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What I meant about being over-dramatic - was more about the timing. The dragon wasn't quite dead yet, and beating the breasts, instead of trying to save him, just didn't feel like the first thing someone would do. I imagine the first thing someone would do (which ended up being her second thing) was to try and save her friend. The custom itself wasn't that big of a deal, it was more the timing.

I completed Chpts 7 & 8 of Matthews' the Girl Who Lost Earth.

Completed Chapters 6 and 7 Alkami's Souring Seas. And Chapters 7 & 8 of Stefanie's Day of Darkness.

Chapter 6:
1. Action tag about gasping: "Help me. He's coming," the old man said, gasping for breath>> not as strong as incorporating the gasping in the quote itself with the "..." >> "Help me.... He's..he's.. coming." The old man fell into their arms gasping.>> by rearranging you can add the tag with the action phrase.
2. Stephen King: though his advice is great- true, you should cut the "ly" verbs, however sometimes they work great, if you can use them in place of a bunch of words that may slow down your action. I think he'd agree- used sparingly they are fine. Used too much- not so fine. In action scenes especially (fight scenes) better to lose the "ly's". The usage shouldn't depend on the author- but rather the voice and the story. And here, you would know better than I.
3. I am not a fan of Kardashians, I barely know who they are- not why I thought the "K" fit better than the "C." Its just that "C" is an ambiguous letter- not sure where it came from, but heard even Benjamin Franklin wanted to get rid of it. "K" feels hard edged and the word "Cardakas" would look cool with 2 K's. Kardakas.
4. Real name, vs Full name. Silverhorn, is pretty darned close to Silver- in fact, Silver sounds more like an abbreviation than a false name. That's why I think "Full Name' is more accurate than "real name."
5. Downwind vs upwind. These are not ambiguous at all and is great at orienting the reader. If the scent is blowing downwind- that means it is blowing away from them, they are "up wind" from the fire and the smoke, therefore the smoke would not come in contact with them-it is blowing away- downwind. It can only overtake them if it is upwind and the wind is blowing towards them because they are downwind from the fires. Think of the wind as a river- downwind would be downstream. If someone puts a boat into the river downstream from you, it would continue downstream and never cross your path.

I went back and commented on some of your comments on the Chapter 5.

Completed Chapter 5 of Jube's The World of Phyries.
BTW- autocorrect has a field day with your character's names, Jube!

Just completed Suin's chapter 2

I got another one- because I get dinged on this all the time: whether to add just the apostrophe(') or apostrophe s ('s) on single words ending in s. Guess what- no hard and fast rule- just keep it consistent.

I grew up learning drop the s. (Mr. Crebs' parlor). I think it is a new phenomenon to add the s. It seems to be the younger reviewers that tag it in my writing. I think it looks silly. (Mr. Crebs's parlor)

This was from one of my favorite sources: grammarbook.com:

APOSTROPHES WITH WORDS ENDING IN S.
While normal people wonder about apostrophes in general, believe it or not, word nerds have heated arguments over whether to use an additional s with singular possession.

Rule 1: Many common nouns end in the letter s (lens, cactus, bus, etc.). So do a lot of proper nouns (Mr. Jones, Texas, Christmas). There are conflicting policies and theories about how to show possession when writing such nouns. There is no right answer; the best advice is to choose a formula and stay consistent.
Some writers and editors add ’s to every proper noun, be it Hastings’s or Jones’s. And there are a few who add only an apostrophe to all nouns ending in s—however, this method is relatively rare, and not recommended here.
One method, common in newspapers and magazines, is to add an apostrophe plus s (-’s) to common nouns ending in s, but only a stand-alone apostrophe to proper nouns ending in s.

Examples:
the class’s hours
Mr. Jones’ golf clubs
The canvas’s size
Texas’ weather

Another widely used technique is to write the word as we would speak it. For example, since most people saying “Mr. Hastings’ pen” would not pronounce an added s, we would write Mr. Hastings’ pen with no added s. But most people would pronounce an added s in “Jones’s,” so we’d write it as we say it: Mr. Jones’s golf clubs. This method explains the punctuation of for goodness’ sake.

Rule 2: To show plural possession of a word ending in an s or s sound, form the plural first; then immediately use the apostrophe.

Examples:
the classes’ hours
the Joneses’ car
guys’ night out
two actresses’ roles

Pop Quiz
Place the apostrophe (and perhaps an s) where appropriate.

1. The classes opinions were predictable according to their grade levels.
2. The boss suit was brand new.
3. The bus steering wheel was wearing out.
4. The Crosses dog bit the mailman.
5. We understand Lagos airport handled over one million passengers last year.
6. The Smiths boat sank.

Pop Quiz Answers

1. The classes’ opinions were predictable according to their grade levels.
2. The boss’s suit was brand new.
3. The bus’s steering wheel was wearing out.
4. The Crosses’ dog bit the mailman.
5. We understand Lagos’s (OR Lagos’) airport handled over one million passengers last year.
6. The Smiths’ boat sank.

Oh God! please email them to me: Creativedriftwood@gmail.com.
I'll post them on my bulletin board- I've broken all these rules at least a million times to the point I am too confused to even comment on them during reviewing.

My 3 book "trilogy" came out of a short story I wrote for college. When I went back to make a novel out of it, it took on a life of its own, with the backstory becoming interesting enough to warrant a prequel. I've been since working on all 4 in tandem, the prequel forcing me to flesh out parts of the other story where I realized the time line wouldn't work.
That said, I found time-lines and maps of the area tremendously helpful. I even went so far at finding a yearly calendar for each of the years my books take place. I found this helps when mentioning days of the week and time frames.
As for actual plot strategy. Maybe my next group of books.
CJ

When the muses are in the mood to help, you should do nothing but write. You're so far out ahead of the rest of us, don't stop writing!