Prologue
I was in the midst of an author’s worst nightmare —— a scene come to life and now running amok. Surrounded by darkness studded with distant stars, I stood within the night sky and swung my crystalline staff like a bat at the scaled monstrosity, thinking, I don’t remember it being like this when I wrote it.
It roared then tried to snap my arm off. The staff in my hands flared into brilliant light and connected with the wyvern’s jaw.
It cried out as it fell head over heels, backward.
:That hurt,: said the aggrieved voice in my head that wasn’t coming from the hell-spawned figment of my imagination.
“Duck, you idiot!”
“Um, sorry,” I yelled as a sword whisked past my head to thud into the neck of the second bear-sized wingless dragon that had joined the fray.
Frowning, I glanced at my rescuer, who stood outlined beneath my staff's glowing light in black livery like some sort of musketeer, her long hair flowing behind her. “Hey, you’re not supposed to even be in this scene.”
“I figure you had to be drunk,” she said as the two wyverns shied back, glaring at us as they began to circle.
Suddenly one of the gray scaled wyverns reared as someone else appeared out of the darkness in black livery, which flowed like a cape around her and who also had no right interfering with my creative process.
She stabbed the creature from behind. It cried out in agony as her sword severed its spine. It lost control of its hind legs, howling in pain as turned awkwardly to face its tormentor.
“What are you doing here?” I cried.
“I take it this is the new draft!” the young woman shouted as the beast lunged forward with all the strength its front legs allowed and knocked her to the ethereal ground. Struggling, she pushed the wyvern’s snout away with her black booted feet before scrambling up and trying to reach us.
:Stop complaining,: the computer voice said enrapport with my mind, :we can use all the help we can get.:
I concentrated and sent a blast of energy, which struck the waving blade, sending uncounted volts coursing through it. The creature trembled, then fell dead.
“Hey, nice shoes, Helen!” my blonde-haired companion yelled as she brought her sword down on the other attacking creature’s neck, neatly severing it.
“Thanks, Kris, I think he just wrote them in," she said, reaching us. "I remember wearing sandals a few minutes ago!”
I ignored them both, glancing around us. “There were three wyverns in the original story, ‘girls.’”
“Who you calling girls?” Kris shouted, her sword at the ready as Helen drew a dagger from its sheath against her thigh and peered out at the darkness.
:Oh, you’ve really done it this time, George,: the voice whispered in my mind.
I glanced at my two companions, who definitely didn't look like girls. “Um, sorry?” That’s when the last wyvern bounded out of the ether and knocked me to the ground, opening its maw wide as it roared. I stared past its rather sharp teeth and down its gullet, which looked less than inviting. Its breath made me want to gag.
:GEORGE!: Staff screamed as I struggled to interpose my it between me and those rows of crooked wicked-looking teeth.
“GEORGE!” the young ladies chorused as they hacked at its sides.
YOU ARE READING
Dare2Believe
FantasyIt started as stories of a distant world where elvin magic defeated humans and their science. The author had an idea, why in a digital age do books have to always say the same things? What if readers could become the spirit behind their favorite cha...
