The Fire (Siege Part 3)

As the rail gun bullets continued their relentless bombardment on the Toraun battle cruise it became evident that Boschivo had a big problem. The battle cruiser swung around and released its own barrage on the land based rail gun. The rail gun’s own force field glistened as each of the laser weapons hit. Bits of tree started on fire and then started a blaze that would one day be known as the Great Fire of 2187. Now, this would mean that someone lived to write the history of the Great Fire of 2187 so I’ve given a vital hint into the story of Boschivo. You might think that this hint helps alleviate the immense stress that you are feeling right now and it may make you wonder at how the tension will continue without, but I guarantee that a twist is soon to happen. Well, wait, that probably wasn’t a good idea to let you know about the twist, but oh well.

Now, while this great battle raged close by the shack, Musaafir cowered in the corner with his hands cupped over his ears. Sarina, on the other hand, showed more courage and moved her sister, then closed the window. She moved over to Musaafir and stooped down next to him. This might be a good time to explain a couple of ways a person might deal with a person in shock. You could do the slap in the face to try and snap the individual out of it. Another way is to help the individual feel grounded and focus in on their sensations. The second way is a lot nicer and in the long run is going to help the individual better. It’s kind of the, teach a person to fish. Where as the first way is much quicker and hands the person the fish, but can cause a little damage.

The slap echoed off the walls and Musaafir instantly put his hand to his face. His hand felt cold on his face and he blinked several times until he saw Sarina raise her hand again. “I, I’m fine,” Musaafir whimpered as he raised his hands to defend himself.

Sarina’s eyes glowered as she stared down at Musaafir and she sputtered in rage, “He found us. We need to go. Now.”  Musaafir nodded and Sarina pulled him up by his armpits and pushed him to the computer. “Take us somewhere they can’t find us.”

Musaafir studied the blinking cursor. “Where, where can we go that they won’t find us?” He put his hands to the side of his head and pulled at the white hair. He dropped his hands in front of his face and turned his gaze to the wrinkled hands. “What have I done?”

Sarina’s footfalls fell behind him and brought him back to the pounding that sounded all around him. “Think. There has to be a way.”

The screen changed as Musaafir put his hands to the keyboard and typed in the user name and password. He smiled as the screen turned into the familiar sight of worlds in the universe. He zoomed in on another green planet and pressed the screen. “You better get Alex.”

Toraun Battle Cruiser (Siege Part 2)

The blast of the rail gun made even the thunder quiver as its energy built and finally exploded forth. The metal shot rang true as it screamed through the air, ripping through cloud and rain alike. It seemed nothing could stop the mighty rail gun shot until something did. It seems to be that way with a lot of things. There is always an end to everything. No matter how powerful, strong, kind, evil, good, or triumphant a person, place, or thing may be, they all have an end. And yes, the mighty rail gun bullet that sung its way through the atmosphere at tremendous speed met its end. Now if you can imagine a watermelon falling from the tallest building and landing on the hard cement below. Well then you can imagine what happened to this innocent little, I mean monstrous rail gun bullet.

Now like this mighty bullet, well, before it slammed into the force field of the Toraun ship that is. Oh dang it, I just gave away the cliffhanger. Just forget that I wrote that last line and continue on like nothing happened. As I was saying. Like the mighty rail gun bullet, it gained inspiration from somewhere. Well probably not, but work with me on this as I need to work in the daily prompt for the blog challenge. I too have gained inspiration from others. One of the trilogies that has most influenced me has been the Dragonlance trilogy. I fell in love with the characters from the very get go. I loved their adventure and cried when a certain individual died. Not going to give that one away so don’t bother. Another trilogy that greatly influenced me was the Lord of The Rings trilogy. Yes, I actually read them and didn’t just watch the movies. I think this is why I write trilogies. I want that epic journey to go on and to have the depth that I found in Dragonlance and The Lord of The Rings. My other inspiration comes from Isaac Asimov. I try to weave together the beauty of magic with the cutting edge of technology. There you have it my inspiration and because it’s late and I already gave up the cliffhanger I’m going to sleep. Have a great nights rest!

