Writing Excerpts

CERBERUS REX“Once, on a moonless night, a Moon Princess--” he gestured behind him, and Feri froze; her gnome disguise covered in a sheer and shimmering pink dress. Noarwin tucked one hand in his coat and waved the fingers of his other hand. Feri stumbled a few steps until she stood before the crowd. “Lovely and desired by many a man, she found herself faced with a mysterious Forest Prince." Silas grunted, also compelled to draw forward as Noarwin snuck another flick on the sword at his side. “It was love at first sight.”“Aw no!” The boys groaned, and the girls giggled. Smiles found the adult’s faces.“But the princess’s father, a great Mage King,” flick, “refused to give her up to just anyone!” Kruf, now in the heavy garb of a red and fur-lined cape, joined Silas and Feri. Noarwin sent him a nod and Kruf paled. For a moment, nothing happened and then--“Good… Forest Prince. Oh! I love my child. I. Cannot part from her. Unless... it be to. A good. Man!” Kruf declared in monotone and searching for his character’s dialogue.Snickers followed, and Noarwin raised one expectant eyebrow at Feri.She scrambled. “Ah, but Father. I… love him?”“Uh--too. Too bad.”“Oh...” Silas tilted his head at them.Noarwin snorted, shared a conspiring grin with his audience, and went on, “And so! The Forest Prince vowed to summon his great servants, the griffin and hippogriff. He would send them to find and destroy the monster hiding in the princess’s flower grove in order to prove his devotion, and his love.” At that moment, a serpent-like shadow drew under his audience’s feet. The children gasped, and the adults marveled at the ominous illusion.Noarwin glanced sideways at Silas who looked curious at the figures coming from behind him to stand at his shoulders. The hippogriff pawed the ground. Silas found the shadow under one of the children, and passed Noarwin a glance. Noarwin smiled at him, gave a nod indiscernible to any not looking for it, and winked when Silas motioned at the shadow.A flash of light shot up between a boy’s legs. The child shouted, jumping nearly as tall as he stood. The hippogriff and griffin swept into the air, and a serpentine creature emerged and dashed around to hover over Kruf and Feri. Kruf drew Feri behind him, and then the hippogriff and griffin pummeled into its body. The impact sent it left and right, its black form turning to smoke where the mythological illusions hit it. And then the thing melted into the ground before Kruf and Feri.“When the battle ended, the prince’s hippogriff and griffin purified the garden by dancing through it, and the king gave his daughter to the prince to marry.” Noarwin passed the dancing hippogriff and griffin to go to Feri and Silas and joined their hands. The two creatures stopped prancing and stood on either side. “And by the power vested in me, I gave them to each other as husband and wife!”

BEARER OF POWERA slithering feeling wrapped around Carna’s limbs and under her covers. She twitched, the smell of rot in her nose. And then a bang at her window shot her upright, Snow growling at a figure sitting on the ledge, moonlight-lined clouds behind them.Carna grasped the spearhead always at her side.“Tisk, tisk, pretty little star-girl,” a voice purred.“Who are you?” she asked. She couldn’t make out his face from the clothes obstructing his features in the late-night hours.He chuckled, and hopped down, approaching so the strips of fabric hanging off him fluttered in the wind he made. He became clearer in the moonlight, let in her room through the window he’d been blocking. A long, noble face, and eyes dark as the earth. His hair fell to his elbows in two braids. He smiled at her, alarmingly handsome. But his presence was heavy and made her ill. An evil spirit.“You don’t remember me,” he said, amused as he leaned toward her.
“Well. Why would you? You killed me. This isn’t my body. Put up a fight he did, but alas.”“Did you deserve it?” Carna asked, keeping her tone even. She wasn’t foolish enough to think such a person would answer her questions about who she was. Better to let him talk and learn what she could. It didn’t seem strange an enemy would visit her this late in the game. Whoever had taken control of her life, they’d want to gloat; to let her know who they were, even if indirect. This was an announcement that one of them was about to cross the finish line, and they didn’t think it would be her. Neither did she.

THE LIGHT OF EBON“Look at that. An Alyil Diamond.” As if the day couldn’t get more eventful. She squatted before him and flashed her sword. “So, how did you find your way into my chambers?”If he hadn’t growled, Briar might have been surprised, but like a cornered beast, he threw himself at her. Briar caught him around the chest and turned him onto his back where she pinned him between her legs and held her sword to his throat.“Well, well, well.” Briar grinned down at him. “You’re prettier than the court ladies I barely avoided joining.” She stroked the unwounded side of his face and looked him over. The blood from his lacerations had spread into his black hair, and the one eye that wasn’t shut was a red-brown. He was filthy, his complexion pale. Whether that was from fatigue or not, she couldn’t tell. He breathed heavily through his teeth, causing her to frown. His injuries were bad. “Yeti wounds.” She recognized those; even bore a similar scar on her back. “Were you by yourself?” He didn’t answer. Briar pulled on the bloodiest part of his shirt. Three slashes in his side exposed muscle and bone. Her gaze slid sideways to his arm. It had all been but ripped off. “That can kill you if you don’t have it tended to.”“You’re just like them,” he said.Briar looked from him to the window they sat under. It faced the West Gate she’d just come from. He must have seen the skirmish. “I like to think I’m more malignant.”“You realize this place is a honey hive for danger.”She smiled to herself. She liked that. “Yes, it’s the reason I returned.”“Shouldn’t you be at some military outpost, Imperya?” he spat.Interesting. He knew who she was. Briar relaxed a little but didn’t climb off him. She was more comfortable in a position in which she could better sense his intended movements. “I was--let’s say--discharged.” She smirked. “Of my own volition.” Briar touched his face, careful not to probe his wounds. They needed attention. “George!”

FROST OF AVALONArthur stared at the maiden. Her expression had changed. It showed pain, yet her eyes and hardened lips revealed stalwart determination with her fingers clawed around the blade. Arthur’s attention shifted to her breast. The blood Kay spoke of glistened red as a summer rose and had started to turn to ice.Resolute, Arthur grasped hold of the golden hilt. The maiden held the blade with all her might, but it took no effort for the one true king to release it from her grip. It slid out of her chest and shot a yellow bolt through her. The light spread like rivers, and her stone exterior softened into flesh as cold air leapt past her lips in a gasp. The maiden, frozen like a man in time, was free.

Low Character Voices

High Character Voices