THE STONE KING -- book two of The Chronicles of the First Age

Author's Note

I will soon be publishing the final chapter of The Stone King and including a brief Epilog. To hold you over until then, I thought I'd share with you The Vision of Karux.

Some of you already know that the two Stone books were intended to be the first story about the rise and fall of eight kingdoms over a 2,000 year period of time,(1) the Chronicles of the First Age. The series begins with Karux's first ascent up the sacred mountain of Archetor(4) and ends with a near apocalyptic event which also happens to include the birth of the "true" dragons.(2) The Vision of Karux is a rough metaphorical outline for the entire series which I wrote quite a long time ago.(3)

Please enjoy.

J.A. Partridge

(1)Each kingdom has something of an elemental theme. The second story, Kingdom of Shadow, refere to the anti-element of Earth which in this mythology is the element of Shadow.

(2) The "true" dragons are living, self-replicating spells that often take draconic forms, among others. Karux creates them for the initial purpose of protecting mankind from the n'kroi and other powerful forces which he anticipates he will not always be around to stop. What actually happens afterward are the subjects of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th ages of Anghar.

(3) I still hope I can write this series. Whether I do or not depends largely on what support these first two books generate. I still have tons of ideas unrelated to Anghar--more than I can actually write--so unless I am somehow able to retire from my job and write full time, I'm being forced to choose what will get done and what won't.

(4) I'm actually thinking of changing the name of the mountain Archetor, since I'm sure no one will pronounce it correctly. The "ch" should actually be pronounced like the greek letter X as in the english word "chemical." My choices so far are "Arketor" or "Arcetor", though even the last might be problematic, to say nothing of how one might pronounce the letter "e" in either of them. Perhaps "Arcaetor"? What do you think? Any suggestions?

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The Vision of Karux

(being a summary of the eight kingdoms and the first 2000 years of world history)

I stood beside the river Pardos after the spring floods when I heard a voice say to me, "Man of clay, look to the mountain."

Turning, I looked to the mountain and I saw a large ox with one horn. With his horn, the ox uprooted an enormous oak tree and piled dirt up over it until it became a great mountain. Then it plowed the land all around and a garden sprang up. Having completed its work, it lay down in the midst of the garden and went to sleep.

As the ox slept, a wolf crept out from a cave, leaped on the ox, and bound it with chains of iron. The wolf chased the ox to and fro across the land, nipping at its legs and pulling on the chains, turning it left and right until it grew too exhausted plowing the land. By this means, the wolf increasing the garden.

Then, as I watched, a leopard with very fast feet came racing out from behind the mountains and drove the wolf back to its cave. The leopard cut off the ox's horn and rode on the ox's back causing it to trample the garden and groan beneath the leopard's weight. My heart became heavy as I watched and I cried out, "How long must this continue?" And the voice replied, "Look to the mountain."

I looked again to the mountain and I saw a bear coming down. It slew the leopard and cut off its fast feet. Then it slew the ox and pulled off its skin. The bear covered itself in the ox's skin and placed the horn upon its own head where the horn grew. It plowed the land like the ox, restoring the garden and enlarging the borders.

At the height of the bear's glory, a lion emerged from the sea. No other animal was like it for the lion was greater than all other beasts. The lion slew the bear and removed the horn, hiding it away in a secret place. It extended the garden from the mountains of the land to the mountains of the sea and subjugated every animal within its borders.

As I pondered this, I saw a giant scorpion emerge from the desert sands and attack the lion. The lion raged and struck back, but could not harm it. The scorpion drove the lion back to the sea and searched the garden from end to end but could not find the horn. In its anger, it spit poison all across the land.

Then an eagle swooped down from the heavens and picked up the scorpion and dropped it so that it broke upon the rocks. The eagle summoned up the winds and the rain, cleaned the land and restored the garden. The eagle built a nest in the midst of the garden and there it laid an egg. The egg hatched and from it came two serpents, a black serpent and a gold serpent.

The black serpent devoured the eagle and burned the garden with its flame. The golden serpent fought the black serpent, which received a mortal wound, but did not die. The golden serpent gathered up what remained of the garden and flew away to the west where it planted it anew.