc.
3 hours. so need to pay more attention. of too read and enjoy. I hope the shoulder procedure goes well for Gordon.
all the best
Thank you!
Thank you! I needed this after a very crazy workday (still want to say some NSFW words at a particular agency).
**Announcer voice** Will Ada and Bear make it eventually out of the cave? Will Elias and company ever make it to the breach and find our two heroes? Tune in Monday for more of the Inheritance (or InBearitance). 😀
In the spirit of “John Dies at the End” you should maybe call this book “Bear Lives at the End”
Oh my! This is such a great story!
I’m on pins and needles waiting for the next chapter. Thank you Mod R saying that Bear lives. Couldn’t “bear” it if he died. (Sorry) Or if Ada dies – Assume she lives too! Cannot wait until Monday!
OMG. Mondays and Fridays take on a new meaning. House Andrews, you are SO awesome. May your fingers, shoulders and imagination THRIVE. Humbly hope for the written page, not just ebooks. But anything will do. Really.
A treat to start the long (Canadian) weekend.
A happy Victoria Day to all!
Thanks so much, I’m loving this series.
Aww, poor Bear (and Ada), please get better soon.
Please let the puppy be ok.
Yeah, I know. Weird values but my rule is that for a happy ending, pregnant women, children and whatever unbearable cute pets they might have must survive. They can be beat up but they need to be alive.
Thankfully in this case HA has promised that the arrival will be a safe one. So that means that the puppy lives. And gets lots of treats, strokes and told she is the bestest girl ever. (I hope)
Thank you for the Part. I hope House Andrews’ and Mod R’s weekends go well.
Loving the story and appreciate the spoiler Mod R. Also, LOVING the artwork!
Ooh, Bear is gonna make it! This story gets better and better. Thank you.
Thanks
Aw, poor sweet Bear!! Thanks for letting us know that the situation isn’t as dire as it seemed!
Thank you so much. The plot thickens. Can’t wait for Monday!
Good luck with the surgery, sending good vibes. Oh and the dishwasher.
Bear! What a cliff hanger…. Best wishes for Gordon
Hum, was wondering how they’d deal with eating. This about solves that one. Cancel one poison with another poison OR in limited dose a poison can be an effective treatment for another poisoning… kind of like nicotine agonist / anti agonist depending on dosages…My only question is if they recover how will they be changed (aside from immunity) what’s Bear going to morph to? Super better smell or hearing? Unusually thick skin? Glowing skin? I kind of hope not because it would be hard to hide those changes (glowing especially). And Ada’s healing has really increased or her ability to see, it remains to be seen how her ability to heal will deal with the poisons… Pondering… now would be a good time to see where the ‘rescue’ team is, LOL. Just wandering in the door and checking out ‘the scene’ remaining remains from the original site, which by now might not HAVE very much left at all…
Am I alone in looking forward to Elias chapters/sections more than Ada sections right now? I feel like more plot progression is happening with Elias while with Ada we’re just waiting for something to happen.
Not alone, but it’s because we need to see some ripper cushions land on London’s big fat shmarmy head! Plus he’s just too “chef’s kiss” so we want more. All the healing vibes to House Andrews, and please no more appliance woes!
I’m so curious what your definition of “something happening” is if fighting giant silverfish, running from literal dragons, eating monster hearts and obstacle courses through fields of carnivorous plants doesn’t count in that category? 😂
How adrenaline-filled is your life lol? I feel like I’m not ready for the answer 😅
I agree! I wanna see the London showdown!
I think there is a disconnect. This is not a romance. This is an action adventure.
You have the main plot, where a woman is fighting monsters for her life and trying to survive, and a secondary plot, where a man is talking to people.
All of the action is happening on Ada’s side. Nothing is actually happening in Elias’ scenes. He is just learning what led to this disaster. There is no actual plot progression on his end. Ada getting out of the breach is the plot.
The moment she exits the cave – if that happens – the story will end. 🙂
Oooh! The author speaks! And very craftily (is that a word?) sneaks in a “if that happens” Tease and torture to the BDH. 0_0
Thank you so much for sharing your talent for free. I would happily pay for it now.
I hope you feel better.
I have a feeling that Monday will NOT be a resolution to today’s cliffhanger. Instead we will check in with Elias, with a possible grilling of London in store. It would definitely be a fan favorite if we’re not going to find out if stalker heart tartare is an efficacious homemade palliative, or maybe even a cure? Because Ilona can be sneaky that way. 0_0
ILONA?! SNEAKY?!
I’m almost certain House Andrews don’t even know the meaning of the word sneaky 🤪
There are no Easter eggs in this story, we are not sneaky, Khajit took nothing.
Of course, of course!
With the price of eggs these days, the Horde should DEFINITELY not be on the lookout for anything of the Easter sort 🙂↔️