The Rail Gun (Siege Part 1)

With a crash the thunder erupted outside the shack. Dark clouds rushed over the sun and the wind whacked the shutters against the walls of the wood shack. Musaafir looked at his two guests, realizing that he may have a made a grave mistake. A note from his father warned him of this very thing and here he’d gone and done it. The two women sat on a bench under the open window. Their eyes told him everything he needed to know about how much harm he’d brought to them. He should have just left them there. Besides, how was he to blame that he’d stumbled onto a planet that had an evil God waiting for any reason at all to destroy the people. He fumbled with the mouse next to the screen and mumbled to himself to avoid their glares. Finally, when the rain started to blow in through the open window and he couldn’t take it any longer he blurted out, “It’s not my fault! The dumb bird attacked me. I had to defend myself.” When neither responded, he added, “Well didn’t I?”

“No, no you didn’t need to defend yourself. That’s the problem,” Sarina said resolutely. She looked over at her sister, then reached up and closed the window to stop the rain from encroaching on their little bit of safety. “And you,” she whispered, “Why did you have to let him in.”

Now up to this point there is no way that Sarina could even imagine why her sister would let a stranger in, but you and I can guess as to the reason why. Plot. Yes I said it. It is all about the plot and story. I mean really, it would not be that exciting of a story if Musaafir had died, because he didn’t defend himself or because Alex didn’t let him in. Seriously, Sarina, have you never read a novel? Now, don’t think I’m crazy. Of course I’m not really talking to Sarina but just making a point about plot. And while I’m on the subject let’s talk a little about how I try to better my writing skills. Many of you may say, “What writing skills?” Well, all I have to say to you is… well nothing I guess, but anyway one of my favorite things to do to better my writing skills is to go to critique groups. Not the ones that just tell you you’re doing an amazing job. And definitely not the ones that cut you down so they feel better about their writing. No, the ones I enjoy are the ones that do both. They let you know how to improve and carefully build you up at the same time to match your skill. This is so nice. Now back to the story. Not sure where it’s going to go from here, but I’m sure it’ll go somewhere. So, onward, ever onward.

Musaafir looked down. The discomfort grew, kind of like when you have an itch in your nose and you know that you’re about to sneeze and it’s in the middle of a very serious lecture. That’s how Musaafir felt at that very moment. Then something happened that saved him, and this story. The plot thickened. A loud bang rang through the woods toward the shack. The bang had not been heard on Musaafir’s world for quite some time. It was the sound of a gun. Now don’t get me wrong, people still hunted and made sport, but this was a different type of bang. It came from the old defense tower where the rail gun had lay still for eons.

Back To The Shack (Toraun Part 16)

As the howl pierced Musaafir’s eardrums he took the opportunity to stop and think of what he had just done. There were so many possibilities of what would happen to the women as they exploded from their existence into his existence. They could just as easily be blasted to tiny little space particles as they could be turned back in age as Musaafir did each time he went to a new place. Now this just wouldn’t be fun at all having to take care of two toddlers or even worse two infants. What if they were just blubbery, tiny, balls of flesh with eyes nose and mouths? Or ….

Now as you might imagine the time it takes for Musaafir to go from one place to the next is very short; in fact it was so short he really didn’t have a chance to finish his thoughts before the three, yes three. I mean let’s think about this for just a second. If only Musaafir made it back then that wouldn’t make for that great of a story at all. Well, I suppose it would tie up some loose ends and we could just move onto something new and exciting on yet another planet, but really what would be the point of that. I mean here I spend pages and hours of time talking about two young ladies and then go and kill them… I mean… well maybe… I mean no. No. No. that won’t do at all and so…

The three humans crashed into Musaafir’s small cabin all in a heap and instantly Sarina jumped to her feet with her sword drawn. She examined the room and rested her eyes on the flashing cursor on the monitor sitting on top of Musaafir’s desk. Now if you are just joining us or have forgotten the stool that once stood in front of that monitor no longer exists because… No I won’t tell you why you should go back and read the first story so that you can really get to know Musaafir better. And while we’re talking about it I would just like to mention the second prompt in the blogging challenge which is why did you begin writing. It’s really quite a fascinating tale. I was going to school to be a school psychologist and as I struggled to feed my starving family I got the idea that I should just write a novel and then I’d be able to feed my family. There you have it. That’s all that’s to it. I wanted to feed my poor starving children. So go out and support me so they don’t starve and buy all my books on Amazon.com. I mean seriously it would only cost you around $10.00 to buy all of my books. So you go without coffee for a couple of days boohoo… I mean really, they are good books and yes, get your drinks of choice while you’re at it.

