Fantasy adventure novel.
Excerpt
1 of the reviews
by Celia N
Absolutely brilliant story, well written. Enjoyed by teenagers and adults. Highly recommended.
KEYWORDS: Fantasy Adventure
EXCERPT:
“Okay, lets see, I have a story, it’s one that was told to me a long time ago,” said Devlin as he tried to get comfortable. “And it goes like this, once there was man called Radon who lived in a far off land. He was hiking through a snowy and winter covered forest. He had a hard time because it was a forested area that was unknown to him. The snow was so high that it came up to his knees, soaking his legs with coldness. It was so cold that he couldn’t even feel his toes or the lower part of his legs and he was starting to get worried.
Normally Radon liked snow but not today when he had to travel so far through it; it felt more like his enemy. Just as the sun was starting to descend through the sky Radon reached a thinly ice covered lake; it definitely looked too thin to cross on foot.
“This is boring,” said one of the younger blue men, who blamed the giants for the lack of a fight that day.
“Watch your manners,” snapped the King.
The young man guiltily shut his mouth; he looked embarrassed and most likely regretted his out burst.
“As I was saying. Radon was looking for a way around the ice when he saw a figure dressed in gray on the ice. The woman just stood there in the middle of the ice. The ice started to break; cracks spread under her feet. Radon shouted a warning but he was too late, the woman fell into the icy cold water. The figure could be seen bobbing up and down inside the hole but the strange thing was she wasn’t screaming or thrashing at all. She was barely keeping her head above water. Despite of this Radon still acted quickly anyway. He grabbed a length of rope from his bag, tied the rope around a tree and his waist, took a few paces back and sprinted towards the lake as fast as he could. He dived forwards and landed on his stomach and slid across the ice. The wind rushed past his ears as he sped along the ice.
Radon just managed to stop himself, before the edge of the hole. He grabbed onto the edge of ice, stretched his hand into the freezing water and caught her quickly-disappearing-hand just in time. He heaved and pulled her onto the ice. The ice was breaking underneath them but it held together long enough for him to pull them back across the lake and back on to dry land. The whole time as he struggled, not a word was spoken. He fell into the snow and gasped for breath. His clothes were soaking wet and the cold breeze was really eating into his flesh. If he didn’t get warmed up soon, he would be in a lot of trouble.
“Thanks, kind stranger, I will repay my debts with three wishes,” said the middle-aged woman, who seemed to be a lot dryer than he was. Radon just blinked at her and asked her if she was kidding.
“I kid you not,” stated the woman.
“It can’t be true,” said Radon, who had been expecting at most a word of thanks or a warm place to stay.
“Do you want the wishes or not?”
“I suppose it won’t hurt to give it a try,” said Radon, giving up. Hoping that he could wish himself warm.
“First wish?”
“Mmm, let me see,” said Radon, as if he was really thinking it through. Trying to make her think he was taking her seriously. She had been out in the forest on her own so there was no telling how mentally unstable she was. “I wish for a nice cottage by the lake here with a hot fire, warm bed, tons of food and lots of beer.” He added stretching his arms out, as if showing her what a huge pile of stuff he wanted.
“Granted,” said the woman simply.
Sure as fish a cottage appeared no more than six feet away from him; it looked as it had been there for years. And one thing that Radon did notice about it was that it looked warm and cozy. Stacked outside under a slanting roof were piles and piles of firewood. Radon went inside and discovered that the place was quite large, and it had more than a few rooms. One of which was stacked from floor to ceiling with barrels of ale and another was stocked full of fresh and dry food. After he had finished looking around, Radon went and planted himself in front of the fire. Ate an extensive hot meal and drowned it down with some refreshing cool ale.
“What is your second wish?” she asked, making her presence felt again.
“So soon?” asked Radon, who was enjoying himself immensely.
“You only have twenty minutes to finish off your wishes,” she said tapping her foot.
“You didn’t tell me this before!” he protested, wanting to take his time and think out each wish carefully.
“You didn’t ask.”
“Alright, my second wish is a forever refilling chest of gold, but the chest must be a decent size.” He said after a few moments.
“Very well, granted.”
Under his feet appeared a chest of good design, Radon jumped up and greedily opened the lid. The chest was full to the brim with glittering gold. It was more money than a simple lumberjack like himself had ever seen or would ever likely see. He emptied the chest of gold on the floor, creating a tinkling pile of gold. He did this until the box was empty. Radon closed it and opened it again, and sure enough the chest was full again with more gold. “Oh this is great!” shouted Radon happily. He did this a few more times until he got bored and returned to his seat. Thinking what he should do with his last and final wish. Radon thought it through, and realized that he had all the material things he needed or ever wanted but all he needed now was someone to share it with.
“Two minutes left,” said the woman irritably.
Radon with a big smile on his face then said these words. “I wish for you!” he said.
“What! Are you mad?” Her smooth face crunching up into a frown.
