Well crafted vignette, easy to follow and descriptive!

I've always appreciated your writing and I think this story was beautifully elegant. I really like the beginning, I personally have always had trouble with starting things, but you started with such a serene image it sucks the reader in and the ending was just as good. You have a talent for flushing out the details and bring people into your world. My only qualm is that there aren't enough vampires. . .j/p.

What a gift - to get so much feeling and a delightful sense of place into such a little fic.
You have a wonderful vision of Marguerite. Beautifully written.

sc

AMAZING! Absolutely beautiful fic! You manage to build the personalities of the Tree house characters beautifully!

I really liked that. It was sweet and really captuted how she feels about her situatiin on the plateau. Fabulous job!

Bingo-

This is a splendid vignette of an aspect of TLW life that most authors wouldn't pick up on.

You described the scene beautifully, with masterful wordsmithing and only one spelling error that grabbed me by the throat and shook me: "all together" for "altogether." Doubtless, a weak moment as your mind drifted to Lord Roxton chopping wood or something similar? (Laughing Smilie here.)

I love the way you described the day, the water temperature, the dying gestures of the old raptor. The sentiment felt by Marguerite seems typical of female sympathies that are sometimes misplaced. Had that animal felt better, her initial fears would have been borne out. And I like the way you appreciate just how fast such an animal would attack, its teeth and claws flashing as it dismembered her. Some of those raptors had a longer claw on each foot, probably for disembowling prey, much as a leopard uses its rear claws in attacking humans.

In my fics, I have the men escort the women to swim, sitting just out of sight of the pool for privacy's sake. Or, one of the women will sit dressed, rifle in hand, as the others swim until they switch off. I have read too many accounts of crocodiles or big fish taking people today to ever think of swimming alone in a jungle river, even if it was clear enough to see the bottom. Bull sharks range for incredible distances up such rivers ss the Amazon and the African Zambezi. One of those sharks caught in a South African river measured over 13 feet, a record for that species.

I understand Marguerite's compassion for the old dinosaur and her protecting it from John. But it'd be more merciful if he shot it,rather than have scavengers or a crocodile or big caiman take it, or vultures or pterodactyls begin feeding on it before it died. I do not envy the fate of a dying lion that has been discovered by hyenas before it expires.

Back to the fic, I wish to gosh that I had the ability to write such complete stories and keep them this short. You did a terrific job on this one! Congratulations!

I felt privileged to read it, and am glad that you reconsidered your decision to discontinue writing TLW stories. Some of us fans are still here and still reading. Indeed, I know of two new readers.

GE