A groan came from under Musaafir and before he could react Sarina yanked him off of Alex and threw him back like he weighed nothing more than a rag doll. She knelt down next to Alex and held her head up softly. “Water,” Alex whispered.

Sarina turned to Musaafir and really looked at him for the first time since they arrived in the shack. The shock on her face would have made the captain on the Titanic look like he had hit nothing more than a large chunk of ice. Oh wait that’s what he did hit and really is that an appropriate comparison. Oh well, read with caution and “No Offense.” You no that really is crazy how we can say some pretty offensive things just by saying “No offense, but…”

Musaafir smiled slightly to help show some of the charm he must have had when he had visited the girl’s homeland and said, “There’s some water over there.” Musaafir pointed to a tap and nodded. He climbed to his feet, the aches returned and he walked to the sink with a hand on his back. “It’s a hard thing coming home after one of my adventures and having to put on this old body once again, but it beats being killed by a steam hound.” 

Haematite (Toraun Part 15)

In life, things change, sometimes rapidly and sometimes slowly, in the case of Musaafir and at this particular point in his time, his entire world changed in much less time that it is taking me to write this sentence. You see, as I write this sentence I rewrite it several times just to get the right words down to create the perfect atmosphere that draws readers in, to learn more about the story. This, I think, is the same reason that I want to get out of the blogging challenge. Blogging Challenge. What are you talking about? I thought we were talking about Musaafir and change in life. Well, you see, I belong to an amazing group here in Arizona that is currently encouraging all of its members to participate in a blogging challenge in which they write for 35 days straight. Check it out here (https://authorblogchallenge.wordpress.com/) . I hope that by doing this I will capture the attention of many others who love to read and get caught up in stories. I hope that it will help me get back into the groove of writing on a daily basis and that I will meet my goals of getting my next novel finished. So, that is my goal for accepting the challenge of writing for 35 days straight. Now, what does this have to do with Musaafir you might ask. Well I’ll tell you. I have abandoned Musaafir for far too long and so this challenge will give me the opportunity to continue his story. So, without further ado, we shall return to his moment of change that was much quicker than it took me to explain.

As the heart of the Steam hound died its magic collided with Alex’s own magic causing an incredible shock to Alex’s own heart and she collapsed to the ground. The heart, now black and hard, fell from Sarina’s hand and landed with a thud on the cold ground next to Musaafir’s face. The stench however had not left, which made Musaafir’s gag reflex go into overdrive and he reached his hand to his mouth to stop the explosion that thankfully never came. He twisted and turned in the broken window and glass to try to avoid the stench, but to no avail, until finally the window pane cracked and he pulled himself away from the bloody mess he’d recently lay in. As he pulled himself to his feet with the little remaining energy he could muster, he heard what he had most dreaded to hear at that moment. Sarina’s wail matched that of a banshee, well what he supposed a banshee’s wail would sound like. Musaafir had never really heard a banshee wail, he just assumed that one would sound like the wail that escaped Sarina’s soul.

He turned. Stumbled. Pulled himself up once again and reached the two sisters with one giant step. Remember, he was right next to them so he really didn’t have far to go. This is important to remember because if I were to write something that sounded like it was farther away like he crested the mountain and rushed down to the two girls then someone would surely let me know that that was not possible because the heart dropped from Sarina’s hand and landed next to Musaafir’s face. Anyway, just making sure you all know that I remembered that little tidbit of information. But, now, on with the story.

Musaafir reached down and touched Sarina gently on the shoulder as she held her sister in her arms. He touched her gently, not exactly sure of the proper protocol in this instance and still being a bit frightened of the girl, didn’t want to alarm her. She pulled Alex closer to her and the wailing continued for some time until it began to grow a little on Musaafir’s nerves. Finally, when he thought he could stand it any longer it stopped just as suddenly as it began. A cough came from Alex’s petite mouth, then a whisper, and finally a word, “Escape.”

