Continuation of Bryn's story. This time we slow down and get a glimpse of other characters.
Chapter Two
“Good Goddess!” Akiya exclaimed when Bryn arrived.
Akiya, Bryn and a few others had made a small base camp in the far north of the mountains. Two light brown tents that fit up to five people and one green tent that held eight dotted a mostly barren desert area. A few green bushes and trees surrounded the green tent. From the air, the tents would blend in.
Akiya tucked a stray locke of cotton candy colored hair behind one pointed ear and then stood there and wrung her caramel hands. “I told you this was a bad idea, Princess.” The laugh lines around her diamond like eyes turned into worry creases as she chewed her full lower lip.
Akiya was still the only one Bryn allowed to call her Princess. To the rest she was simply Bryn.
“I know.” Bryn’s voice waivered as she dismounted.
Although Akiya had just a few years on Bryn, her voice came from an ancient world. “Come here and let me see you better.” She opened her arms in her silvery tunic and took a step forward in her black boots.
Bryn shuffled toward Akiya with her head lowered. I hate disappointing her.
The healer wrinkled her noise at the stench, but didn’t comment on it as she took Bryn’s left arm in her deft hands and looked at the wound. She sucked air through her teeth a few times and Bryn knew the damage was great. Akiya usually could keep comments to herself.
“That bad, huh?”
“Some of the worst you’ve had, Princess.”
“Fantastic.”
Akiya squinted at Bryn for a second before returning her attention to the wound.
Bryn shut up.
“I need you to wash up to really assess the damage.” She poked at the gaping toward her wrist, eliciting a strangled cry from Bryn. Blood welled up again. “Off you go, Princess.”
Bryn covered her left forearm with her free hand and meandered along the path behind Akiya to the shallow stream behind the enormous granite boulder.
She passed Phelan with his wild buttercup yellow curls and one stormy gray eye (the other he lost in a fight and covered with a simple black patch) as he sharpened some arrows. His black tunic's seams threatened to burst when he moved from all his muscle. He didn’t glance up from his work, but grunted an acknowledgment.
Across from him – working on some kind of stew—the portly Quinlin sat in a blue tunic. Upon seeing Bryn, he rubbed his bald head, crinkled his jolly blue eyes into a smile, and waived.
Bryn waived back.
As Bryn walked away, Akiya tied up Thak next to her own blue Ombre colored horse named Thannos and ducked into the green tent.
Bryn tried to keep from leaving droplets as she reached the stream. She kneeled down at the edge of the water and gingerly put her arm in. The cool water felt surprisingly refreshing. Bryn grinned to herself and then noticed her face in the water. Black streaks and splatters crossed most of her pale face and ran down her arms. Her eyes looked back at her in a haunting stare. “No wonder Akiya looked worried.” Once the bleeding slowed, she stripped out of her sticky tunic and unzipped her boots. A fresh olive green tunic had been laid out for her. She set aside her weapons and glanced around. Coast clear.
Bryn slipped into the cool water that went to her waist and started washing up. Her body, though long and lean with ample breasts and small hips, was littered with battle scars. They crisscrossed her back, her stomach, her shoulders and her chest. In the two years since she’d been on the run, Bryn’s blemish free skin became the story of her journey.
She undid her braid and untangled her white lockes with her fingers the best she could after washing them.
Bryn took a moment to revel in the warmth of the sun and just to be alive.
A snapping noise startled Bryn and she turned to the shore.
She heard a muttered curse from a male voice and ducked into the water with just her head out. “Who’s there?” Bryn braved calling out. My weapons are on shore, dammit.
Fineas stepped out from behind the boulder with his dark cheeks somehow enflamed and his hands held up. “Uh, just me, Princess…I mean Bryn.” Fineas stood at 6’4 with hip length deep black hair he kept in a tight braid and tilted brown eyes that he lined with kohl like his Egyptian ancestors use to. A black tunic cinched at his small waist. “Uh, sorry.” He covered his eyes. Fineas was great with a broad sword or a plasma gun, a bow and arrow or an energy spell, great to keep your back in a fight, but not so great with the female species.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing, Fin?”
“N-nothing.” He winced. “I mean-um.” Fineas paused.
“Well?”
He cleared his throat and tried again. “Akiya was worried you were taking too long, so she sent me.”
