By DENISE LAJUAN PETERS
FIRE FLIGHT
AND 4 OTHER TANNINIM TALES
A fireman without protective gear enters a burning home. A woman’s thoughts sees lurking danger. A student tutors without speaking. A vinedresser’s pruning advises a prince. Although the tanninim dragons live hidden among us, their influence affects us all.
Join them in Fire Flight and Other Tanninim Tales. In addition to three original short stories, the MiniBuk includes Winter, the first chapter of Oracles of the Vinedresser, and Leah the short story that turned into Nguni’s Trade.
THE FIVE SHORT STORIES

Elias battles blazes and pulls victims from the wreckage of human lives. But he’s more than a firefighter. Beneath the uniform beats the heart of an ancient power—a beast of scale that defies fire—one he keeps chained within. As a descendant of the tanninim, a hidden race of dragonshifters, his most critical mission is to protect his people’s anonymity. One slip, one witness, and the fragile peace between his world and theirs could shatter.
With a nosy EMT asking questions, every call he answers pushes him closer to exposure. During this desperate attempt to rescue a little girl, Elias must decide what he’s willing to sacrifice.
Can he protect his ancient lineage without extinguishing the one spark of hope in his solitary life?

In this thrilling urban fantasy retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, a telepathic, dragonshifter named Emberly Hood finds her world turned upside down when a simple dinner delivery to the assisted living center becomes a violent hostage crisis.
Her grandmother is injured and trapped in a building controlled by ruthless robbers. The kindly receptionist is missing. Emberly must embrace her hidden powers to tackle a predator. If she fails, the Big Bad Wolf won’t just be a story—he’ll be the end of the ones she loves.

For abused ten-year-old Pippi, life is a cycle of shame and survival. Using her squalid clothing as a shield against the horrors of her orphanage, she is an outcast, convinced she is too dumb to learn and too worthless to be loved.
But when a mysterious new classmate sits beside her, Pippi discovers a friendship that defies logic. The new girl speaks directly into her mind, a silent and powerful salve that begins to heal Pippi’s broken spirit. As their connection deepens, it exposes the monstrous secret Pippi has been hiding.
Can she trust her new friend in a desperate fight for a life free from ashes?

Tasked with commanding Cardiff fortress in winter’s bleakness, Prince Deron faces a barrack on the verge of mutiny. These soldiers are a tangle of discontented, brawling men, and whispers of Saxon gold corrupting their loyalty slither through the fort. Desperate for a solution floggings cannot provide, Deron is running out of options to quell the treachery before his father arrives. Until his trusted captain offers cryptic advice: seek the Vinedresser.
In a dormant vineyard, Deron finds a mysterious woman whose wisdom is as sharp and merciless as her pruning knife. She speaks not of battle tactics, but of vines—cutting away the weak, wayward branches that choke the strong and steal their lifeblood. Her methods are brutal, her words are prophetic, and her very existence defies logic.
But employing her brutal lessons might be the only remedy to stop a bloody mutiny from tearing his command apart.

In the sun-scorched lands of 8th-century East Africa, a civilization thrives under the rule of the Tanninim—powerful dragonshifters who live for centuries. Among their long-lived human subjects is Leah, the Keeper of the Tannin Lore. Statuesque, wise, and burdened by duty, she carries a secret that has pained her for decades: an unwavering, unrequited love for the prince, Nguni. But Nguni is a creature of bitter ambition and smoldering resentment, forever living in the shadow of his older brother, the ruling Anah.
Forced by her sacred office, Leah becomes the unwilling messenger in a feud that will define a kingdom. She must deliver the news of edicts that defy his will, earning only his scorn while her heart breaks in silence. As Nguni’s fury grows with each perceived betrayal, his rivalry with his brother escalates from whispered dissent to open rebellion, threatening to destroy the dynasty from within. Leah can only watch as the tannin she loves begins a ruthless quest for power that could cost her everything.
Spanning more than a century of political intrigue, simmering conflict, and heartbreaking sacrifice, this is a saga of a civilization at a crossroads. Against the epic backdrop of the founding of Great Zimbabwe, a bitter rivalry between two brothers comes to a head, and the fate of their people hangs in the balance. Can a love that has endured a hundred years of pain quell a fire that threatens to consume a nation? Or will Leah’s silent devotion be the final casualty in a war for a throne?