A pause followed the single word by both Sarina and Musaafir. Sarina studied the expressionless look on her sister’s face then looked back to Musaafir, who had a quizzical look on his own face. “Haematite,” Sarina whispered. She turned back to Alex and said, “Haematite. What do you mean?”

Alex’s eye’s opened with a flutter and her eyes rolled back into her head. She opened her mouth several times to try and voice what rolled through her mind with no gain. A howl, now familiar to Musaafir since arriving, sounded in the distance. “We need to go,” Musaafir spoke softly, still not wanting to interrupt Sarina for fear her wrath would turn on him.

Regrettably for Musaafir it still did. “There’s no where to go.” Luckily she still held Alex in her arms or her words would have ended with a sword through Musaafir’s heart. Even so the daggers that lanced out from her glower pretty much did the same thing.

Musaafir stumbled back and tripped over the window frame and fell cutting himself several more times. He yelped and jumped back to his feet. A second howl brought him to action much quicker than one would anticipate from such a beaten up individual and he said through shaky voice, “You can come home with me. We can at least figure out what to do there.”

Sarina started then stopped as her sister’s ragged breath came quicker. She turned back to Alex and pushed her hair from her face. She turned back as the wind picked up and the howls grew louder. “If you can save us, do it quickly.” Musaafir nodded and stepped forward swiftly as he pulled the device from his pocket. He put his hand gently on Sarina’s shoulder once again and pressed a button on the device. Now this is the first time that he had ever tried to bring someone back with him before so as the lights flashed and the wind howled around him his heart stopped as he heard the howl of ….

Now as I almost wrapped this up I thought to myself how fun it would be to leave everyone on a cliffhanger. So why not, there’s always tomorrow. And yes, there will be more to the story tomorrow. 

Order of The Rose: White Petal

So after many years of dreaming and hoping and oh yeah a little work. I'm excited to announce the final chapter of the Order of The Rose trilogy. It has been a long journey with a lot of support and help and some disappointments. I'm hoping that all you out there in digital land will take a minute or two (literally it shouldn't take more than that) to share the exciting new. It's up for pre-order on Amazon and you'll be the first to read it. So you have nine days to read book one and two before book 3 is available on the 30th. 

So here's the deal for all those who have not yet purchased book 1. If you show proof of purchase of the pre-order of book 3 I'll give you book 1 for free!! Yes you read that right book 1 is free and all you have to do is purchase the pre-order of book 3. Have an amazing day and press the link below and buy now!!! Yes now. No more reading, just push the link and buy it now. Seriously. Go ahead, bye bye now. Press the link it won't hurt I promise I mean what would you normally do with $2.99 anyways? Okay have fun reading I'm going to watch a show... I mean read a book...

Click here to purchase the best book you've ever read before!!

If you don't trust me and still haven't clicked the link an excerpt is below, but if I was you I wouldn't even bother, because you're going to buy it anyway and then you'll have to find your spot and that could just be annoying.

Order of The Rose: White Petal excerpt.

Chapter 1:

The wheel spun out of Tom's hands as the blast knocked him violently to the ground. He reached to the side of his head. Blood trailed down the side of his face. He tried to wipe it away but only succeeded in smearing it over his cheek. He looked at his blood stained hand. How did they find us? They had reached the place of power the night before. The week of travel from the volcano had been fraught with one attack after another. The world spun as he looked away from his hand and up at the once white mast now stained black. Jagged tears ran down the length of it and the sheet gaped in the wind.

Another blast shook the ship, bringing Tom back to the battle that raged all around him. He glanced down the stairs of the poop deck just as a blast of flame and smoke shot from the barrel of Vick's rifle. The rifle kicked back and then lowered back belching another stream of fire and smoke from its metal mouth. A second later a scream answered the belch. Tom scrambled to his feet and grabbed the wheel, once again pulling the huge ship broadside to the incoming blimp. Now Saul who manned the large, cannon like gun on the starboard side had a clear shot.

Saul had explained to Tom at one point that the gun worked like a cannon but could shoot much faster without needing to be reloaded in between shots. Saul pulled the trigger. A barrage of huge balls surged toward the blimp. The balls tore huge holes in the balloon and side of the cabin and it started a long descent to the ground. Regrettably, several of its onboard planes had already launched and now circled the companion’s airship.