“Tell her I’ll be out in a moment,” Bryn yelled. “As soon as I get dressed.”
Fineas fell all over himself trying to back up and leave. “Yes, Princess… I mean Bryn!”
Bryn chuckled to herself and made her way to shore.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Untitled Fantasy
Got inspired to write this from a one-line thing over in a writing forum I sometimes follow and it kinda exploded from there lol. I really like this and am ridiculously excited to figure this all out and keep writing it. I started with the opening line and just made it up as I went along (even the imaginary creatures) and it all just flowed. The only thing I paused to look up was her name because I was trying to think of a last name and was stuck. I still don't have it haha. But this is the first chapter into a fantasy/sci-fi thing about a faerie princess named Bryn who is on the run, foul-mouthed, and full of fun sarcasm. There's a little goreyness and cursing. Enjoy and CRITIQUE please even if it's just rough!
edit: 10/18/2012 8:41 pm Made a few changes. Added in to the scenery because someone who read it said I needed more setting. I fixed some of the descriptors for the creatures so they read less like a list (as this same person pointed out lol) and added a clarifying description to her horse Thak.
Chapter One
Being a real faerie princess is not what every little girl actually dreams of, Bryn
Ceallach thought as the crimson Kai demon attempted to suck the marrow from her right forearm. She raised her plasma 6-shooter and blasted it right between two of its four glowing lime eyes effectively covering her even more in the stench of the worst raw sewage and rotten eggs scent to ever exist. "Ugh!" Bryn used her free hand to wipe some of the black blood out of one of her lavender edged gold eyes and then had to immediately duck the pouncing attack of another Kai demon. That one got a blast to the back of its elongated oval skull as soon as it landed. The tail whipped back at her in a last death throe and the jagged scales cut across her cheek. "Fuck, even dead you all suck."
The two shots had echoed out in the clearing of the forest lit with summer sun. A gathering of Kipple birds took flight-- from dark olive Qualox trees-- with their tangerine and violet wings picking up a cool breeze.
A third Kai demon hissed from her right and she turned to aim her gun as it crouched on all fours for a moment with its razor-like knees and elbows tightening to launch. Long pointed ears twitched as it listened.
"I don't think so!" She clicked the trigger and nothing happened. "Shit!"
A reptilian grin gaped across its face exposing glistening fangs and its tail spasmed with excitement as it leapt toward her.
She reloaded faster than she ever had before and managed to get a shot off just as the Kai demon was upon her.
It exploded in a disgusting mess of blood, bone and tissues all over her.
She tried to sit up but the weight and stench held her down. "Mother fucker!" She pushed off the bigger chunks and stood up—dripping—and began scanning the wide clearing she had entered too hunt for any other demons. Kai demons loved to travel in packs Her once-grey tunic stuck to her skin in too many places as she moved slowly around with her gun ready to fire at anything that so much as looked wrong. Bryn panted from the fight, but her heart still pounded a crazy jungle beat full of adrenaline.
The area was silent, but nothing seemed eerie or ominous about that. She twirled around when she heard a rustling but it was just a stale breeze blowing over a red Gooza berry bush.
After perhaps 15 minutes her injured arm started to shake from holding up her gun. Nothing else seemed to be coming for her. She holstered her weapon and looked down at her forearm. She tore off what was left of her wrist guard--which apparently is no use to prevent Kai demon fangs from ripping up your flesh--and beneath the drying black blood she could see the shredded skin and muscle. "Akiya is going to have a field day figuring out how to fix that one." Bryn muttered to herself. Just add it to my list of other angry scars. Bryn tore the bottom of her tunic in a spot that had remained mostly 3-week expired milk smell free and wrapped her injury the best she could to prevent bleeding out on the walk. She didn't want people chuckling over her death for being stupid. Bryn thought that might be something crazy to think about. Maybe it's shock? The adrenaline finished seeping away though and brought sharp agony in its place.
Fantastic. She huffed, flicked her bloody white braid over her left shoulder, and picked up her black and silver bow that had gone flying in the attack. She slung it back into its proper place and walked back through the trees towards the fence as her thigh-high leather boots snapped twigs beneath her feet. She didn't care at the moment if she was making too much noise. She was pissed. Her quiver bounced on her back in a comforting rhythm, jostling the hand crafted arrows inside, and she finally slowed her pace. "Just out to hunt up some dinner, but noooo, I can't go Goddess damned anywhere." She snarled.