“I wish for you when you were your most beautiful.”
“Beauty is very different from where I come from, and I warn you that this is not a very good idea,” said middle-aged wish-giver in a grim tone.
“That’s is what I want,” said Radon, stubbornly.
“As you wish but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
A cloud of smoke gathered around the woman, swirling and twisting around. Like a great storm was brewing right in front of him. The smoke was purple in color and smelt of sulfur.
“What happened next?” asked a small man, as a Devlin took a quick breather.
“I’m getting to it,” said Devlin. “Radon was beginning to have second thoughts about his last wish but it was too late for him to change it now. And his heart fell as he heard a loud booming laugh erupting from the shroud. Something was definitely wrong and when the smoke cleared a towering figure stood before him. It wasn’t an attractive woman at all but a big purple monster with huge sharp fangs.
“W-what are you?” asked Radon backing away nervously. Radon was a heavily muscled lumberjack and he had taken on more than his fair share of wild animals when he needed to but there was no way he could defeat this creature by mere strength alone.
“I’m free!” said the monster before it started to laugh again. “After years of being trapped in that wretched body, cursed to serve anyone who saved me with three wishes, now I, Ecathu is free to wreck havoc and chaos once again.”
“What about my wish?” asked Radon before he could stop himself. He knew that confronting the beast would be a bad idea.
“Oh, yes,” said Ecathu as if it had just noticed that Radon was still around. “Mmm, let me see because you helped me escape I will give you a head start.” The monster was standing there grinning; its many sharp teeth shining in the light. Suddenly the cottage didn’t feel so comfortable and welcoming anymore. In fact he felt trapped and he would be lucky if would be able to escape alive.
“Head start?” asked Radon puzzled.
“Yes, you have five minutes before I hunt you down.”
“Hell!” cursed Radon, who then tried to grab the gold chest, but gave up when he discovered that it was going to be impossible to move. It was just way too heavy. Radon cursed again as he dashed for the door and pushed on it but found out that it wouldn’t open, so he went and dived through the window, rolling in the snow until he was back onto his feet. All the while the monster was heard from within laughing like a maniac.
Radon decided he would cross the frozen lake, figuring that he would save time if he did so, even if it was risky. As he went across, he treaded lightly; and quickly scrambling ahead if he heard cracking noises. Amazingly he crossed without falling in.
Radon sprinted through the snow-covered forest, tripping over once or twice into the snow. After about five minutes he took a breather, confident that he had gotten far enough for a little break. Leaning against the tree he cursed himself for being such an idiot for losing the gold and the cottage. At least he had gotten a warm meal and was able to make himself warm in front of the fire. Both of which gave him some energy. Just then he heard a loud explosion; the cottage had been blown to smithereens.
Radon pushed himself to run faster; luckily he found a well-worn but slightly overgorwn path. The path winded its way through the heavy snow laden trees. As he ran he heard trees and branches snapping behind him. And then just as he thought the monster was going to catch up with him, Radon reached a small town. Radon stopped near the town and hid behind a huge carved stone. He peeked around the edge to see if he was still being followed and sure enough Ecathu burst out from the forest, timber flying everywhere as it rushed towards him. It grunted in rage and the beast stopped just before the edge of the town and wouldn’t come any closer.
“Curse you! Human,” said the monster pounding its foot. “I will get you someday,” boomed the monster that promptly turned around and stalked off.
“That’s strange,” thought Radon. “Surely the monster is not afraid of a few villagers. Is it?”
As Radon looked around he noticed that the whole town was surrounded by the huge carved rocks. Strange symbols were carved deeply into the huge stones, the symbols seemed to be glowing a deep red. And soon as he thought it through he realized that the stones protected the village. He would never be allowed to leave again; as he sat there catching his breath he heard the loud booming voice before it left and it said. “I will sure as hell never give up. One day I will get you and skin you alive!”
At first the villagers treated Radon with suspicion and some were even hostile towards him but he was eventually accepted by the town’s folk, who treated him fairly. He wondered why they would need protection from the monster if it was trapped in the human body but he was told that there were worse things out there and the stones protected the village from them. After a year or two Radon was charmed by a wonderful woman who he married and had a family with. He also carved himself out a decent job as a carpenter, and he soon found out that he was content to stay there for the rest of his days. He may not have got the cottage, the endless food and gold, but he felt that he had gained something better; he had a family he could cherish forever.” said Devlin, “That is the end.”
A around of jovial applause filled the night air, congratulating him on a great story. There were also a few loud cheers and whistles.
“Is Ecathu still waiting for him?” asked a young boy, his eyes wide.
“For all we know, he could be.”
“That was a rather good story,” conceded King Indigo. “Is the story true?”
“The man who told me said it was and he was quite a serious man. The man who told me was only one of a few people who had escaped the village unscathed.”
Copyright 2008 Craig Smith. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.
Post a Comment