Tom hardly felt the tug from his energy reserves as Aithnea pulled from him. She used the energy to mix with her own energy in order to cause devastating results with her magic. Aithnea, like others of the Sisterhood, relied on a male counterpart in order to manifest the energy that swelled within them. Tom looked toward Aithnea just as a red dragon sprouted from her outstretched hand. He watched the beast wing toward the biplane that flew in its path. The dragon burst into flames as it engulfed the biplane. The pilot screamed as the inferno enveloped him and he struggled to free himself from the plane only to fall to his death far below. Slowly Tom’s eyes returned to Aithnea. Sweat dripped from her brow, and his heart ached, knowing that she must be at the end of her own reserves.

Just then another biplane swooped under the belly of the ship, narrowly evading the pounding from Saul's gun as it hammered out another barrage of cannon shells. The plane banked to the right coming up on the rear of the ship and unleashed its own barrage of smaller shot onto the deck where Tom stood. Several of the bullets exploded into the console smashing several of the blinking lights. Another pierced Tom's left shoulder before he could raise a shield to block the rest of the bullets. The plane then roared over the top of them with white plumes of steam trailing after it.

Blue Fire (Toraun Part 14)

In the long history of man there have been many travelers. Some of them traveled no more than a few feet while others have traveled light-years and still others have traveled in time. Musaafir had only recently started to travel. His mother had given him the computer as a gift and told him that his father before him had used it. His father passed away several years before and so when he received the computer he quickly learned to use the ancient device. Once he learned what it could do he had quickly moved it out of his home and up to his cabin. The cabin did not compare in the least to his own home in the city, but he never had visitors drop by expectantly either. To those who asked why he left the city so frequently, he told that he found solace in the mountains.

Now, while he lay on the ground in Toraun, in a window sill he figured that his mountain cabin would be the perfect place for these two young women to stay. Besides, who wouldn’t want to help them out, especially since they had just saved his life? So, at this very moment Musaafir’s life changed forever. Some might say for the good and others would say for the worse. I’ll let you decide for yourself.

Alex chewed on her lip for a moment while she stared at the object in Sarina’s hand. The steam hound had a heart that ran off magic and as long as the magic continued to flow the heart would continue to beat. “Alex, you need to try and put magic into it or it’s going to go out,” Sarina said sternly. Alex looked at the bloody heart and nearly lost her stomach. Sarina wouldn’t have anything of the sort happen at this time and held the heart even closer. “You will do this or the entire town will be destroyed.”

The heart stunk. Seriously, it smelt bad and Alex had a right to lose her stomach over it. In fact I’m about to lose my own stomach as I write this, but since she had to be strong, I’ll be strong as well. And quite frankly so should you. Alex stood up and wiped her mouth and said slowly, “I’ll try.” She put the tips of her fingers on the heart and jerked back quick as it beat. She even yelped a little. Sarina glared at her. Alex shrugged then reached back to the heart and placed her fingers on the heart again. She closed her eyes and breathed in deep and almost choked on the stench. She shook her head and tried again. This time she turned her head from the heart and breathed in again then out. The magic in her had been unique to her and only a few others.

The origin of magic came from an unknown source or origin for that matter. It had come to Alex when she had only been a little child. The magic manifested in people in different ways. For her it had come in the form of blue fire. Now, as she held that heart in the tips of her fingers a funny thing happened.

See magic tends to react in odd ways depending on what’s happening at that moment and of course on how the writer wants the story to go. And at this particular moment both of those things happened, simultaneously. Yes, you might call fowl or something like that, but let’s face the facts I’m the writer and I’ll write it however I like. Wait, hold on that came out really bad. What I meant to say is that I will make sure that as I write the story I will follow the rules and hold true to the magic as I create it and yadda, yadda, yadda. Truthfully, though magic does act strangely and at this moment a very odd thing happened. You see, just at the very moment that Alex pushed her magic from her own being into the heart of the steam hound the heart died. When the heart died it released its magic and because Alex’s own magic had already started to enter the heart the channel between her and the heart opened. Kind of like a straw. Yeah that’s it just like a straw. Only this straw didn’t have milk or pop or some other kind of liquid running through it, it had magic running through it. Alex jerked back as the magic entered into her soul and fell to the ground unconscious.