Sunlight sparkled through the Qualux trees which were so tall they looked like they kissed the sky and lit the path in cheer.
Small Kipple birds called symphonies to each other from their long pointed beaks while fat Mikkels with big bushy tails, and large tufted ears raced to-and-fro across tree branches.
Summer blooms in a wide range of vibrant colors and shapes blurred past Bryn and she slowed down and tried to keep from stomping. It remained hard to be so annoyed in all the splendor of the forest.
She turned her face to the sun and basked a bit in the warmth that touched the cleaner parts of her skin. I need a bath, she caught a whiff of herself as a cool breeze tickled her ears, or maybe three.
A large branch breaking to her left caught her attention and she unholstered her gun and turned to look.
A Talik—a brown and white deer-like creature with velvety antlers-- stood there on four spindly legs with tiny hooves and stared at her with its impossibly large blue eyes. Its short snout wiggled as it stayed so still.
Bryn sighed with relief and changed out her plasma 6-shooter for her bow and arrow. The bow felt solid and like second nature in her calloused hands. She took aim and just as she went to release the arrow, she heard a piercing screech and suddenly a Kai demon dove on it. Bryn gasped and then quickly put her bow back as the Kai demon occupied itself with tearing the Talik's throat out. Blue blood splashed out onto the forest floor as Bryn stood still for a moment and sent a prayer to any Goddess listening. Then she sprinted the rest of the way through trees, not stopping until she reached the reinforced steel electric fence. The Qualux trees streamed past her and a few skinny branches snapped her face and snagged at her tunic, but she kept up the pace.
Bryn typed Akiya's code in the keypad of the gate with haste when she reached it, slipped through and closed the gate behind her. She let out a breath she hadn't noticed she held as she put her forehead to the cool steel. Shudders ran through her whole body as Bryn breathed deep and slow, trying to calm her heart.
As soon as her heart returned to normal, a thunderous wave of nausea hit her and she stooped over with her hands on her knees and retched until nothing was left.
Her forearm started to throb. "Yeah, yeah, I know you're there." She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand as she turned away from the gate and made it to her horse, Thak.
He stood tied to a wrought iron light post in the open, but actually had been bespelled to be invisible to everyone but her.
Bryn put her hand on his golden zebra striped fur and whispered, "Visabla". He was now visible to all. Horses here were like most in the human world except they had fur instead of hair and came in many more exotic colors.
She mounted Thak's broad back and took the reins in her good hand. Bryn shouted, "Yah!" and he jumped into a break neck gallop.
edit: 10/18/2012 8:41 pm Made a few changes. Added in to the scenery because someone who read it said I needed more setting. I fixed some of the descriptors for the creatures so they read less like a list (as this same person pointed out lol) and added a clarifying description to her horse Thak.
Chapter One
Being a real faerie princess is not what every little girl actually dreams of, Bryn
Ceallach thought as the crimson Kai demon attempted to suck the marrow from her right forearm. She raised her plasma 6-shooter and blasted it right between two of its four glowing lime eyes effectively covering her even more in the stench of the worst raw sewage and rotten eggs scent to ever exist. "Ugh!" Bryn used her free hand to wipe some of the black blood out of one of her lavender edged gold eyes and then had to immediately duck the pouncing attack of another Kai demon. That one got a blast to the back of its elongated oval skull as soon as it landed. The tail whipped back at her in a last death throe and the jagged scales cut across her cheek. "Fuck, even dead you all suck."
The two shots had echoed out in the clearing of the forest lit with summer sun. A gathering of Kipple birds took flight-- from dark olive Qualox trees-- with their tangerine and violet wings picking up a cool breeze.
A third Kai demon hissed from her right and she turned to aim her gun as it crouched on all fours for a moment with its razor-like knees and elbows tightening to launch. Long pointed ears twitched as it listened.
"I don't think so!" She clicked the trigger and nothing happened. "Shit!"
A reptilian grin gaped across its face exposing glistening fangs and its tail spasmed with excitement as it leapt toward her.
She reloaded faster than she ever had before and managed to get a shot off just as the Kai demon was upon her.
It exploded in a disgusting mess of blood, bone and tissues all over her.
