Early Bird: Laca's Delights (Patreon)

In which the question is asked: What if the Crows never came to Senya's and Valina's rescue? The answer makes one particularly maternal fey very, very happy.

As you can no doubt guess, this was a commissioned alternate ending to Monstrous Ranch! It was fun to explore, and fun to really indulge in a full story about, well, a holstaur (mostly) getting exactly what she wants. To what extent the commissioner wanted Laca to "win"... well, you'll just have to find out, won't you? ;)

Slightly Spoilery Author's Note:

Ultimately, I see this AU as having one clear branching off point: For whatever reason, Mier and Suisshu were not present to help dispatch the Thriae. Maybe they were busy being enslaved by the hypnotist Balabar, because Alrek never came back to help. Maybe Suisshu's sister never became involved. Maybe Larya never managed to wield her druidic powers to heal Mier, and Mier died of the poison. But regardless, the Thriae getting their signal off to the Hive is where everything goes wrong here.