She tried to sit up but the weight and stench held her down. "Mother fucker!" She pushed off the bigger chunks and stood up—dripping—and began scanning the wide clearing she had entered too hunt for any other demons. Kai demons loved to travel in packs Her once-grey tunic stuck to her skin in too many places as she moved slowly around with her gun ready to fire at anything that so much as looked wrong. Bryn panted from the fight, but her heart still pounded a crazy jungle beat full of adrenaline.
The area was silent, but nothing seemed eerie or ominous about that. She twirled around when she heard a rustling but it was just a stale breeze blowing over a red Gooza berry bush.
After perhaps 15 minutes her injured arm started to shake from holding up her gun. Nothing else seemed to be coming for her. She holstered her weapon and looked down at her forearm. She tore off what was left of her wrist guard--which apparently is no use to prevent Kai demon fangs from ripping up your flesh--and beneath the drying black blood she could see the shredded skin and muscle. "Akiya is going to have a field day figuring out how to fix that one." Bryn muttered to herself. Just add it to my list of other angry scars. Bryn tore the bottom of her tunic in a spot that had remained mostly 3-week expired milk smell free and wrapped her injury the best she could to prevent bleeding out on the walk. She didn't want people chuckling over her death for being stupid. Bryn thought that might be something crazy to think about. Maybe it's shock? The adrenaline finished seeping away though and brought sharp agony in its place.
Fantastic. She huffed, flicked her bloody white braid over her left shoulder, and picked up her black and silver bow that had gone flying in the attack. She slung it back into its proper place and walked back through the trees towards the fence as her thigh-high leather boots snapped twigs beneath her feet. She didn't care at the moment if she was making too much noise. She was pissed. Her quiver bounced on her back in a comforting rhythm, jostling the hand crafted arrows inside, and she finally slowed her pace. "Just out to hunt up some dinner, but noooo, I can't go Goddess damned anywhere." She snarled.
Sunlight sparkled through the Qualux trees which were so tall they looked like they kissed the sky and lit the path in cheer.
Small Kipple birds called symphonies to each other from their long pointed beaks while fat Mikkels with big bushy tails, and large tufted ears raced to-and-fro across tree branches.
Summer blooms in a wide range of vibrant colors and shapes blurred past Bryn and she slowed down and tried to keep from stomping. It remained hard to be so annoyed in all the splendor of the forest.
She turned her face to the sun and basked a bit in the warmth that touched the cleaner parts of her skin. I need a bath, she caught a whiff of herself as a cool breeze tickled her ears, or maybe three.
A large branch breaking to her left caught her attention and she unholstered her gun and turned to look.
A Talik—a brown and white deer-like creature with velvety antlers-- stood there on four spindly legs with tiny hooves and stared at her with its impossibly large blue eyes. Its short snout wiggled as it stayed so still.
Bryn sighed with relief and changed out her plasma 6-shooter for her bow and arrow. The bow felt solid and like second nature in her calloused hands. She took aim and just as she went to release the arrow, she heard a piercing screech and suddenly a Kai demon dove on it. Bryn gasped and then quickly put her bow back as the Kai demon occupied itself with tearing the Talik's throat out. Blue blood splashed out onto the forest floor as Bryn stood still for a moment and sent a prayer to any Goddess listening. Then she sprinted the rest of the way through trees, not stopping until she reached the reinforced steel electric fence. The Qualux trees streamed past her and a few skinny branches snapped her face and snagged at her tunic, but she kept up the pace.
Bryn typed Akiya's code in the keypad of the gate with haste when she reached it, slipped through and closed the gate behind her. She let out a breath she hadn't noticed she held as she put her forehead to the cool steel. Shudders ran through her whole body as Bryn breathed deep and slow, trying to calm her heart.
As soon as her heart returned to normal, a thunderous wave of nausea hit her and she stooped over with her hands on her knees and retched until nothing was left.
Her forearm started to throb. "Yeah, yeah, I know you're there." She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand as she turned away from the gate and made it to her horse, Thak.
He stood tied to a wrought iron light post in the open, but actually had been bespelled to be invisible to everyone but her.
Bryn put her hand on his golden zebra striped fur and whispered, "Visabla". He was now visible to all. Horses here were like most in the human world except they had fur instead of hair and came in many more exotic colors.
She mounted Thak's broad back and took the reins in her good hand. Bryn shouted, "Yah!" and he jumped into a break neck gallop.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)